Strikethrough and Boldthrough

On Tuesday, May 29, 2007, LJers -- users of the then-popular blogging site Livejournal -- woke up to find that their Friends lists were showing a large number of names that had been crossed out, or strikethrough 'ed.
It turned out that LiveJournal had permanently suspended over 500 journals based on the users' interest lists. Interests that were likely to get a journal banned included but were not limited to: child pornography, incest, pedophilia, rape, domestic violence, BDSM, prostitution. Journals that listed things like murder, crime, drugs, cocaine, theft, tax evasion or election fraud among their creators' interests were not banned: interests related to sexual crime were the targets.
Among the deleted ljs were RPG journals, book discussion groups Lolita Reading Community, rape survivor blogssupport communities post at LJ group innocence_jihad, trying to establish if any of the banned groups had specifically been victim/survivor support groups. Conclusion was that some individual blogs belonged to survivors who posted extreme content, but no specific rape-survivor-support communities were identified., and fannish groups, including the large and popular Harry Potter fanfiction community Pornish Pixies, which was an age-restricted community for adult HP fanfiction.
A list of the directly-affected fan journals are here: .
Boldthrough followed a few months after Strikethrough and involved many of the same issues, with LJ/6A suspending more journals and trying to take down fannish content. 
"Strikethrough" was hot on the heels of FanLib, a for-profit fic archive that had very recently launched, and the first proposal for Archive of Our Own and the Organization of Transformative Works. 
"Strikethough," "Boldthrough," and discussions about Organization for Transformative Works were three things that made many fans seriously question both fannish platforms and ownership of content.
==Origin of the Names: "Strikethrough" and "Boldthrough"==
Due to a change in code by LJ/6A, a suspended or deleted journal on LiveJournal was shown with a line through the name. An example: Pornish Pixies . 
The events of Boldthrough were named so because, suspended accounts began appearing in bold rather than with a strike through the name.
==Fan Discussion Topics Generated by Strikethrough and Boldthrough==
* fanworks and journals were deleted without warning 
* fannish entitlement 
* fans being lumped in with pedophiles and criminals
* LiveJournal's rules were non-existent and/or unclear and/or arbitrary 
* being treated rudely or dismissively by LiveJournal staff 
* fan trust issues 
* not feeling safe in fan spaces
* the whole thing was a witch hunt
* should fandom self-police and "write responsibly"?
* issues with censorship and free speech
* feeling like an unwanted customer, feeling tricked into buying permanent accounts
* fear of a fannish diaspora to other platforms, and a loss of community 
* discussions about content backups and archiving: don't put all your eggs in one basket
* a great showdown with TPTB
* exposure of fandom to pedophiles
* is fandom is too porny?
* LiveJournal is a business and can do whatever it likes
* fannish dramatics and tempests in a teapots
* LiveJournal was not the center of fandom, and fandom was not the center of the world
==Some Context==
Other major conversations and proposals were happening that spring regarding fanfiction and control. Some of them were: 
* How Fanfiction Makes Us Poor (an April 26 post by cupidsbow which generated much response)
* FanLib (FanLib was a commercially-owned, for-profit multifandom fanfic archive which was open between May 18, 2007 and August 4, 2008... It was widely perceived as an attempt by outsiders to profit from the work of fans.) 
* An Archive Of One's Own (post by astolat) which proposed the Organization for Transformative Works and Archive of Our Own (May 17, 2007) "For record keeping, the straw that broke the camel's back was fanlib, if you see the post dates and the incorporation dates, that's the very basic cause/effect. Very. Basic.") (January 4, 2008) 
==="Warriors for Innocence"===
"Warriors for Innocence" was the right-wing, conservative Christian group that was reportedly behind the complaints that led to Strikethrough.
One fan wrote:
 
