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

[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!

[(Anonymous)]

It takes a special kind of coward to throw insults, make stuff up, and then ban a response. I'd speculate that you'll feel pretty silly when LJ does, indeed, state what happened, but giving it a little thought, I'm certain you'll find a way to rationalize yourself a nice little warm blanket.

Again, sir, bravo to you!

This will be screened and you won't have the balls to post it anyway.

[laylalawlor.livejournal.com]

Woman here. No balls at all. Sorry! ^_^

However, the whole reason why I banned you was because I did not wish to have a debate about this (might I remind you that YOU came HERE in the first place), so, FYI, any future anon. comments you might leave will be deleted unread.

[rhonan.livejournal.com]

And yet, as you accuse people of all sorts of lies, without citing any evidence, you ban anyone that counters your baseless lies. You would notice, if only you have the courage to do so, that you can freely question or debate jameth or his supporters. We don't make hollow accusations and then ban people who debate that with us, and we have provided more then enough evidence of supporters of legomymalfoy colluding to manipulate the vote. But no, we've seen so sort that support her. You will ban me now, and never show your face where someone can challenge you/

[laylalawlor.livejournal.com]

Strangely enough, I don't consider jameth and cambler's inability to police the discussion threads in their own blogs a selling point. You can be assured you'll find things better-managed over here. I also cannot help but notice your lack of links to any of your alleged "evidence", which is a definite pattern in these threads. Wander on, little troll, and as I said to cambler, any attempt to continue to engage me via anon comments will be deleted unread, as it kinda defeats the purpose of banning you.

[oopsz.livejournal.com]

One person's policing is another's censorship.

[laylalawlor.livejournal.com]

I wondered how long it would be before someone would show up to demonstrate their ignorance of the whole concept of free speech and/or censorship! I should've placed a bet, 'cause that was really quick. :D

*bans*

[zixi.livejournal.com]

It's like whack-a-mole!

[jameth.livejournal.com]

it's awesome.
i keep refreshing. i had to come in and comment to say that i am refreshing this post.
i hope i am not banned.

[laylalawlor.livejournal.com]

I actually don't see any reason to ban you at this point as long as you a) respond directly to me and not to anyone else in this discussion (in the future) and b) behave politely. I'll ban you if it becomes necessary, but not if you don't create a disruption or insult me or anyone else. Which, so far, you haven't.

[jameth.livejournal.com]

i am going away for a while anyway. i received a death threat of my own. afk.

(frozen comment)

[laylalawlor.livejournal.com]

I'm very sorry to hear that, and I hope you've notified the proper authorities and taken steps to ensure the safety of your family.

[laylalawlor.livejournal.com]

Whack-a-troll! :D

[zixi.livejournal.com]

*carves you little wooden club*

[hardvice.livejournal.com]

Only on LiveJournal can "censorship" and "silencing dissent" equal "management". This is my favourite LJ quote of all time.

[laylalawlor.livejournal.com]

Regrettably, idiots who don't understand the concept of "censorship" or private space exist on and off Livejournal. For the record, darlin', I'm a borderline libertarian(ish) person who's married to a hardcore Libertarian, and you are currently on private property. You have no rights here.

[(Anonymous)]

Another anonymous fandomer wanting to stay off the radar.

I think I love you for posting this. <3

Watching you drop the banhammer and everybody cry censorship 'cause you won't listen to their insults in your own damn space is the best thing I've seen all day. Sorry it's happening to you, but something tells me you can handle it. ;)

[laylalawlor.livejournal.com]

Hee! This comment made my day. Thanks and <3 back atcha. :D

[julieannie.livejournal.com]

He did not google himself. I gave him the link. I was searching for posts about legomymalfoy and the death threat and your post came up and I noticed it was a post that unfairly presented the situation and I thought he deserved a chance to defend himself. I'm glad to see that you just keep jumping to conclusions and blocking opinions that don't fit your agenda.

[laylalawlor.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the info - that's useful to know! Vaguely creepy, but useful. Perhaps next time, as a concerned friend, you should also tell him that running around trying to defend himself in any corner of the Internet where he's being criticized just makes him look like an oversensitive twit, though.