In Soviet Russia, blog posts you

[the_siobhan]

Wow. That was sudden. Six Apart has just sold LJ to a Soviet company called SUP.

The Russians Are Coming, The Russians Are Coming.

Best. Comment. Ever.

So whaddyah figure? Is a Russian company (albeit one with an American legal arm) likely to be less completely fucking asstarded about issues of censorship and obscenity?

What I'm listening to right this second: Mindless Self Indulgence

(I wonder how Diane's story would get flagged. You know, I still can't come up with a reasonable explanation as to why a woman would find a giant penis is her car. Obviously I need to drink more.)

Comments

[panic-girl.livejournal.com]

You know, Ex used to say to me "If it's Russian, and on the internet, stay the fuck away from it." So I'm not exactly happy about this news.

[the-siobhan.livejournal.com]

Ha!

You know, I honestly don't think they could do a worst job than 6A

[the-macross.livejournal.com]

I was just musing about the never ending hilarity of the soviet russia juxtaposition on twitter the other day. It, along with Art and lamp shades worn on the head, will ALWAYS be funny.

[greylock.livejournal.com]

Free thought? Russians?

Not to be completely paranoid but I'll be backing up the eLJay promptly.

I'm sure there are Russian businessmen who are not corrupt - but they'll all be in bed together.

(I don't meet many Russian businessmen, but I know lots of folks who have done business in Russia. It ain't good).

[the-siobhan.livejournal.com]

You know, I can sorta believe that modern Russia is pro-censorship. But I have a hard time believing that they focus their censorship efforts on sex quite as much as do Americans.

[the_axel]

In Soviet Russia, Lampshade wears Art!

[the-macross.livejournal.com]

HOLY FUCK.


This is a vision not meant for mortals such as we.

[greylock.livejournal.com]

But I have a hard time believing that they focus their censorship efforts on sex quite as much as do Americans.

At worst, sex is the last thing we need to worry about.

Just don't mention Putin... I did once, and I think I got away with it...

[dark-phoenix54.livejournal.com]

I've wondered once or twice about that giant penis. Drink, woman, drink!

I wonder if this acquisition has anything to do with the new adult content crapage that just occured.

[mathochist.livejournal.com]

Yes, you're definitely going to need to be drunk to finish that story.

[hellsop.livejournal.com]

"No, no! Poutine! Poutine!"

[hellsop.livejournal.com]

I envision a future full of endless amounts of new widgets, like the URL preview thing and the automatic cut-tag warner, combined with ways to "leverage" those into exploitable widgets. Most of the widgets will be useless to you and difficult to turn off. Some will trigger megabytes of data to be downloaded in the course of their operation such that loading your friends page will become slower and slower. And most of the widgets will not work correctly on whatever browser you've chosen to use. (Eventually, we will learn that LJ only works "properly" on IE 5.x, about the same time that the last Windows 98 machine is finally r00ted off the net.)

[rbowspryte.livejournal.com]

This comment along with the_siobhan's title had me in tears of laughter.

[grimjim.livejournal.com]

Judging from this article a year ago, we should more likely be concerned about datamining than censorship.
http://www.wired.com/politics/onlinerights/news/2006/11/72060?currentPage=all

Hosting in Russia, for example, puts traffic between LiveJournal and countries like the Ukraine, Belarus and Georgia on wires that can be tapped by the FSB, the successor to the KGB. Russian-language blogging from former Soviet Union states or even European bloggers would be exposed to Russian intelligence services -- even without court orders to seize data from Sup.

[tetsab]

Is a Russian company (albeit one with an American legal arm) likely to be less completely fucking asstarded about issues of censorship and obscenity?

Since "point four" [just after the Rather Disturbing "enhance the registration process"] of their "100 day plan" is "Improve tagging and flagging (e.g. commercial or offensive content)" I'm going to go with "no."