Hi all! It's been a while since I've posted and I've got some good news for you! I have compiled a Terms of Service and it will be edited before the site goes live for some language (ie in some places it says "accounts will be" and that sort of thing) but these are the ToS.

I also want to point out that there are places where there exists a link or there should be a link and those are not yet working, just for your information.

( click to read )

Now that I've given you the TOS I am starting a fundraiser. Starting today and running until Sunday November 18, 2007, anyone who donates $30CAD or more will get an early contributor account. This means you will be able to use the site NOW while still in beta and you will get the following features:

-All features of a paid account
-email forwarder when it is set up
-customizable styles
-polls
-300 userpics
-text messaging
-maximum friends of 3000
-create moodthemes
-create syndicated accounts
-friendsfriends view
-friends popular with friends
-access to all s2 styles
-yourname.scribblit.com
-100 links for your link list
-1 free rename at any time

I would like to provide the following caveat: The site is still in beta and there are still bugs we are working on. You are under no obligation to help with fixing bugs or act as a beta-tester, however you do need to be aware that the bugs exist and we are working as quickly as we can to get them fixed as well.

One other note: Community creation is turned off at the moment - as is account creation - I will be creating the accounts manually. I will be posting to my staff journal there a post with what currently exists as far as feeds and communities so that if you want to join them you are free to do so. I also ask that for the time being you friend staff_lyn there so that you can keep up to date with the latest changes to the site.

Once you have made your donation or are planning on donating, leave your Name, Email Address, amount you donated and how you donated in a comment here along with the the user name you wish to have. All comments are screened and you will receive an email when your account is set up.

If you have any comments, questions or concerns please don't hesitate to ask.

The email address, if you don't have a paypal account, is paypal @ cowspresto.com.

If you want to mail a donation please make it payable to COWS! PRESTO! to the address below:

COWS! PRESTO!
PO Box 39024
London, ON
N5Y 5L1
Canada

If you are within Canada you can send a cheque or money order - please note that if you do send a cheque your account won't be created until the cheque clears - and just make sure it is postmarked before the 18th. If you are outside Canada please use an international money order. Do not send cash!

[edit Nov 9, 7:33pm]
NOTE: Please note the following things:
-Please include at least your first name in your comment. It makes finding your information within Paypal much easier
-If the email address you want registered with Scribblit is different than the address your donation is coming from, include BOTH so I can find your information.

And if you want to pimp this out, by all means do so! :)

[edit Nov 10, 5:40pm]
NOTE:
I am not replying to comments (unless they are questions) until I have set up your account. Accounts are not set up automatically, I am setting them up manually because account creation is turned off (for the general public). If you are wondering why you haven't heard from me, this is why.

[edit Nov 11, 5:27pm]
NOTE:
As I have not yet done the post on Scribblit with the communities that are of interest, I just want to let everyone know there is a bug reporting community, si_bugs, that exists and you'll want to check that out because you will run into bugs.

[edit Nov 13, 12:18am]
NOTE:
Apparently I need to clarify the account setup process.

I am doing the account setups manually. Which means I have to go into paypal, find your payment, match it up with your comment, create your account, edit the type of account it is and then leave you a comment with your password. The whole process takes about 10 minutes per account.

As the comments are screened you can't really get an idea of how many people have donated however if you take into consideration that there are over 500 people watching this journal it's a safe bet that there will be quite a few people who have donated and thus quite a few accounts that need setting up.

Also, please remember, I am doing this on top of what is going on in my life already. I work full time during the day and work on this project in the evenings. Sometimes I get overwhelmed and take a night off. Does that mean I am neglecting you? No, it just means that I need to take a break. Simple as that. If you've made a donation you will get an account.

Until further notice, these are the basic account features for the two account types.

Free Accounts
-100 icons
-polls
-use of s2 styles
-create syndicated accounts
-directory search
-customizable mood themes

Paid Accounts
-all features of free accounts
-250 icons
-creation of theme layers
-email forwarder
-subdomain
-textmessaging
-friendsfriends view
-popular with friends
To come:
-photo/image hosting


I am currently working on setting up a pricing scheme and as soon as that is done I will post it as well. I know a lot of people are still waiting to hear about the ToS and that is something I am still working on. I am still in the process of looking for a lawyer/law firm to solidify that information.

Thank you everyone for your patience and support.

