First Post in Epic Community
Q: What do you think is the value of LJ?
It brings people together.
Q: What changes would you like to see LJ make in the next year?
Not a lot, just don't mess anything up. Regain the support of your core userbase, then make improvements.
Q: Why do you want to be the elected representative?
I've been on/am on other, real life advisory committees, and I like it. It's fun. Also, I've been a permanent account holder since 2002 and remember how Live Journal used to be - and miss that.
Q: What do you think are the community's greatest concerns?
Privacy, stability, consistency.
tigersilver asks: But, tell me, what would you really do as a rep? I do like cake, I admit, but I'm an omnivore - I need meat as well as sweet.
If it goes anything like other community participation I've been involved with, there will be an agenda set by SUP a the meetings, and then some time to make comments. My advice to the corporation will include consistent application of the TOS, protection of our privacy, no content restriction, advertising should not be intrusive, the open source tradition should be upheld.
The livejournal advisory committee will also provide input into LJ's charitable work, which is an area where I do have some background as a nonprofit and research administrator. My advice there would be to look at the potential dollars-to-impact return on the investment and a low administration-to-direct-services ratio. In general, I have found grassroots community health projects and neighborhood youth programs are the best at providing this in the US. There are also programs internationally such as the excellent Riverkids Project which has been successful in stopping child trafficking at its source, working directly with parents and kids to provide education and support for a different type of future. Their financials are completely transparent, and would be a gold standard for the type of charitable contribution I would suggest.
WHY JETTE?
1. First!
2. If she wins, there will be cake.
Here is a small sampling of endorsements for my campaign.
smallstages: Besides jette, they are all a bunch of spitters, and one of them even dips snuff. Two of them were wearing filthy dirty underwear upon my arrival -- JUST FILTHY DIRTY UNDERWEAR. One of their children called me fat, and not in a complimentary way. They were all sexist and had John McCain for President stickers on their minvans. One of them was reading the Bible. And all of them pronounced my name wrong (unforgivable!).
But when I went to jette's house, she didn't spit in my presence even once, and just happened to be reading selections from the Koran, the Upanishads, the Talmud, the New Testament, Lady Chatterly's Lover, and The Anarchist Cookbook all at once (all of them in their original languages except The Anarchist Cookbook, which she was reading in Icelandic just for fun).
She was wearing a fashionable outfit made by well-paid workers to whom she rents her guest bedroom on select summer weekends. Her children offered to make me waffles, pronounced my name right, and hung my jacket up on a hanger made of plastic recycled in their own backyard, a process no doubt taught to them by jette.
gordonzola: I'll be voting jette.
She's an awesome person on LJ and irl. She's raised children so she can deal with anything the LJ community can throw at her. She lives close enough to the Russian part of SF that she will know how to deal with LJ's owners. And the very first time I met her she came bearing mixed drinks!
Seriously though, she wants to be on the advisory board and she wants to do what she can. I think jette understands the positive things that online communities can do. She's been on LJ longer than me and I trust her to do as good a job as anyone possibly can on that stacked deck of a group she's running for.
jimbojones:
(Jette is)
1. a longstanding LJ citizen
2. someone who gives a shit
3. agenda-free (not a former LJ employee / Six Apart lover / Six Apart hater / etc)
4. like, seriously MILFy
5. even-keeled, level-headed, and not at all given to crazy half-cocked flamewars
It brings people together.
Q: What changes would you like to see LJ make in the next year?
Not a lot, just don't mess anything up. Regain the support of your core userbase, then make improvements.
Q: Why do you want to be the elected representative?
I've been on/am on other, real life advisory committees, and I like it. It's fun. Also, I've been a permanent account holder since 2002 and remember how Live Journal used to be - and miss that.
Q: What do you think are the community's greatest concerns?
Privacy, stability, consistency.
tigersilver asks: But, tell me, what would you really do as a rep? I do like cake, I admit, but I'm an omnivore - I need meat as well as sweet.
If it goes anything like other community participation I've been involved with, there will be an agenda set by SUP a the meetings, and then some time to make comments. My advice to the corporation will include consistent application of the TOS, protection of our privacy, no content restriction, advertising should not be intrusive, the open source tradition should be upheld.
The livejournal advisory committee will also provide input into LJ's charitable work, which is an area where I do have some background as a nonprofit and research administrator. My advice there would be to look at the potential dollars-to-impact return on the investment and a low administration-to-direct-services ratio. In general, I have found grassroots community health projects and neighborhood youth programs are the best at providing this in the US. There are also programs internationally such as the excellent Riverkids Project which has been successful in stopping child trafficking at its source, working directly with parents and kids to provide education and support for a different type of future. Their financials are completely transparent, and would be a gold standard for the type of charitable contribution I would suggest.
WHY JETTE?
1. First!
2. If she wins, there will be cake.
Here is a small sampling of endorsements for my campaign.
smallstages: Besides jette, they are all a bunch of spitters, and one of them even dips snuff. Two of them were wearing filthy dirty underwear upon my arrival -- JUST FILTHY DIRTY UNDERWEAR. One of their children called me fat, and not in a complimentary way. They were all sexist and had John McCain for President stickers on their minvans. One of them was reading the Bible. And all of them pronounced my name wrong (unforgivable!).
But when I went to jette's house, she didn't spit in my presence even once, and just happened to be reading selections from the Koran, the Upanishads, the Talmud, the New Testament, Lady Chatterly's Lover, and The Anarchist Cookbook all at once (all of them in their original languages except The Anarchist Cookbook, which she was reading in Icelandic just for fun).
She was wearing a fashionable outfit made by well-paid workers to whom she rents her guest bedroom on select summer weekends. Her children offered to make me waffles, pronounced my name right, and hung my jacket up on a hanger made of plastic recycled in their own backyard, a process no doubt taught to them by jette.
gordonzola: I'll be voting jette.
She's an awesome person on LJ and irl. She's raised children so she can deal with anything the LJ community can throw at her. She lives close enough to the Russian part of SF that she will know how to deal with LJ's owners. And the very first time I met her she came bearing mixed drinks!
Seriously though, she wants to be on the advisory board and she wants to do what she can. I think jette understands the positive things that online communities can do. She's been on LJ longer than me and I trust her to do as good a job as anyone possibly can on that stacked deck of a group she's running for.
jimbojones:
(Jette is)
1. a longstanding LJ citizen
2. someone who gives a shit
3. agenda-free (not a former LJ employee / Six Apart lover / Six Apart hater / etc)
4. like, seriously MILFy
5. even-keeled, level-headed, and not at all given to crazy half-cocked flamewars