So the apology is official

[justalurkr]

The news post already has 5003 comments, so I shall have to respond here.

I can't stop thinking about three former employees of my organization fired in the last few months for what amounts not just to human error, but actions that "everyone" took...until the company went to a zero-tolerance policy for certain types of mistakes.

Every. Single. One. of those fired employees did basically the same thing: made an improperly documented, subscriber-affecting change to the system without notifying any affected party, then walked away somewhere unreachable for just a few hours. Not one remained incommunicado for time measured in days. Still, nothing that hadn't been done before, nothing with malicious intent behind it...pure human error.

Wow. Where have we seen that before?

I can't help but think of any number of "de-friendings" that occur every time there's a wank over one thing or another under the principle of "fine, you have a right to your opinion, but I can't be associated with you any more because your opionion is messed up."

So...I guess it's semantics, but do we fire or de-friend LJ for their screw up?

Comments

[nialla]

I'm really thinking this is a case of the right hand not knowing what the left was doing.

I'm betting quite a few LJ folk were on vacation due to the three day weekend, and while deleting kiddie porn sites was on the regular agenda, it feels like whoever was left in charge didn't have anyone around to control how it was done. The way it's stated in the news bit sounds like they were supposed to notify people of what was happening, but somehow that got lost along with way to the LJ Abuse people who were reacting with a party-line sounding, "We gotta delete you. Sorry."

And the worst part of it all was no communication to the customers, but again, I'm thinking it was because those who could do such officialness were literally on vacation.

I'm still in a wait and see. If wrongly suspended journals don't get reinstated soon, LJ hath not yet seen the fury of users in general, and fandom in particular.

[justalurkr.livejournal.com]

It's kind of their third strike, though, y'know?

According to Wikipedia, there was a problem with the introduction of ads, there was Nipplegate and now we have Strikeout '07. Each incident had breath-takingly poor customer service in common.

It's just a journal service, but how many nods and 'there, there' pats on the back do they get from users? Think about the timeframe over which their gaffes occur. They can't be taught, apparently.

It's only a journal, service after all. There are plenty out there (did you know that for a free registration, Greatestjournal gives you 2000 icons?) that will at least handle their screw ups better.

[nialla]

I have a GreatestJournal acount, but I haven't done anything with it. I'd rather not have to, if LJ straightens their shit out.

Organization amongst users is fast and furious, but the problem with LJ is they're a business and they have to deal with more mundane things like meetings and phone calls and approvals from management (and possibly legal departments) before they can say anything official. I know some volunteers were told not to make any statements because they didn't want them being seen as the "official voice" and muddying the waters if they didn't state things as they should have been.

Not excusing the ominous silence dure the Srikeout, but I can see some reason(s) for it. They really should have at least put up a "We're aware of the issue and investigating it. We will post more soon" to at least attempt to calm things down.

[justalurkr.livejournal.com]

Regular updates to their news community would at least have given users space to vent. Any little bit would have helped.

I suspect, though, the mundanities in this case had more to do with Memorial Day vacations than day to day business. I'm still not clear on why this sort of thing happened while everyone was out and basically incommunicado.