Just a reminder to the following people:

snarky_kat
guardianmars
annephoenix
samuti
princess2000204
dimmie
sephyelysian
takewing
mutantenemy
darkchan
redscorner

You have until 6pm EST tomorrow to contact me and let me know why you haven't used your test account as you agreed to do when signing up for beta testing. If I do not hear from you by that time your account will be forfeited.

If any of you are friends with these people please feel free to tell them to get their butts over here. I am not going to be chasing people down and this is the last post about this I will make.

kaleidoskope, I got your number mixed up with noa_luna's so you have until 6pm EST on Saturday to contact me.

Would the following people please contact me as soon as possible at scribblit @ yahoo.ca. You have not updated your beta journal in more than a week. I understand that life can get busy and things take over but I would appreciate a heads up if you are not able to update as required.

noa_luna
stickykeys633
snarky_kat
guardianmars
dannybailey
annephoenix
samuti
princess2000204
dimmie
sephyelysian
takewing
mutantenemy
darkchan
redscorner

I am giving you until 6pm EST on Friday Sepetember 7th at which point if I haven't heard from you, your beta test account will be forfeited.

To those wishing to beta test - I'm sorry but I won't be opening any forfeit accounts up to more testers at the moment.

To those of you who created accounts when you shouldn't have, your accounts have now been deleted and you will be able to register them again when the site is live.

Just an update on what's going on with everything.

I was not content with the company I was with for my server needs - through no fault of their own, I am simply not skilled enough to get through with the services they offered, I would highly recommend them at any time - and have decided with another server company for the site.

I'm sure this will make a number of people happy - the servers are now located in the US. I have signed up with a new company and would like to provide the following information from their Acceptable Use Policy:

[Company] does not actively monitor dedicated server content for review. [Company] believes in the free dissemination of information via our services. Dedicated server content will only be reviewed upon complaint by verified third parties. Content that does not violate local, state and federal law or the acceptable use policy is deemed in compliance and shall remain intact. Legal adult content is allowed on [Company] dedicated servers. Content deemed in violation will be addressed pursuant to the methods of resolution under the acceptable use policy.

<<snip>>

The following list represents per se direct violations of Acceptable Use Policy and will be subject to immediate redress under the methods of resolution as described in the acceptable use policy. (I am only including those that are relevant to Scribblit)

Copyright Infringement: Direct copyright infringement as defined and noted under Title 17, Section 512 of the United States Code are a direct violation of the acceptable use policy.

Illegal Use: Any use of dedicated services in direct attempt of statutory illegal activities is a direct violation of the acceptable use policy. This includes, but is not limited to: death threats, terroristic threats, threats of harm to another individual, multi-level marketing schemes, "ponzi schemes", invasion of privacy, credit card fraud, racketeering, defamation, slander, and other common illegal activities.

Child Pornography: [Company] has a zero stance policy on child pornography and related sites. The hosting of child pornography or related sites or contact information is in direct violation of federal law and the acceptable use policy.

Threats & Harassment: The [Company] network can be utilized for any type of individual, organizational or business use. This does not include threats or harassment to individuals, organizations or businesses unless it falls within the bounds of protected free speech under the first amendment. [Company] seeks to serve only as the medium of exchange for information and refrains from decisions on freedom of speech.

Fraudulent Activities: [Company] prohibits utilizing dedicated services or network services for fraudulent activities. Notification of fraudulent activities by verified third parties can result in violation of the acceptable use policy.

Terrorist Websites: [Company] prohibits the use of dedicated services for the hosting of terrorist related websites. This includes sites advocating human violence and hate crimes based upon religion, ethnicity, or country of origin.

Distribution of Malware: [Company] prohibits the storage, distribution, fabrication, or use of malware including virus software, root kits, password crackers, adware, key stroke capture programs and other programs normally used in malicious activity. Programs used in the normal ordinary course of business are deemed acceptable. Example: Security Company hosting at [Company] analyzes the latest root kit for new security analysis software.

It should be understood by all users that such content as listed above will also not be allowed on Scribblit.

It should also be understood that while the servers are in the United States I still may be subject to certain Canadian laws so please hold back all criticisms until I have spoken with the lawyers about what I can and cannot host. It's very possible that there may be some difference in what content is and isn't allowed to be hosted but until I speak with the lawyers, this cannot be confirmed.

Also of note: I am aiming to speak with the lawyers next week should the funds that have been raised so far be deposited into the bank account in time. After I have spoken with them I will provide you with a "starter" ToS/AUP to give you a better idea about what will and will not be acceptable and whether or not it is a service you wish to use.

