[LMB] LJ friending advisory OT:

[Azalais Aranxta]

The fellow who is boywizard contacted me and is very, very nice.
I'm happy.

If you friend someone who has a friends-locked journal,
it's always polite to leave a comment on one of their public
posts (many journals have a single public post for just this
purpose) to say who you are, where you know them from and why
you're interested in reading their stuff.  Particularly if it's
not easy to tell who you are from looking at your journal.

I know a lot of people on this list have LJs without much content
or identifying information on them.  I don't want to be rude or
unfriendly, but this is the situation.

In the summer and fall of 2005, after the last HP book came out,
the HP fandom went completely insane.  Those who liked the book
weren't content with the fact that they got the pairings and plot
devices they wanted.  That would have been like being good sports
or something.

Instead, they decided to launch an all out offensive on the
journals of every well-known person in the fandom who disliked
the new book and was brave enough to say so, and reported all
this crap on the website Fandom Wank.  Just the fact that someone
had a dissenting opinion and dared to say so in their own
journal, forum or website was enough to get them publicly
pilloried.  They were so relentless in tracking down journal
entries and forum posts and websites that were critical of JKR
and HBP trolling them that eventually they were told to make
their own community on the Journalfen site because they were
interfering with the rest of the lashon hara (vicious talk) fest
there.

There is a new HP book coming out in two months.  Already all
over LJ there are icons popping up and comments being made from
various people that they are looking forward to seeing this
happen again and that they will be searching for the 'wank'
wherever they can find it so that they can all have a good time
harassing and laughing at people who are dissatisfied with the
ending of the series.  I know for a fact that I'm one of the
people they're hoping to get something to laugh at from.

Until the book is out and this garbage has died down, I am going
to be very suspicious about letting people who don't post in
their journals and have no identifying info there read my posts,
because a common tactic for Fandom Wank members and other
generally obnoxious people is to have several journals that they
use to read other people's journals and look for trouble.  This
is sad, because many people have extra journals that they just
use to read fic or non-work safe communities, and it's very
difficult to tell by looking at an empty journal whether the
intent of the person who made it is to troll for wank or to just
read stuff.

Pretty much every ex-HP fan, Slytherin-identified fan or
Harry/Hermione shipper that I know is also being extra careful,
so it's something to think about.

~malfoy :)

****************************************************************
Azalais Aranxta (~malfoy)
ataniell93 on LiveJournal and Vox
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/malfoymadness

"I know the true world, and you know I do. But we needn't let it
think we all bow down." --Christopher Morley