See Warriors for Innocence for more.
==Events==
==Some Early Fan Denial==
 
At least one fan pooh-poohed the rumors on May 25, 2007: 
===LiveJournal's Initial Responses===
After the Strikethrough began, Livejournal News was almost immediately checked for an explanatory update, but it remained stubbornly empty. The then-most recent post, dated May 24, 2007 about a different subject, was inundated with questions.
Over the next few days, Boing Boing Xeni Jardin, LJ purges incest, slash fic under pressure from self-appointed "warriors", Boing Boing, May 30, 2007 CNETDeclan McCullagh, Mass Deletions Sparks LiveJournal Revolt, CNet News, May 30, 2007, and other online news outlets and blogs picked up the story, including the site Meta Filter, where on May 30, 2007, SixApart employee Anil Dash decided to make the first public statement regarding Strikethrough.
Ataniell93, whose RPG journals were targeted, emailed LJ Support to find out why her LJ had been deleted. In her LJ, she quoted the following LiveJournal response: 
=== Anil Dash Speaks on Metafilter === 
While Livejournal News continued its relentless silence, MetaFilter patrons were carrying out a lively discussion on the events. Unexpectedly, Anil Dash joined the conversation: 
=== Rumors, and Confirmation ===
Not everyone believed the rumors. On May 24, azurelunatic commented: 
On May 29th, Liz Marcs contacted Warriors for Innocence and carried on a correspondence with them. Another Exchange of Emails; Archive for page one; page two; Archive for page two; page three; Archive for page three, post by liz marcs (total: 14 pages containing 517 comments) (May 29, 2007), ; page two; Archive for page two; page three; Archive for page three; page four; Archive for page four; ; , post by liz marcs (244 comments) (May 29, 2007), , post by liz marcs (May 30, 2007), LJ User Action Centers; Archive for page one; page two; Archive for page two; page three; Archive for page three, post by liz marcs (117 comments) (May 30, 2007) 
 
Many fans' reactions on Livejournal reaction were dramatic. Fandomtossed on Greatestjournal was formed, along with Fandom Counts and Fandom Pays on Livejournal. From May 29, 2007 - May 31, 2007, in reaction to continued silence from Six Apart and later to Barak Berkowitz's off-livejournal comments, livejournal members relentlessly commented to all open Livejournal News entries available asking for information. Two entries were maxxed out almost immediately.
Also see: Further Reading: Official LiveJournal Posts.
=== SixApart Speaks ===
On May 31, 2007, Barak Berkowitz posted a response that was partial explanation, partial retraction, and partial apology Barak Berkowitz, , Livejournal News, May 31, 2007 . Initial reaction was cynically mixed. The post topped maximum comments within twenty-four hours. 
Twelve hours later, Barak Berkowitz posted a second statement partially restoring some deleted journals Barak Berkowitz, Journals being restored, Livejournal News, May 31, 2007
Also see: Further Reading: Official LiveJournal Posts.
===Then Came Boldthrough===
thumb|a chart comparing LiveJournal BoldThrough versus StrikeThrough references for the period between May 13, 2007 and August 13, 2007 
On August 3rd, LiveJournal suspended fan artist ponderosa121, a fan popular in the Supernatural fandom for their Wincest fanart, for violation of their policy. The suspension referring explicitly to a Harry/Snape pic posted in the recently un-suspended community pornish_pixies. A fan named elaboration was also suspended for a depiction of the Weasley twins in a sexual situation. Both accounts were deleted without warning.
An except from a letter sent to a fan: 
 
At that point, LiveJournal hadn't worked out their policy , lj-biz, July 7, 2007 , making it difficult for them to answer confused user questions as to what was allowed and what not. 
Things were escalated by a number of unofficial public posts which some fans felt were rude and mocking to fandom: examples: LJ Staffer Abe Hasan journal, accessed in mid-August, 2007, now no longer online , vice president Anil Dash Thanks, Brad.; Archive for page one; page two; Archive for page two, August 6, 2007 and former LJ owner and president Brad Fitzpatrick who resigned, and called the art in question "child porn" in a rather insensitive goodbye to his former customers. , August 6, 2207 
On August 13, 2007, over 10 days after the suspension of the LJ users, LJ made a public post to lj-biz in which they declared their changed policy, stating that: 
=== The Aftermath ===
Over the course of "Stikethrough" and "Boldthrough," most of the journals, including pornish_pixies, were returned to active status. However, the conflicting information offered by staff members, and what was perceived as a condescending and dismissive attitude, combined with a lack of apology or promise to avoid such actions in the future, inspired many LJers to started hosting their fic at other online journals such as JournalFen, GreatestJournal, InsaneJournal, and at off-site on web-sites or other blogsites. There was a fannish discussion about how to to back up Livejournal accounts to these sites, and how to cross-post. There was much discussion over whether certain fandoms should exit en masse to one site, rather than fragment the fandom.
==Strikethrough/Boldthrough in the Bigger Picture: Some Analysis by Fans==
Some fans wrote of these incidents in light of bigger issues: the fact that they felt LiveJournal was shrinking. 
* LiveJournal is shrinking. In new faux-academic style!; Archive for page one; page two; Archive for page two, posted by pyrop:
 
