Readers of the Lux Living blog woke up today to find that the site now has a black on white message--ACTIVISM IS A THANKLESS JOB. The message hangs there for a few seconds to then glide into the front page of Stuyvesant Town's official website.
The person behind the blog (Lux Living, for want of a real name) had already stated a couple of weeks ago that the blog would be shutting down, or at least in some kind of hibernation, with occasion posts when warranted.
There will be, no doubt, considerable discussion as to what happened and if the recent barrage of rancorous comments on the blog, with a few commentators mercilessly and persistently attacking each other in the ugliest ways, was key in impelling Lux to post his message and supposedly sign off the way he did. Possibly, but it would have been easy for Lux to moderate the comments or, if he was going away or didn't have time to monitor the blog, shut down the comment section, leaving his blog posts still online. I think behind this all are reasons we are not privy to--though I have my suppositions.
Whatever the case, the blog can easily come back, as I'm assuming Lux Living hasn't deleted it, but has it stored in cyberspace and on his hard drive. So I think it's unwise to yet say RIP.
Having said all this, I'm sure that we all thank Lux Living for starting his blog and continuing on with it for as long as he did. Lux's posts were both witty and informative and shook up the management establishment. The blog was certainly the bane of Tishman Speyer. If Lux is really gone, obviously he will be missed.
28 comments:
"The blog was certainly the bane of Tishman Speyer."
Oh, please.
It's easier to piss and moan than rear up on your hind legs and step out from behind your computer and do something. LL might have been a blip on the management office's radar, but to say it was the "bane" of Tishman Speyer? Get real.
Misery loves company -- that's why LL was such a "success," with all its ten or eleven commenters.
I think you undervalue the power of the internet. Put in "Stuyvesant Town" into your Google search engine and see what you get. Lux's blog is near the top of the page.
BTW, today's a beautiful day, so I'm out the door soon, so comments will have to wait for approval later on.
I hope that Lux Living hasn't gone away permanently. Tishman Speyer shouldn't get off that easily! However, I do think that LL needed to draw a line as to the content of posts by very over-the-top personal attackers and set some standard of decency. If that meant banning obscene and inappropriate posters, it should have been done. LL didn't allow racist material on his blog. He laid down the law concerning that very early on in the site's history - and quite rightly so. I think he could have done the same with persistently rancorous, off-topic posters who made personal attacks on each other. Also, the defamatory and sickening sexual content of some of the posts concerning Rob Speyer (who none of us loves anyway!) was possibly an affront to some people's sense of decency and detracted from the site's purpose of exposing what a horrible landlord he is. It almost made him a sympathetic character! The last thing we want to do! Maybe Lux Living doesn't have the time or the inclination to moderate the site, but I agree that it would be a good thing to leave it up without allowing further comments, so that we can see the brilliance of HIS efforts - and continue to humiliate TS. When it comes to comments on a blog, I think that quality and relevance, rather than quantity, is what is important. This is just one person's opinion, of course, and I don't claim to speak for anyone else.
Yes, but the Lux Living URL now redirects to the official Tishman Speyer website. So Luxie must have given up the domain? Why would he do that?
He hasn't given up his domain.
So why would he allow his URL to redirect to the landlord's website?
It's still online, as an archive. Hadn't seen it in a day or so and made the mistake of looking at it LATE last night. I got the re-directed homepage. Poked around, saw the archived posts and after reading all the out of control trash posted there, realized that he DEFINITELY took it down. Way to ruin the party, people!! Hopefully, Lux'll leave it up, at least, just for reference. Otherwise, sorry to see you go. You performed a wonderful service.
"It's easier to piss and moan than rear up on your hind legs and step out from behind your computer and do something."
Many of the contributions to LL did "do something" Contributors took photos and submitted them, wrote about conditions on the property and Tishman management did read the blog. Sometimes problems were addressed, other times ignored, but I guarantee you that the LL voice can/was/is a more powerful tool than a call to Resident Services.
And just FYI, you can't assume that community residents don't actually "do" things (in addition to posting on the internet). They often work quite vigorously behind the scenes, and are in contact with management, city agencies and members of the TA.
I'll agree with STR that the avalanche of truth that was available on LL was pervasive on the internet and had quite an influence. LL was mentioned frequently on other real estate blogs, read by thousands and most likely made an appearance or 2 on the computer screens of the Speyer's themselves.
Whatever reason Lux has (I can think of a couple), it is his choice to have done that. He hasn't given up his URL, nor does Tishman Speyer have anything to do with the redirect.
Very sad how two commenters abused their friendship with LL, running roughshod over his site. Not sure how he's going to be able to proceed - there seem to be only three choices that he has from here on.
