Slashdot Mirror

Have a look at www.livejournal.com.

Briefly, it's a free site that allows you to write a journal that other members (and the general public) can read. It's a little more interesting than that, but I can't really do it justice.

ANYWAY, they've set it up as a free site and given their users the option of paying $25 to use the site. I think only 2% of the (now) 100,000 or so users have paid, but they have enough money to keep upgrading servers and have even started paying some of the staff, who up until now were working for free.

He is, in effect saying: "Small, tasteful ads don't work... and bigger, less tasteful ads won't work... so lets force people to sit through huge, massively annoying ads instead."

The real truth is that banner ads do work... they just don't work well enough to pay the salary of a whole giant staff of writers, managers, and execs with dotcom aspirations. Even more true is the fact that we are literally surrounded by advertising these days... far more than ever before. We have many more choices too... hundreds of channels, thousands of magazines, and a Google of websites. Still, the amount of viewers hasn't grown to keep up with the growth of all these advertising choices.

What would you call it if a government based a currency on gold, but then printed tons and tons of funny money to build all sorts of things they couldn't otherwise afford? What would be the effect? Inflation. That is the real problem with advertising everywhere... the cost is horribly inflated.

Those involved in advertising vehemently deny this, of course. Advertising is like a currency unto itself... usually it involves selling air. Sometimes paper... sometimes bits and bytes. It's a currency, in that it has little inherent value unless we believe it does.

Advertising today is more expensive than ever. Back in the '60s, you could produce and air a nationwide ad for a few thousand dollars, show it during Gunsmoke and get, say, 25% of the country to see it. Today, you can spend a million dollars and you're lucky if you get a fraction of the response.

In other words, inflation. The ads are the currency, and we are the gold that backs the currency up. The growth of the potential audience for advertising and of the standard of living for that audience hasn't kept up with the number of ads... by all rights, advertising should be less expensive than ever, and all the web statistics out there are pointing out this fact.

The real problem is that the emperor has no clothes, and that, through statistics, the advertising industry has intentionally overvalued the true value of advertising across the board. They've even built up a dogmatic school of thought which makes questioning the value of advertising a traitorous act. The point of fact is the value of advertising does not equate to the salary of overpaid ad execs, producers, designers, focus groups, etc... it equates to the return on investment. As a business, I want to spend $2 and get $3 back... but with advertising, and especially with online advertising, you're lucky sometimes if you spend $10 and get $1 back.

At the site I help run, we rely on memberships for funding. So far, it looks like we will make about 50 cents per user per year based on our business model. We also find that we get about 35% more growth by being banner ad free, which also translates into additional income. Being member supported doesn't prevent us from making additional revenue from potential business partners, either.

One last point... Take, for example, the excellent web-based cartoons at Spumco... If you had long, funny, animated ads created by some great talent, you'd expect a lot of success, right?! Well, that never really materialized... If John K., a person who has won numerous awards for both animation and advertising, can't make web-based advertising work, why should it work better for anyone else? If you must go begging for money, why not go straight to the source?

look here:
http://www.livejournal.com/files/code/

Than what? I tried it before, and I got sick of it, really quick. They were always having server problems, and since I'm not an HTML guru I never could figure out their tags and actually make sense of anything.

Blogger was also horrible at keeping track of archives and I suppose it's better if you like having literally dozens of little files named stuff like pyra.bak scattered all over your directory. It's really good at pooping files everywhere.

You can embed LiveJournal into your own website as well and it's WAY easier to update. All you need to do is go to the website or go here and download a client for your operating system. Yes, there's an OPEN SOURCE Linux client as well. *grin*

As far as Blogger sucking because its source isn't open.. I don't quite get that, but to each his own. Not every closed source project sucks. But for those of you that are concerned, LiveJournal's source code is open source now, and I believe the clients are as well.

There's even a MacOS X client. :)

Than what? I tried it before, and I got sick of it, really quick. They were always having server problems, and since I'm not an HTML guru I never could figure out their tags and actually make sense of anything.