Thank you again everyone for all of your support, I really appreciate it.

Hi everyone

I just wanted to let you know that the paypal email address to send donations to is now paypal @ cowspresto.com as COWS! PRESTO! is the company that owns Scribblit.

I have updated the button on my userinfo page and will be updating the buttons on my posts here!

Thanks again for all your support everyone.

And for a brief update on what is going on:

I am aiming to speak with a lawyer sometime next week depending on a few things so hopefully I will have some answers for you guys regarding content within the next couple of weeks!

Also, since a number of people have asked:

The hope is that the site will go live by the end of the year. If it goes live sooner than that then of course we are all ecstatic but working out the legal details and getting the business registered and all that fun stuff does take up some time.

Thanks for sticking around!

A number of people have brought up permanent accounts with regards to Scribblit and I feel that it's time I address the issue.

Permanent accounts will not be available for sale on Scribblit.

I know that many people will be disappointed by this but I have a good reason for doing this and I am going to explain why below.

In my opinion, permanent accounts are a bad idea in general. A consumer loses their control over the business when they have a permanent account. A company, in theory, no longer has to listen to what a permanent account holder has to say because, in theory, they will no longer be receiving money from that user. (ignoring those who buy paid time and the like for the friends)

As has been shown with Livejournal, money is really what talks when it comes to business and allowing users to purchase permanent accounts at Scribblit, in my opinion, takes the voice away from users. There is a big difference between being a free user by choice and a "free" user because of a purchased permanent account.

Let's use Livejournal as an example again. Let's say that you purchased a permanent account between the two big fiascos that have recently happened. When the second one happened you were shocked and appalled at how things were handled and continue to be handled. But you can't voice that concern in the language that Livejournal understands because you no longer have financial support to withdraw (ie a paid account versus a permanent account). A free user (who is free by choice) still has their power because a business will see them as someone who can be a future paid customer.

All that being said, I want to be held accountable to my users. By not selling permanent accounts and not taking that voice of customers away, I will remain accountable to all of my users - just as I should be.

As always, if you have a question, comment or concern, please feel free to leave a comment.

[edit 12:42pm]
If you leave a question or concern or something that you want a response to and I don't get to it right away, I apologize. I am not receiving any email notifications for anything on this account. :(

A couple of people expressed concerns/problems with donating to the site through PayPal and until now I have been unable to accept donations any other way.

I have, as of 3:30pm EST this afternoon, acquired a Master Business Licence for COWS! PRESTO! which will be the parent company of Scribblit. I realize in my previous post with the paypal button I said it would be twocorpses.net however upon further reflection I decided to go with a name that wasn't so... morbid. And for those of you good at anagrams you'll notice that "cows presto" is an anagram of twocorpses! ;) I wanted to keep it simple like that so it would still be recognizable.

So if you would like to mail a donation through snail-mail you can now do so. Please do not send cash. Cheques and money orders only please - if you are outside of Canada please send your donation as an International Money Order. Make them out to COWS! PRESTO! and send them to the address below:

COWS! PRESTO!
PO Box 39024
London, ON
Canada
N5Y 5L1

And as always, you can still use PayPal to donate if you wish:

If anyone knows of another company that offers reputable online services for accepting donations and payments, please let me know. I am still looking into other ways to accept donations online for those that wish to donate online but do not wish to use PayPal.

Thanks again for all your support everyone!

Hello everyone!

This is going to be another post about the servers. I'm sure some of you are sick to death about hearing about the servers but I feel this important.

I have no problems with people being concerned with the server location being Canada due to the stricter child pornography laws. I have no problem with you sharing those concerns with others. What I do have a problem with is specifically telling people not to use the service because of these concerns.

Until I speak with a lawyer and have the go ahead on what I can and cannot include in my Terms of Service and Acceptable Use Policy, we are all playing armchair lawyers trying to interpret the law and this is not right.

By all means, discuss your concerns, bring them up with me, bring them up with others but please don't make up your mind about the service until the Terms of Service/Acceptable Use Policy have been solidified and please let others make up their own minds about whether or not it is a service they wish to use.

Thank you.

Hi everyone!

ALL BETA TEST SLOTS ARE NOW FULL. THANK YOU FOR YOUR INTEREST.

I have seven openings for beta-testers. 5 of these journals have not been touched or updated and 2 have been altered in some way but have largely been unused.

