For those of you with Firefox

[smeddley]

...which I just love love love love to bits *excessive squeeage*

If you don't want to see the sponsored Pepsi Max V-gifts (and also make money for LJ by viewing them, don't forget that part!) Add the following 'filters' to your Adblock extension:

http://sixapart.adbureau.net/iserver/*
http://stat.livejournal.com/img/vgift/dpm*




You can see how many times it's already been blocked on my computer! O.O

Thanks to foxfirefey and some other person in the news threads for this. Pass it along to anyone who needs to know! It's not against their ToS to block them, because remember - 'sponsored' is not the same as an advertisement!

Comments

[intracutaneous.livejournal.com]

I'm not very up-to-date about all the LJ stuff but I'm very curious. What's LJ doing that's making you hate them? If you don't mind answering that is...

[smeddley.livejournal.com]

I don't hate them, but I am frustrated by their service. It's a lot of little things, really. I mean, there was the whole 'suspend anyone with certain words in their interests without regard to how they mean it' - for instance, suspending the Lolita book club group for having... I think it might have been 'incest' or 'underage sex' in their interest list. Not because the members want to commit it, but because it's a key plot point in the book. That turns into a giant flap, LJ is forces to reinstate hundreds of journals, all the while screeching that they were 'just trying to protect the children'.

Okay, after a whole bunch of really bad customer service (including waiting... I think it was what - three days? to post anything in response to the thousands of comments that were being posted), they said they weren't willing to host child pornography, nothing illegal on their servers. Okay, fine, no one complaining wanted to do that anyway. But they also throw in this 'unwilling to host' clause.... that the NEVER defined, despite numerous questions. The most anyone would say is that they didn't see any reason for fanfiction writers to be worried. It's never clarified to anyone's satisfaction and things sit uneasily for the duration of the permanent account sale.

Fast forward to them suspending some fanartists for some pics of HP characters that could possibly be underage (that was up for debate). But! Oh, they couldn't claim it was illegal, because drawings - even of underage characters - are not against the law. Sure, they can be obscene, but that's a whole other ball of wax. Enter the 'unwilling' to host bit. Most flooding with comments, more waiting DAYS for a response. And that response is... well, I'm not really sure. At first, a bunch of LJ staff people ran around contradicting each other, and then they were being rude and insulting, and then they repeated the same old line - except saying that they didn't care that it was legal, they weren't allowing any art of people underage engaging is sexual activity, and that for drawings they are establishing a two-strike rule for artists. Um, okay. Now, how does one determine the age of the person in the drawing? In many styles, like Anime, 30-year old characters can look like teenagers. Now what? Again, many questions asked. None are answered. LJ staff gets snippy and rude again.

Then someone gets their first strike for a drawing they had labeled as 'Draco is 18 in this picture' Because, you know, they have a staff of experts who can magically tell if a character is 16, 18, or 20. Whatever. Meanwhile, the call for answers to many questions goes unanswered.

And then there's the 'you can't even LINK to anything that might offend us (LJ) and we may take it into consideration if the page you linked to has changed since you linked to it, but don't hold your breath.'

Oh, and the 'paid users will never see ads' except all these Pespi bottles because that's SO not the same things as ads!

I think that's it in a nutshell. I'm sure I could put it more coherently, but I've been breathing paint fumes all day. :P It boils down to a lack of good business skills and customer service - things I am paying them for.

[intracutaneous.livejournal.com]

Ok, I literally laughed out loud at the part about "Draco is 18 in this picture"

Do we not believe in friends-only posts and over-18 communities? I think that could solve a lot and make everyone happy. Plus, isn't there an age limit to enter LJ? If there isn't they could set one... One more thing, what idiot really things a horny 14 year old is actually offended by the obscenity. Everyone's got their tastes and dislikes. If I don't like looking at nc17 d/h art then I don't click it, the artists always rate the photographs, etc.

What confuses me a bit is how LJ monitors so many communities at once, maybe they'll tire of it and take a breather- maybe get a massage to put some sense in their minds.

Thanks for typing all that up by the way! ;) Curiosity satisfied!! [the cat didn't die]

[foxfirefey]

How to block the Pepsi mood theme

[smeddley.livejournal.com]

You know, I didn't realize they blinked. (I admit, I thought the little bubble faces were kinda cute, actually, though they need a heck of a lot more 'moods'!) Between ZoneAlarm and Firefox, NOTHING moves in any of my internet windows. Sometimes it's a pain getting the YouTube videos to play, but mostly it's worth it.

I can't even see animation anymore if I go back to IE!

[smeddley.livejournal.com]

It's only 13 to get an LJ, but still - find me a 13-year-old that would be traumatically scared by any of this and I'll show you a 13-year-old so sheltered their parents probably don't even let them on the internet!

They've said they'll even investigate f-locked posts given 'probable cause' (that Draco one was locked in the community in which it was posted).

And you know what? I don't care if they just came out and said 'no nudity, PERIOD.' I realize a lot of people would leave, but it's their site and they can set the rules. The problem is they're not 'setting' any rules, just expecting us to read their minds as to what is okay and what's not! Bah.

I'm sure it will resolve itself eventually... :)

Also, glad to hear the cat didn't die. I'd have to report you to the ASPCA for the mistreatment of an imaginary creature! O.O

[foxfirefey]

Yeah, they look okay until you get them onto a background that's not white: plus_tester being an example. But as you noted, the variety is anemic.

And the flashing to Pepsi logo is just rather annoying and ugly.

[intracutaneous.livejournal.com]

OMG LOL. NO! OR I'LL HACK YOUR LJ AND POST DRAG QUEEN DRACO [INSERT OBSCENE SEXUAL ACTIVITIES HERE]

*capslock off*

:p