pubic service announcement

Because of this new Settings and Flaggging Tools thing that LiveJournal is announcing this morning you may find that some content that you're used to being able to see might not be available to you if you don't reset the default settings.

Go to the settings page, slide down to the bottom, and under the "Adult content options," "Safe Search Filtering" setting ... I found that mine had been defaulted to "use moderate filtering." I assume that once people get around to marking themselves to be filtered that will mean I won't be able to read any porn stories! I changed it to "do not filter my results."

ETA: Spread the word on this. I was initially a little annoyed by them choosing my setting, but realized after a little thought that I would probably have done the same thing - after all, this way I have to make a conscious choice on the matter and I can't say I accidently stumbled on things that offended me. Still, I think that it would have been nice for them to have got the word out a little more obviously. I had to find it out for myself and only noticed because I thought to check.

Let me make it clear that I don't have a problem with them implementing the filtering system or even with them choosing our slightly filtered setting. I think the filtering system is silly and pointless, ultimately, because it's not as though anything is going to be solved by it. Kids will not be protected, because they will always choose to see things they're not 'supposed' to. Nature equips us with an insatiable curiosity and an ability to find our way around any barriers to satisfy that curiosity FOR a REASON - so that we can learn. But if they start us all out with a slightly filtered setting at least people might be slightly less likely to claim they have had their poor virgin eyes exposed to things they never would themselves have chosen to see.

I think it would be cool if the filtering were a choice one had to make every time one logged in, so that it would be easier for people to log in from work and not have anything not work safe come up. Not that I ever log in from work anyway, and maybe I'd be more tempted to do so if I could filter, so maybe it's not such a good idea...

And now, pure self-centeredness because I can...

[Poll #1097770]

Give me a way around private posts!

I wish LJ would make it so that if you're flipping back through someone's journal entries by using 'previous' and you hit a private one it would allow you to skip over it. Firstly it can be confusing to find a way around the roadblock and get back on the track you were on, and if you're searching for something specific that's very annoying (hasn't happened to me today, but it has many times in the past). But also (and I admit this is totally down to my own self-worth issues) my initial reaction is always "What? I'm not good enough to see this entry? I'm not a close enough friend to this person to be allowed to view this entry?" and I feel hurt. Which I know is completely unfounded and ridiculous - I myself make entries every day which I lock to everyone because they're stupid little things like memos to myself to take out the garbage or notes on embarrassing personal health issues that I might be having, trying to track their source. Or, as in the case of the one I just made, a post to hold the place on a thought which is not completely organized as yet - eventually this will probably become a public post, but it's not ready for prime time.