If you are interested in helping with the beta test, please read this post carefully and make sure you have the time to devote to the project. If I sign you up and after a week you have not posted at least 3 times, I will reassign your account - there are a lot of people who showed an interest (a lot more than the 100 slots that were originally created).

Here are the terms you MUST agree to if you wish to participate:
-you MUST update at least 3 times a week - this can be as simple as "this is a post blah blah blah" or copying and pasting a bunch of text from some other website, I don't care, but the journal MUST be active
-you MUST join the following communities: sibugs, testcomm and suggestion_box - there are other communities for development purposes that you can join if you wish
-include in your comment the sentence bananas in pyjamas are coming down the stairs
-there are a total of 101 beta test accounts - you are not required to friend all of them but it is preferred that you do so. there is a post in testcomm with steps on how to add everyone at once using the admin console
-you must friend twocorpses and system as well as there will be important announcements through those journals

When you are given your account, you MUST do the following things:
-change your password
-update the email address on the account
-visit testcomm, sibugs and suggestion_box and read all of the posts there (there aren't that many, not to worry) and familiarize yourself with the known issues so that you are not reporting bugs that we are already aware of or making suggestions that have been listed

What is expected of you while you are beta testing:
-update your journal at least 3 times a week as already stated
-report any bugs with the site to sibugs so that they can be addressed - make sure the issue is not already listed by visiting the community and reading the bug reports
-use your journal as though it is your own - it essentially is - however if you are NOT used to posting on a frequent basis you may want to reconsider offering to beta because I do want all of the beta test journals to be active

If you feel you can meet these terms and conditions then please leave a comment. Note: I have seven available slots and they will go to the first seven who have read and understood this post. You will receive a reply to your comment on this post (it will be screened) with your username and password if you are selected.

If you have any questions, comments or concerns once you have your account there is a pinned post at twocorpses where you can leave a comment or you can send me an email at scribblit @ yahoo.ca.

Thank you again everyone, for your continued support.

Thank you to everyone who voted in the poll and shared their opinions. On to the meat of the post.

The servers will remain in Canada. A lot of people are concerned about this and their concerns are valid ones but there are a few things I need to point out.

1) I am a Canadian citizen and the company that is operating Scribblit is a Canadian company and therefore regardless of where the server is located, I am bound by Canadian law. Simple as that.
2) Everyone and anyone who uses the service is bound by the law in the location where they reside. That means that anyone in Canada faces the same restrictions I do and anyone in any other country are subject to their own laws - regardless of the location of the server.
3) By keeping the servers in the country where I am, I am better able to protect my users. I have handy access to lawyers without having to travel any great distances and only have one set of laws to abide by.
4) Finally, there is an excellent comment here that I would like everyone to read as it has some very good information in it.

I want to reiterate my stance on fanfiction and fanart - nothing will be summarily removed. If a complaint is received it will be investigated and should the content in question be deemed in appropriate (for whatever reason) the user will be asked to remove it. If they don't then we will remove it but nothing will be removed or deleted without first contacting the user to apprise them of the situation.

Also, no accounts will be deleted simply because inappropriate content has been posted. The only time an account would be removed would be if the content was clearly illegal and there were repeat offenses.

I urge you to read this post carefully. If you still have concerns or questions, by all means, leave a comment with them but the servers will remain in Canada until such time as it is no longer feasible to do so.

There has been a tremendous amount of discussion about Scribblit since my decision to host the site in Canada. One of the most frustrating things I am seeing are people going out of their way to say not to use the service because the servers are in Canada.

After consulting with some of my beta testers and my good friend dontlickit I have decided that at this time it is not concrete that the servers will be in Canada. I am opening up this poll to you to express your opinion on the subject. ***If you choose the option of "Offshore somewhere" please have a country in mind or even a hosting company that offers dedicated servers. If you don't have one of these and want to choose "Offshore somewhere" then do some research and come back and tell me.***

No matter what my final decision is, I'm not going to make everyone happy. I realize that there are concerns about having the servers hosted in Canada and it troubles me and disappoints me that rather than bringing these concerns to my attention for consideration, posts have been made in various places saying that Scribblit is no longer a viable alternative to Livejournal and should be avoided.

Also note: the results of this poll are not binding, I am simply seeing which way the flow of opinion is going.

Poll #1037936 Hosting Poll
Open to: All, detailed results viewable to: None, participants: 101

From which country should I host Scribblit?

Hi everyone!

Just a small update for you! I've created the community scribblit as a presence here on Livejournal. Basically this community is for anyone who is interested in the project and perhaps wants to be more active in assisting, has ideas they want to discuss or if they're just interested in the project itself.

