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[May. 8th, 2008|10:33 pm] |
I kind of dread posting information from Elanor after that one time I bent too far in that direction and didn't say immediately that she was the source. But... here we are again.
I've been thinking a lot about the idea of being "neutral" lately; I think we're beyond the point where it's something I can aspire to, if there ever was a point where it was possible. I'm a writer, and I think of myself as being a writer before being a fan; I'm going to side with a writer. I'm hoping that it's possible for there to be a distinction between "neutral" and "fair," at least for a certain value of "fair"--"neutral" means you don't take sides. That's not possible for me. "Fair," I'm hoping, can mean that even if you do take sides, you try to give the other side equal time and consideration. A lot of times, in compiling these entries, it hasn't been a matter of what I've included--it's been a matter of what I've left out. (See below.) There are some very pro-SVA LJers that I could have linked to in the interest of equal time, but I was concerned that it would be taken solely as "Here, let me link SVA supporters for you to mock," causing more grief to those LJers than "equal time" would be worth to them. So if people have asked me to link to things, or they've posted in a common area like Leaky Lounge, I've included it; otherwise, I haven't gone looking. That's also why I've said several times that if anyone wants equal time/exposure to tell me, as an opt-in, basically. And that still stands: tell me, and I can link you in the next update or ETA.
There's also the issue of us cutting off potentially sensitive (yet related) personal-life discussion when pretty much no other wankee gets that kind of consideration. My thought going into this has just been that there are innocent people involved as well, but on top of that, there's also the problem of this being an ongoing, high-profile thing. It's extremely likely that WB's lawyers got leads for some of their evidence from FW. We know for a fact they got some from Leaky Lounge, because LL posts ended up as evidence. I'm not saying that, as wanks go, the Lexicon thing is more important than Random Dragon Guy Who Wants to Be Eaten; I'm just saying, for whatever reason, people in the case are aware of FW, and it's not like so-and-so finding out they've been wanked and being outraged or thinking it's funny. It's people actually using the information FWers have gathered, sometimes in court, and some of them pointing other people to the comm and saying, "Unlike the mainstream media, these people actually seem to have a handle on what's going on." I mean, FW is not srs bsns, was never supposed to be, nor do I want it to be. At the same time, it's kind of like--these are bigger stakes now, you know? It's not just a small ("small") community of 4000 people having fun; it's a number of communities and blogs and lawyers bringing us up in discussion. I haven't tried to make anyone be v. v. srs in the comments; I've just felt like the main entries themselves, the part visitors are most likely to read, need to be relatively... "fair." And the whole court case is such a clusterfuck that it just seems like keeping the personal out of the discussion as long as possible--until "the personal" shows up in a mainstream news article or has legal ramifications--is the decision we're least likely to regret later. But, you know, since we don't really have another place to discuss it, if you want to weigh in on that decision (not the particulars) here, go for it. |
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