snowdarkred

i know i don't post here very often anymore; i'm trying to work on that by writing longer fic. which i'm working on. /mysterious

anyway, this is just a quick note about the whole mess with delicious and everyone freaking out, etc.

i moved all my bookmarks to pinboard, and i've got everything up and running over there. feel free to network with me if you already have an account.

Link of note:

• my pinboard account
• the great migration spreadsheet, which lets you track down people who have different user names on different sites (i don't have that problem, obviously)
• the suggestion doc (basically, people are talking directly to the guy who runs pinboard and offering suggestions)
• the /report podcast about it
• an angry tech artcile about it

Guys.

Glee was almost flawless tonight.

Somebody hold me.

JFKDL;AFJKLDAS;FJIAEFJKAJFKLAFJDA;LFJAKL;FJAK;LFA A

Insert sadface here.

THIS HAS BEEN A RANDOM POST. BROUGHT YOU BY: BOREDOM - THE LOSER'S WEDNESDAY.



1,333 posts
21 followers

/pathetic loser

Watching the news about Delicious leak and the subsequent backlash – and the backlash to the backlash, and the backlash to that – the only conclusion I can come to is that Yahoo is run by idiots.

 

The number of bookmarks being saved per hour? Down. The number of new users? Down. The number of people switching to other, admittedly poorer services? Way up. All because Yahoo can't do PR for shit. True, Delicious isn't exactly a straight up profit house, but it does, or did, have consumer loyalty. Think of how many fandom people have been using it for years? How many times it's handed to fandom-newbies as the holy grail of fic indexing? How many people thank what ever deity they believe in that it exists because it makes life easier?

 

Yahoo leaked the “sunset” news – or, someone else leaked it, and then some higher up on twitter threatened to fire them in a tweet, which also isn't the best way to handle things, 'cause dude, it's not going to endear you to the public – and then refused to comment about except for some serious bullshit statement that said absolutely nothing, while simultaneously suggesting the worst. And then they were surprised at the backlash from millions of users who use Delicious for everything from work to fandom. They released a statement that blamed the media for distributing false information, when it was their own ineptitude that was leading people to draw their own conclusions. And then they just sort of handwaved it by implying that, well, no one was using Delicious anyway, so what did it matter?

 

Do you know how long it took Wikipedia to update the Delicious article to say that Delicious was shutting down? Like, two hours.

 

I love my Delicious account. It's my baby. I spent two weeks going through and standardizing my tagging system, and making sure that everything has a clear label. When my computer crashed a few months back, I lost everything that had been saved – my pictures, about half of my fics, and a whole lot of other stuff that was important to me. But what wasn't lost?

 

My fic bookmarks. My articles. My fashion links. My research – the same research that I used to figure out what the hell is up with my sexuality, or lack thereof. All of these things may not be things, they may not be physical, they may just be data, but they're important. I've been in fandom for years. I love it. It's what I grew up with, it's what help me discover who I am, it's what got me to start writing and never stop. And Delicious is important to fandom. It's another way for us to share in the epic love fest that is free-form fandom – the rush of excitement, the surge of pleasure in discovering new things, the ease of access to things that we're interested in.

 

And Yahoo threatened that. Whether the site shuts down Delicious, sells it, or whatever, I know I won't be able to trust them again. I can't. They obviously can't even manage themselves – how can I expect them to manage a simple website?


PS. I would love it if LiveJournal bought Delicious. I think it would be a good fit, though I'm not sure how that would work.
PPS. My trip to see my family didn't work out -- I couldn't go because of weather stuff. :( I've been using the past few days to panic over Delicious and read lots of Glee fic. I just need a chance to turn my brain off, you know? I feel like I'm always on on on, and I just need to power down and relax. Which I can't really do, because my boss is an idiot who doesn't know how to write a simple schedule, and that when I say, I can't work on Christmas Eve, it means I can't work on Christmas Eve. He also has the hots for my step-sister, but I don't want to think about that because it's icky and he's a creeper.

1. It has begun! The Weekend of Solitude, AKA I Need to Get Shit Done. I have a ton of stuff I want to work on, from my Inception bigbang - which I am no longer certain is going to be what I thought it was? At this point, I am on the verge of just giving up, Jesus Christ - to the Sherlock!AU, to the next part in the girl!Jensen 'verse to all the other fics that need my attention. I'm kind of failing on the not-being-ADD thing right now. D:

2. Okay, I'm an asshole. I know this. Other people know this. My knee-jerk reaction to things is 'bitchy'. So, there was this prompt, on the inception kink meme, which I shouldn't have been looking at because I have more than enough to do already. But, you see, this prompt was really good, and it was already filled. But it was filled terribly. Like, horrible, overblown angst. And I hate that, you know? When it's obvious the writer has no idea what it really feels like to experience what they're writing about, when they've basically weaving their plot around a bunch of symptoms on a list. When the writing is terrible on top of that.

Like I said, I'm kind of an asshole.

