One more reason to dislike LJ...

[calime]

I heart the effort people are making in providing information about fandom-friendly candidates for the Advisory Board elections. But. I CANNOT PUT THAT INFORMATION INTO ANY USE. BECAUSE THE FREAKING LJ AUTOMATICALLY PUTS ME INTO THE *CYRILLIC SEGMENT*, which has SEPARATE VOTING, with candidates I know nothing of.
I AM NOT RUSSIAN. Not by nationality nor by country nor by culture. I deeply resent being FORCEDLY included in *Cyrillic segment* and frankly, it makes me also deeply uncomfortable that a Russian-money-owned company automatically slaps Russian-language service etc onto the user accounts that originate from countries that were formerly OCCUPIED by USSR, countries, towards which Russia still keeps having territorial ambitions. THAT is the last and strongest reason to keep away from LJ for me.
*xposted to LJ because it concerns LJ*

Comments

[oleshko.livejournal.com]

onto the user accounts that originate from countries that were formerly OCCUPIED by USSR, countries, towards which Russia still keeps having territorial ambitions.
You're not the only one, who has a bone to pick with that SUP (lj owner). But such measures are made not for the above mentioned reasons. There's a large percent of russian speaking bloggers in LJ (and it's much bigger than the estonian part, since LJ itself is quite popular in Russia). And believe me, I understand how you feel. In a way, you just became russian: you used to live in your local environment, and bam, everything goes to estonian, you hear only "learn the language, occupant", and some just literally hate you for who you are.
ps> found your blogpost at all-ee bot-community, which tries to list all .ee posts on a huge friends page :).

[calime]

I agree that SUP 'russifying' the customer service for Eastern European countries is not likely to be a part of any 'territorial ambitions', it is however, a reflection of an overall attitude that partly derives from the history and aforementioned ambitions.
I speak and understand Russian, and I converse in Russian with my clients who need it. I have Russian friends (who, btw, also speak some degree of English and Estonian etc). I do think that, for example here, in Estonia, we need to accept that we have a considerable Russian community here, though I also feel that people of ANY nationality who wish to live in ANY country more or less permanently/long time, should make an effort to learn the language of that country. If I moved into Germany or Russia or UK, I'd assume I'm expected to learn the local language and customs. I agree that there is and probably, sadly, always will be people who are xenophobic and 'just literally hate you for you are' - that goes not only for, lets say, russophobes, but there will be and are homophobes, woman haters, man haters, racists...
The gist of my irritation towards SUP 'russifying' my cluster of LJ is however rooted less in the fact that it 'went to russian', and more in the fact that I signed up here using English, to participate in English-speaking fandoms/culture room (I am not asking for Estonian, if I wanted to blog in Estonian, I'd sign up in an Estonian-language blog service, if I wanted Russian, I'd go for Russian etc). I would be similarly pissed if I was suddenly switched into, lets say, 'German segment'.

[oleshko.livejournal.com]

I have no idea where did I go wrong. But your answer is 80% about the situation around the russian problem :D.
Turning back to SUP... I also agree, that SUP's "what-seems-the-best-for-us" politic sucks ass.. no way am I going back (http://img375.imageshack.us/img375/89/45359945dg7.jpg) to russian translation... it's just like driving a right-wheeled car for me :)

[calime]

Yup, SUP basically seems to think 'customer service' = 'give them what WE (SUP) think they have to want, no way can they want something else'. And yes, that is the gist of the suckage :)

[logophilos.livejournal.com]

If you contact User Support they can switch you back. Same thing happened to my friend in Russia.

[calime]

I contacted support long time ago, first when it happened. They said they can do nothing about parts of my LJ experience being in Russian. Do you mean that I could ask to be switched over for the voting?

[d-moonchild.livejournal.com]

Not for the voting alone, I don't think so. What I did was write to the Support saying that I wanted to opt out of Russian-related services (phrasing's not important, you can say "SUP-provided services" or whatever). According to reports from other Russian users who did it before, the Support would contact you, clarify that you would lose access to various additional services (don't ask me which services, I never used any) and ask to confirm the request.

