layla | It's like watching a train wreck

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.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

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?

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

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

no subject

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