* BoldThrough: User Loss for LiveJournal: A meta analysis with stats!; archive for page one; page two; archive for page two, post by partly bouncy at Fanthropology, the topic was a poll Hale had conducted:
* , post by Aja Romano at Daily Dot:
* State of the Migration: On fannish archival catastrophes, and what happens next by Greywash (context was Tumblr NSFW Content Purge) (Dec 4, 2018)
==Fanworks Inspired by Strikethrough and Boldthrough==
===The First Video Fandom Flounce===
In the wake of Strikethrough, Aja Romano demonstrated her repudiation of Livejournal by burning a LJ t-shirt on video.hearsawho. Transcript of the video, 04 August 2007. (Accessed 17 March 2015) However, the t-shirt was very difficult to ignite.Fandom Wank Wiki. The T-Shirt is Robust, via Wayback: 05 September 2011. (Accessed 17 March 2015) Many viewers were amused.Discussion in fandom_wank: Strikethrough Two: Electric Boogaloo - Apologies for trolling but ..., 04 August 2007. (Accessed 17 March 2015)A latter-day anon commentator wrote in fail_fandomanon: "I will never get over that. The fact that the t-shirt didn't light on fire at all, that it was horribly planned out in case it did light on fire (just sitting on her couch holding it with her arm??), and then that she still posted the unedited video online. Wow. Amazing." Re: Aja and Andy, 11 March 2015. (Accessed 17 March 2015) The video is no longer on YouTube, but the remix edition (using Tom Tom Club's "Genius of Love") is still viewable here. This is thought to be the first Video Flounce. The fact even received a own page on the Fandom Wank Wiki.
==="Hoist the Colours"===
The official Strikethrough 2007 song was "Hoist the Colours" from the Pirates of the Caribbean soundtrack. Speculation was rife (and probably accurate to some degree) that the purge had taken place at Memorial Day weekend, which led off with the premier of Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End, a film with extreme fannish appeal, so that members would be distracted and fail to notice that their accounts were disappearing. Many people commented to the unrelated update post on news.livejournal.com that weekend with the lyrics, especially the words "never shall we die", as a way of prodding the admins for an explanation.
* "Many comments on the recent news posts are either berating the Livejournal staff, demanding explanations, or quoting the song "Hoist the Colours" from the Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End soundtrack, which is considered by many to be the unofficial theme song of "Strikethrough '07" (as the event has been labeled, because deleted accounts are represented with a strikethrough upon deletion), due to the relevance of the lyrics to their situation." quoted by the archangel from the original wikipedia article (which no longer contains this statement) at [http://news.livejournal.com/98733.html?page=26 You Say It's Your Birthday at the official LJ news page (May 31, 2007) 
* "...given that the theme song seems to be "Hoist the Colours", and that someone in the original thread spam started the "I want parlay" comment, it was a natural choice." comment by chofi at Ardente veritate incendite tenebras mundi. (May 31, 2007) 
* "The "revolt" has gotten even more amusing now. Apparently they have their own theme song now. The chosen song is "Hoist the Colours" from the Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End. And oh yeah, the official name now is "Strikethrough '07"." comment by littlegreenwolf at Anime News Network, May 30, 2007 
===Icons===
Image:ljicon1.jpg|icon used by a fan in 2007 on her journal, credit unclear/unknown, "LIVEJOURNAL: SOME TERMS OF SERVICE ARE MORE EQUAL THAN OTHERS"
Image:ljbanners.jpg|two banners: "Free free to edit, alter, share, forward, whatevs. I am terribly annoyed at LJ/6A for their handling of this problem." from coell's journal 
Image:ljicon2.jpg|"I SURVIVED THE LIVEJOURNAL STRIKETHROUGH OF 2007"
Image:ljbanner2.jpg| banner: "Support freedom of EXPRESSION! LIVEJOURNAL STRIKETHROUGH O5/29/07"
===A Remix Playlist===
A fan created a remix playlist for "Strikethrough." 
==Further Reading==
===From Fans===
====General Link Roundups====
* (48 articles).
* (105 articles)
* , posted by akuma on August 7, 2007, includes many links
* NOTE: Beware, clicking on the links on this site often takes you to flashing, third-party invasive ad sites from which you cannot escape without a great deal of hassle.
==== 2007: May====
May 24, 2007
 
