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That's funny, I see subdomains on LJ.

And you're making it seem like the fact that it's mostly female is a bad thing for an online community, eh? You'll fit in quite well at /., killer. I hope it keeps you warm at night, loser.

No one's breakfast journal could beat LJ user liza31337's. Unfortunately, she stopped updating it a while back after doing it for a full year.

That link isn't going to work right now, obviously.

Internap has been hosting LJ since long before Six Apart thought about taking over LJ. If you bother to read you'll know this.

Interesting observation about blogs. I'm a 40 year old female with an LJ and for some strange reason lots of people read my blog. I guess people do care about the shit I go on and on about.

Check it out sometime.

Agreed, there are plenty of useful uses for a LiveJournal. LiveJournals are also a great outlet for creative content. For example, my friend and I started a satirical blog on LiveJournal dubbed The Rhubarb. (Of course the link won't work until LJ is back up).

The promise
I remember when Chandler was first mooted. Finally an open souce project that has a vision of how to store and communicate small bits of information. Traditionally these types of applications have been lumped together with *ugly* (but accurate) acronymn, PIM.

Free the data
This is an important step in applications. Historically data is trapped or obfusticated into applications. Once you enter the data in it you can only get at it by jumping through the fire breathing coding hoops. Ocassionally its open souce (mozilla mork) but commercial applications take this to a new level - (think MS Outlook Express).

Updated Agenda?
For the younger /.'s this is not the first crack Mitch has had at this market. In '88 Mitch Kapor (father of Lotus 123, Notes) Agenda was released into the PIM market to some success. The runs are on the board. Could Chandler be the answer?

• ... A major lesson learnt from the last two years, is that we took on too much, and had too high an ambition level for the near-term. This "great leap forward" strategy didn't pan out. Instead, we have primarily switched to a "dog food" strategy to quickly develop a first release that is minimally usable, on a day-to-day basis, for us within OSAF and for our info-intensive, techno-savvy early adopters. ...

Release early and often
Well after 0.4 release I dont see anything compelling. It has trouble working on Windows, it's monolithic and appears to be *weighed* down in specifications of how to do things rather than results. Chandler looks good on paper but in clumping email, calandering, PIM and other messaging it has lost for me its original appeal. I want it usable now. Even if it is a little bit at a time. For me like its name sake (Raymond) I'm still searching for a usable application.

Alternative
So there you have it I've trashed a computer industry veteran who has runs on the board but has failed to deliver. Whats an alternative. Well one example is a Gnome app called Tomboy. Its a simple mono, GTK based note taking applet that is searchable. It allows you to click on links according to mime types and load an application. It has spell checking (along with references to various IBM patents). But the single kicker that has moved Tomboy into my sights is the integration of Tomboy with Evolution (unix version that mirrors crappy Outlook in too may ways) and Beagle The Gnome desktop is now using Tomboy as the *PIM* input and building a plugin to Evolution (email, calander), Beagle (searching). So bit by bit it's making Chandler less attractive to me.

lessons
It helps to have access to an open souce platform. Release often and early. Build an application (especially a first version) to do one thing and do it well. Get a result. Dont bloat a product with features if it is not vital and work out how can you work with other applications. Tomboy may only have a short shelf life or morph into something else in as it develops but it works right now and does the job.

BTW: Great job, guys.

It seemed like a throwaway line in the status report, and didn't really have any details attached to it. NetBSD getting PAM is big news though -- some of the flame wars between the BSDAuth folks and the PAM folks in the NetBSD community were legendary for their ability to burn unsuspecting posters.

I found some information at a livejournal posting, but I haven't been able to dig much else up.

Have you actually seen the documentation of Firefox's formats?

The history file, for example, is spectacularly awful. Check out https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=24143 8
(not a link since bugzilla won't accept Slashdot as a referrer) - "please make history.dat easier to parse (i.e., not Mork)"

Some other references to the format:

http://www.mozilla.org/mailnews/arch/mork/primer.t xt
http://jwz.livejournal.com/312657.html
http://www.jwz.org/doc/mailsum.html

It doesn't sound odd at all. We Mac users understand. I gave Emacs more than two months of my time, switched back to J, and detailed my irritations with Emacs on LiveJournal.

