It's like watching a train wreck - you just can't stop!

[layla]

So it turns out that LJ advisory board candidate legomymalfoy received actual death threats urging her to drop out of the race. Rather than let the bastards win, she's staying in.

Former candidate (and buddy of jameth) cambler, who was losing anyway, dropped out yesterday over a rumor of death threats against an unspecified LJ-er. Now that it turns out he's not the target, rather than offering sympathy to legomymalfoy like a decent human being, he's accusing her of not caring about her family's safety and whining like a five-year-old that he was unfairly forced to drop out of the race [ETA: post is now locked] and that LJ should invalidate the whole election on his behalf. (Wahhhhh! Mommeeeeee! They made me drop out! It's somebody else's faaaauuuult!) And the commenters, who are pretty much the same group of Jameth-supporting trolls who have been acting like fuckwits all over every OTHER election post, are quick to claim the death threat's a fraud and any rise in her vote count at this point must be due to sockpuppetry. (Please note in regards to that last comment thread, the only "flak for cheating" that she's been getting, that I've seen, is from Jameth's camp's unsupported claims that she's been cheating, which is rather a different thing.)

I'm alternately horrified at these people's utter lack of human decency, and horrified at myself because I can't seem to leave it alone.

Here's a link to the voting page again, because god, I do not want to see this batch of scum win this election.

EDIT (5/30): The election's over, I'm about snarked out for a while, and so, I'm stepping away from this discussion for the moment. Non-friend comments are still screened, and I may be (very) tardy to unscreen/reply.

Comments

[kadymae.livejournal.com]

I hope whoever issued that death threat discovers very harshly and very swiftly that in the US, ISPs, by law, must take that shit very seriously.

And, that if the threat was delivered from a person in the US who is outside of her state?

It's now a FEDERAL matter.

May the beating with the chairleg of justice be through.

[laylalawlor.livejournal.com]

I know. Apparently law enforcement *is* involved, so ... I just hope the smackdown of justice is swift and thorough. The misogyny I've been seeing thrown her way has been disgusting (she, and others, have been called sluts and worse in the troll threads; people have posted nasty photo manips, and so on) but this is seriously taking it to a whole new level.

[tinpan.livejournal.com]

Is there a quick explanation of why we should vote, the issues involved, and your candidate recommendations, that I can just gank and put on my lj?

Sorry! I suck tonight! Reposting comment one last time!

[laylalawlor.livejournal.com]

My last post (http://laylalawlor.livejournal.com/138282.html) goes into more detail. Maybe too much detail! There are links to the candidates' campaign statements and the voting page at the end.

Here's a distilled version:

To try to be more responsive to their users (or at least to appear more responsive ... depending on how cynical you are -- I'm definitely leaning in the cynical direction) Livejournal created a policy advisory board and are holding an election to add a user representative to the board.

One of the leading candidates, jameth, has a large group of friends and supporters who go into the journals of people who post anything critical of him and troll them. This includes posting rapidly-flashing icons in a journal of a person with epilepsy, calling people "sluts" and "cunts" and other insults, posting blatantly mysogynistic and racist photomanips, smearing the opposition with unfounded allegations of sockpuppet voting and other accusations, and simply trying to drown out anyone who speaks up for the other candidates by heaping abuse on them. Someone I know and respect has locked her journal and is considering leaving LJ because of trolling and abuse from these people. Frankly, my main concern is trying to prevent someone who uses bullying tactics to intimidate and silence their opposition from being elected into a position where they will be able to shape LJ policy.

legomymalfoy and rm both come recommended by people I know. legomymalfoy is probably the one with the best chance of winning against jameth -- she's leading in the voting poll right now.

Here are all of the candidates' campaign statements, (http://community.livejournal.com/fandom_votes/1518.html) with discussion (specifically focused on how fandom would be affected; it's a fannish community) in the comments.

Voting: http://community.livejournal.com/lj_election_en/25463.html

Changing your vote afterwards: http://www.livejournal.com/poll/?id=1192389&mode=enter

[tulleandtiaras.livejournal.com]

I have a few friends who have had the unfortunate experience of meeting cambler in person. He is a definite asshat. I feel sorry for his children.

[laylalawlor.livejournal.com]

Ouch. From what I'm seeing here, that doesn't surprise me. (And he's got *kids*? God.)

[cambler.livejournal.com]

Very easy for you to armchair this without actually seeing the emails that LJ corporate sent telling we candidates that we were, in fact, targets of threats.

They've also acknowledged the voter fraud and chosen to not take action.

So yeah, good job there drawing conclusions without actually having the facts. Bravo.

[laylalawlor.livejournal.com]

What are you doing, vanity-Googling yourself? Very classy. But since you're here, I can tell you to your face what I think of you -- because I, unlike you, am not going around to other people's journals and sticking my nose in.

