April 19, 2006
-
Breaking the Law
Using a site to break or attempt to break the law (or give instructions on how to do so).
Examples of prohibited sites include:
- Posting instructions on how to break the law (e.g. how to make a bomb, how to grow/make illegal drugs, etc.)
- Attempting to buy or sell illegal goods online (e.g. buying/selling drugs, solicitation of prostitution, etc.).
- Incitement to break the law
Comments (91)
Hmm, “incitement to break the law.” My concern here is that people might use this flag when the person who made the comment was only joking or being ironic. There are other flags with this or similar potential too, such as “hatred.”
I think what I’d ideally like to see is an outline how the management is going to use these flags. Only half the “flag” system has been presented for comment.
- Will management personally review the situation before taking action?
- Will their decisions be based on some kind of written guidelines, or will it be a personal judgement based on their own opinion?
- Will people have any recourse in the form of an appeal process if the decision is misinformed?
- Will there be a “warning” or will offending accounts simply be purged?
- What consequences will befall someone who abuses these tags, applying them in ambiguous or inapplicable situations?
Given how people behave in the blog world, I surmise that someone with too much time on their hands might make a hobby of looking for people to flag. Thanks for taking comments on this flag idea!
yes.
Yes.
Is tping breaking the law? can we not write about that?
I don’t know…again, I think it’s to the violent thing again. I mean, if someone is giving instructions on how to make a bomb or how they are planning the murder of someone…sure. But what if they said…they got high? Some places it’s illegal, other’s not. What is going to be taken into consideration. LoL and I do hope that TP-ing won’t be considered.
As soon as I read this flag TP-ing came straight to my mind. Stupid little stuff like that shouldn’t get you banned. I mean, vandalism is against the law, but if you write about your next senior prank where you duct taped all the doors shut, I don’t think that is grounds to have your site deleted
I believe this shouldn’t be a flag as those who might break the law by simply underage drinking could be attacked by peers who are “straight edge”. This particular flag brings too much problems. Plus this particular flag reminds me of the patriot act in some ways =
CuriousGeorgina mentioned some of the concerns I have. This seems like one way to mollify the vigilantes who have probably been pestering you about one thing and another, but in the form in which you’ve presented it now, it leaves too much undefined and is open to abuse. People will be flagging people they don’t like. Who will be policing the whole system?
Why is Xanga becoming so binding?
what about ‘I LIKE JAYWALKING’? come on….. what Love_Eternal_Desire said. There are just some things about this that are a bit ridiculous. Either 1] everyone will not be able to use xanga… or 2] you just won’t be able to flag us all.
I was incited to break the law by Drakonskyr. I went to his xanga site and he was playing JudasPriest -Breaking the Law. Ever since then, I’ve been nuthin but a hoodlum and a god-foresaken misantrhope.
I can see getting flagged for “how to make a bomb” or something along those lines… but I agree with some of the other comments. Stupid harmless things shouldn’t be taken into account.
I live in a town where some idiot wrote on his xanga about making a bomb, and he got arrested soon afterwards. It was probably a friend or parent who read it…that’s probably a good thing to report…but…
I suppose the government is already searching for key words, like this comment which says bomb six times…bomb bomb bomb bomb, hehe…but minor harmless things…or even crimes should not be xanga’s problem, and I would leave xanga right away if you guys started policing us.
yeah… the ‘incitement to break the law’ thing is a wee bit too general for my comfort. i like that we’ll have some moderation and all, but if it turns into a “My site got shut down because I said we shouldn’t pay taxes…” sort of thing, I’d rather not have any moderation at all. There is such a thing as freedom of expression, and people need to learn that they can’t erase all the unpleasant things in the world. Even if xanga shuts down all the pro-crime people, the anorexics, the underage users, the porn-pushers.. they still exist. We can’t just go up to a drug dealer on the corner of a street and ‘flag’ him and make him disappear. It’s our responsibility to have the maturity to not be affected by it, not change other peoples’ opinions to make us more comfortable.