I used to use TextWrangler (bought it more than a year ago), but it just doesn't have the Lisp-related features I need.

"So shield, people, shield. And screen. And if you can shield a polling place, do it! I'm not saying to try to interfere with people's choices, but rather prevent them from being interfered with." --Magical Election Tampering: SHUT IT DOWN!

If I judge it correctly, and I think that I do, Justin seems to have designed OpenGL as well: http://www.livejournal.com/users/garote/57955.html

The idea that consumers who already like watching such porn would be offended by seeing the flaws in all their glory seems a bit suspect.

There's a diffence between appreciating porn featuring non-models and liking porn that features dumpy acne-riddled women with cellulite.

Most people who like amateur porn probably like it for its "girl-next-door" feel. The myth of amateur porn is that they're completely genuine and are probably so horny that they would have let themselves be photographed for free, just to get off on the idea of men watching them. In a sense, professional models are both more powerful (as they are seen as being in control of their sexuality, as this is their full time career) and more objectified (they are appreciated only for their physical appearance, and not who they are as people). Amateur models are seen as less empowered (they are often depicted as being approached, unawares, by men with cameras who are able to "trick" them into being captured on film; although both models and amateurs are doing it for the money, the money becomes more apparent with the amateurs and is generally framed in language of "supporting" the amateur [often in her pursuit of a college degree]) and yet more personified (on many sites, the section where the amateur keeps a journal, diary, or an online forum is very popular).

So the difference between the two types of porn is more on personality than on physicality. I think the expectation would be that you still expect physcial perfection from both parties. And remember: there's plenty of people with "plump" fetishes. I don't think there's many people with "bad skin" fetishes.

Ugh. Nevermind

The Sad State of Writing and Editing

http://www.livejournal.com/users/girlvinyl/178809. html?thread=1043321#t1043321

"If you want to run for the hills and backup your journal and move to another service, feel free, but hopefully you'll be back in 6 months when we've proven ourselves."

That's good advice nowso more than ever. I ran for the hills and, honestly, I doubt I'll be back in 6 months. ModBlog offers unlimited image space, full image gallery, free domain forwarding/pointing, live-time stats, no ads, chatterbox, RSS feed, music playlist import and way more is hard to beat. Did I mention it's all free without ads? There isn't even a "paid" or "premium" option because it's all already free!

Since Brad neglected to give the link, I will.
http://www.livejournal.com/export.bml
Exported from LiveJournal (XML) -> Imported into ModBlog. Blam. Done. That easy. Literally.

No, this isn't an ad or spam. I'm just saying... it worked for me. And since Brad said to, don't we owe it to ourselves to follow the directions of our Fearless Leader? http://www.ModBlog.com

"person" was lying.

And then they brought in queues - where paid users got served faster than unpaid users.

See here

Take a look at his LiveJournal, for example. Well nigh every other post is an ego-wank of a calibre to make even DJB shake his head in shame. Bram's right and everyone else in the world is a moron.

Some years ago, I was on a mailing list with him. During a discussion on building crypto-using apps, a few posters were arguing in favor of making sure apps used parameterizable encryption a/o hashing algorithms -- so when, say, a weakness is discovered in MD5 (hmm ... sounds familiar, no?), you weren't hosed. Bram disagreed, suggesting that merely the app's version number was somehow sufficient for getting around the problem. You just push out an upgrade that uses a new algorithm.

His response to perfectly civil -- oh yeah, and valid, sound, convincing argument that his suggestion was bunk, such as that you can't force users to upgrade, how will new versions play nicely with old, &c, was "Fuck you" and name-calling.

Nice.

I'll still use his protocol, and even donate, because it's about the best we've got right now for what it does, and I appreciate that. But I don't -- and don't have to -- like or respect him.

Read this post.

Not all of them are moving.