All announcements will still be made here but I figured (with the help of one of my beta testers ;) a centralized location where everyone could interact in a much easier way would be ideal!

Hi folks!

I thought I'd give you an update on what's going on with the servers and the ToS and all that fun stuff.

First things first - I am moving to a company (dedicated server) in Canada so that I have only one country's laws to deal with. This does not mean that people in other countries, while using the service, do not have to abide by their own laws, they do. But it means that for me, I have one set of laws to abide by rather than two.

I have selected a company and will be moving there shortly. I made a specific point to ask what their stance on fanfiction and fanart was. Here is a snippet of that correspondence. (The relevant bits)

The email I sent:

...I would like some clarification with regards to one part of your AUP:

You may not use your dedicated rack or virtual site to publish material, which [companyname] determines, at its sole discretion, to be unlawful, indecent or objectionable. For purposes of this policy, "material" refers to all forms of communications including narrative descriptions, graphics (including photographs, illustrations, images, drawings, and logos), executable programs, video recordings, and audio recordings.

Where it mentions illustrations, images, and drawings, I am mostly concerned about the affect this would have on my users being able to post "fanart". What generally falls under the category of objectionable and would art or fiction that doesn't depict or represent a real person (ie fictional characters) so long as it was not exploitative be acceptable?

I realize this can be a sticky situation and want to be as upfront as I can with anyone I will potentially be doing business with so that the transactions run smoothly and we have a good working/business relationship.

Their response:

Thank you for taking the time to contact us regarding our AUP. I can let you know we will not have a problem with what you will be hosting. The most important part is copyright infringement and illegal content and this has nothing to do with you.

I am satisfied with this response and the company has a very good reputation from what information I can find and reviews I have read.

Now to answer some more questions that have been posed or may be posed by this post!

1) If you're 18+ aren't you just like JournalFen now?
No. And there are quite a few differences you need to be aware of. JournalFen is by fans for fans - seriously. Scribblit is for anyone (who is 18+) who wants to use the service. Also you don't have to pay to have an account, accounts are free but there are paid features.

Many of the beta testers have accounts at JournalFen (and I do too) and they will tell you that the feel of the community is quite different.

2) I'm really disappointed that it's 18+ now. *humph*
I'm sorry that you're disappointed but that's the way it's going to be. The Canadian Criminal Code defines a minor as any person under the age of 18. That being said, hosting content that could potentially be considered inappropriate for those under 18 puts me at a liability. Yes, I am doing this to "cover my ass" but doing so protects me, the site AND its users. I cannot stress this enough: I am a real life person, spending hundreds of dollars of my own and of donations, working to get this up and running. I am not going to facilitate any activity that would make it easier for me to be sued, charged, put on trial and convicted.

3) I don't trust you now because of this
That's your prerogative to do so however I ask that you keep your comments civil and that you don't spread falsehoods. I have been 100% open, honest and upfront about every aspect of this endeavor and if that isn't enough to earn your trust then that is something I will have to accept and I will ask that you simply not stick around. Getting this up and running is stressful enough, I do not need the drama.

And remember, you're not under 18 forever.

And one final thought - a number of people have expressed an interest in making donations to the cause (so to speak) and I am extremely grateful for that. I have set up a paypal account (which I needed to do anyway) and you can use this button to make a donation if you so choose. You will notice that the money is being sent to info@twocorpses.net - I already owned the domain twocorpses.net and had not decided what to do with it so as of now, twocorpses.net is the "parent company" of Scribblit and that is why the email is such.

Thank you once again to all for your support!

Edit:
opheliascreams has set up a GJ feed for this journal: http://www.greatestjournal.com/userinfo.bml?user=twocorpses_lj If you're on GJ and want to follow along, there you go! :D

Let me preface this by saying I know that a LOT of people are going to be unhappy with this decision but it is something that I have been rethinking from the first moment I originally changed my mind. I hope you will hear what I am saying and attempt to understand my viewpoint on the matter. I apologize to those people who are interested in this project that this new change will exclude but know that it is not forever.

I am returning to my original position of making this service 18+ only. There are a few reasons for this and all of them make it easier on me for running this service. Let me tell you the story of how Scribblit came to be and how I came to this decision and why I have returned to it now.