Well, anyway, I just worry that this could get out of hand. Still, good intentions and all that. I’ll stick around and see what happens.
automatic site shut down.
slippery slope…
uuhhmm… bombs are cool, but not for blowing people up… at least not in real life…. but aside from my retarted comment, i think they should all be banned…. except for the stupid stuff like tping… i mean it would be kind of annoying to wake up and find out you were banned ‘cus you said something about something you did on halloween like 3 years ago… but yeah… the really serious stuff…. THOU SHALL BE SENT-ETH TO HELL!!! AND THY XANGA SITE SHALL BE BAN-IFIED!!!!!
Incitement is a legal term with a very specific meaning. Xanga should define it for those unfamiliar with its meaning.
As for the first two points, I think the descriptions rule out most of the fears expressed here. After all, no one needs to post instructions on how to TP a tree or how teens can drink. No one needs to buy anything illegal online to participate in those kinds of illegal behavior.
I have no problem with this flag.
Good flag – covers all sorts of things – it’s not limited to violent crime. This could cover fraud, tax evasion, incest, landlording practices designed to inconvenience tenants… it covers xanga for a HUGE amount of stuff.
Just wanted to say thank you, and this is the Smart and moral thing to do. Not that you have time, but I posted about this topic today. Even if people don’t care about these sites, the bad press you would get for not doing it would force xanga to shut down. Let’s have xanga be the safe site, I know parents who have let thier kids switch over from MY Space ( due to My Space’s bad publicity ) your doing the right thing from a business stand point and a Moral stand point. Don’t let the censoship paranoids make you stop.
This is just vague enough to be abused.
Hi, I am a concerned xanga citizen and I would like to report a site.
The following site has DRUGS and PORN!!!
Non_Featured_Content
Please censor this site immediately.
What if the law is wrong? Peaceful protest is a constitutional right, and if one is *censored* from writing about a wrong law (such as discrimination against homosexuals), one loses a vitally important right. Censorship = bad.
yeah… the ‘incitement to break the law’ thing is a wee bit too general for my comfort. i like that we’ll have some moderation and all, but if it turns into a “My site got shut down because I said we shouldn’t pay taxes…” sort of thing, I’d rather not have any moderation at all. There is such a thing as freedom of expression, and people need to learn that they can’t erase all the unpleasant things in the world. Even if xanga shuts down all the pro-crime people, the anorexics, the underage users, the porn-pushers.. they still exist. We can’t just go up to a drug dealer on the corner of a street and ‘flag’ him and make him disappear. It’s our responsibility to have the maturity to not be affected by it, not change other peoples’ opinions to make us more comfortable.
Yes. Peaceful protest is a right protected under the Constitution. Unless it is a direct violent threat, don’t censor it. One of the reasons I like xanga so much is because I can have complete freedom to say anything I want, short of “I’m going to go kill [whoever] tonight”
support the first amendment
defend our freedoms
I don’t think there should be this tag…
when you talk about law… which place’s law are you referring to? xanga’s headquarter is in NY so im assuming you’re talking about NY, and maybe the federals…. but still laws are not universally applicable. say some drugs are legal in certain places, so what if someone said sth about having fun in a coffee shop in holland? there’s a huge grey area not only because there’s a difference in geographical location and law applicability, but also the way laws are always being updated. say i talking about my BT(bittorrent) experience on my site, encouraging my friends to try, the next month it’s become an illegal thing to BT. is that incitement to break the law??
oh and what about curse words? those involving sex and violence, like raping someone’s mother sort of thing… do they count as threats? a lot of people use taboo language in their daily lives as well as on xanga… i wont stay on xanga if i’m not allowed to use taboo languages
DONT CENSOR OUR SITES
This site has consistently had entries which narrated the escapades of gay priests with altar boys. After having been told that his blog was about to be reported to the FBI, he deleted all of his entries. You might want to keep an eye on this one.
http://www.xanga.com/Father_Dirty_Sanchez
so… what about crimes already committed? If im going to jail i want my freakin xanga still!