I use LJ and I've raised some interesting points. I hope I get a response that isn't Lawyerese for "stick this spiked dildo up your ass".

They've ripped their commitment to keeping the site as Free Software out of their social contract (which they've renamed to 'guiding principles' anyway).

Details of the change are here.

Someone asked Brad directly if it was Danga or just LJ that was being sold and he stated it was all of it.

Stephen

You mean this? http://www.livejournal.com/users/news/82926.html?t hread=17471214#t17471214

Okay, being a five-year user of LJ (user number 1112, suckers) and perm-account holder, I've got a considerable stake in all this. It makes me nervous. I'm not familiar enough with Six Apart and their treatment of MT to be confident in their ability to maintain the status quo around LJ-land. I'm afraid that the business will do what all businesses do, and eventually change from being "for the people" to being "for the profit."

There are literally hundreds of thousands of people who have put time and effort into their own little portion of the Internet, and I'm afraid that with one motion Brad's damaged their stock. The thing is - this is something Brad's been putting his life into for around six years now. If anything he's got the most to lose. (Ignoring the nice chunck of change he jsut pocketed.) Hopefully he walked into this with due diligence and maintains some official control over where LJ will head.

I suppose that's the one question I haven't seen answered - from what Brad said, it seems like he's now just an employee. Any official power he now has is ceremonial. So I hope he made the right choice.

One, I keep a tightly-knit friends-list, and sadly enough, those people would not read my journal regularly if it were not on Livejournal. On LJ, it's just a matter of opening up the "friends page" and seeing all of your friends' entries at once. Handy and keeps you and your buddies close, even if you rarely have the chance to really chat or talk.

Two, I adore the communities. When I need information on some subject, there's always a community. Not only that, but it's usually active. I prefer having a human helping hand rather than that of a search engine; both at once are even better (ha.) For example, I trust the ladies at the VaginaPagina community to relate experiences and help--especially since everyone is there to do just that.

I used to scoff at LJ, but now that I'm there, I just can't leave.

So long as the amateur porn stays in place, and I can continue to co-admin my porn community, then all is well. (You need to get an account to read the community, and list a valid 18+ birthdate, and submit a join-request. This is so the community doesn't get deleted. It's a CYA maneuver by the livejournal administration to ensure that everybody who watches porn can lie about their age.)

--grendel drago

Then she's not the only one to get spyware, are you sure you're right? http://www.livejournal.com/community/lasvegas/5968 36.html

People are already reporting ads on LJ, even for paid users: http://www.livejournal.com/users/girlvinyl/178809. html

Read more.

• Weblogging Software Leader Six Apart Acquires LiveJournal
• Six Apart bought LiveJournal!
• LiveJournal and Six Aart

Not anymore, he isn't...

Live Journal Confirms the reports http://www.livejournal.com/users/news/82926.html Six Apart reoprts here: http://www.sixapart.com/corner/archives/2005/01/cu rrent_mood_op.shtml http://www.sixapart.com/press/livejournal_acquisit ion_faq.shtml and http://www.sixapart.com/press/weblogging_software_ leader_six_apar.shtml

It's true.

What's more, LiveJournal itself has confirmed it.

The official confirmation here.

Ya.. me too -- but google helps.

Read on...

Here is the FAQ dealing with archiving journals. I really don't think that having a CSV or XML file with the entries around is "not easy". One thing the FAQ seems to hint at is that you don't get the comments attached to the post. Unlike (apparently) a lot of other LJers, my LJ is by me, for me, and everyone else can choose to read it or not (that is to say, comments aren't why I keep a LJ). So in that respect, I'm like you - I don't care about traffic.

Point is: no you aren't screwed if they get bought out, and considering that LJ is Brad Fitz's baby, I think this is all romourware anyway.

LiveJournal is a lot more than most people think.

It is, for instance, a fully-functional RSS aggregator, which means that you can subscribe to and read most major weblogs in your customized "friends list".