You, sir, are a coward and a jackass. From your own account of events, you thought someone had threatened you, dropped out of the race, and now you're crying to LJ Support to make it all better for you and offering up lame conspiracy theories to excuse your own actions -- in a post which, incidentally, I notice that you've now locked, which might not have been a bad idea in the first place if you were truly interested in getting justice rather than garnering attention for your plight.

Rather than offering legomymalfoy sympathy since she's in exactly the position you thought you were in yesterday, you'd prefer to kick her while she's down, cast aspersions on her character and spread rumors and allegations about her. I've seen plenty of talk of voter fraud, but no one seems willing to produce evidence or links. I don't personally know her, or ANY of you, so I haven't a clue if the allegations are true or not -- but based on what I've seen, I'm a hell of a lot more willing to take her version of events over yours. It's entirely possible that I'll be proven wrong once someone produces some actual EVIDENCE, but since no one seems to be able to do that (strange, isn't it?), I'll simply act on the information that I have -- which is a series of threads that make you and your friends look deceptive, mean-spirited, and juvenile. Not to mention that you're HERE, in my journal, about two hours after I posted this -- and this journal is neither widely-linked nor widely-read, which makes me wonder if there's any way you could have found this other than through diligent vanity-surfing on the part of you or someone you know.

Also, if I find myself hip-deep in trolls tomorrow, you will have done a more fantastic job of proving my point than I could ever hope to do.

In the meantime, since this is my virtual living room and I don't recall inviting you here, I'm banning you. Have a wonderful life!

[xparrot.livejournal.com]

Um, okay...I voted already (mostly thanks to your posting, I wasn't much aware of this election otherwise...they've not exactly been public about it.) And I'm on the cynical side regardless...

That being said, you got any ideas why this 'election' is driving people totally batshit? Is jameth 16 and mistakenly of the belief that this is the contest for prom queen, or what? It just seems a bit...er...excessive, putting this kind of effort into a relatively small affair?

...and then you're getting trolled by the folks themselves. Wow, that's kind of awesome. How'd cambler even find you?

[laylalawlor.livejournal.com]

I have NO idea -- how he found me, or why the crazy is so thick around LJ these days. I suggest being careful associating with me for the next day or so, though, just in case a trollsplosion blows up in these parts.

And you know me -- *I* don't normally engage in the time-honored sport of trollbaiting, either. Er ... maybe it's sunspots or something? ^^;;

[zixi.livejournal.com]

*shakes head*
*shakes head harder*

This whole thing is making me completely sick. Makes me weep for the future of humanity with entitled jackasses like this running around. (also, I don't like to risk calling wolf, but I find it all too suspicious that the candidates causing the problems are males and the ones they are attacking are women and so much of the trolling is such misogynistic, gendered language). Giant entitlement complexes running around.

I love how this "flack for cheating" bullshit is completely unfounded and they can link to two fans commenting of having tried to vote with one other journal and this is a VAST conspiracy. And jameth's camp keeps complaining about unfounded rumors about his envolvement with, um, frenditto and encyclopedia dramatica and other places I've never heard of and...honest to god in all the election posts I've read I've only seen his camp mention that - never any of the people campaigning against him.

I'm alternately horrified at these people's utter lack of human decency, and horrified at myself because I can't seem to leave it alone.

Exactly. The death threats are horrific enough. Certain people's responses to them are completely disgusting.

[laylalawlor.livejournal.com]

"Documentation" seems to be a foreign concept to them. Of course, in order to document something, it would have to be actually TRUE. I'd be perfectly willing to take a look at evidence if they could actually furnish any, but it looks like they're just hoping that if they repeat an accusation often enough and loudly enough, people will start believing it. (Just like real elections!) Pardon me while I laugh.

Luckily, it seems like their slander and nasty tactics are doing them more harm than good, looking at the poll numbers.

[scotty2naughty.livejournal.com]

[laylalawlor.livejournal.com]

Hey, you notice my comment above, that if a swarm of trolls shows up, you guys will have totally proven my point? Lookie here, PROVING MY POINT. All I have to do is sit back and ban you, while you ably demonstrate why your bunch shouldn't be allowed within fifty miles of anywhere you can affect LJ policy. Nice going!

[caseus.livejournal.com]

YOU TELL 'EM GF

Just don't get too excited or you might re-soil your muumuu. :/

[laylalawlor.livejournal.com]

The wit, logic and erudition of the argument displayed here is difficult to argue against, that's for certain.

[jeshala.livejournal.com]

With all the hulabaloo and whatnot, I'm... finding it hard to figure out just why this advisory board thing is so important. I mean, yes, it'll help shape LJ hopefully and not just be a figurehead thing, but... death threat important? Harassing people important?

I'm not accusing anyone. I know precisely dicks about what the heck is going on. I'm just curious as to what brings about this amount of passion for it?