We are all to be vigilantes! The unpaid police and will have no other weapon than to be able to threaten a blogger with flagging! Or some self-righteous snit will post on their blog (and hit update time after time until they get into Featured Content) that everyone must band together and go and flag so and so’s site.
By the way, who’s law are we talking about? Xanga rules? US laws even if we are not in the US? The laws of our own country?
People do that? I am actually not at all suprised.
I don’t know about this one…
Way too much of an umbrella flag. I’ve looked at all of these proposed flags now. All I can say is you might think you’re having fun building new features, but I really think you should check with your investors.
oh is COPYRIGHT INFRINGEMENT against the law then? say i copied/hotlinked the pics from Louis Vuitton web site and talk about how much I love the handbags… or like quote half an entry from another xanga user…..that’s using their stuff without permission right….. will that be censored as well?
Copyright infringement is against the law; publishing on a website is still publishing, and you can’t publish another author’s material (whether text, images, or other media) without the author’s permission. That is one thing I really do wish Xanga would police more.
yes, take off all the xanga users who promote MJ!
Speaking from the Crime Blogger himself who discusses crime and how I would do it if I was a criminal, I am against this flag. I don’t display intricate details but I do point out things and discuss things. I also have a disclaimer. This one goes a bit to far as long as the person isnt a hard core criminal. I don’t dwelve in anything to deep except for talking about crime. I’d have to go if you put this one in. Hey I don’t post bomb making material but I do post about crime quite a bit.
nay on this one in a big way
This is why I’m hesitant to write about anything controversial!
This is tough. The point I have a problem with is “incitement to break the law.” Xanga is a place for many people to vent— my friends and I probably often make comments online that could qualify as this, but we have no intentions of breaking any law. I don’t think I like this one.
if you’re writing about breaking the law on your xanga, you have more pressing things to worry about than having your blog shut down. you might as well tape it onto your forehead if you’re gonna post it online
T-ping is just silly.
If someone is being ironic or exxagerating an emotion in a comment and suggests to do something illegal, it shouldn’t be punished. Though, the sarcasm must be fully evident. If someone is just posting ambiguous comments that question their stance on wether or not something they said is or is not of pro-illegal acitivity, then they should be stopped. Don’t try to work the system just to get your fun, go outside and have fun the healthy, and positive way.
A brief revision of the suspicious content should be analyzed by some form of administration. Maybe even a “Xanga-Police” Crew?
“Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.” (Amendment I) People think that this right enables them to say what they think. WRONG. There are so many boundaries to this. Our Founding Fathers merely set the stage for us. There are still so many things to watch out for. The fact is, you can say what you want at your own risk. And if it’s illegal, (juxtaposed to Xanga’s policies) they have the right to enforce punishment.
Essentially, many people are forgetting something, this is Xanga’s policy, their rules. We’re simply their users. Free-subscribers are not paying them, so stop complaining.
There are far more serious issues that surface from this topic if not passed.
Now in terms of geographical areas… I’m quite certain everyone that has been on the Internet by now realizes that they are now able to access virtually any place in the world with Internet access themselves. We also know that the laws applying to the actual plot of land you are now standing (or sitting) on apply to you specifically. However, when you are on a website of any sort that has policies and regulations (Xanga) already established, you are also bound to their laws. Simply stating, you must follow your own legal laws, the website’s laws, and not to mention your moral laws. (If you have any.) Even if you are allowed to publicly advocate the smoking of Marijuana, drinking of alcoholic beverages, or have sex in public where you are now, it is not allowed on Xanga.
As for copyright infringement, displaying your favorite handbag on your xanga and bragging about you want or spent on it is actually a benefit to the company. I highly doubt they don’t want you to do that since you’re basically advertising their products. As long as it is a legal, Xanga-approved product, it should be fine. Now on the other hand,if you actually claim to make them or worse, you sell someone else’s products without a contract with the direct manufacturer.. then that’s another story.
Ah, let’s see..Even if it is IMPERATIVE for you to post someone else’s words… CITE THEM. Make a link to the original user. AT Least, put quotes around the person’s voice. It is downright disrespectful to copy someone else’s words. Don’t do it.