When the first strikethrough happened I was appalled at the way 6A/LJ treated its userbase. They refused to answer questions and clarify things that would have taken only moments to clarify. It was then that I decided to start up my own service and my original intent was always for it to be an 18+ service. I started pimping the planned service in lj_biz and in the original post (found here) there was plenty of support for the project even with the 18+ stipulation.

Then came this latest round which pushed me into high gear and got me motivated to get a functioning site up so bugs could be fixed. I found only one comment on any of my posts that could be even remotely construed as negative to this 18+ rule and it wasn't even negative. I realized that the comments had been made in other people's journals in response to comments that I had left. I don't think this invalidates their opinions, not at all, but the people that really had the issue with it never came and stated to me, in my journal, that they had the issue.

On my BIG post where I asked for volunteers there were probably 200 people at least who all agreed to the terms of being over 18 and willing to help. (The comments have been disabled on that post because people continued commenting asking for a beta account)

So that brings us to today and returning to my original stance of 18+ only and I will address a few things here to clarify and make sure that everyone understands what I know and understand.

1) If underage kids want to read harry potter/yugioh/pokemon/whatever porn they are going to find it no matter what
And this is true. I can set up filters and age limit filters and request that communities be locked down but teenagers are resourceful and they are smart and they will work to get what they want. By visibly making the site 18+ I am protecting MY butt so that if someone comes along and says "OMG YOU HAVE HP PORN AND MY 15 YEAR OLD READ IT!!!" I can say that the site is for 18+ only and if they were on the site, with an account, reading the content then they have lied about their age to read said content. It protects ME.

2) There are plenty of mature teenagers!
Yeah there are. But again, it comes down to one thing: me. This is something that I decided to do and I made up my ground-rules and changed them to follow what I thought were the masses when it wasn't really something I wanted to do. In order for me to be happy and successful in this endeavor I need to feel that I am doing right by me and if I am not that means the service suffers and the users suffer.

3) You know, the site isn't even active and you've already gone back on something you've said. You know how this makes you look doesn't it?
I realize that some people are going to think that I am not to be trusted and that I will sell out first chance I get because of this change but it is not true. I never made any promises that this site would be open to everyone of every age. I have never, unlike with the ads, set in stone (so to speak) what the age limit/restriction for use of this service is.

Basically, what it boils down to is that I am trying to make this as easy on myself so I can provide the best possible service to those who want to join Scribblit when it is live. This means setting up some guidelines that while subjective are done to protect me and my livelihood. Please remember that I work full time during the week and on top of that I have a sometimes debilitating mental illness and I am not willing to make it easier for someone to abuse something that I am doing and get me in trouble.

I realize that many people will think this is selfish and it is. I am looking out for me. I want to provide a good service to the users but I can't do that if I a constantly at risk of being attacked for something with regards to who accesses the site. Making the site 18+ relieves some of that risk.

I'm very sorry to those who are not 18 or won't be 18 when the site goes live but I hope that when you are you will join us.

Hi folks. I've gotten some good questions and would like to provide answers to them. It is easier for me to address them in this post rather than reply to every comment and hope that people see them. Should I receive other questions that would belong here I will edit the post! Fair enough? On we go.

1) By Fans for Fans!
This is not a question but one of my own concerns. A lot of people have taken this up as their mantra and the spirit behind it is correct but the statement itself is not quite accurate. Scribblit is an alternative journaling option for those that are not happy with how 6A/LJ is being run and don't find the other journaling sites meet their needs. This extends to anyone who is in fandom or is not.

2) Fandom Friendly
This extends from 1) but I thought it needed it's own point. Scribblit is fandom-friendly. What this means is that fandom - any fandom - is welcome to use the service. No content will be removed without legal action requiring so and no journal will be deleted for hosting such content. Should something need to be removed, the journal owner in question will receive notice that the content is to be removed and that's it. So your art and fiction are safe.

3) What about the laws? Where are you based?
I, personally, am in Canada. The server (currently only one) is in the United States in Michigan. A lot of people are concerned about this and they have every right to be. One thing I'd like to point out though is that despite the political climate in the states, laws have not been changed to consider the more explicit fanart or fiction illegal. I am confident that at this time, as long as I am following the letter of the law, there will not be problems.

4) Are you sure? That seems pretty naive.
I am sure. The problems that 6A/LJ are having now they have brought upon themselves. They state that all fandom content is safe and then arbitrarily delete something that is clearly fanart and is NOT clearly underage. (Note: it was reported to them and they acted upon that report) Simply asking the artist the age of the characters in the art would have cleared it right up. Basically 6A/LJ has taken it upon themselves to decide what does and doesn't have artistic merit and while it is their site and they can run it anyway they choose, they have gone against what they had originally promised and that is really where the problem is.