[laylalawlor.livejournal.com]

That's the weird thing -- it *isn't* that important! I mean, most of the passion that I have for it is due to watching people I like and respect get trolled and insulted. Otherwise, I'd still be cheerfully ignoring it. There is no way that this is going to have much effect one way or another on LJ policy, no matter what. It isn't worth this.

[thekamisama.livejournal.com]

I still don't understand why people are being encouraged to vote for a person based on the sole fact that they are in a "fandom", as if all fandoms are the same, much less that like or respect each other. I doubt that the whole of Harry Potter "fandom" even agrees with the smaller niche of Potter slash fiction fandom, so it seems hard to convince me that this person could represent ALL FANDOM ALL THE TIME like some discount 24-7 market. It is fluff and hyperbole in order to convince people to vote.

Further, These dramas also seem to display a very glaring and obvious fact that most of these candidates have no platform other than generic monikers and mudslinging.

[laylalawlor.livejournal.com]

My above post doesn't mention fandom at all, so this rant is pretty much entirely off-topic and I'm not sure why you've posted it here. I've also been getting spammed with links to your journal lately; I'm not sure if that's you or someone else, since they're anonymous, but I banned you on general principles when I saw your username because of those. If it's someone doing it in your name, you need to tell them to knock it off, because it's giving you a bad rep.

However, I *do* agree with you that the whole election is a nasty, mud-slinging mess. I'll be glad when it's over.

Thanks. :)

[(Anonymous)]

Your post sums it all up very well. I'm using anonymous commenting because my journal is a fandom-related one, and though I've mostly stayed out of this election, there's enough drama going on over there without any following me home. :)

I love how the trolls continued to attack you. Brilliant camp, that.

Re: Thanks. :)

[laylalawlor.livejournal.com]

Thank you! I don't blame you a bit for staying anon -- and I think the fact that people *have* to, to avoid getting hit with the trollbrush, pretty much says it all.

[burned-rose.livejournal.com]

I'm not here to troll, but I am here just to mention that C Ambler is a rather good internet friend of mine and I know him on other communities. he is very well respected in all those communities as a professional photographer who produces amazing work. In my multiple correspondences with him, both as a model and a make up artist, he has been nothing but professional and polite. I know that won't mean much coming from me, but he is not the "asshat" that people make him out to be.

I am a friend of Jameth, via online, for several years. I can testify, and would testify in court, that he has never, ever, in ym entire time on his friends list, asked for people to troll.

He will post a link, and the most that he will say is "Oh boy, I don't know what is going on here!" or "Can someone help me clarify these rumors? They are writing libelous statements about me."

With a friends list of over 1300 people, you can guarantee that someone will, of course, troll. However, I have seen Jameth ask them not to troll and ask them to be nice. But again, it is hard to control a crowd of 1300 from a keyboard and computer screen, as you have seen in this post.

[laylalawlor.livejournal.com]

I appreciate that you feel the urge to defend your friends, and appreciate very much that you've done so politely; thank you! (And actually, I *do* think cambler's photographs are appealing. I don't always find them in the best taste, but he's unquestionably talented.)

However, it's absolute bullshit that you (generic "you") are not encouraging trolling if you know your flist is prone to trolling, and you point them in the direction of a link anyway. If Jameth chooses to surround himself with that sort of people, it's his business. But if he directs known trolls to a post, he is absolutely encouraging trolling, and it's extremely disingenuous to pretend he's not. And if he shows up in a troll-infested thread specifically to point out that he's amused by it (as he does above) he is obviously condoning and encouraging that behavior.

If I know a guy beats his dogs, and I give him a puppy and later smile and call out encouragement when I see him beating it, I may not have control over his actions and I may not have told him to do it, but I definitely bear some moral responsibility for it.

[ellenmillion.livejournal.com]

Horrah for drama. Keeps the toes toasty. Much chuckle worthy stuff here - crocheting little asshats! Wack-a-troll!

[laylalawlor.livejournal.com]

Hey, it's Alaska; we have to entertain ourselves somehow. *g*

Hi there

[ingenuemuse.livejournal.com]

I was linked here, and got to looking at your journal. I actually only wanted to say that I like your writing style, and you seem like a cool woman.

One thing I'm enjoying in spite of all the insanity is reading interesting peoples ljs. (I *am* a friend of jameth though, but respect your right to choose the way you like).

Re: Hi there

[laylalawlor.livejournal.com]

Thanks! And that's cool, too. To each their own, y'know. :)

btw, I notice you (and others) have some other comments that are still screened as per the settings of this entry, but I'm stepping away from the discussion for awhile and leaving the remaining comments screened 'till I can come back, answer them and keep an eye on any threads that may ensue. I just wanted to let you know that it isn't something personal against you, the not replying thing. Just busy.