Posting comments that are an “incitementto break the law” should not be defended by the reason of “venting”. There are so many ways to vent. If you do have to tell someone about it through text, then txt message them, protect post it only to the people you WANT to see it, because.. well there is a certain person you want your comment to be seen by, correct? Now, if you really just wanted to type something up for yourself, then make it a private post.
Anyway, Support this Flag to prevent Crime and stop this corruption.
Thank you.
P.s. That’s a form of expression.
By the way, I tried to adress and/or support many previous posts. (If you notice any relevance.)…Just a thought.
THERE IS ONE PERSON USERNAMEHERE’S XANGA THAT HACKS PPL’S XANGA’S AND MAKES IT SO THEY R SUBCRIBED TO USERNAMEHERE’S XANGA AND HE HAS DONT IT TO A BUNCH OF PPL
who the hell has a website like that?
Whose laws are you going by?
Would you count showing how chinese surfers can circumvent the stupid firewall of china as breaking chinese law?
Advocating a muslim to change religion is illegal in many countries. Are christian websites gonna be flagged then?
Gay marriage is legally recognized in a few countries but could get you hanged in the middle east. Is a guy celebrating his gay marriage in Canada flaggable too?
Smoking marijuana is legal in the Netherlands but not elsewhere.
Are you going to stoop to the lowest common denomiator?
“Flags are only a warning sign, not censorship.”
I saw that comment on a random site just a little while ago. It reminded me a lot of what people were saying when Hitler wanted to “flag” the jews. Don’t believe the jews didn’t see Hitler coming. Because they did. They just didn’t do shit about it. They let some crackerfool slowly invade them and take away their rights. First thing Hitler did was what? Anybody know? Any of you vuvlaheads know?
The first thing Hitler did was to LABEL the jews. Once they were clearly labeled and distinctively marked, he could then easily round them up and toss them in ovens. WTF?? Now ask yourself, why did the jews let themselves be labeled?
Flags = Labeling.
Why did the jews allow Hitler to pass a law which prevented jewish people from owning firearms? Why did the jews allow Hitler to burn their books?
People really have no clue huh doc? They have no recollection of history. Just a bunch of strungout computer monkeys typing away about their day at the local mall, not realizing that they are either part of the solution, or part of the problem.
BXU! -member for life. (Viva Revolution!)
No… It is not your job to be flagging us. Honestly, if the people that go to your site don’t like what’s on there, they shouldn’t go there. The government and parents I believe are the only ones who should have that power. Honstly, you’ll lose more members, and time than it’s already worth.
Too vague. Therefore pointless. Kiddie porn, OK I see the need for desperate measures, although you should still look for other ways to police Xanga than to ask Xangans to spy on Xangans. It smacks of Hitler’s Germany; it smacks of Stalin’s Russia. The “crimes” are different, I know. The so-called criminals in those other countries were attempting to exercise religious freedom or daring to express opinions that didn’t agree with the State. It’s a different situation here. Child exploiters, or those who incite hatred — they’re violating laws that are on the books for valid reasons and they should not be able to use Xanga to harm others.
But this method is wrong. Hire more people if you must. But do not institute this flagging system, where Xangans report each other. It invites abuse.
I recognize that you need to cover your ass. But do it in the right way, not the wrong way.
And make no mistake. That’s ALL you’re doing, is covering your ass. You’re not protecting anyone, especially not the kids. They’ll find ways to get into the trouble you fear. Just not here on Xanga. Fine. Cover your ass. But don’t try to pretend you’re protecting the victims of predators, or anorexics or bulimiacs, or the victims of hate mongers. This does nothing to protect them. It only protects Xanga. That’s your right and your duty, to protect Xanga.
Just do it the right way. Hire more staff and pay them to police the sites. Don’t use Xanga users to do that. That would be wrong.
