Green Room - Week 13 - Day 13

[clauderainsrm.livejournal.com]

It's Week 13, Day 13.

So I course I'm going to wander right up to that line and dip my toe in.

First and foremost - thank you to everyone who has emailed me over the last 24 hours about the LJ Terms of Service situation. I haven't had time to get back to everyone yet. But, last time I checked, I have read everything that has come in. There have been more emails on this than anything else (other than the contestant only vote!) this season, so I thought it was worth a second Green Room.

It's a pretty big thing after all, and I was my usual flippant self in the last one. So this one will be a *little* more serious.

Probably not much, because I'm still the one writing it, and I can't stay completely serious for long about much of anything!

If you're interested in hearing what LJ itself had to say (in their brief statement with the few questions they actually unscreened and answered) http://news.livejournal.com/151767.html

It's notable that there is apparently a caste system where Paid members will be handled by Livejournal Inc in California while the free accounts will be handled by the staff in Russia. Which is just kind of weird and I wonder how long that is going to last...

As for me, I'll admit, I have an agenda. It's a highly secret one that I've never revealed to anyone else before, so I hope you guys can keep it under your hat -

I love LJ Idol and want people to stick around and compete in it.

How much longer this current incarnation will be around? That's up in the air and was before this announcement. Maybe it will twist. Maybe it will go somewhere else. I'm not sure. I'd love to keep it right here, doing the same things we've been doing for 10 years, with slight modifications. But I'm not sure that life is going to let that happen. Life has a way of throwing the Russian government at you.

But for now, I'm staying and Season 10 is continuing. I hope you will stick around and see this thing through to the end. I understand people have legitimate fears about what could happen. I've definitely been seeing all kinds of variations on them, including some things that I hadn't really considered. But I'm trying my best to be optimistic. It's how I've been operating for the last 70+ days without starting to develop a taste for alcohol. :)


***

Btw - you are hallucinating that the deadline for the poll was last night. It's Thursday. It's always been Thursday. http://therealljidol.livejournal.com/1000163.html Someone must have spiked your drink. Putin is at it again... (or, due to the problems people have had logging in, I decided to extend it...one of those things actually happened...) See "Apology" post. Which should be the very next thing posted...

Comments

[ryl.livejournal.com]

In all the years that OMG THE RUSSIANS! have owned LJ, how much have they actually done to the people using the site? How many people have been suspended/banned/disappeared because they posted something against the Putinistas? And has this happened to Americans or Russians?

This is a legitimate question. I'm going to go out on a limb and say it has not happened to any Americans, at least not enough to justify all the flouncing. Because all the flouncing I see is on the American side.

[kehlen-crow.livejournal.com]

I think I can name one Russian. Navalny. Well, whether him or not, there was one once.

[ryl.livejournal.com]

Good, I'm not crazy. I thought I remembered at least one of the Russian journals getting deleted.

[zhent.livejournal.com]

I'm less worried about the Russians taking over LJ and reading all my stuff (let's be honest, they probably have already and don't care about it) than I am about them taking over our government.

Extended voting deadlines confuse and frighten me. I keep looking for the new topic and not finding it...

And... after writing my last entry, the car in my picture suffered a computer malfunction and is currently sitting in a mechanics bay at the dealer, so that has me feeling a bit lost. All in all not the best week so far...

[ryl.livejournal.com]

I'm less worried about the Russians taking over LJ and reading all my stuff (let's be honest, they probably have already and don't care about it) than I am about them taking over our government.

Quoted for truth.

[eternal-ot.livejournal.com]

Ah! Thanks for the explanation. I kept refreshing and re-logging just to check whether I was missing any updates :P

As long as someone's reading my stuff(even if they are Russians and they mostly don't care about Indians is my guess :P ) I'll be happy. If they start giving feedback..well..I'll need a translator then ;)

In any scenario, I'll follow LJIdol wherever it goes and hoping Gary will keep all the Idolers in loop.

[adoptedwriter.livejournal.com]

Is as a "paid" account, I am "safe(r)"? Those guys can't scare me away that easy! LOL

[baxaphobia.livejournal.com]

I plan on sticking around. As someone said, I think we have more serious things to worry about in the U.S. than Russian control of LJ. I imagine in other countries it might be a bit more concerning. But I doubt I have written anything controvertial enough to warrant Russian abduction or worse. May Idol live on!

[karmasoup.livejournal.com]

Ha! And I was waiting all night to hear the hammer come down that I've been voted off the island! (I guess this would be the point at which I should probably do some groveling... So, um, ahem... I can haz moar votes, please?)



;) XD

[tonithegreat.livejournal.com]

A question: Does immunity work such that if the immune person has the lowest number of votes, then the next lowest person is eliminated, or would no one be eliminated in that situation?

[clauderainsrm.livejournal.com]

The first one. Otherwise the entire poll would be immune, and where is the fun in that???

[tonithegreat.livejournal.com]

The entire poll would only be immune if the second chancers were in the bottom slots. You essentially just gave them another no-worries week and the rest of the contestants a smaller pool from which to be eliminated. Both sides of which are pretty powerful at this juncture. Clearly the Gary/Putin collective wants a second chancer to win!

[clauderainsrm.livejournal.com]

The rest of the writers have exactly the same size pool in Week 14 that they had in Week 13. (minus the eliminations)

It's like the Second Chancers aren't even there (like the byes). Only people get the advantage of being able to read something from them that week!

This keeps them from being voted out in Week 14. Maybe they will go in Week 15... but at least they had a shot.

[tonithegreat.livejournal.com]

Okay, I failed my "accept hippy-kick gracefully" roll. Indeed it does give them _another_ free week. That's what I'm whining about. Two free weeks!

This is the second idol running where it really seemed like Second Chance is a better deal than staying in the main competition unless you had byes saved up that you'd lose by going to second chance.

(Also fails "flounce away" roll and stumbles back to lunch.)

[clauderainsrm.livejournal.com]

I will say though, that no one has ever won a season coming in from Second Chance.

[beldarzfixon.livejournal.com]

Since my paid "beldar" account is administered in California, I feel a little reassured, but I do have my concerns about intellectual property rights and ownership on this account, which is free. They might be safe under Russian Federation law, but I don't know the particulars there, and this is a country not governed by the U.S. First Amendment (its own "freedom of speech/press" is subject to Russian courts and that country's legal culture, which might see things differently from us in U.S.)
I'm keeping the "fixon" account through the end of LJI, at least, but past and non-Idol content might migrate.

[emo-snal.livejournal.com]

Logging into LJ just now I was notified the LJ TOS has changed, I skimmed it and all that really stood out to me was that it's solidly governed by the laws and regulations of the Russian Federation, as if we didn't know already our overlords were Russian here. But anyone bother to read it and or notice anything pertinent?