All right, you dumb shits.

[silverthorne]

What's so hard to understand about 'Your default icon cannot be something that, if the wrong person happens to look at the screen at the wrong time, they can get offended by it and cause problems for the person using the computer that your controversial icon just popped up on'?

What's so hard to understand that it's the same standard as, say, rating a film that they're using? Hmn?

Some people work at jobs, where, even though they're allowed internet access, will still get FIRED if things like nakkid bodies, urinating, breast nipples, questionable acts (like, oh, FUCKING, or even just the HINT of fucking) WILL GET THESE PEOPLE FIRED. And a LOT of businesses employ software that can tell the computer geeks EXACTLY what you're looking at on your screen.

MOST professional places in fact have very very STRICT rules about this. Why? Because they're professional places with a reputation to upkeep for the general public. The same reputation that USUALLY follows the standards of 'no sex, no cussing, no nakkid bodies, no politically inflammatory statements, no...'. You get the idea.

Yes, breast feeding, pissing, fucking, licking your goat affectionately--all NATURAL.

Also all BIG FUCKING NO-NO's when flung out to the general public. That includes the work place. Or the public library where some four year old kid with uber conservative parents might be walking past and just happen to look at the screen at that moment. Or that really unhappy person who hates you and just wants ONE little excuse to make you life miserable.

Or some conservative group looking for reasons to shut LJ itself down.

Stop being ignorant hose beasts just because you have to actually click a few times to be able to share your own particular bathroom humor or 'liberal sore spot' of the day. Cut it out with the asinine icons, too.

Use some fucking brains--you aren't the only ones getting 'inconvenienced'. And someone somewhere just may pay the price for YOUR douche-bag arrogance.

Fuck off and die.

Thank you.

Tired of the idiocy.

--Me.

Comments

[skyshark.livejournal.com]

Your rant oppressed me! I demand you hide the LJ-cut to it behind another LJ-cut, for the very sight is offensive!

. . . they're still on about that?

[silverthorne.livejournal.com]

:O!!!

God yes...there's someone posting on..BPRS (I think) that has one of those 'but this is natural' protest icons against LJ, except this time it's about pissing instead of breast feeding.

Just...gah. Some people. Idiots.

[skyshark.livejournal.com]

I think that's a parody.

At least I hope it is.

But, thank every goddess out there, they didn't actually show the act.

[silverthorne.livejournal.com]

Maybe, maybe not. But still...irritating. I'm all for freedom of speech and all that, but with freedom comes the responsibility of knowing that you have to at least try and respect other people too--including those that don't agree with you.

[skyshark.livejournal.com]

Meh. I try not to worry about people who are bound and determined to be, well, asshats.

[silverthorne.livejournal.com]

Usually, I don't either. I think seeing the icon just hit me the wrong way. So...I said something.

...I tend to do that. ^^;

[skyshark.livejournal.com]

Oh, don't let me stop you. :D

[silverthorne.livejournal.com]

Heh. No worries on that. If I'm gonna vent, I'm gonna vent. ;)

[paradisacorbasi.livejournal.com]

Thanks for posting it, honestly.

I got defriended for an admittedly not-thought-all-the-way-through snapped off reaction to the "breastfeeding should be exempt, women who don't breastfeed are abusing their babies and should be abused themselves" types.

[silverthorne.livejournal.com]

Breast feeding is a hot-bed subjecy to begin with. To add something as petty as 'But I have the RIGHT to show a baby sucking at a naked breast in my icon!' only makes it worse.

As a country, we admittedly have severe issues with this sort of stuff, but throwing a fit over not being able to have a certain type of default icon is petty and quite honestly demeaning to the 'greater cause' they keep trying to tie it to.

There are better things to talk about in regards to getting women out of the dark ages--bigger concerns than one icon out of many.

Personally, I think it was a decision made from common sense. A lot of people really do find any nudity and/or blatant visuals of natural functions disgusting, rude and base--enough to take legal action against it when they run across it. LJ is just trying to cover as much ass as it can without having to resort to outright banning the things like, say, GJ does.

It's no big deal to go back into the menu and pick a new icon...and if you're someplace where you can't sign all the way in anyway, than maybe choosing that icon is not the most intelligent thing to be doing in the first place.

[paradisacorbasi.livejournal.com]

I think that's what frustrates me most.

I may have been over-the-top being hyperbolic by calling them Psycho Breastfeeding Mom Scream queens, but well -- they're being over the top with "It's all natural! It's my RIGHT!"

No, it's not your right. You hit "I agree" when you chose to make your LJ, which means you said you'd abide by the TOS for LJ.

And the boycotting and the staying offline and the "I'll delete my LJ for a week/30 days" is not doing anything but putting fresh paint over the portrait of women over tantrum-throwing histrionics.

And yes, it's petty to tantrum about the default. Especially because the people are allowed to have their icons -- just not as default. I don't see why that's oppressive that they can't have anything not work safe on the default. They couldn't have somebody getting curbstomped. Or somebody getting shot or any number of other things that are NSFW.

The decision wasn't made solely from common sense. Law, too. Nudity -- any nudity -- is still against obscenity laws in some states and countries [though countries is more questionable these days] -- so SixApart had to take that in mind.

And that's what gets me. They don't think there's anything wrong with saying "Since your rules suck we demand to be exempt from them."

[silverthorne.livejournal.com]

It's the joy of growing up with entitlement issues. :/ (yeah, I know...that sounded pretty sour...)

But yeah--it's law too. So it's not just an arbitary law. More of a 'oh boy, we got enough people with questionable icons that someone's gonna get munched if we don't do something about this'.

And with all the kerfluffle about the stuff they're finding on MySpace and the like...the lower profile, the better. If they think just being denied a default icon is bad...they wonlt want to know what it would be like to REALLY have the 'You can't have this!' fall on their heads.

[paradisacorbasi.livejournal.com]

Right there with you. That's what pissed me off most. That there was an entitlement issue. The person who defriended me just saw me namecalling and apparently intentionally trying to hurt feelings. Which shows she wasn't really paying attention. I tend to strike back, but I don't go for first blood on purpose.

I was saying to me the boycotts and temp-deletes came across like a customer who called asking for a promo they knew full well was for "new customers only". When I'd tell them "sorry, new customers only," they'd say "Okay, cancel my service." I'd cancel for them because they'd be insistent.

And they'd wait a week or two and call back expecting to be treated like a new customer and then get the promo.

And exactly. I mean that should go without saying that Six Apart isn't just doing it to be oppressive. There's thought and common sense behind their decision.

And agreed with you about the low profile. For a while there, every week we were hearing on the news about some sexual predator or another getting busted through setting up appointments, dates, and trysts on MySpace.

My MOSH icon is not actually visibly anti-Bush but anyone who's seen the video knows it could be construed that way and if they wanted to portray it that way to the right person -- that'd be it for me.

But I'm the bad person for going over the top to point out how over the top they were going.

Thanks, hon. This conversation has really helped me get some perspective, and I feel a little better about being defriended by someone I thought thought well of me. I'm better off if she can't see past her offense and can only tar me with the same brush of words she's sticking in my mouth.