So, instead of just clicking away and returning to my proper work, I did my own fill. I rather like it, actually, even if it's a bit shorter than I want and I had a typo in the last line that I can't fix because I posted anon. But I do plan on claiming it within a week or two, when I've had a chance to clean it up and expand some parts.

Anyway, I'm an asshole because all I wanted to do was message the original filler and say something along the lines of 'Nananana, I did it better than you!' I haven't, obviously, but it was a close thing. It would be really terrible of me if I did it.

I still wanted to. I am, as you know, an asshole.

3. Yes, thank you, Amazon. I was hoping for something more detailed in response to my inquiry as to the location of my goods. "US" doesn't really tell me much, considering the size of the country.

4. I saw Brick for the first time since I saw Inception. I introduced it to my parents, actually. It got a few laughs and winces from them, as well as some plot guesses along the way. They liked it, though they were right in saying that it felt like a really well-done student film (which it basically is). But it is now my head-canon for Arthur's background, because it fits, and I may have outlined a how-Brendan-becomes-Arthur story during work yesterday. The outline is a page long. I have no idea what I'm going to do with it.

I need to stop doing this shit to myself.

5. I have no money. Just, none. Going out every Wednesday with that boy who may, eventually, become my boyfriend is killing my bank account. And now that I've realized the reason I've always felt guilty about my relationships in the past (AKA, I don't feel sexually attracted to anyone, including the people I date) I'm not sure how this is going to go. I mean, how do other manage it. We have yet to even have a conversation about gay rights - which we need to have, seeing as I refuse to date douchebags, and I need to find out if he is one - how the fuck do I explain this to him? I don't want to lead this guy on or anything.

Also, I just realize this the other day: His name is Tyler. One of my exes is Taylor. Ack.

Does anyone have any advice? I mean, the guy is familiar with fandom, as he's a gamer and comic book nerd, but he's shied away from a question about gay rights/civil rights the other day, and it has me concerned. There's also the fact that he showed me where he lived (which is in not-so-good condition) and if I decide that I don't want a relationship with him, he may decide it's because I'm a classist bitch - which I'm not, seeing as I have lived in similar places. Just not anymore. :/

Also, I'm not sure if I trust him enough to hand over my LJ username and all that goes with it. :/

I also may be trying to talk myself out of starting anything at all, but I'm not sure what to do with that.

1. I have no plans this weekend, other than a brief shift at work on Sunday. I rather like that. I traded Saturday next week for Halloween, so should I find a party to go to on the day itself, I can. The only thing I really want to do is sleep and write at least 3-5K on whichever Inception bigbang fic actually starts talking to me.

2. OMG, MY INCEPTION BB IS KILLING ME. I can't decide on what to write, and anything I try comes out wrong! I've written the starts of six different fics, I shit you not, and I am hating it. I don't know where any of it is going, or what I can do to fix it, and it's driving me insane. Just when I think I've worked out what I'm going to do, it DIES. ;_; I FAIL AT LIFE AND ALSO INCEPTION. Watch me as I weep.

3. I am so stupidly obsessed with this video of Joseph Gordon-Levitt singing Bad Romance, I can't even BEGIN to tell you. It's even better when you realize that he changed the French lyrics to something rather naughty: (roughly) I want to fuck you and then I want to fucking leave you/fuck off. And he points out the Hitchcock references! :D IT IS AWESOME AND HE IS AWESOME AND YOU SHOULD BE AWESOME AND WATCH IT.

4. I have pre-ordered the Inception DVD and the Sherlock (BBC) series, because I am a fucking fangirl who fangasms. My bank account, it cries.

5. Okay, so there's this girl, woman, whatever, at work right? And everyone has that one coworker that they just can't stand, right? SHE DRIVES ME INSANE. I used to eat at the restaurant I work at all the time, and I HATED having her, because she is the worst. Waitress. On. The fucking. Planet. She touches everything, is obnoxious, and then is somehow surprised when she gets bad tips. I have a (girl)friend who, every time we go anywhere together, people assuming I'm dating, IDK why. (Why yes, ravenclaw_wench , I'm talking about you, Jesus Christ.) Anyway, we went out to eat together, and she treated us worse than usual, and she gave us dirty looks and really, I'm a good tipper. Anyone who regularly waits on me knows this. My flat tip is three dollars no matter how little I order, and I then add a dollar for every ten that I spend. And for once in my fucking life, I tipped someone less than that. I gave her a really, really shitty tip. Because her stupidity? Was really fucking obvious. And it pissed me off.

Anyway, so I now work with her, and she seems to have forgotten about it, but I saw her when the cute lesbian couple with the baby comes in (and they have not, sadly, returned) and I deal with her everyday and -- just no. She calls me babe and baby and sugar and sweetheart, and while I don't mind usually - I rather like it, actually - that's when I actually like the person talking to me. I don't like her one bit, and it comes across as condescending rather than affectionate, which we both know it isn't. It drives me insane. And between her being awful at her job, her being a bitchy waitress, and her constantly commenting on how much I do or don't eat - like it's any of her fucking business that I'm a stick, okay, and I am so fucking tired of people I don't know or like accusing me of having eating disorders I don't have, SAJFIEOA;NFEA;H.

