Bloggers call LiveJournal to task on Abuse

Released on = March 17, 2006, 2:36 pm

Press Release Author = LJAB

Industry = Internet & Online

Press Release Summary = A group of users of Six Apart\'s popular LiveJournal service
are calling on the company to address problems with its volunteer abuse team, with a
blog outlining the team\'s unprofessional behavior and inconsistent actions.

Users of LiveJournal, a popular web journaling community with more than 9,000,000
users, are taking the company to task over how it enforces its Terms of Service,
with a a new blog (http://ljabuse.blogspot.com) compiling complaints about the LJ
Abuse team.

Press Release Body = LiveJournal, owned by Six Apart, offers free accounts, making
its money by selling premium services to users who want more options. Its Terms of
Service are enforced by a volunteer group of free and paying users.

Complaints about the resulting arbitrary decisions have echoed around LiveJournal
for some time, coming to a head in January when the site was hacked by a group
calling itself Bantown, and calling for the resignation of Denise Paolucci, the
Abuse team\'s manager.

Now \"LJers\" banned from sharing their stories on LiveJournal are turning to a
different service to air their complaints. (http://ljabuse.blogspot.com)

Users point out that they have been suspended for breaches of rules not listed in
the site\'s Terms of Service, and have lost paid accounts with no opportunity for
appeal and inadequate explanation from LJ Abuse.

An LJ user known as yellow-finch says, \"Because of the volunteer system that exists
for the abuse team, actions taken against users \'violating\' the TOS are inconsistent
and often seem to have no relation to the outlined TOS whatsoever. The policies of
the abuse team are severely damaging LiveJournal/SixApart\'s reputation, and by the
time SixApart realizes they\'re losing money because of it, it will be too late.\"

LiveJournal has not responded to the site.



Web Site = http://ljabuse.blogspot.com

Contact Details = LJAB
abuse.lj.abuse@gmail.com

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