The Social Software Weblog http://mob.socialsoftware.weblogsinc.com The Social Software Weblog http://mob.socialsoftware.weblogsinc.com/media/feedlogo.gif The Social Software Weblog http://mob.socialsoftware.weblogsinc.com en-us Copyright 2008 Weblogs, Inc. The contents of this feed are available for non-commercial use only. Blogsmith http://www.blogsmith.com/LiveJournal doesn't care how you feel about breastfeeding or anything else (but Six Apart does)http://mob.socialsoftware.weblogsinc.com/2006/05/22/livejournal-doesnt-care-how-you-feel-about-breastfeeding-or-any/http://mob.socialsoftware.weblogsinc.com/2006/05/22/livejournal-doesnt-care-how-you-feel-about-breastfeeding-or-any/http://mob.socialsoftware.weblogsinc.com/2006/05/22/livejournal-doesnt-care-how-you-feel-about-breastfeeding-or-any/#commentsFiled under: ,

Livejournal breast feedingA row has erupted over LiveJournal's threat to shut down a user's account if the icon image of a baby and mother's breast mid-meal isn't removed.  (pic on left) The user is part of a breast feeding advocacy group, so this is some fight to pick.  Though it's acceptable to breast feed almost anywhere in real life, LJ is of the belief that the sight of breastfeeding in search results on the LJ site would be unacceptable.  What if said user had a signed letter signifying that the breast was at least 18 years old?  Indecency policies are rife with absurdity and I'm sure that LJ wants to avoid the kinds of labels that MySpace gets in media and popular culture - so this could go on indefinitely.

LJ breast feedingBreasts aside, though - the most surprising thing to me in this story is the following line from an email alleged to have come from the folks at LiveJournal:  "Finally, please be aware that write-in campaigns are never effective in swaying the opinion of the Abuse Team or LiveJournal administrators, or in focusing attention on a particular issue. A flood of requests concerning the same issue only serve to slow down the responses given to valid inquiries such as your request for policy clarification." Update: Anil Dash rightly pointed me to a subsequent official statement from LJ owners Six Apart where apologies are made, assurances that opinions of customers do matter and breast feeding is totally cool in theory.  Policy appears not to have changed yet, but read more about it on said users journal.

LiveJournalWell well well!  I suppose it is said that the blogosphere is about transparency, not responsiveness to customers!  How can a flood of emails not even focus attention on a particular issue?  That's harsh.  And really, if one breast gets the attention of LiveJournal admin better than thousands of customer emails - who's really got the problem here?

Thanks to the hard working investigative journalists at ValleyWag for the heads up on this story.
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]]>breast feedingBreastFeedingLive JournalLiveJournalLJMarshall Kirkpatrick2006-05-22T12:57:00+00:00Musicians who bloghttp://mob.socialsoftware.weblogsinc.com/2005/10/13/musicians-who-blog/http://mob.socialsoftware.weblogsinc.com/2005/10/13/musicians-who-blog/http://mob.socialsoftware.weblogsinc.com/2005/10/13/musicians-who-blog/#commentsFiled under: , ,

This is a pretty extensive list of musicians who're on the blogging cluetrain - maybe your favorite artists is on here, or maybe you'll find something new. What a smart way to interact with your fans.

[Via del.icio.us]

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]]>Barb Dybwad2005-10-13T07:42:00+00:00