Insanejournaler Stewardess reports that a number of interests have been removed from LJ’s “Most Popular Interests” list, which is supposed to be an accurate depiction of the ~100ish most popular things people put on their interest lists.
Given LiveJournal’s rough history with fandom lately, it’s not hard to believe. Not too long ago they removed tons of accounts that could have theoretically had child porn in them, including legitimate ones like a rape survivor’s comm, a comm for people reading Nabokov’s Lolita, and some yaoi and Harry Potter communities. Eventually they apologized and reinstated many of the accounts. Not long thereafter, they banned a user for some naughty Potter fanart, as if she was the only one creating any.
Among the removals: Sex, porn, and…fanfiction? Others that have vanished include smut, erotica, and yaoi. (Anime and manga both stayed, btw.) They also removed “girls” and “boys,” which I thought might have just been because they’re kind of silly things to put on a list of top interests, but then I saw that “women” and “men” are still there. Pedo panic maybe?
Now, you can still list the interests and have them be viewed on your profile, and you can still search for people with those interests, so it looks like it’s probably just a PR move to clean things up. But, uh-oh, LJ! “Incubus” is still on the list, and I bet a few people have added that who aren’t talking about the band, ya know? And if you leave “blood” on the list, won’t that just attract serial killers? Tsk tsk.
But it’s still kinda lame. I mean, yaoi I can maybe understand, but fanfiction? Gimme a break.
(Via, let’s see: Stewardess via Fandom Lounge via World Serpent.)
