From ProMom's media information page on LJ and 6A:

Bullet Points - Problems with LJ Abuse

• No appeals process for suspensions, along with refusal to answer legitimate questions from users.
  
• Inconsistant and contradictory answers given to users about LiveJournal's rules and what is regarded as a breach.
  
• Questions raised about breaches of privacy and abuse team's ability to read users' private posts have not been answered.
  
• Discourteous replies received by users asking questions.
  
• Replies received evade questions put by users, and support requests are then closed with no further response.
  
• Rules not specified in Terms of Service or abuse team policy document are used to suspend accounts, and definition of words (such as harassment) are twisted to suit team's decisions.
  

(Read the press release here.)

Users of the popular LiveJournal website are calling on parent company Six Apart to reform the way LiveJournal's volunteer abuse team is run, after the team declared they were not interested in listening to users' feedback.

Complaints have been raised about users' privacy, inconsistant enforcement of the Terms of Service, conflicting information and responses from abuse team members, and discourteous replies to users seeking clarification on the rules.

So. The abuse team says they follow a set of rules, but our experiences show that the rules they claim to follow and the rules they really apply are very different things. When we ask them to explain these contradictions, we get no answer. Users are suspended with no opportunity to appeal. Six Apart is losing paid users because they refuse to make the abuse team professional.

Are they going to do anything about it?

As I wrote a while ago:

I also get annoyed at people who get annoyed at people for protesting about something they care about. It doesn't really matter why they care about it, they don't have to justify themselves to you. I've seen this recently in some of the "nipplegate" discussions - LiveJournal is a private company so they can do whatever they want, deal with it. Well, yes, they're a private company. They can't actually do whatever they want as they're still bound by the law, but within those limits they can have whatever TOS they choose. And as users, we can speak out (or shout and scream) if we think that TOS and those rules are wrong, or poorly applied. Using the service of a company does not take away your right or ability to complain when you think something is wrong. Indeed, a company should be listening to its customers harder than it should listen to people who don't utilize it.

It's legal for Wal-Mart to use sweatshops, it's legal for Starbucks to sell "sweatshop" coffee, it's legal for all manner of companies to pollute the environment and screw over their workers. Of course, compared to these things, LiveJournal's TOS or abuse team problems are pretty insignificant. But part of LJ's business model, part of the reason we all use it, is that it builds up that sense of community. Without the community, quite a few of us wouldn't stay. If a company depends on its users and their communities for its popularity and success, it would be wise to listen to them. They may not owe any legal duty to do so, but it's a poor business decision not to.

LJAB quoted me, and added:

How do questionable suspensions of users affect other users, for instance? When a user is suspended, all of their posts are removed, and all of their comments (replaced by "reply by suspended user"). If you have a post where a suspended user contributed significantly to the discussion, with information or ideas, that is lost. You do not have a choice about whether to retain their comments, they're just gone and the flow of your thread ruined. You've lost their whole contribution. If they were a prominnt poster in your community, everything they've contributed is gone. If they're your friend, all your threads and comments in posts on their journals are gone too.

LiveJournal Abuse doesn't seem to consider this when they make decisions - past actions and overall contributions on LiveJournal don't count, unless they're counted against you. Minor infractions, small enough not to warrant action, can be brought up against you. How much you've helped others, or spent time building the communities and community atmosphere LiveJournal depends on, doesn't matter. There's a prosection but no defense.

Are people who care taking it all too seriously? As realcdaae said, no one should have to justify why they care. But it's LJ's very business model which encourages this sort of attachment and makes people care. It relies on making networks of friends. It's full of communities for support, for sharing, for information, for entertainment. When people invest time and energy into those things, of course they care. For some more isolated users, and users with problems, the communities built up through LiveJournal can be invaluable.

So why does LiveJournal, or Six Apart, not care what we think?

Then there's privacy, and the way the abuse staff treat people...

On LiveJournal, you can set an entry to be "friends locked", supposedly allowing you to control who can read it. Abuse team managers can read these private entries, but recently claimed they only do so in cases concerning breach of US law or copyright infringment. Yet they read my locked entries when there was no breach of copyright, or any other law, alleged. In fact there hadn't even been a complaint against me - they confused me with another user, who'd once used a similar username.

I asked them for an explanation. I didn't get one. I emailed the managers of the abuse team directly. I had no response. I sent a copy of that email to the CEO and VP of Six Apart, but I have still had no reply. I guess they're too busy with their new service, Vox. I wonder if Vox users will be served any better the LiveJournal's?

The petition reads:

We call on Six Apart to recognize that there are serious problems with the LiveJournal Abuse team which extend beyond any one issue, and to stop dismissing users' feedback and concerns.

Significant and long-term problems have been described with the LJ Abuse team, from inconsistent and contradictory answers to rudeness and refusal to answer users' questions. LiveJournal's poor customer service has attracted attention on numerous blogs, but Six Apart continues to brush it off.

The signers of this petition ask that Six Apart genuinely listens to its customers' concerns and commits to address the issues. They cannot be brushed under the table, and must be dealt with fully and openly.

Here are just four of the many comments left on it.

Beverley Andrews: I wish to lend support to this petition. LJ Abuse needs to be staffed by individuals who are able to think rationally and put aside their own personal feeling towards members. Rules/guidelines need to be clearly laid out and the owners of LJ should make sure that not only the users stick to the rules, but also that the abuse team stick to the rules, not changing them in order to save face or validate an earlier banning. This issue runs deeper than breastfeeding pictures. I could not care less about pictures of nipples, but I DO care about being governed by a corrupt and inconsistent body of people who refuse to even discuss the reasons for their decisions.

Robert Dalton: Highly unprofessional for 6A to neglect concerns of customers. Abuse team on LJ needs fresh start with competent management. Privacy concerns MUST be addressed!

Melissa Aldinger: Numerous complaints of violation of privacy, harassment, copyright infringement and inappropriate content have been ignored and brushed off though they clearing violated LJ's TOS. I am disgusted with the way the issue was handled.

Rob Bennett: I am an longtime paid LJ user with no past run-ins, or friends who have had run-ins, with LJA. However, as an observer of LJ culture it has been patently apparent to me that a reform and EXTENSIVE personnel shakeup for the LJA team has been in order for at least the last two years.

Tags: livejournal, six apart, customer service, blogging, privacy, protest