This is another ridiculous flag. There’s a big difference between speech and actually committing a crime. As a blogging website and business you should be a champion of free speech, not an enemy of it. I’m sure you know libraries have fought for the right to have books on how to make nuclear bombs. The more I think about it, the more put off I am by this whole flagging scheme. Couldn’t movies, television shows and fiction books that show crimes in a realistic way be considered instructions on how to commit crimes? I think so. Xanga needs to abandon this new focus on being content police and worry more about providing better service for it’s customers. Censorship and chilling free speech is not the way to do that. The American Revolution was in large part started due to protest over excessive taxation. Had there been no “incitement to break the law” then, we’d still be under British rule. UGH.
what do you do about different laws in different countries though? like the legal drinking age in america is usually 21, but over here (UK) it’s 18. otherwise, i think the system sounds great…
Theeny x
****************************************************
!!!! Your site is in VIOLATION and will be flagged !!!!
****************************************************
“If you value your Freedom of Expression, If you value all the hard work you have done on your Xanga Pages, If you hate Online Censorship and the rapidly increasing loss of your blogging freedoms then it’s time for YOU to do something about it. Read Non_Featured_Content. Support the efforts of BXU! Send a comment to John and Flags showing your disgust of the loss of your blogging freedoms and the criminalizing of your Freedom of Expression and that you will tolerate it no longer. Send a comment to xanga and as often as possible. Tell them “That’s enough!”
We are not going to be able to do this by ourselves that’s for sure and there are power in numbers. It either stops now or it never will.
!BXU!
SEND A COMMENT TO John and Flags and tell them your disgust of the FLAGGING and CENSORSHIP and as often as possible!
(((((((((( Spread the Word )))))))))))
~VIVA REVOLUTION!!
BXU
i think this is totally the right way to go. it gives you guys the freedom to do what you need to do in a given situation, especially with “incitement to break the law”. just make sure you don’t get into any lawsuits on interpretation, that would be bad.
you don’t get it do you? … people use xanga to get out their emotions and vent. no one on here especially a lot of my friends are promoting ana/mia or cutter/burner … we give each other support and help each other through shit. i’m not an advocate to any kind of self harm at all. i am a recovered cutter and yes i am an anorexic but that shouldn’t matter whether or not i can use xanga. if you decide to use these flags more than half of the users of xanga will disappear. you have to realize that tatletales are tatletales. they only care about themselves and what they like. i know you’re the creater or this site and that’s great, but please look over what you’re trying to prevent. i agree with most of the stuff that you’re wanting to prevent but seriously … why do you want to do away with ana/mia/cutter people. by no means do they advocate it….i’ll say it again, it’s a support system!! i will admit this, i had one xanga[before my current one] and people that hated me would report my stuff all the time. and there was nothing wrong with it! the people who find stuff offensive, when it’s about oh this is what i did last weekend … they are stupid! if they don’t like it then they shouldn’t read it and they shouldn’t try to get people’s sites shut down. there’s no logic behind it. and if it’s parents of kids who use xanga … i have one comment about that, if they’re so concerned about what their kids are reading and doing they can block out sites like this to prevent them from reading it. uhhh, hello .. parental blocks. duh! i am asking you to rethink this flag idea. i’m sure you have more comments than you thought you would have about how this is not a good idea. if you use these flags … then you will loose business by more than half of your users. including me. i will find a different blog site.
drugs are such an all-around joke with highschoolers.
“your on crack”
“damn stoner”
and i think almost everyone i’ve ever met has done pot. and probably half of them have grown it.
big deal.
again, putting oblivion to a problem doesn’t fix it.
Again…This is something you need to take up the the police…and like I said before you can’t do anything about it besides kick them off the site and/or report them to the police/FBI…
FREE XANGA!
There are plenty of “safe” conservative anti-adult blogging communities already. Why turn our Xanga into another dilluted sorry excuse for a blogging community?
Help us keep Xanga FREE! from restrictions.
Help us keep Xanga FREE! from regulations.
Help us keep Xanga FREE! from flagging!
Support the efforts of NFC.
Join the BXU! and help us FREE XANGA!
This is absolutely disgusting.
Stop depriving us of our basic american rights or change the sites domain name from Xanga to Patriot Act Enforcers.
We will not tolerate such an authoritative and oppressive blogging community.