Blogger was also horrible at keeping track of archives and I suppose it's better if you like having literally dozens of little files named stuff like pyra.bak scattered all over your directory. It's really good at pooping files everywhere.

You can embed LiveJournal into your own website as well and it's WAY easier to update. All you need to do is go to the website or go here and download a client for your operating system. Yes, there's an OPEN SOURCE Linux client as well. *grin*

As far as Blogger sucking because its source isn't open.. I don't quite get that, but to each his own. Not every closed source project sucks. But for those of you that are concerned, LiveJournal's source code is open source now, and I believe the clients are as well.

There's even a MacOS X client. :)

The creator of Livejournal and his team opened up the source a short while ago. So, if you don't want to use Blogger that's fine but if you want to use something or install it yourself or help a project built on perl... check out LJ.

I have been using LJ for over a year now. I have tried Blogger as well. I just didn't like the flow of Blogger and I really missed having comments. Comments and a security model are half the fun of Livejournal.

Livejournal let's you see things like stats pages showing how much the site has grown over time. I wonder why /. never had one of these listed? Or did they?

/. folks would probably like some of the information you get from the lj_dev group. It isn't just LJ specific information but it talks about scaling the site and how to improve on the servers that run it currently.

-Jay

The creator of Livejournal and his team opened up the source a short while ago. So, if you don't want to use Blogger that's fine but if you want to use something or install it yourself or help a project built on perl... check out LJ.

I have been using LJ for over a year now. I have tried Blogger as well. I just didn't like the flow of Blogger and I really missed having comments. Comments and a security model are half the fun of Livejournal.

Livejournal let's you see things like stats pages showing how much the site has grown over time. I wonder why /. never had one of these listed? Or did they?

/. folks would probably like some of the information you get from the lj_dev group. It isn't just LJ specific information but it talks about scaling the site and how to improve on the servers that run it currently.

-Jay

The creator of Livejournal and his team opened up the source a short while ago. So, if you don't want to use Blogger that's fine but if you want to use something or install it yourself or help a project built on perl... check out LJ.

I have been using LJ for over a year now. I have tried Blogger as well. I just didn't like the flow of Blogger and I really missed having comments. Comments and a security model are half the fun of Livejournal.

Livejournal let's you see things like stats pages showing how much the site has grown over time. I wonder why /. never had one of these listed? Or did they?

/. folks would probably like some of the information you get from the lj_dev group. It isn't just LJ specific information but it talks about scaling the site and how to improve on the servers that run it currently.

-Jay

I have a friend who gave up on Blogger, and switched to LiveJournal, because it wouldn't work all the time. LiveJournal is free, and I believe opensource.

Personally, I prefer LiveJournal over Blogger. It's open source, and not funded by any dot-coms, but by the users!

You forgot about scribble.nu, livejournal.com, pitas.com, opendiary.com, and several others that aren't coming to me at the moment. I should point out that of course I'm not going to link to my competitors, that runs against the idea of promotion.

I did help Avian Chaos with several slashdot-trolling programs, mostly because I thought they were nifty and useful. You can still get them, in fact, from http://awdang.com/slashgame/. There's three different versions of the slashgame, one unfinished version of the game in perl, and a few utilities for googlifying text and finding hidden sids.

The scripts themselves can't take anything down except maybe Google. None of them automatically post anything to slashdot; they only look at slashdot or google, and print text to standard output.

It's been a while since I looked at the number of diaryland users. Oh well.

--
Stephen Deken.

We are a website for user-created communities and online journaling. At one point, we tried banner ads on all non-member journal pages. What we discovered was that we had about 25% fewer new users due to banner ads. The amount of money we received from banner ads was a very small proportion of what we received from memberships. It became obvious to us that for every quarter we were making, we were annoying 1000 other people.

We have since removed banner ads, relying instead on funding from our members. We have also encouraged goodwill by moving towards open sourcing all our software and encouraging users to help support and develop the site.

The results? We have received about $30,000 in member donations in the past 5 months or so, have over 100 volunteers, and have 65,000 users, doubling in size every three months.

