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Livejournal hijacking referral links

Livejournal has added Javascript code to all its pages to edit outgoing links users may post to sites like Amazon that offer referral programs. The code removes affiliate IDs users may include (hoping to get a cut of profits from the links) and replaces them with someone else's ID, presumably Livejournal's or the third party's own (so they get the money instead of the user who posted the link getting the money). Details linked from this Livejournal posting. It appears that at least some of this behaviour was unintended by, or unknown to, at least some of Livejournal's staff; it appears that they didn't actually write the code themselves but got it from the third party and put it on all their pages without knowing exactly what it would do. However, it appears that at least the behaviours of putting in an affiliate ID if none were already present, and of bouncing outgoing links through a third-party server, were intended.

(4 March 2010)

Six Apart determined to destroy itself in blaze of idiocy

The new owners of Livejournal have done some very stupid things in the last year or so, but the new "adult content" feature is one of the stupidest.  I'd almost think they are deliberately trying to force the business to fail for the tax loss or something. (2 December 2007)

Pepsi pressured to pull Livejournal ads

So:  Pepsi was running a really obnoxious "sponsored v-gift" campaign on Livejournal.  The ads were shown to paid users - something which Livejournal promised they would never permit, when they started permitting ads in the first place.  Now someone on Insanejournal, apparently a Livejournal expatriate, wrote a shit-disturbing letter to Pepsi telling them that their ad was running on a site that "allows the hosting of graphic violent material, linked to the inciting [sic] of racial hatred[.]" And Pepsi has pulled the campaign.  (Note:  I am not taking a position on whether this is cause and effect; the user seems to be claiming credit for the kill, but of course one can think of lots of other possible explanations.) On the one hand, I hated the Pepsi ads too, and I'm not sorry to see them go.  But substitute accusations of "child pornography" for the accusations of "racial hatred," and you've got exactly the pressure campaign that Warriors For Innocence is trying to run.  I don't think WFI's tactics are acceptable.  I don't see JackAndAHat's tactics as being meaningfully different.  Lowering oneself to WFI's level is not a clever idea. (29 August 2007)

The terrible secret of Livejournal

I'm hearing another round of rumours about Six Apart, the company that runs Livejournal, and its deletion of Livejournal users.  It sounds like they've changed their code to make it less obvious when a user has been deleted (by hiding usernames or something, instead of showing them in strikethrough), and they're continuing to not follow their stated policies of issuing warnings and conducting reviews and so on.  The fandom community is up in arms, and the current situation is seen as an example of Six Apart not sticking to the promises it made last time there was a round of deletions.  I think the time has come for me to reveal the terrible secret of Livejournal - the one big issue behind this situation, that neither side wants to admit even to themselves.  Because of this one big issue, I think that fandom is making unreasonable demands of Livejournal.  This is a sort of open letter or reality check for the fandom community:  you can't expect Six Apart to give you what you're demanding, and you need to recognize why. (9 August 2007)

Livejournal friends betray trust; film at 11

Some comments on the legality and morality of a public archive of private Livejournal postings. (6 March 2005)