WHY DON'T YOU DO ANYTHING ABOUT THE TROLLS AND RACISTS?

Entry Added: Sep-4-2017 By: LL_Hayden

It's a question I get asked quite a lot. When I ask what they'd have me do the inevitable reply is "BAN THEM ALL PERMANENTLY" and when I try to address why I believe that is not only fruitless but also wrong they invariably get annoyed. Of course, the folks who can't use racial slurs on the site invariably get annoyed too but we've spoken enough about those guys.

I believe no opinion should be censored. No opinion should see you refused the ability to post or comment on LiveLeak. And so far that's been the case. That being said I also believe in our right to put rules in place which both protect the site and protect our ability to ensure no opinion is censored. That's not so easy.

We don't ask for your personal information. We don't ask that you avoid any particular topic. We don't care who you hate, love, or cannot tolerate. Yes, as individuals we might disagree with you entirely. We might believe that you are ignorant or foolish but we made our promise and have to defend that choice daily, sometimes in the glare of the media spotlight.

We know that allowing people to voice certain things on here make life harder and less commercially viable, we know our sign up system is open to abuse by those childish buffoons making multiple accounts in revenge at being too idiotic to follow our rules or respect anything bar their narrow minded opinion. We know what could make LL far more commercially viable. But we have this thing, you know? We actually believe that simply silencing people solves nothing whatsoever, we believe silencing opinion is a never ending process which would be hijacked by the far left and turned into some demented, Online, pogrom against any opinion that doesn't toe the PC line. We believe in what we're doing and the price of that is that it gives ignorant people the same right to be heard as everyone else.

You will see things on LL you don't like, things that offend you. There will be comments which are ignorant, offensive, crass, and abusive. Until the stranglehold of the Internet is complete we intend to carry on as we are too because it's these things which ensure YOUR opinion can be heard. That's how it works, there's a price for everything after all.

For those of you screaming bullshit at your monitor and planning yet another account. You weren't censored for your opinion, you were censored or had your account limited for breaking the rules. That's on you. We never promised to be all things to all people and I have no more right to demand you are silenced everywhere than you have a right to demand you're allowed to do anything you like here.

If you dig the site at all, help us, work with us, criticise and be constructive. When you're abusive or outright stupid you'll just find yourself getting more annoyed and pretending to "LOL" whilst making yet another account. Oh yeah, and don't bother sending me a message about your ad-blocker or how many accounts you make, it doesn't annoy or interest me.

H

Anonymity and cowardice.

Entry Added: Aug-11-2017 By: LL_Hayden

On the show I spoke about this issue and, as usual, a member has cherry picked aspects from it in order to do a spot of finger pointing of their own. I find it an interesting topic so I decided why not have a blog on it?

I cherish your anonymity on LiveLeak. I fully appreciate that people don't want to risk any form of fallout for airing their views. And that's exactly how it should be. There's a good reason we don't harvest personal information from members, we believe you have a right to as much privacy as we can provide (IP information e.t.c. is pretty much out of our hands as you know). It's a cornerstone of LiveLeak. Without it I believe we'd be far the lesser site than we've managed.

So I do not believe you are a coward for wanting anonymity. Not everyone should want to be a martyr, that's just stupid. Live your life, have your views. Contrary to what some folks who break the rules then cry about us claim I cherish all of your views, even the ones I think are pig ignorant or moronic. Some of you might even have heard me defending your right to be as such in the media. I think it's important.

So why did I mention anonymity and cowardice in the same sentence? Simple, when people who enjoy anonymity start calling those who put themselves out there cowards simply because they don't act or believe as you wish I have to wonder why, if you feel that strongly you'd insult others for not being passionate enough in your beliefs, you don't stand up yourself.

The argument I hear from people like this is always the same. "I could lose my job", "I could lose my family", "I could be in legal trouble", "someone might try to hurt me". All possibly true. But when you truly believe in something you can't have your cake and eat it. You can't stand up for something that goes against the grain and not expect to have your life turned upside down. It doesn't work that way. But if you're so passionate you demand others to behave as you wish shouldn't you stand up and be counted? Those are the people I accuse of cowardice.

Enjoy your anonymity, enjoy your life, have whatever opinions or beliefs you like. I'll do whatever is within my limited ability to help and if what you want is outside of what we allow I'll cheerlead you all the way should decide to do your own site. Just because we don't allow or like something doesn't mean we think you shouldn't be allowed to do it anywhere else. But don't demand others risk what you aren't willing to. Don't demand people behave how you wish you could if only you weren't concerned you'd have to suffer discomfort for voicing your beliefs. Those are the actions of a coward.

I don't think I'm better than you because I went my own way. Not in the least. I made my choices, they were mine, and I'm in no position whatsoever to tell you what choices to make. But, I don't tend to tell you that you're not extreme enough in your views, nor do I tell you not to have your views.

Oh there's one other aspect to this. We all know the noose is slowly tightening on the net, we all know the future is uncertain and, at best, it will be a bumpy ride. If you use your anonymity to break laws, if you use it to do nothing but abuse people beyond simple trolling, you are helping those who will destroy the net we love. I know that won't stop some of you, but I'll keep defending your ability - no matter how I disagree with you - until it's gone so far that nobody can anymore.

Those are my views on anonymity online. And long may you continue to enjoy it.

It's about damn time we had another blog!

Entry Added: Jul-6-2017 By: LL_Hayden

Hi All,

I'm sorry the lack of updates recently. There hasn't been too much I can really blog about and posting about my dinner or what my pets have been up to doesn't seem like the right thing to do.

As many of you are aware we've been beavering away for what seems like an eternity on the v3.0 upgrade for LiveLeak and while I'm not going to divulge any of the tech improvements or developments at this point there are a couple of things I'd like to put out there.

The first of these is to do with moderation. I fully understand that no matter what some people will always find something to be annoyed about when having rules applied to them but that doesn't mean we can massively improve our systems. We're working on making moderation a little more transparent and provide more information as to why you've been moderated allowing you to make a more informed decision as to whether you accept there has been a breach of our rules on your part or if we've made a mistake. It'll certainly leave less room for interpretation.

We'll also be working on our rules to try and improve clarity and see if there's anything missing. At this point we're not looking at adding any new rules as such, we just want to make sure they are clear and concise.

Another thing I do really want to mention here and that is we wish to ensure you know exactly where you stand with LiveLeak, what our values are, and what our responsibilities are to you. Think of it as a constitution of sorts though we aren't turning LiveLeak into a democracy. I just believe it's important that we spell out exactly where we stand so that everyone can know and call us to task should it become required. I realise this might sound like some nonsense PR exercise but after over ten years of steadfastly remaining independent and not putting out hollow mission statements it couldn't hurt to put it all down for all to see.

Last one, and this is a little bit techy, and it has to do with streaming. v3.0 will bring with it a hugely improved streaming platform. We think this is a key area for LL going forwards and we want to make sure it is available to all. We're working on improving every aspect of streaming through the site from ingestion through to promotion and awareness. Personally I can't wait to see what comes through once we have a more mature streaming solution in place.

Okay, that's really all there is for now. I will update you when I can on the dev aspects. Feel free to comment below and if you really want to be wild and crazy you could even comment on topic!

Cheers

H