So here's the skinny as I know it...
I've been doing a lot of research on the Crossposting to Twitter and Facebook from Livejournal Fiasco.
There are things you can do on your end. You can update your settings so that it doesn't happen automatically - this will give you check boxes on your comments and posts so that you actively have to decide whether or not you're cross-posting. A script came out yesterday for Firefox, using the Greasemonkey add-on, that will further strip the cross-posting option from your comments - you don't even see the check boxes anymore and it automatically disables the cross-posting function for comments. It doesn't completely remove the cross-posting option from posts when you make them. I don't know if there are other scripts for different browsers since I do use Firefox but I wouldn't be surprised if they're out there already, too.
Which is all great to a point.
None of this curbs what other people can do. If I have written a public post, someone can comment to it and their comment will show up on Twitter or FB if they've configured their account to automatically do so. If I have written a public post, someone can still cross-post their comment to Twitter or Facebook by checking the appropriate box if they're not automatically configured to do so. Whenever a comment is cross-posted, it includes the subject and text of the comment as well as a link back to the original entry.
Okay, yeah. It's a public post. Some people might say "what's the big deal." Nothing on the Internet is really private anyway. I get that, but...
Per the FAQ, comments to a locked or private post are not automatically cross-posted for privacy reasons - but if someone checks those boxes, their comments to a private post will show up on their Facebook or Twitter. And it's the same deal as posting a comment to a public entry - it'll show the title of their comment and the text of it, along with a link back to the original entry.
There is still inherent privacy in regards to a locked post in that someone who saw the link on Facebook or Twitter and decided to click on it would need to be friends with the original poster on Livejournal to access it.
But a malicious person could abuse this feature. Someone could, theoretically, quote the entire text of a private post in their comment - which would then show up on someone's Facebook or Twitter. Doesn't matter if the link back to the original entry is "locked" at that point and only a friend can access it. The damage has already been done.
And I know a lot of people who deliberately keep their Livejournal separated entirely from Facebook or Twitter. I personally have no desire for my thirteen-year-old second cousin to find his way to my writing journal. Or my eleven-year-old niece, for that matter.
The bottom line is that I don't think that someone else should have the ability to cross-post a comment to anything I've written unless I choose to allow them to do so - especially on a private post. I am aware of the fact that nothing is going to stop someone from posting one of my private posts publicly if they really want to do it just the same way that someone could "out" me by associating my real identity to my online persona. Do I think someone I know would do that? Nope.
But at least I should be given the opportunity to say, "no, I don't want this functionality enabled for anything I post." If someone else wants to let people do that, awesome. I guess I'd just like the choice of blocking it on my end.
I want to see how the folks at Livejournal respond to this issue before I figure out how I am personally going to handle it. The very least I can do is no longer renew my paid account. Several of my online friends have already moved completely to Dreamwidth and will no longer be posting anything on Livejournal because of this. Ever. And I've got an account there, too - along with seven invites if you are interested in one...
There are things you can do on your end. You can update your settings so that it doesn't happen automatically - this will give you check boxes on your comments and posts so that you actively have to decide whether or not you're cross-posting. A script came out yesterday for Firefox, using the Greasemonkey add-on, that will further strip the cross-posting option from your comments - you don't even see the check boxes anymore and it automatically disables the cross-posting function for comments. It doesn't completely remove the cross-posting option from posts when you make them. I don't know if there are other scripts for different browsers since I do use Firefox but I wouldn't be surprised if they're out there already, too.
Which is all great to a point.
None of this curbs what other people can do. If I have written a public post, someone can comment to it and their comment will show up on Twitter or FB if they've configured their account to automatically do so. If I have written a public post, someone can still cross-post their comment to Twitter or Facebook by checking the appropriate box if they're not automatically configured to do so. Whenever a comment is cross-posted, it includes the subject and text of the comment as well as a link back to the original entry.
Okay, yeah. It's a public post. Some people might say "what's the big deal." Nothing on the Internet is really private anyway. I get that, but...
Per the FAQ, comments to a locked or private post are not automatically cross-posted for privacy reasons - but if someone checks those boxes, their comments to a private post will show up on their Facebook or Twitter. And it's the same deal as posting a comment to a public entry - it'll show the title of their comment and the text of it, along with a link back to the original entry.
There is still inherent privacy in regards to a locked post in that someone who saw the link on Facebook or Twitter and decided to click on it would need to be friends with the original poster on Livejournal to access it.
But a malicious person could abuse this feature. Someone could, theoretically, quote the entire text of a private post in their comment - which would then show up on someone's Facebook or Twitter. Doesn't matter if the link back to the original entry is "locked" at that point and only a friend can access it. The damage has already been done.
And I know a lot of people who deliberately keep their Livejournal separated entirely from Facebook or Twitter. I personally have no desire for my thirteen-year-old second cousin to find his way to my writing journal. Or my eleven-year-old niece, for that matter.
The bottom line is that I don't think that someone else should have the ability to cross-post a comment to anything I've written unless I choose to allow them to do so - especially on a private post. I am aware of the fact that nothing is going to stop someone from posting one of my private posts publicly if they really want to do it just the same way that someone could "out" me by associating my real identity to my online persona. Do I think someone I know would do that? Nope.
But at least I should be given the opportunity to say, "no, I don't want this functionality enabled for anything I post." If someone else wants to let people do that, awesome. I guess I'd just like the choice of blocking it on my end.
I want to see how the folks at Livejournal respond to this issue before I figure out how I am personally going to handle it. The very least I can do is no longer renew my paid account. Several of my online friends have already moved completely to Dreamwidth and will no longer be posting anything on Livejournal because of this. Ever. And I've got an account there, too - along with seven invites if you are interested in one...