It's worth pointing out that the sites who really make money on banner ads aren't the tiny "mom & pop" websites. To really make money on banner ads, you need to be big enough that you can offer advertisers very specific, pinpointed demographics. As the demise of so many dotcoms has shown, banner ads in and of themselves do not constitute a stable, scalable business model.

60 days?!?!? If we just got /.ted, I'd cut that in half, if not more! (but then, I'm biased. Mine is at LiveJournal... I've even paid them!)

First, a bit about LiveJournal. We are a site with around 65,000 users, doubling in size every three months. Unlike Blogger, we are a free interactive online community created, designed, and supported by the people who use it.

LiveJournal enables its users to easily create online journals and communities. Updating your journal or community is as simple as typing into a software client or web browser screen and hitting submit... no html is needed, and spell checking, linking, and adding images to your journal is standard for all our major software clients. We have clients for every platform I can think of practically... Linux? PalmOS? BeOS? No problem. Since LiveJournal volunteers design, expand, and constantly improve the site's features, we expect to develop open source community-based applications at an increasing rate.

Why are weblogs important? Well, any new idea has a novelty phase, where people say "Neat, but what can it do?".. there are serious business applications for weblogs. For instance, LiveJournal uses its own communities, such as lj_dev and lj_biz to organize the sites' business and development efforts. I know that these communities are a great alternative to organizing groups with maillists; LiveJournal communities have about 15 times more posts per user per month than comparable maillist communities, according to our statsistics. If you also figure in that you can add other web-based applications as part of your community, such as chat, planning, calendar, and organization-oriented applications, maillists and Usenet-like solutions start looking pretty dated.

If you think about it, all weblogs really are is a modern-day adaptation of Usenet for web browsers. Weblogs can be used for numerous purposes, such as journals, communities, and weblogs... but ultimately, their real value to people is when they are connected together, allowing people to interact.

Our long-term goal is an Internet where websites are much more dynamic than today... where you can essentially add the content and the people that interest you to a friends list. Want to add your favorite musician to your friends list and hear their latest songs over the Internet? How about your favorite underground comic strip? As you can see, there are applications that are far bigger than just reading your friends journal. We have the opportunity to create a uniquely open source kind of media that isn't controlled by the powers that be. Unlike push technology (that pushed ads on your desktop) you can have customized webpages designed to keep you connected with the latest entries from your friends, in communities, websites (such as Slashdot), and some of the most interesting people all over the Internet.

So, yeah. Weblogs are important if you think that the ability to fundamentally change the nature of the Internet matters.

Curious? Interested? Want to help develop something great? Feel free to visit our site, or drop me an e-mail. I'd be glad to hear from you.

First, a bit about LiveJournal. We are a site with around 65,000 users, doubling in size every three months. Unlike Blogger, we are a free interactive online community created, designed, and supported by the people who use it.

LiveJournal enables its users to easily create online journals and communities. Updating your journal or community is as simple as typing into a software client or web browser screen and hitting submit... no html is needed, and spell checking, linking, and adding images to your journal is standard for all our major software clients. We have clients for every platform I can think of practically... Linux? PalmOS? BeOS? No problem. Since LiveJournal volunteers design, expand, and constantly improve the site's features, we expect to develop open source community-based applications at an increasing rate.

Why are weblogs important? Well, any new idea has a novelty phase, where people say "Neat, but what can it do?".. there are serious business applications for weblogs. For instance, LiveJournal uses its own communities, such as lj_dev and lj_biz to organize the sites' business and development efforts. I know that these communities are a great alternative to organizing groups with maillists; LiveJournal communities have about 15 times more posts per user per month than comparable maillist communities, according to our statsistics. If you also figure in that you can add other web-based applications as part of your community, such as chat, planning, calendar, and organization-oriented applications, maillists and Usenet-like solutions start looking pretty dated.

If you think about it, all weblogs really are is a modern-day adaptation of Usenet for web browsers. Weblogs can be used for numerous purposes, such as journals, communities, and weblogs... but ultimately, their real value to people is when they are connected together, allowing people to interact.