May 29, 2007
Catrinella was one of the earliest to respond, keeping a running commentary and link-filled post on the day's events. This post contains a list of directly-affected journals:
May 30, 2007:
* , Heidi8 at Fandom Lawyers: 
* It's time to accessorize my walker with a Hazmat suit..., post by monimala: 
* LJ User Action Centers; Archive for page one; page two; Archive for page two; page three; Archive for page three, post by liz marcs 
* , post by liz marcs 
May 31, 2007:
==== 2007: June==== 
June 1, 2007
June 5, 2007
June 6, 2007
June 13, 2007:
Comment by stewardess (June 13, 2007)
 
June 14, 2007:
June 18, 2007:
June 20, 2007:
June 30, 2007:
====2007: July====
July 8, 2007:
July 19, 2007:
 
July 20, 2007:
July 22, 2007:
July 24, 2007:
====2007: August: (Boldthrough Began)====
August 2, 2007:
* Christ on a Cracker - LJ/6A strikes again; Archive: p1 p2, post by imaginary circus (410 comments, many, many links)
August 3, 2007
* , post by Stewardess ("Um, ARBITRARY MUCH???")
August 4, 2007
August 5, 2007
August 6, 2007:
August 8, 2007
August 9, 2007
August 10, 2007
August 11, 2007
August 12, 2007
August 14, 2007
August 15, 2007
 
August 16, 2007
August 27, 2007
* , posted by kudra ("so, livejournal just responded to my letter about the content vikingcarrot was asked to remove. i posted the letter to my journal here.")
* , posted by kudra, August 27, 2007
====2007: September ====
September 4, 2007:
====2008====
====2015====
 
====2018====
====2021====
===Official LiveJournal Posts===
* , post by Barak Berkowitz (LJ staffer) ("For reasons we are still trying to figure out what was supposed to be a well planned attempt to clean up a few journals that were violating LiveJournal's policies that protect minors turned into a total mess. I can only say I’m sorry, explain what we did wrong and what we are doing to correct these problems and explain what we were trying to do but messed up so completely." Includes: "What we did wrong... How we are fixing it...So what were we trying to do when we messed up so badly?... Talking to press... Isn't this all just a panicked reaction to WFI?... Why did it take so long?...Will you make mistakes again?...Where is Brad?" (4863 comments) (May 31, 2007)
* Journals being restored, Archive, post by Barak Berkowitz (LJ staffer) ("As promised below we have reviewed the journals that have been suspended and are now in the midst of unsuspended about half of them. The class of suspensions that are being reversed are; 1. All Fandom journals 2. All fiction journals 3. All journals who that had problems in their profile only. A large number of journals that are clear violations of our policies will remain suspended. I will write a post in more detail soon but I wanted to get this up now as promised. We are truly sorry for the mess, we have more work yet to do.") (4801 comments) (May 31, 2007)
* , post by Barak Berkowitz (LJ staffer) ("I want to update you on the status of correcting the issues that occurred earlier this week: First, all journals and communities that were suspended that did not clearly violate community policies have been restored. Over the weekend and into the next couple of weeks we will be doing the following:") (4868 comments) (June 6, 2007)
* , post by Barak Berkowitz (LJ staffer) ("I want to say thank you to all of you who have been giving us a chance to correct the issues around suspended journals, and particularly to the abuse volunteers who have been working tirelessly to keep up with your feedback and correct any remaining problems. If there is any doubt, the abuse team thought they were executing exactly the policy that we wanted them to execute, and they thought it was as dumb as you did. The unfortunate fact is, a large amount of the problem was a failure in communications. That is my failure, not theirs, and I am very sorry about it. Over the last week, we have been making significant progress in clarifying and redefining or policies and procedures.") (3289 comments) (June 8, 2007)
* , post by ljkrissy (LJ staffer) ("It's been a rough week all around for the LiveJournal community and staff, and I've got to admit I'm a little nervous to come back and post to news! Everyone on the team is truly sorry for what we all went through, and we’re hoping to get back to our version of normal as soon as we can. We thank you for the calls and faxes, comments and posts. While we can't answer each one individually, we did take note of everyone's input and will be using that to improve our process and policies going forward.") (4782 comments) (June 8, 2007)
* , post by Abe Hassan (LJ staffer) at lj bz ("We're seeing a lot of confusion in the comments to our previous post. Our intention is to provide clarification, not to create concern. All it says is that things that are illegal under United States law aren't allowed here, either. (And as a note to our non-US users: yeah, we know since the laws are different, they can be really confusing to understand, and we're sorry.) We hear the community asking for clarification on what's allowed and what's not allowed. People far smarter than us have been trying for years to wrap language around these definitions, and it's not possible. What we can do is tell you the standards that we will be applying when "questionable" content is reported to us.") (has 4313 comments) (July 19, 2007)
* , post by theljstaff at lj biz ("We are sorry it has taken so long to address the concerned community members. From reading the recent comments there's a lot of misinformation regarding the two users who were permanently suspended on Friday. In this post we're going to try and condense and reiterate all of our recent policy clarifications as well as address the most frequent questions we've seen. To begin, we'd like to restate our policy on illegal and harmful content: Our goal is to encourage and promote a free and open community. We will only intervene to the extent needed to remove illegal and harmful content that is reported to us.") (4774 comments) (August 8, 2007)
* , post by theljstaff at lj biz ("Hey, everybody. We've heard loud and clear that a lot of you are worried about whether the policy clarifications we've been talking about are going to affect you or your communities. And there's of course a lot of frustration with some of the communications that have been going on. We wanted to take some steps to fix both of these problems. First, we’ve reached out to a large number of you and we’re listening to your feedback. Thank you so much to all of you who believe in the ability for all of us to work together, who've contributed so much to helping us get this stuff straightened out. This post won't address every single concern, but it's the first step of an ongoing process. We do think our actions will be a pretty good reminder that we’re all part of the same community here, and that we’re all ultimately on the same side.") (3067 comments) (August 13, 2007)
===Blogs and Industry ===
* Anime News Network, Declan McCullagh (30 May 2007)
* Six Apart Deletes 500 LiveJournals, Many Fannish by Melissa Wilson (many comments) (May 30, 2007)
* Six Apart Apologizes by Melissa Wilson (May 31, 2007)
* Slashdot, Samzenpus (31 May 2007)
 
