It's so hard to see what's disappeared

[nancylebov]

From a comment to rm, here:

For awhile, I was helping to maintain a veterans community.

Sometime around when LJ cracked down on fandom, they also quietly wiped out most military schools, as well as some journals of members currently involved in the conflicts in Afghanistan and Iraq.

I've been a little baffled why even in the midst of the the fandom issues, LJ would leave "Starfleet Academy" and "Hogwarts", and "Miskatonic University" (which are great for fan communities to embrace), yet actual training like "Infantry School" and "Airborne School" (both of which actually exist) are now gone and unable to be re-added. Personally, I met close friends at both of those places, learned more than a few valuable lessons, and probably still carry a little scar tissue from my times there.

Additionally, when some of the soldier's journals disappeared, it's impossible to tell the reason. Did the government demand they be pulled for security/censorship issues? Did someone flag them because they disagreed with the political issues? Or were these journals actually deleted by the members for their own privacy? (In at least one case, I'd really like to know if that person is alive or dead.) If LJ is going to wipe out a journal, it would be nice to at least have a vague inclination as to why.

Since then, many members of that community have simply taken to blogging elsewhere.

Thanks,
-Christopher-Ian