LOOK at me, imbreaking the law! WHat are you going to do about it? call the police and tell them someone on xanga is going to rob the bank? yah like they’ll belive yah…
“incitement to break the law” is a violation of my first amendment, xanga, thanks.
this one would be hard to determine what is breaking the law and what is not. you would have to be very specific on which types of items to flag with this category because not everyone will know what is legal and what isnt
1st amendment? if it’s teaching you how to break laws, then fudge the 1st amendment! let’s break that “law” as well then.
1st amendment is a “right”. be happy that you have that, don’t abuse it.
Who decides what “Incitement to break the law” is? I don’t agree with Karl Marx, but many people read his ideas and think he’s instructing the people to overthrow the upper class. We can stop ourselves from directly provoking someone to break the law, but an example like:
“So what if you were crazy when you killed her? We’ll fry you in a clown suit.” -Dennis Miller
The quote is legit social commentary stating that the Insanity defense should not save people from the full penalty of the law. If a vigilante goes around killing the criminally insane, would we arrest Dennis Miller?
For the people who commented just so they could look special or feel special… I don’t think they meant tping when they came up with this idea. In fact I’m sure they never even mentioned tping.
I’m sure it was along the lines e.g. how to make a bomb, how to grow/make illegal drugs, etc.. That is not harmless. I don’t think that we Oklahomans are gonna be thanking Timothy Macvay for his harmless terroist attack any time soon.
What about inciting a riot against flagging?
yes =]
Nahh man……people are people and people do what people do….
Def. No. I blog as a sign of my free speech, which is one of my only sources of almost full, unrestrained free speech in America. If I want to talk about how people make some drug, I have that right. I do, however, feel that you cannot put put up pictures of you breaking the law. In some places, if you have pictures on the internet of underage drinking, you can actually get busted. But I beg you, no. My free speech is one of the greatest gifts given to me from xanga.
Yeah this is much needed
“IF IT WERE XANGA”
A work of historical fiction
Setting: a prison cell.
characters:
Ralph Waldo Emerson
Henry David Thoreau
Thoreau has landed his sorry self in jail for refusing to pay his taxes to support the war in Mexico. Emerson has come to visit him.
Emerson: My dear Henry, what are you doing in that cell?
Thoreau: The question is, my friend, what are you doing out of it?
Emerson: Look, that statement constitutes you inciting me to not pay my taxes. That’s against the law. I’m gonna have to flag your site.
Thoreau: Wait. What?
Emerson: Civil disobedience this, sucker! (Emerson clicks on something and puts a flag on the website of a great thinker. Thoreau has been totally pwned.)
the end.
AMEN fatdannyp
hmmm…I’m pretty much for this one. If I was ever to type something like “I’M GONNA KILL MY HUSBAND!!”…..for sure, I would be adding…’JUST KIDDING…I’M VENTING…ETC..’ Things like How to make a bomb and whatever need to be flagged, shut down, etc…..but just be discerning on who is just ‘yelling in the pillow’ and purely venting.
A FORMAL PETITION
The parable of the village
(Dedicated to NFC.)
There was once a community I knew and loved. I lived there for three years. It was a very friendly, nice, open town– one of the ones you see in old movies, where everyone knows each other, and even if they didn’t they’d take time out of their day to say hi. Even though it was big, it was still familiar. You could stay there a night or ten thousand nights, and still feel the same: as if you belonged. You could always find your place where you’d be appreciated.
It sat in a county with other communities similar to it. You know, kind of like the suburbs: drive for twenty minutes and you’ll find an eeirily similar replica. But the wonderful thing about this one was its openness. Really, it was unparalleled. I think that’s why it went wrong.
Of course we had our problems. People living there weren’t perfect; no one is. I remember some horrible things happening; the kind of things local news programs just eat up. Mostly theft. A kidnapping and a few rapes, I think. And of course there was death. Where there is life, there is, ultimately, death. But whenever there was a death, the community would rise up in a wave of support. Though most had never met the dead, they would still give their comments of support for the family, or wishes for a content afterlife. Even though someone had left us, it was still almost an uplifting experience to see everyone living and going on in spite of what happened.
