• Mood: pleased
• Music: Just guess.

So I'm not running for the Advisory Board.

Initially, I had intended to run for the LiveJournal advisory board. I wasn't sure exactly the sort of questions we would be asked by LJ management, nor what we'd have to go through (other than going to Constantinople Istanbul and participating in conference calls). I'm still not entirely sure what sort of advice-giving the position entails, but I think that I could handle it if I were to be elected to it, and I also think that it would be at a higher level in LJ than I am accustomed to thinking.

However, circumstances change. I had a crisis of faith at about the same time as someone had a Very Bright Idea. You want to tick off users to no end? Take away Basic accounts and then handle the situation so badly that even a non-LJer who is informed about the basic attitudes of the userbase can think up an appropriate response and have it be miles better than the actual handling. You also get one Lunatic with a severe crisis of faith. Add to that the bright idea, and you get a Lunatic contemplating running off and joining the circus looking into server prices and what it would take to maintain dual citizenship. (For the record, the server prices aren't bad, it's the maintenance, and the moving all the archives.)

Circumstances have since changed again, and volunteers are being actively listened to, and their advice solicited, at least on the technical/feature level, and that pleases me more than I can easily express.

Circumstances at work have also changed. The position change at work means that while I'm no longer coming home with the kind of tension that makes me feel as if I've been freshly beaten, I no longer have an excess of attention span. Work is actually using my skills almost effectively, and that means it has started to sap my excess energy (that is to say, it's using up enough energy that I'm no longer leaking unused energy out the pores). I'm spoiling for a good, old-fashioned anti-social withdrawal from all but the most crucial things of mine that involve other people. It's not that I don't adore you, it's that I'm an introvert, and I'm getting to the point where I'm really going to need to take some space for myself. Which doesn't jive with running a campaign. I'm in no position to put up with the heartache and drama of politicking on my own behalf, and this isn't something that others can campaign for me.

Now that volunteers are being actively listened to, I'm in much the position I wanted to achieve by getting on the Advisory Board. (No, really!!) This is without the campaigning, without the overexposure, and (sadly) without the Constantinople Istanbul. I won't be in a position to directly inform policy decisions, but I will be in a position to observe and have my observations listened to, and make feature recommendations. It's anyone's guess whether any of the stuff I come up with will be used at the end of the day, but it will be of at least some little help in making some decisions.



legomymalfoy is running for the Advisory Board, and I wholeheartedly support her. She is a longtime LJ user, a longtime Support volunteer and member of the Abuse Prevention Team. Upon meeting her through Support, I had to take a moment to compose myself, as I already knew of her and fangirled her like mad, because she has been an active presence in fandom and writes a truly stellar H/D. ♥

Post for any questions concerning her Advisory Board nomination and the Advisory Board Nomination post itself. At this point, with over 100 votes in support of her nomination, she will be appearing on the ballot.

Let me talk to you a bit about the Abuse Prevention Team. I know that from an outsider's perspective, they're a very mysterious group, and have a lot of mysterious and scary power. They are at a level well higher than I am, so I don't have much insight into their actual day-to-day administration, but there is employee oversight, and documentation and policies and laws that govern their mysterious powers.

All of the Abuse Prevention Team members I have interacted with have displayed a high level of personal responsibility for their actions, as well as a good grounding in actual internet law. Even in a casual setting among friends, where I was one of the few non-members, they spoke in generalities, rather than getting into the juicy specifics that I'm not cleared to hear about. They are very passionate about what they do. It is a high-stress job, because they are dealing with the absolute worst LJ users can throw at each other, on a daily basis.

Currently, there are situations in which the Abuse Prevention Team is absolutely no help at all for a problem taking place on LiveJournal. Sometimes it really is something they shouldn't touch with a ten-foot pole. Sometimes, though, there have to be those kind of situations that could be improved with a judicious and well-examined policy change.

I do not have the background to even begin to go into what is working and what isn't, because I really don't have enough insight into the department to know how things are done and how things could and should be changed. I do know that if I were to look for someone with that kind of experience and ability, legomymalfoy would be on that list. I've been seeing other names from that list also standing in support of her.

My name is azurelunatic, and I support legomymalfoy for LiveJournal Advisory Board.