contemplativeThe 24-hour strike will begin at the following times for the following locations:
Thursday, March 20, 2:00 PM -- Honolulu
Thursday, March 20, 4:00 PM -- Anchorage
Thursday, March 20, 5:00 PM -- San Francisco; Los Angeles
Thursday, March 20, 6:00 PM -- Mexico City; Denver
Thursday, March 20, 7:00 PM -- Chicago
Thursday, March 20, 8:00 PM -- Montreal; New York
Thursday, March 20, 9:00 PM -- Buenos Aires
Midnight -- London
Friday, March 21, 1:00 AM -- Paris
Friday, March 21, 2:00 AM -- Istanbul
Friday, March 21, 3:00 AM -- Moscow
Friday, March 21, 4:00 AM -- Dubai
Friday, March 21, 5:00 AM -- Islamabad
Friday, March 21, 6:00 AM -- Bangladesh
Friday, March 21, 7:00 AM -- Bangkok
Friday, March 21, 8:00 AM -- Singapore
Friday, March 21, 9:00 AM -- Tokyo
Friday, March 21, 10:00 AM -- Brisbane
Friday, March 21, 11:00 AM -- Sydney
Friday, March 21, 12 Noon -- Suva
And it includes not logging onto the site at all, for posting, commenting, or even just reading, in order to have the best effect. I thought I'd post it a little early, so that I can still respond to you guys until this all goes down. :)
Here's more information as to why I'm definitely participating. It has to do with the owner of LJ's opinions of it's community members. Warning, it might really piss you off. It pissed me off:
http://darkrosetiger.livejournal.com/373663.html?page=1#comments
Here's some of the things he had to say that specifically struck me as a little unsettling.
" So you're sure there will be no boycott?
No, I didn't say that. Because any person can create several hundred fake LJ accounts, comment in them that on the 21st of march I will be silent in protest. Then you journalists can quote those fake users and list the names of those that were silent that day. And add a cute catchprase like "that's just the top of the iceberg"
So why would you not grant new users the opportunity to lose their mind in such a way?
In my opinion, they should be given that option. But since the new rules there hasn't been a single verifiable person who would have claimed that his right to a base account has been violated. Nonetheless, I don't believe we should forbid bloggers that join after the 12th of march to downgrade sponsored or paid accounts into base accounts. I hope we will make the matching change. But this does not depend on me, it will be the collective decision of the company.
When will that decision be made?
That's the problem. Because of the blackmail that has begun, our hands are tied.
Why?
Let's say, I say to you, mr. Journalist, "I think you put an extra comma here". Your natural reaction is "Oh, you're right" or "Let's ask the editor". But if I come to you and say "Take away the comma or I will beat you" Will you really go checking your spelling after that?
In a situation where people are trying to scare and blackmail us, threatening to destroy our business, there are business reasons for not rewarding such behaviour. This is not just human psychology, which retaliates more the more it is pressed. Problem is that there's never been a successful company whose success was based on bowing to collective resistant forces. No decision - no matter how correct -should be based on pressure.
It would be more prudent to review this decision in the coming days. But smart corporate politics dictate that we must now wait for the boycott. Let it come. So that the subject of people's frustrations, threats and scares will be closed. And then we can discuss the problem in detail.
The audience of LJ is divided into 3 groups. There is the silent majority, which uses LJ for their own needs and is indifferent to who, when and with what money made such a resource and supports it. There are the positive minority (7-10 percent in the Russian LJ), these people like LJ, they consider it useful and want it to develop further. They help us, including constructive criticism, thanks to which we correct our mistakes. And there is the third category. They endlessly, during the entire existence of LJ promote lour initiatives, whose only purpouse is to bring harm to LJ, its founders, their goal is to criticize, destablilize and ruin our reputation. They are usually motivated by wanting to attract attention to themselves. And they are successful every time.
Their rhetoric is always the same - regardless of whether one blogs in English from California or in Russian in Moscow. These are the people that at one time wanted Brad Fitzpatrick to resign, when he was the sole lead of LJ. They asked to call each advertiser which cooperated with LK and to threaten them with harm to their reputation, if he doesn't stop putting ads on LJ. They advocated going to competing platforms first for one reason, then another.
It's understandable that journalists need sensations. A scandal in LJ -it's good material. The amount of corrections that LJ received, the amount of improvements and time spent on development, of course noone cares about that.
The administration has reversed or corrected decisions, published apologies, restored accounts which were blocked due to differing points of view, made corrections to rules of use... With constructive dialog with LJ users, we can reform anything.
"
So there that is. Interested on your opinions. I'm not thrilled.
I'll miss ya'll for the day! It will be strange not logging in. So I thought I'd put together a little goodie list of things that I think are cool, interesting, useful, able to do a little good, etc. So.. here ya go! Ten interesting things of varying content from the great internet. ;)
1. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BaGHVWKrcpQ&eurl Shakespeare's Who's On First
2. http://www.experienceproject.com/savedogs -- Play trivia to help save dogs!
3. http://www.ifoundyourcamera.blogspot.com/ Ever lost a camera? This place has people send in film they've found on cameras that have been misplaced, to try and reunite photos with their photographers. :) Pretty cool.
4. http://www.experienceproject.com/savecats Play trivia to help save cats! :)
5. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EBM854BTGL0&e - Star Wars according to a 3 year old. You've likely seen it, but just in case. :)
6. https://www.wirelessamberalerts.org:443/index.jsp -- For the USA'rs out there. Amber Alert system where you can sign up to get amber alerts on your cell phone with pertinent information if a child near you has been abducted so you can help locate them and bring them home safe. Regular text messaging charges apply but no extra cost.
7. http://www.thehungersite.com/clickToGive/home.faces?siteId=1 -- The Hunger, Breast Cancer, Child Health, Literacy, Rainforest and Animal Rescue sites. You click once and their sponsors send money to these very worthy causes. In my user profile there's a direct link to click on each of these if you want to grab the html to link to it in your info.
8. http://garfieldminusgarfield.tumblr.com/page/1 -- Likely you've seen this but just in case you haven't.. it's Garfield minus Garfield. It gives a very interesting view at Jon Arbuckle. lol. Way funnier then when Garfield was around, I think anyhow..
9. http://randomposting.myminicity.com/ You're welcome to visit my very VERY neglected city. lol. And I promise to visit yours if you post a link in your journal if you decide to create one.
10. http://nowilaymedowntosleep.org/pageDisplay.php?page=3
-- And this is a really sad one and may be very hard for some of you to look at which is the only reason I posted it as last. It's a foundation that connects 3,000 volunteer professional photographers in teh US and 8 other countries with families that have have a baby pass away, or are terminally ill and will be passing away soon. Those photographers come in and take beautiful photographs for the family so that they will have a physical memory in the form of images of their child once their child has passed on. I think it's an amazing organization that offers dignity, respect and honor to these families that have lost so much, and I think they're a charity that should be recognized, and I know once I have the financial capability I will be sending them some money. One of your fellow LJ'rs pointed me to the website awhile back, and I think it's time I share it with all of you.
So there's my ten random links in honor of the strike. I will see you all after strike time.
And here are the Happy Birthday's If I was here, I would be wishing for the 21st.
aoifemacewen , floydminoza and maggiedacatt. I hope you all have an amazing birthday! Sorry that the strike happens to coincide.Love and hugs,
~Random