It was diverse without meaning to be, too. That’s also why I liked it so much. The place I live now is basically all one skin tone, mostly conservative Christian, and even the liberals are more moderate than anything else. Radical thinkers need not apply. But where I used to thrive was teeming with new people, new ideas– as close as you can come– and even the silly kids (emos, goths, annas, the like) were endearing if only because they added to the mix. I could be in a bible discussion full of middle-aged moms one week, and an argument about whether Elliott Smith or Conor Oberst would win in a fight with some indie kids the next.
But most everyone ignored the glaring differences and focused on the similarities. They all wanted the same thing, that’s why. They all wanted a community where they would be accepted and appreciated and loved. Together, we were all able to deliver that. Only together did it work. If you didn’t want to be friendly, you wouldn’t make problems; you would simply stay in your little corner. There was a certain amount of conformity involved in the community: be nice or we won’t really tolerate it. It was a conformity in exchange for a relatively safe, hapy community. I didn’t mind. I liked it. I felt safe and loved and intellectually stimulated.
Then. Oh, then. The reason I moved away.
The neighborhood town village whatever thing next to us had this huge investigation. Apparently there’d been more than the usual amount of underage illegal activities. The place I live now is going through this as well. Lots of underage drinking, drug use, and of course everyone’s confused about the cutting and anorexia obsessions. Plus, all this stuff was leading to more rapes and kidnappings. A lot of out-of-towners were coming in and, instead of joining the open community, were staying on the fringes and causing trouble.
Parents were getting worried, paranoid, and distrustful of newness. Kids, if they weren’t getting paranoid too, were getting taken advantage of.
I remember the day I realized I had to leave. I went to a neighbor’s house. It was a neighbor I wasn’t all that close with but we still recognized each other and talked occasionally. When I knocked and no one answered, I went to open the door. This isn’t unusual; usually if you did this, nine times out of ten you’d get an open door. People were used to their friends and neighbors dropping by unannounced and making themselves at home. That’s why we were all so close.
But the door was locked.
This sounds absurd, in retrospect. But it was like a physical blow at the time. It was the first realization I had that now, we were not a community. We were individuals who happened to live close together. We were protecting ourselves from each other. It was ridiculous, I thought; why would I need to be protected from the people around me? We all want the same thing. Why would someone want to ruin that? And why, if there were people like that, would we allow them to continue to exist?
But then I wondered how, if not through protection, we would be able to get rid of those strangers who didn’t share our vision for the community. I didn’t know. I couldn’t think of anything. I wanted to protect everyone, but I didn’t want to lose our openness. I wanted to have it so that everyone was safe, but so no one had to think about it. Basically, I wanted the impossible.
But my community? My lovely, open community? No. It couldn’t be happening.
Things went downhill from there.
Like me, most people didn’t know where to start. They didn’t really want to protect themselves, and so eventually they were taken advantage of, or made to protect themselves. In an attempt to curb this violence and paranoia, the police, or the mayor I don’t know I wasn’t really paying attention to politics then, tried to put some curfews and new regulations in place. This didn’t work at all. They were too rushed, too vague, too restrictive for a community that was used to seeing their police officers in the bar with them on Friday nights, laughing about the weekly gossip and antics of the teenagers in the Commons. Now, they had to enforce rules they didn’t want to; they witnessed things they never thought they’d see. They had left to get away from this. In the deep of their minds, it felt like the badness had followed them.
Everyone had that feeling.
I live now in a place where no one would ever think to leave their doors open, or even their windows. They know what to do with people who mean harm: lock them up, drive them out– or, even better, never give them the chance to enter in the first place. Everyone has security devices and all this fancy stuff that I mostly don’t understand. I don’t understand because I never had to deal with it before. I was never threatened before.
The fun, the innocence, the basic goodness that made the community so special was being destroyed by the unstoppable waves of change, the bleak change that local news channels love to just eat up.
My life was in that community for three years. I left before I could see it die completely. I felt it for a place that was already dead.