In my case, this step was bypassed: I got the reply in two days saying that I am no longer signed up for the SUP services. Immediately after this notification I saw that I could vote in the international section of LJ elections. Another easy way to check whether you opted out successfully would be to go to Livejournal.ru. If you are not logged in automatically, you are SUP-free.

As for the language the menus appear in, this is something you can correct manually, without contacting the Support and regardless of whether you are using the SUP-provided services. If I remember correctly, you need to go to Journal/Settings for that.

[calime]

Thank you!! I'll certainly try this!

[calime]

Also, the menus are mostly in English, I'm just getting a part of My LJ page (new posts etc) in English, and search etc and home page want to send me to livejournal.ru. I tried going with your instructions, here's hoping for
I succeed too :)
Thank you again!

[calime]

It worked!!! *dances* Thank you!

[d-moonchild.livejournal.com]

Yay, another person overcame the Matrix! You are welcome :)

sort of ot

[sookail.livejournal.com]

1)heh. already had managed forgot that you`re an estonian.
sometimes i just feel strangely happy that there are so many estonians in fandom(s), no matter that different fandoms. we exist. go us!
2)on topic: it`s all a big WTF to me. i`ve got 2 journals. one of them was made automatically russian, the other not. go figure.

Re: sort of ot

[calime]

We're like a rare, yet un-out-stompable weed *grins*.
re:2 - I suspect it has something to do with IP addresses, perhaps at the time of the account creation - because they clump accounts into 'clusters', and I think the clusters tend to involve accounts originating from IP addresses from the same geographical locations. If I'd've known that, I'd've created the account while abroad, or something. Grrr.
And my own OT re: your icon - I watched the master&commander movie recently, and the icon just, um, well, is like a short slash smmary of it *grins*. Maybe I should give the books one more try ... I once tried to read one of the books in an airport, and gave up, because the ponderousness of the writing just threw me out.

Re: sort of ot

[sookail.livejournal.com]

well, makes sense - the place of the account creation was exactly the same one but the time differed greatly :P

to continue the ot: i have read all 20 of the aubrey&maturin books twice&loved them a lot :D

...weed in the field of flowers? uh-huh.

Re: sort of ot

[calime]

There's 20 of them??? Hmmm. I should. At least that's not going to be something that's over an hour after you open the book, then *g*.
weed in the field of flowers? uh-huh.>/i> Think triffids...

Re: sort of ot

[sookail.livejournal.com]

FTW! *read The Day of the Triffids quite a lot when I was a teenager*

[tiggymalvern.livejournal.com]

That's really, deeply unpleasant. After all the various whiny reasons that people have given over the years for hating LJ, this is one that actually means something. I'm glad people have suggested above that there's a way out of it for you.

[calime]

Yeah, it is. Actually, that - getting parts of what I see automatically converted into Russian - was what finally tipped the scales for me, back when it happened after SUP bought LJ/6A, into recognising that perhaps the service I signed up for had changed too much to be likeable for me any more.
I've followed the instructions by helpful people and I hope that it works at least so far that I get to vote.

[annakas.livejournal.com]

Ohhh teanmida sa tunned.
Närvidele ajav situatsioon.


annakas

[calime]

Jep, imeb täiega :)
Ma katsetan seda eespool kommenteerija soovitust, kirjutasin suppordile, et tahan opt out from SUP-provided services. Ehk aitab :)
Krt, kui ma tahan venekeelses keskkonnas blogida, siis ma valin kohe alguses venekeelse keskkonna, eks ole.

[robi-travels.livejournal.com]

Callie

So sorry you are having a hard time with LJ. Your rational is completely justified and you should not be forced into a "Russian" bucket.

Obviously there is nothing I can offer as a suggestion to correct the issue (since I am an totally inept at this computer stuff) but I hope some of the corrections that others have offered work out.

Take care. Hope everything else in your life (vet practice, family, etc) are going well.

Roberta

[calime]

Thanks, I sent off the request for opting out and hope it works.
Life is generally going well (and busyly) for me, bar some unfortunate bits, but I hope even these resolve.
Hope you're doing fine and enjoying your new job!

*hugs*

Cali