Our long-term goal is an Internet where websites are much more dynamic than today... where you can essentially add the content and the people that interest you to a friends list. Want to add your favorite musician to your friends list and hear their latest songs over the Internet? How about your favorite underground comic strip? As you can see, there are applications that are far bigger than just reading your friends journal. We have the opportunity to create a uniquely open source kind of media that isn't controlled by the powers that be. Unlike push technology (that pushed ads on your desktop) you can have customized webpages designed to keep you connected with the latest entries from your friends, in communities, websites (such as Slashdot), and some of the most interesting people all over the Internet.

So, yeah. Weblogs are important if you think that the ability to fundamentally change the nature of the Internet matters.

Curious? Interested? Want to help develop something great? Feel free to visit our site, or drop me an e-mail. I'd be glad to hear from you.

First, a bit about LiveJournal. We are a site with around 65,000 users, doubling in size every three months. Unlike Blogger, we are a free interactive online community created, designed, and supported by the people who use it.

LiveJournal enables its users to easily create online journals and communities. Updating your journal or community is as simple as typing into a software client or web browser screen and hitting submit... no html is needed, and spell checking, linking, and adding images to your journal is standard for all our major software clients. We have clients for every platform I can think of practically... Linux? PalmOS? BeOS? No problem. Since LiveJournal volunteers design, expand, and constantly improve the site's features, we expect to develop open source community-based applications at an increasing rate.

Why are weblogs important? Well, any new idea has a novelty phase, where people say "Neat, but what can it do?".. there are serious business applications for weblogs. For instance, LiveJournal uses its own communities, such as lj_dev and lj_biz to organize the sites' business and development efforts. I know that these communities are a great alternative to organizing groups with maillists; LiveJournal communities have about 15 times more posts per user per month than comparable maillist communities, according to our statsistics. If you also figure in that you can add other web-based applications as part of your community, such as chat, planning, calendar, and organization-oriented applications, maillists and Usenet-like solutions start looking pretty dated.

If you think about it, all weblogs really are is a modern-day adaptation of Usenet for web browsers. Weblogs can be used for numerous purposes, such as journals, communities, and weblogs... but ultimately, their real value to people is when they are connected together, allowing people to interact.

Our long-term goal is an Internet where websites are much more dynamic than today... where you can essentially add the content and the people that interest you to a friends list. Want to add your favorite musician to your friends list and hear their latest songs over the Internet? How about your favorite underground comic strip? As you can see, there are applications that are far bigger than just reading your friends journal. We have the opportunity to create a uniquely open source kind of media that isn't controlled by the powers that be. Unlike push technology (that pushed ads on your desktop) you can have customized webpages designed to keep you connected with the latest entries from your friends, in communities, websites (such as Slashdot), and some of the most interesting people all over the Internet.

So, yeah. Weblogs are important if you think that the ability to fundamentally change the nature of the Internet matters.

Curious? Interested? Want to help develop something great? Feel free to visit our site, or drop me an e-mail. I'd be glad to hear from you.

First, a bit about LiveJournal. We are a site with around 65,000 users, doubling in size every three months. Unlike Blogger, we are a free interactive online community created, designed, and supported by the people who use it.

LiveJournal enables its users to easily create online journals and communities. Updating your journal or community is as simple as typing into a software client or web browser screen and hitting submit... no html is needed, and spell checking, linking, and adding images to your journal is standard for all our major software clients. We have clients for every platform I can think of practically... Linux? PalmOS? BeOS? No problem. Since LiveJournal volunteers design, expand, and constantly improve the site's features, we expect to develop open source community-based applications at an increasing rate.

Why are weblogs important? Well, any new idea has a novelty phase, where people say "Neat, but what can it do?".. there are serious business applications for weblogs. For instance, LiveJournal uses its own communities, such as lj_dev and lj_biz to organize the sites' business and development efforts. I know that these communities are a great alternative to organizing groups with maillists; LiveJournal communities have about 15 times more posts per user per month than comparable maillist communities, according to our statsistics. If you also figure in that you can add other web-based applications as part of your community, such as chat, planning, calendar, and organization-oriented applications, maillists and Usenet-like solutions start looking pretty dated.