-Ren
*****************************
To: The Xanga Team
On April 21st, Xanga announced that it would seek to establish a system of flagging in response to recent litegation involving other online communities. Effective immediately all user interaction in exercising free thought and expression will be stopped and/or regulated.
This is a formal petition to please ask Xanga to reconsider their decision and continue in preserving this last bastion of FreeSpeechOnline -as the Only remaining free_thought internet community that we so dearly cherish. For a more detailed description of the situation please see this effort and support: http://www.xanga.com/Non_Featured_Content -the no_censorship community
Sincerely,
TheUndersigned
Our journals shouldn’t be under scrutiny. We should be able to express ourselves in any way. Sure instructions are different, and murder is probably different too. But what about all the great novelist that in there autobiographies mentioned the illegal things they’ve done.
I write in my xanga so one day I could compile all of my adventures and exploration into a book, and I’ve loved xanga passionatly for allowing me to do this. Now I worry. I worry they are being like big-brother and may suddenely shut down my site, erase everything I’ve written. And behind my memories, what I write is the most important thing to me.
Welcome to the Police State, or Police Blog if you are so inclined.
lets see… how to make a bomb… go check ur local library… or visit ur local community college and take a course in chemistry… gather the material and have at it
here ill help… heres the chemical formula for Nitroglycerin: C3H5N3O9
Have fun w/ that ^_^
ok the flagging system may be a violation of freedom of speach but the owners of xanga have the right to refuse service but they must check the flagged sites themselves not just kick a user because then some jerk could flag the persons site and it gets deleted for no reason the anorexia thing is wrong and people talking about self mutilation those shouldnt be on the list we all have our own life styles now suicidal instructions or an advertisement for a porno company would be terribly wrong
)|/(!†<|-
Those this mean I’m flagged and I can’t even write on my page.I know is for our own safety but I’m thinking how long will it take..
Would this include underaged kids posting overtly sexual content (but no underage nudity)?
Because I’ve seen far too many sites where a 13 or 14-year-old girl will keep a “sex journal”, and get hundreds of comments by 30-something guys. Invitations to cyber, asking for her email, where she lives, etc.
I’m so adamently against pedophilia and child solicitation. I’d love to know if there was a way I could help take these fuckers down.
hmm…. with so many laws out there, how hard is it not to break the law?
Another user has taken my copyrighted images and is redistributing them without my consent. What can I do about this?
I’ve stated this so there should be no confusion. They’ve bluntly just stolen the image.
huh?? i dont git it*
Would posting answers to a test be considered breaking the law? It IS a school law…
One dumb question hope u can get back to me on it too okay so if sumone keeps harassing me could i flag then for that…cuz that is agianst the law..if i can flag them wut catergory would i b?? hmm…
idk cmb and tell me pleaz
x3 Whoever i am
yes
http://www.xanga.com/MissxxBlondiex10 is pretending to be ashley tisdale and she called me the b word and a a**
XxmusICxXx that chick stole basicly everything on my site. can you shut her down?
their not exactly doing that but they are going on random girls site leaveing unapproitate comments about sex etc. i didn’t know what to flag it as so i choose this
what if that’s just a story or a mischeif or a hoax, or even a regular routine for the anuual “King’s College Apirl Fool Competition”? Gotta think twice before employing this, man.
do you guys really read these comments?, if you do give me a sign..
is spying breaking the law?
im concerned about “viewing xangas”, xanga accounts that are created just for wiewing other xangas. the creators dont have any profile info and rarely if ever update their blogs. do or will you offer any protection against these?
If someone always give flag to the others only for fun,what punishment he/she can get?
I would lIke to report a site, for plagiarizing.
I wrote this ocmment to them:
Hate to break the news to you.. but plagiarizing is ILLEAGAL!
Do you need a definition?
Plagiarizing- the activity, denoted by the verb, plagiarise, is claiming another’s writing as ones own. Plagiarism as a thing, is the text so plagiarised.
There for, stealing our add, changing a few words, and calling it your own is plagiarizing!
-Future Of Hogwarts
Hope you can help!
April