* Wired Blog, Annalee Newitz (31 May 2007)
* Wired Blog, Annalee Newitz (31 May 2007)
* My Heart's in Accra (31 May 2007)
* CNET News, Declan McCullagh (31 May 2007)
* WebProNews, Doug Caverly (31 May 2007)
* BetaNews, Ed Oswald (01 June 2007)
* The Register, Lucy Sherriff (01 June 2007)
* AppScout, Alan Henry (01 June 2007)
* , AfterElton Blog, Christie Keith (01 June 2007) 
 
* , Web Pro News, Andy Beal (01 June 2007)
* SixApart Restores Journals by Melissa Wilson (June 2, 2007)
* More SixApart News by Melissa Wilson (June 9, 2007)
* Still Making Amends: Six Apart Selling Permanent Accounts on LiveJournal by Melissa Wilson (June 20, 2007)
* This Just In: Power Outage to Blame for Six Apart Downtime by Melissa Wilson (July 25, 2007) 
* Six Apart At It Again, Deletes Fan Art Journals on LiveJournal by Melissa Wilson (many comments) (August 3, 2007)
* Livejournal Employee Publicly Mocks Fandom by Leva Cygnet (many comments) (August 5, 2007)
* Livejournal Draws a Line in the Sand by Leva Cygnet (August 8, 2007)
* Livejournal Tries Again to Placate Fans by Leva Cygnet (contains many comments) (August 14, 2007)
* Six Apart Begins Issuing "Strikes" to Users by Melissa Wilson (August 16, 2007)
==See Also==
* Mike Diana and Boiled Angel. This 1992 case was a highly publicized show trial, and Diana's conviction set case law precedent for future creators. 
* Dead Kennedys 1986 obscenity trial over including surrealist artist H.R. Giger's Landscape XX as a poster with the Frankenchrist album. Dead Kennedys frontman Jello Biafra describes the trial on his spoken word album High Priest of Harmful Matter, contextualizing it in terms of increasing censorship and crackdowns on free speech in the U.S.
==References==
Category:2017 Featured Articles
Category:Fandom Occurrences
Category:Fandom Migration
Category:2007 Events