If you think about it, all weblogs really are is a modern-day adaptation of Usenet for web browsers. Weblogs can be used for numerous purposes, such as journals, communities, and weblogs... but ultimately, their real value to people is when they are connected together, allowing people to interact.

Our long-term goal is an Internet where websites are much more dynamic than today... where you can essentially add the content and the people that interest you to a friends list. Want to add your favorite musician to your friends list and hear their latest songs over the Internet? How about your favorite underground comic strip? As you can see, there are applications that are far bigger than just reading your friends journal. We have the opportunity to create a uniquely open source kind of media that isn't controlled by the powers that be. Unlike push technology (that pushed ads on your desktop) you can have customized webpages designed to keep you connected with the latest entries from your friends, in communities, websites (such as Slashdot), and some of the most interesting people all over the Internet.

So, yeah. Weblogs are important if you think that the ability to fundamentally change the nature of the Internet matters.

Curious? Interested? Want to help develop something great? Feel free to visit our site, or drop me an e-mail. I'd be glad to hear from you.

First, a bit about LiveJournal. We are a site with around 65,000 users, doubling in size every three months. Unlike Blogger, we are a free interactive online community created, designed, and supported by the people who use it.

LiveJournal enables its users to easily create online journals and communities. Updating your journal or community is as simple as typing into a software client or web browser screen and hitting submit... no html is needed, and spell checking, linking, and adding images to your journal is standard for all our major software clients. We have clients for every platform I can think of practically... Linux? PalmOS? BeOS? No problem. Since LiveJournal volunteers design, expand, and constantly improve the site's features, we expect to develop open source community-based applications at an increasing rate.

Why are weblogs important? Well, any new idea has a novelty phase, where people say "Neat, but what can it do?".. there are serious business applications for weblogs. For instance, LiveJournal uses its own communities, such as lj_dev and lj_biz to organize the sites' business and development efforts. I know that these communities are a great alternative to organizing groups with maillists; LiveJournal communities have about 15 times more posts per user per month than comparable maillist communities, according to our statsistics. If you also figure in that you can add other web-based applications as part of your community, such as chat, planning, calendar, and organization-oriented applications, maillists and Usenet-like solutions start looking pretty dated.

If you think about it, all weblogs really are is a modern-day adaptation of Usenet for web browsers. Weblogs can be used for numerous purposes, such as journals, communities, and weblogs... but ultimately, their real value to people is when they are connected together, allowing people to interact.

Our long-term goal is an Internet where websites are much more dynamic than today... where you can essentially add the content and the people that interest you to a friends list. Want to add your favorite musician to your friends list and hear their latest songs over the Internet? How about your favorite underground comic strip? As you can see, there are applications that are far bigger than just reading your friends journal. We have the opportunity to create a uniquely open source kind of media that isn't controlled by the powers that be. Unlike push technology (that pushed ads on your desktop) you can have customized webpages designed to keep you connected with the latest entries from your friends, in communities, websites (such as Slashdot), and some of the most interesting people all over the Internet.

So, yeah. Weblogs are important if you think that the ability to fundamentally change the nature of the Internet matters.

Curious? Interested? Want to help develop something great? Feel free to visit our site, or drop me an e-mail. I'd be glad to hear from you.

First, a bit about LiveJournal. We are a site with around 65,000 users, doubling in size every three months. Unlike Blogger, we are a free interactive online community created, designed, and supported by the people who use it.

LiveJournal enables its users to easily create online journals and communities. Updating your journal or community is as simple as typing into a software client or web browser screen and hitting submit... no html is needed, and spell checking, linking, and adding images to your journal is standard for all our major software clients. We have clients for every platform I can think of practically... Linux? PalmOS? BeOS? No problem. Since LiveJournal volunteers design, expand, and constantly improve the site's features, we expect to develop open source community-based applications at an increasing rate.