5) What about paedophiles? Or other such unsavoury characters?
Paedophilia itself is not illegal. Posting thoughts about ones attraction to children is not illegal. Posting thoughts about fantasizing about rape is not illegal. Posting about ways to facilitate meeting children or raping someone IS illegal and such content will be removed. In this case, continued posting of such content would result in that journal being deleted. (Please note: these are only examples, there are many other things which shouldn't be planned using a journal site and those such things will be removed as well)

6) What about interests then?
Interests will be defined as most people and the dictionary defines it: things you are keen on discussing or learning more about. If you list paedophilia in your interests because your uncle suffers from it then that's fine. If you list rape in your interests because you are a crisis counsellor or were raped that's fine. Interests are interests, not likes.

7) What is your server set up?
Currently, Scribblit is hosted on a Virtual Private Server. (Don't let this scare you!) The company I have signed on with also sells dedicated servers and has made it so that it is very easy to transition from a VPS to a dedicated server. This was one of the main reasons I chose them.

8) Okay but what about this companies rules and stuff?
Their rules are the same as mine. Or mine are the same as theirs. They do not actively patrol content and if illegal content is reported they will do an investigation and should it be illegal it will be removed. Otherwise the content is allowed to stay. Another reason I chose them. :)

9) What about money? Where are you getting the money to pay for this?
At the moment I am paying out of pocket for it. We are still in beta-testing so not everything has been set up of course. In the future paid accounts will be available as well as paid features - like extra userpics - that don't require having a paid account to purchase. (ie if you just want extra userpics for your free account, you will be able to purchase them) A number of people have expressed a desire to make donations and something will be set up shortly to facilitate that. And depending on the popularity of the site, Scribblit merchandise may become available for purchase as well.

10) Is that really going to be enough? JournalFen has problems keeping up with their bills! (So I've heard)
For the time being it will be enough. If 10,000 people migrate and only 500 people buy paid accounts? I'm not sure because I don't know what the server load will be like at that time. Unfortunately questions like this can't be answered 100% because while I understand the type of load that LJ experiences, I don't know WHAT Scribblit will have. For everyone that says they're coming to Scribblit there's someone (or more than one) who says they're not. So in the end, it is something that I will monitor - especially around sign ups when the site goes live - to see what else can be done to raise funds. I'm sorry that I can't really answer it more than that but until the site is live, I really have no idea the kind of load the site will carry.

These questions are the most common ones I am seeing in various places. I hope to have provided you with some insight into the project as I think they are fair questions that deserve answers. If I have not answered something you want to ask, please ask. If you want clarification on something, please ask. I'm fanatical about checking my email and unless I'm not at home or playing WoW, you will get your response fairly quickly. ;)

11) "I've seen you around fandom_flies lately, and I was wondering. Are you considering (or capable of) altering the base code to incorporate some of the ideas for a truly 'fandom oriented' journaling site that have been bandied about? Is that something that you're even interested in doing?

I understand that you want to keep Scribblit open to all kinds of journaling, which I think is very smart either way - most fandom people have lots of friends who aren't fen, and of course if people are going to move there, they'll want to bring their friends with them.

But I think for Scribblit to be a truly compelling alternative, such that a large chunk of fandom would want to move and make it their new home, it would help if it had some features that make it a cut above the competition such as InsaneJournal, JournalFen and GreatestJournal."
Unfortunately a lot of the things that have been posted about are either not possible with the LJ code or are well beyond my capabilities - both with respect to programming and to cost.

I realize that I will probably lose some people by saying this but I'm not making the site specifically for fandom. I'm making it mostly for myself because I want to but also for anyone who wants to join me someplace else. A lot of the features that are talked about there are not features I am interested in and the sort of site that is talked about there is not one I'm interested in creating and maintaining.

In short, their goals and my goals are completely different. :)

Hi everyone! I want to point out a few things:

1) Beta Testing is active but there are no more accounts available I'm sorry to say
I've also disabled comments on the post requesting beta-testers because despite the incredibly large message at the top about beta testing being closed people were still requesting to be added as a beta tester.

2) html/css/javascript coding is closed for the time being
I currently have 5 people as coders who will hopefully help me fix the little annoyances in the code and styles on the site. Thank you to those of you who volunteered and sorry to those of you who did not get asked to assist. I may ask for more assistance in the future but as of right now I believe the 5 I have asked as well as myself will be sufficient for the time being.

