locking query

[salixbabylon]

ok, so i'm still not back home yet, but ever since the last bout of asshatiness, i'm starting to consider options and insanejournal and semagic and crossposting and other stuff.

the easiest step would be locking my fics though. i've always resisted that because i think it sucks when people have to friend you (read: when i have to friend people) just to get to their fics. and i don't want the pain in the ass of having a fic journal separate from my real one, and it would have to be locked anyhow, so that's not really saving me a step and i'm all about the lazy.

so what i'm asking in my babbly way is - those of you reading, what do you think of locked vs unlocked journals? it will cover my ass a bit, but is it really worth the hassle?

discuss.

Comments

[naotalba.livejournal.com]

The thing is, I don't think it really covers your ass all that much. If there's someone out there that's gonna report you, they will just ask to friend you first. Personally, I hate it when people flock their fic. It bugs me.

In any case, the latest problems were over art, not fiction, for the very good reason that art is a hell of a lot more likely to violate obscenity and child pornography laws than fic is. As far as I know, no one has been suspended for fic posts of any sort.

[megyal]

I've made the decision not to lock anything. I'm still going to transfer all my fics over to FF.net and leave my disclaimers up.

[chaosmanor.livejournal.com]

Given that LJ/6A have recently deleted a user for a *locked* post, because the art 'lacked artistic merit', I'm no longer sure that flocking alone will save us when the Thought Police come for us. It might protect us from the Big Bad World, but it won't protect us from lj.

I'm really angry about this, and will be leaving lj eventually, once I get the transition sorted out. For now, all my fic is backed up on http://chaosmanor.insanejournal.com/, while I work out what I want to do. msilverstar has been posting meta, if you want an overview.

[nverland]

Mine was for awhile, simply because of issues with a former child and not wanting more hassles. I've since unlocked everything and I'll leave it that way. I've had a back-up journal at GJ for a long time and I'm slowly copying my archive there. Just in case Lj dies one of these days. Then again, I don't write what you do, either.
My opinion, and that's all it is-an opinion-I'd lock anything that would set them off, anything doing with HP or children. Other than that, I probably wouldn't.

[lisagems.livejournal.com]

While I agree that f-locking isn't guaranteed protection from 6A asshatery, I do read a number of f-locked journals and have made the effort to friend (request to be friended by) authors that I'm interested in reading.

Ultimately, every choice is going to mean work for you, which is a shame. I've already opened both a greatest journal account and an insane journal account, because different authors are headed to different places. I've friended everyone I could find.

I have to admit, and maybe its a bit strange, but I'm glad that your fic is not in a separate journal. I've been happy to learn more about the person behind your writing. I know that I will look for your work and read it wherever you end up publishing it.

[ex-leianora730.livejournal.com]

The word of the day is, "no!" Admins can come into any locked post and see whatever they want to see. They don't need your permission, they don't even need a password, and they don't care if you feel violated by the invasion of privacy, apparently. Go for the software that'll allow you to post in multiple journals at once. I post in two at the same time, and it's very simple and quick. Neither of them is LJ, BTW. Once we get a fandom controlled place, I'll be moving there, but in the meantime, my places are insane journal and greatest journal.

[mr_cellaneous]

You could host your stories on some other web server (you're welcome to an account on mine if you don't have one of your own, or you could use the armory or various others). Then you could just post URLs instead of stories. Or would the lj schmucks object to that too?

[imogenelovelace.livejournal.com]

I won't lock my fic, because I want as many people to be able to find and read it as possible. (If it was locked, maybe 5 people would ever read what I write.) Granted, I don't think I write anything that would bring the harpies swooping down on me, so perhaps I have less reason to be worried than some people might.

While you've got quite a list of regular readers, so tons of people would still read your fic even if it's locked, new people will miss out on reading your stuff. I generally don't ask to be on an flist to read fic unless I've been able to read at least one thing first and liked it.

[jassyskie.livejournal.com]

I locked up all my stories after I found out people on a non-slash friendly board were talking about my stories, and I got worried about the crazies finding me. Is it a hassle? I wouldn't call it a hassle. But it does mean I've friended a lot of people I have nothing in common with except they wanted to read my stories. That's the reason I split my fic into my old LJ and my chatty posts into this newer one -- the people I've friended over here are really friends, not people who only care about the stories.

[elfscribe5.livejournal.com]

Hi Salix,
Yeah, as others have said - the images that were deemed offensive were in f-locked posts. I find that particularly upsetting as I had thought locking posts protecting one from this kind of thing. Apparently not. I've been f-locking my fics and pretty much any posts that are personal for several years. The initial reason was to prevent poaching of my material by companies offering feed services like feedster.com who then claimed they "owned" copyright to any material they collected. I discovered at least one of my stories had gone that route and I had to formally write them and request that my material be removed. In addition, I don't want underage kids to get at it, don't want trouble-makers and flamers getting at it, and like to maintain my anonymous status from the public at large. So, for those reasons, a goodly portion of my LJ is f-locked. However, that may not be sufficient protection. I just caved and established a Greatest Journal account, but am not savvy enough to be able to use programs that simultaneously allow posting to two different journals. We'll see.

[foxrafer.livejournal.com]

This is a tricky question, especially considering the latest developments in the LJ story. Locking would appear to be a good solution, but that wouldn't necessarily keep people out who are looking to hunt down what they think is child pornography (and apparently it won't keep the abuse team out). I don't mind asking to be added to someone's friends list. However, I don't like it when people make you feel you have to jump through hoops to be added (tell me about yourself and why you think we have something in common); that makes me uncomfortable and if they don't respond just makes you feel bad.

Having a back-up journal on one of the other sites is probably the easiest solution. Of course we have no way of knowing, but it seems to me they'd have a much harder time saying a piece of fiction has no artistic merit and banning someone for their writing versus the art work that has been singled out. Basically not terribly helpful. :-)