Why are weblogs important? Well, any new idea has a novelty phase, where people say "Neat, but what can it do?".. there are serious business applications for weblogs. For instance, LiveJournal uses its own communities, such as lj_dev and lj_biz to organize the sites' business and development efforts. I know that these communities are a great alternative to organizing groups with maillists; LiveJournal communities have about 15 times more posts per user per month than comparable maillist communities, according to our statsistics. If you also figure in that you can add other web-based applications as part of your community, such as chat, planning, calendar, and organization-oriented applications, maillists and Usenet-like solutions start looking pretty dated.

If you think about it, all weblogs really are is a modern-day adaptation of Usenet for web browsers. Weblogs can be used for numerous purposes, such as journals, communities, and weblogs... but ultimately, their real value to people is when they are connected together, allowing people to interact.

Our long-term goal is an Internet where websites are much more dynamic than today... where you can essentially add the content and the people that interest you to a friends list. Want to add your favorite musician to your friends list and hear their latest songs over the Internet? How about your favorite underground comic strip? As you can see, there are applications that are far bigger than just reading your friends journal. We have the opportunity to create a uniquely open source kind of media that isn't controlled by the powers that be. Unlike push technology (that pushed ads on your desktop) you can have customized webpages designed to keep you connected with the latest entries from your friends, in communities, websites (such as Slashdot), and some of the most interesting people all over the Internet.

So, yeah. Weblogs are important if you think that the ability to fundamentally change the nature of the Internet matters.

Curious? Interested? Want to help develop something great? Feel free to visit our site, or drop me an e-mail. I'd be glad to hear from you.

I'm surprised than no one has mentioned LiveJournal - it's definitely one of the more popular online journals with over 100,000 members and clients for many different OSes.

Contrary to what people seem to think here, I don't think that the majority of online journal keepers do so because they want other people to read them. My motivation for keeping an online journal was because I always wanted to have a journal, but to do so with pen and paper or even at my computer was far too inconvenient. I didn't want a swarm of text files sitting around. This way, all I have to do is fire up a client (which I can do from any computer I'm at), type up an entry, and there it goes to the server. LiveJournal allows me to make entries public or private to my discretion. Personally, I don't have anything to hide, and if someone wants to read about my life, they're more than welcome to. I've met a lot of interesting people on LiveJournal; there's a large sense of community there with discussion groups, etc...

Shameless journal advertisement: My journal can be found at http://vorpal.livejournal.com

I'm surprised than no one has mentioned LiveJournal - it's definitely one of the more popular online journals with over 100,000 members and clients for many different OSes.

Contrary to what people seem to think here, I don't think that the majority of online journal keepers do so because they want other people to read them. My motivation for keeping an online journal was because I always wanted to have a journal, but to do so with pen and paper or even at my computer was far too inconvenient. I didn't want a swarm of text files sitting around. This way, all I have to do is fire up a client (which I can do from any computer I'm at), type up an entry, and there it goes to the server. LiveJournal allows me to make entries public or private to my discretion. Personally, I don't have anything to hide, and if someone wants to read about my life, they're more than welcome to. I've met a lot of interesting people on LiveJournal; there's a large sense of community there with discussion groups, etc...

Shameless journal advertisement: My journal can be found at http://vorpal.livejournal.com

too bad nicksu killed (rather than nursed back to health) the best example of student-run IT ever... CATT. (hmmm, why is that still in the current handbook?) [if you wanna know more, I still live in raleigh... look me up. or visit here to get started.]

I helped run the network, stack of Ultrix boxen, and the AFS cell there for three years... including the vax that was our EFnet server. I owe a huge chunk of what I know to the other people I lived with that were patient enough to answer and explain.

formerly greck@scaredy.catt.ncsu.edu,
--greck

Let's try it.

livejournal

Okay, it works in preview at least.

I looked at the source for this page and apparently the only thing that you did wrong (according to the unwritten rules of Slashdot html) was to not enter "href" in uppercase.

If someone really wants to patch slashcode, they can change the "No Score +1 Bonus" to opt-in instead of opt-out, so that it defaults to off.

You know, I suggested something along those lines once. Only it was more of an elite omega force type thing.