I just filed my first abuse report:

Deadly Contests 0_thinspiration holds contests in which the anorexic participants try to lose the most weight possible in a short amount of time. This is a potentially deadly contest, and I would hate to see lj share in that liability. The information about the contest is listed on their profile. from the profile of 0_thinspiration: Competition [06.20.05 - 07.20.05] This is a little weight loss competition that is just meant to keep people on their goals. It runs for a month and members compete to lose the most doing whatever they want (fasting, binge & purge, excersize, pills). We put their starting weight & height in a special entry, and we announce the winner at the end.

Some of you will note that this is different than my old attitude towards pro-ana communities. While I never much cared for the communities, I thought they should be left up for two reasons: 1) free speech issues 2) attacking the communities was in effect attacking the victims of anorexia and not the root causes (the marketing, entertainment, news, fashion, and beauty industries).

The first point has always been shakey in my view, as LiveJournal is a privately run forum, and therefore has every right to monitor the content on it's servers. LiveJournal has always censored content. There would need to be no new precedent set about the pro-ana communities.

As far as the second point goes, my views on the root causes has not changed. I still firmly believe something must be done about the problem. However, pro-ana communities (especially ones that hold contests or rate users) promote, spread, and worsen eating disorders. I don't believe people should go into these communities and tell the people in them off. Harassment will help no one, further victimizes victims of corporate culture, and causes members to become insular and separated from those who could help them. Shutting them down, especially when they cross some very fine lines, is more appropriate.