LiveJournal also has interest-based communities on every subject under the sun, whether your interest is perl, porn, or just things happening in your neighborhood. Some very well known open source geeks can be found on LiveJournal, including some of the staff of /.

If you have an interest in languages or travel, LiveJournal has tens of thousands of members in other countries, who can share their unique perspectives with you. I have used LJ to communicate with soldiers in Iraq, and tsunami victims in Thailand. I also use it to read music reviews, download mp3s, amusing videos, torrents, etc.

Above all, it's really simple to avoid LJ drama. Don't be a drama queen, don't befriend drama queens, and if someone leaves an inappropriate comment, ban them from posting again. Most of the people I have on my friends list are very intelligent people. Only a small handful of them are teenagers... so as far as my journal goes, drama simply doesn't exist because I simply chose to not invite it.

Those who think that LJ is just drama and pithy comments just don't know LJ, period.

One of the reasons that some blogs which ultilize the WordPress and / or MovableType format in style is that these services, generally speaking, cost something (even if a small amount), not only in money but in (marginal but present) communication with server B.

About 97% of LJ's users (it changes but generally remains in this number : here is their stats page) are free. A few reasonably intelligent luminaries, including for example horror author Poppy Z. Brite, have blogs at the site so of course free or 'common' shouldn't necessarily equal 'demise' or 'not worthy'. Many people use electricity and that won't be going away anytime soon (although hopefully it will change to more environmentally-friendly methods such as wind and water power, however I digress). Just my 2 cents.

Folksonomies (the first meme of 2005?) is attributed by Wikipedia to Thomas Vander Wa.

Adam Mathes has a thesis on Folksonomies which examines user-generated metadata as implemented and applied in two web services - Del.icio.us and Flickr - designed to share and organize digital media to better understand grassroots classification.

IFTF's Future Now makes a point about problems with folksonomies: no synonym control ( "mac" and "macintosh" on Del.icio.us); no hierarchy and content types; and only simple one-word tags. Are these features or bugs? Consensuss says 'feature'. Andrew Ducker has a suggestion for synonyms and a modest proposal

Joho the Blog notices a discussion about what to call it in Mob indexing? Folk categorization? Social tagging?,
John Battelle links into Taggle and "federated tagging".

I wonder if a Google Suggest like system might reduce 'lazy tagging' ,and maybe synonym control when the federation appears.

New: In Beyond Laser Tag and Telephone Tag, JC Francois wonders if "2005 will be the year of tagging".

Will Folksonomies lead to the nirvana of the Semantic Web, or at least Semantic web light? (see : ftrain.com August 2009: How Google beat Amazon and Ebay to the Semantic Web)

Tag, you're still it!"

I find LJ to be all I need in a blogging service. I type, click post, etc. Friends read it, comment, inside jokes abound, etc., etc.

As far as community goes, you need to really pick and choose which communities you watch. Many of them are, as a recent poster said, 12 year-old girls whining about their parents. Also, it tends to be popular with the emo-punk crowd (which may be good or bad in your opinion).

I got in just after it became a free for all service (before you needed a referral from a pay account or some $$$). I really only use it as a way to let distant friends/relatives what's new and/or interesting IMHO.

http://www.livejournal.com/community/show_your_boo bs/
http://www.livejournal.com/community/show_your_pus sy/

http://www.livejournal.com/community/show_your_boo bs/
http://www.livejournal.com/community/show_your_pus sy/

here you go, m8:
http://livejournal.com/~show_your_b00bs/info

I've been a 'member' of LiveJournal since 2001. In that time, I've seen many changes to the service, and most of them have been for the better. The server system seems stable (albeit slow sometimes, but outages are rare) and the development team seems extremely closely knit.

I seriously doubt that they will give up the ship so easily, unless they were offered a tremendous sum. There seems to be too much pride in the systems they've coded themselves. It's no small feat to create and maintain a system that houses over a million and a half active accounts. (just check the livejournal.com main page.

See LJers freak about it here.

This is already well known. (Pity I can't find the original.)

Sometimes bitchy, sometimes gothy:

opportunitygrrl

spiritrover