3) looking for perl programmers (2-4)
I am looking for people who are proficient in perl to help out with tweaking the code and keeping the site running. At this time it will be on a volunteer basis however I don't see it being a high-demand job when the site is up and running and the tweaks have been made and the kinks worked out. The only time that I may request help would be the implementation of some new feature if I am having problems getting it up myself. If you are interested please post a comment with some brief info about how much perl you know - ie how long you've been working with it, the types of things you've done with it - that sort of fun stuff.

4) looking for anyone with knowledge of BML (better markup language)
I am looking for anyone who might be knowledgeable in BML. If this is you, please leave a comment. :)

5) How about something fun?
Since I've made all of my old entries private and have removed a bunch of my userinfo stuff I thought those of you who are volunteering/anxiously awaiting/just curious may want to know a bit about me. So here you go:

I'm 26 and I am from London, Ontario, Canada. I work full time doing web and graphic design - my specialities are HTML/CSS/PHP/MySQL so a lot of this stuff with LJ is completely new to me but I'm futzing along. :D

I suffer from depression and bipolar disorder. I have no problems telling people this as it is part of who I am and will be there always. I am on medication as well as seeking therapy and things are slowly getting better.

I spend too much time online through work and now with this site exploding like this... I'm only offline it seems when I sleep. I even eat at my computer at times XD Although I do take breaks to watch tv for a while or play a little world of warcraft. ;D

If there is a burning question you want to ask about me or about the project, go ahead and if I get a lot of questions I will make a separate post with the questions and their answers at a later date. :)

Cheers!

A larger update is coming soon but it has come to my attention through various means that a number of people are raising issues about Scribblit and the things they consider to be issues. This is very frustrating to me because they are expressing them to everyone BUT me.

If it isn't too much to ask, could those of you that are willing, please make a post or comment on a post when you see it asking that those people please direct their concerns to me. I mean they are free to post in their own journals but I would like to see them as well.

Thanks guys!

I am looking for 5-10 people who are skilled in HTML, JavaScript and CSS to help with tweaking some of the problems we are encountering on the site.

If you are skilled in any or all of these please leave a comment with a link to a sample of your work and I'll check it out and if appropriate, invite you to join us at Scribblit to help with the testing.

Please note: I am only looking for 5-10 people!

A number of people have expressed concern over comments I have made in a previous post about Real Person Slash so I have done some research and have come to the following conclusion:

Fiction that is written about real people - regardless of age - will not be restricted so long as any such stories have a clear disclaimer that it is not intended to represent any facts about such a person.

I will point out, however, that should I receive a C&D letter from someone who has been written about I will request that the story be taken down. (Note: there have been very few such letters sent out so the likelihood of this happening is small) Anyone who should happen to be asked to have fiction taken down WILL NOT lose their account or be punished in anyway on Scribblit other than to remove the "offensive" material.

For the fanartists in the crowd, please note that if there is no artistic merit to your art and it does involve an image of a living, breathing underage person, you will be asked to remove that content as well should I be approached about such a thing. Again, you will not lose your account or suffer any "punishment" for doing so.

I realize that 'artistic merit' can be considered subjective and as such I would not think to make the decision based solely on my position. The process that will be used to determine if something has artistic merit has not been solidified as of yet but I can tell you that it will not be me arbitrarily deciding what is art and what is not. With the help of those that will make up the abuse team, we will investigate each claim and come to a consensus on such a claim based on US laws (as this is where the data is stored) and act accordingly.

In my opinion, it is highly unlikely (although not impossible) that art produced by those in fandom would be considered without artistic merit so please don't worry about whether or not your art will be safe. It will be.

I realize that this is a bit vague, especially with the concerns surrounding LJ/6A and their refusal to clarify things but I want to reiterate: no one will be suspended or deleted without just cause or warning and no content will be removed from the site unless ordered by a law enforcement agency to do so. All sources of complaint will be verified as well as ensuring that the service is complying with US law. And if it is found that we are and content is in fact legal, nothing will be done to remove said content.

I also understand that there are many international users who don't follow US law and I am sympathetic as I am Canadian myself. However due to the costs of investing in offshore servers at this time it is not feasible to do so. However, I am not saying that the service can't and won't be moved to a more neutral area should the money be raised and the need arise.

I hope this answers some questions that I know people have and if you would like me to clarify anything further, please feel free to ask.