*breathes*

Oh my gods, I did not mean to let that rant get away from me.

(The thing is, I'm actually kind of sensitive about the eating thing because, all through childhood to the present, everyone has something to say about how skinny I am. I've had complete strangers give me the 'It's okay to eat a burger/don't you eat more than salad/don't they feed you, lol/have you considered help speech(es) and it's just. It's one of my hot button issues, okay? I am not even that thin - I weigh a hundred pounds, alright, and I have hips and a sizable bust and all. I eat at least two meals a day and I get my nutritional requirements, and so what if I absolutely hate fast food? It literally makes me sick. And anyway, I used to eat four full meals a day and snacks and so on and WAS STILL HUNGRY, and while my Ten Weeks of Crazy episode kind of trashed my metabolism, I still have days like that.)

*breathes*

Okay, I'm shutting up now. Jesus Christ. Um.

ETA: It's not that I'm not sympathetic to people who DO have eating disorders, it's just - I didn't appreciate being told that there was something wrong with me growing up, because, quite frankly, I got enough of that shit at home, thanks very much. Not the eating disorder bit, but the There's Something Wrong With You bit.

I love Eliot, I really do. I love Eliot, I love Christian Kane, I love his hair. I love everyone on this damn television show, even Nate, and that was a huge surprise to me. I wasn't expecting that, you know? (Though I didn't really love the show until the second season; the first was almost meh to me. But, anyway, not on topic.)

I love Eliot, but if I click on a fic link and discover that what had looked to be something interesting is actually just another 'They don't appreciate Eliot and he gets beat up and look, now I'm going to make him angst about it for a thousand words!' I might just cut a bitch. Just - stop. Please, dear gods and goddesses, STOP.  It had old after the first twenty times it was written. I mean, I usually love that kind of story, but. But it's the same thing repeated over and over. Again! And again! And again! While completely disregarding Eliot's personality!

And the format almost never varies. Like, almost every time:

- Someone makes disparaging comments about what Eliot does, while the writer unsubtly points out that Eliot saves their asses on almost every job. Eliot himself will just sit there stoically and cry inside. Or something.

- They go on a job, and bad guys show up, and they hurt Eliot. Sometimes they just beat him up; sometimes they kidnap him and beat him up. He acts like a brave little soldier through it all. Sometimes the writer even lets him hurt the bad guys back before they take him down.

- If he's kidnapped, the team takes forever to track him down and get him out. He's usually beat up while they do that. If he's not kidnapped, the team usually makes light of his injuries and Eliot stoically doesn't mention them because his inner child is in curled up in the fetal position or whatever.

- Either he collapses or he loses it and starts yelling at the team. If the writer's really getting into it, he may do both. Perhaps even at the same time.

- The team then feels really bad and ashamed of themselves and sorry. They make long speeches about how they were wrong and how they undervalued Eliot, can he ever forgive them? And Eliot will graciously do so from his hospital bed.

There. I just spoiled you for half of the fics in the fandom.

Seriously.

Dear fandom, I love you, but you piss me off. Please stop. Eliot is a badass. Respect the badass. Give the badass at least some of the personality he has on the show. And don't take away his badassness. Please and thank you.

As I said in this post, CBS, as well as canceling two hit dramas head by women - Ghost Whisperer and Cold Case - and raising Charlie Sheen's (yes, domestic violence Charlie Sheen) paycheck, is casting aside long-time cast member AJ Cook and significantly reducing the episode number of co-star Paget Brewster. That is, the only full time female cast member who will be left will be Kirsten Vangsness. The network announced that a new female character will be introduced - because it's obvious that female characters are easily interchangeable - and AJ Cook will be given one episode in which to rap up her five-year stint on the show.

One episode. After five seasons, she will have ONE EPISODE to give us a 'believable' reason for JJ to run off into the sunset? And you just know that she's going to get shot or something. Because CBS is full of dicks like that.

CBS is the same network that runs NCIS, a show that has its own host of feminism problems - any issues that you (and most definitely I) have with Ziva David aside. The NCIS track record: Kate was shot by Ari, Jenny was murdered, Michelle turned out to be a traitor, the Jeanne fiasco, and the entire Ziva plot line.... Ahem. Yeah, good job there.

And then there's the mess that it CSI, but that's so expansive and convoluted that I don't think I can do it justice without either boring myself to death or getting very, very angry. And you won't like me when I'm angry.

What is with television these days? What happened? It seemed like we were heading in the right direction, but then all this happens?

You know what, FUCK YOU, CBS. Assholes. Give us back our strong, awesome, competent, non-crazy, kick-ass, mature, intelligent, amazing role-models!

A pic I put together to support AJ Cook and Paget Brewster:

Sign the petition here. (It has 37,297 signatures as I am posting this right now. 37,297!!)
Leave hatemail comments to CBS here.
See the media backlash here.
See the fan backlash here.

ETA: FIVE MINUTES LATER!!! - 37,315!
ETA: 10:19PM - 37,641 signatures!!!
ETA:  41,051!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!