1. moderate comments
2. no comments
3. ban persistently troublesome commenters, two of whom are his personal friends
"LL has abandoned his blog (which hasn't been funny in a long time)"
Oh really, it's my comedic timing that's the problem???
I'm tired of babysitting people who feel the need to hide behind multiple screen names, fight with other commenters, then come crying to me when they don't like the sh*t they stirred. And to have the nerve to come over here and complain that I haven't been funny?
Beulah wasn't content with 4 screen names at Lux Living, I hope she'll be happy here being just another "anonymous" commenter on the Internet.
PS
I know for a fact that people have written other comments here that you are choosing not to publish for whatever reason. THAT isn't "moderation" either. That's censorship.
Stuyvesant Town's Lux Living was a super creative and highly effective endeavor. It was my all time favorite website, and I blame the TA for it's demise. Since they shut down their message board, all the usual complainers moved over to LL and took over the comments section. I will miss you LL!!!
Sorry, but I'm going to moderate this blog in the way it feels right to me. My blog is not going to be a free for all, and I certainly am not going to allow comments that wildly attack me, this blog or any commentators here. I am not a government entity, so "censorship" does not enter into the equation.
You should be sorry. I'm sure you'll build a really strong following with readers who may or may not be given a voice depending on your mood.
Lux Living - the moron that accused your blog of no longer being funny is totally full of it!!! There are some who just LOVE to complain, and it has nothing to do with the quality of your writing and satire, which is consistently brilliant. Our entire office reads your site daily and absolutely adore your scathing, brilliant satire! Ignore those who claim otherwise, they are obviously jealous.
Your writing is funnier and more clever than The Onion and Saturday Night Live combined, and we will miss you.
And this is, or was, the problem:
http://stuytownluxliving.com/2009/07/tishman-speyer-continues-to-confuse-tenants.html
It's hard to endure reading through those comments. Call it moderation or censorship, but something was needed to clean that up.
Lux, my interest is not to build up a strong following. As you yourself have probably realized by now, "a strong following" doesn't get one much, considering how many people turned up at the photo protest event you staged a few weeks ago or how many people have voted for your blog in the Best Humor department. Stats notwithstanding, your blog and my blog are read by a limited number of people--or at least a limited amount who CARE. I realized this from the get-go. You didn't?
A few have ruined it for the (at times) silent majority - those few whose ad hominem attacks have detracted from what has been a valuable tool.
We lost what was once a great community in Stuyvesant Town, let's hope this is not the loss of another great community in Lux Living.
Don't make assumptions about my readership. Lux Living is up to about 26,000 readers a month gaining readership at a rate of 5% a month.
And don't mock my efforts for organizing people to stand up to Tishman Speyer's fake photo rules as dictated by misinformed security who bully residents. People did show up. I showed up.
People who voted or didn't vote for my site in a contest isn't a reflection of "caring". For someone your age I would think you would have a broader picture of things.
It's interesting that Lux Living assumes it was "Beulah" who said his blog wasn't funny anymore and seems to blame her exclusively for all the sh*t that occurred.
Yeah, people did show up. Four, five, not including yourself.
Come on, let's get real here.
Just a note: I'm not going to approve more posts about "Beulah" or whoever. I'm just not interested in having that type of back-and-forth on this blog. Thanks for understanding.
If you feel this is too constraining, set up your own blog and talk about the various personalities, real and imagined, who dominated the comment section of Lux's blog.
I don't think it really matters whether or not a lot of people showed up at the "photography ban" protest; what's important is that it made Tishman Speyer react to the controversy and set it's security force straight as to the rules and regulations about photography on the property. That was what was needed and that was what was achieved.
"Your writing is funnier and more clever than The Onion and Saturday Night Live combined..."
Now *that's* funny.
I think LL thought itself the Gawker of "crusader" blogs -- always snarky, often juvenile, and cleverer by half.
Mr./Ms. LL could have turned commenting off and continued posting, but he/she took the martyrdom route instead. What an attention whore.
Thank you for trying to clean up the utter disgusting back and forth from the few foul mouthed crazies on LL. Please censor them. teh did ruimn his site and as mentioned, since they were his friends, were allowed to continue posting.
Lux continued to be funny till the end - unfortunately the psycho nuts who had nothing better to do than attack anyone and everyone - that made it really painful to read.
I hope you can continue on without all the venom that used to infiltrate LL for the last 6 months at least.
I find it hard to believe that Lux Living closed his site down because he's in a snit over one silly person who said his blog wasn't funny. There has to be a more substantial reason than that. I think that the parts that he wrote were always funny and that a lot of comments were funny. A lot of the comments recently were not so funny. He should have just banned the nasty commenters and left the blog up for all (except Tishman Speyer) to enjoy.
The high drama appears to be over, at least this phase of it. Lux's blog is back.
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