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LiveJournal Buyout Rumor

Aaron B. Russell writes "Om Malik reports that Six Apart are looking to buy blogging community LiveJournal.com. Rumour? I hope so. I seriously hope so. Neither Six Apart nor Danga Interactive (the company behind LiveJournal) have commented on the situation yet. What impact will this have for the users and volunteers over at LiveJournal? Chris Schmidt, a volunteer at LiveJournal, hypothesizes here(1) and here(2) ." Sources close to LiveJournal creator Brad Fitzpatrick say this is just a rumor, and that LJ is not being sold. Update: 01/06 by J : Our sources were way wrong.

274 comments

  1. Re:FP by SlamMan · · Score: 3, Funny

    If blogs are digital garbage, what does that make Java then?

    --
    Mod point free since 2001
  2. Not being sold... like PeopleSoft? by bc90021 · · Score: 4, Funny

    If it's "not being sold" like PeopleSoft was "not being sold", well, then, one would guess that they really are being sold.

    1. Re:Not being sold... like PeopleSoft? by FriedTurkey · · Score: 1

      PeopleSoft was beat into submission by Oracle. Oracle spread FUD for a year and half until PeopleSoft had no choice but to take what they could get and sell to Oracle. It is kind of scary the tatics used by Oracle. Any company big enough can just freeze the market until the smaller company takes the cash for it's customer base. In the end that's all Oracle wants is the customers of PeopleSoft. It can't build a better application but it won't use PeopleSoft's technology, it will just create a dubious "conversion tool" and say to PeopleSoft customers "it is cheaper to migrate to Oracle applications". In reality it might be cheaper to defect to SAP or one of the minor players, but corporations never see it that way.

  3. Sell it!! by grazzy · · Score: 2, Funny

    .. and stuff it with ads.
    Maybe the blog menace will go away.

    I did my part, now im waiting for yours.

    1. Re:Sell it!! by SpooForBrains · · Score: 2, Insightful

      What blog menace? Seriously, if you don't want to see any blogs, then don't. There's an entire internet out there. Or do you just like having something to complain about?

      --
      "The dew has clearly fallen with a particularly sickening thud this morning"
    2. Re:Sell it!! by I+confirm+I'm+not+a · · Score: 1

      Well said. My first thought was "isn't Slashdot kindof a blog? Maybe? You know, being a forum where articles are posted and people reply?

      Bah! It reminds me of all the elitist crap in the "old days" (mid-90s) about the easy availability of webspace meaning that "our" Internet was being "swamped" by newbies. And I can't walk the streets without tripping over real people. Poor me.

      --
      This is where the serious fun begins.
    3. Re:Sell it!! by elmegil · · Score: 1

      Nah, the real hell was when USENET got spammed by those PSU idiots....AOHell'ers every single one of 'em.

      --
      7 November 2006: The day Americans realized corruption and incompetence weren't addressing 11 September 2001
    4. Re:Sell it!! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

      Dude, Livejournal is Open Source.
      It's the Linux to MT's Windows.

      Except, unlike Linux, there are hot girls using LJ.

    5. Re:Sell it!! by blixel · · Score: 1

      Maybe the blog menace will go away.

      Or maybe you could learn to "turn the dial"?

    6. Re:Sell it!! by grazzy · · Score: 1

      Yeah, and stop yanking my wheelchair, boy!

    7. Re:Sell it!! by Vellmont · · Score: 2, Insightful


      isn't Slashdot kindof a blog? Maybe?


      No. A blog is where one person makes journal entries, and other people read it. Slashdot is a news discussion site. That's a lot different in content and format than a blog. Blogs are all about one person, Slashdot is about a the geek world around us.

      --
      AccountKiller
    8. Re:Sell it!! by erroneous · · Score: 2, Funny

      I had assumed that the hive mind of Slashdot was now legally registered as a single entity.

      --
      erroneous: look me up in a dictionary
    9. Re:Sell it!! by byolinux · · Score: 1

      Plenty of blogs have more than one person posting.

    10. Re:Sell it!! by I+confirm+I'm+not+a · · Score: 1

      No [Slashdot isn't a blog]. A blog is where one person makes journal entries, and other people read it. Slashdot is a news discussion site. That's a lot different in content and format than a blog. Blogs are all about one person, Slashdot is about a the geek world around us.

      I guess that's maybe subjective; byolinux has already suggested that there are blogs with multiple posters, and I'd add that Slashdot was nominated for - and won - an award in the most recent "bloggies". I can - maybe - see a difference between one (or more) posters posting articles, and others reading said articles, but factor in replying to articles and I'm blowed if I can see a difference between Slashdot and Mezzoblue: they're both news, just one has one poster and a narrow focus, t'other has multiple posters and a wider focus. Neither are especially about one person or multiple people; they both carry geek articles.

      --
      This is where the serious fun begins.
    11. Re:Sell it!! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      No, you're thinking online journals, which are different from web logs. I know what would be fun, let's argue semantics!

    12. Re:Sell it!! by hyperizer · · Score: 1

      No. A blog is where one person makes journal entries, and other people read it.

      According to Wikipedia, Slashdot is a blog. A blog needn't be personal. One of the most famous is Metafilter, which is also collaborative.

      Slashdot doesn't do its own reporting. It just posts links and allows comments. That's exactly what most blogs are.

    13. Re:Sell it!! by Clay+Pigeon+-TPF-VS- · · Score: 1

      Someone needs to tell gmhowell >http://slashdot.org/~gmhowell/ that slashdot isnt a blog. He posts a new journal entry just about every day.

      --
      Viral software licensing is not freedom, it is in fact GNU/Socialism.
    14. Re:Sell it!! by aengblom · · Score: 1

      Nope, Slashdot is a blog. Blog is a derivitive of "web log." Not web journal. A log is a chronologically ordered list of entries.

      That's the defining characteristic of blogs that make them a subset of web sites. Chronological order. Obviously this makes them very good for journals, but it means that Slashdot is also a blog.

      --


      So close and yet so far from the world's perfect ID number
    15. Re:Sell it!! by SlamMan · · Score: 4, Funny

      Gimme a couple minuets, and wikipedia won't call it a blog anymore.

      --
      Mod point free since 2001
    16. Re:Sell it!! by ZorinLynx · · Score: 1

      Doesn't matter if it's open source, someone else controls the actual system with all the content.

      People have asked me "Why don't you move your blog (http://zorin.org/) to LiveJournal? You'll get more traffic?

      More traffic is not worth loss of control. It's on MY server and I keep my own backups. There's no easy way to back up a Livejournal. If it's bought by a company that changes policies in a way I don't like, I'm screwed!

      -Z

    17. Re:Sell it!! by Wes+Janson · · Score: 1

      I must disagree with your definition of Slashdot as a news discussion site. The basis of /. is it's homepage, a short list of recent posts. The number of editors is very small. Slashdot strongly resembles a blog insofar that the primary distinguishing characteristic is that the comments to each post tend to be very numerous. Beyond that, however, I fail to see any fundamental differences between /. and a really fancy blog.

    18. Re:Sell it!! by John+Sullivan · · Score: 2, Funny

      K.315a and BWV 841

      --
      This is my World Wide Web of Whatever
    19. Re:Sell it!! by Lucidus · · Score: 1

      Sorry - I don't have mod points, and apparently neither does anyone else who got the joke. If you understand it, though, it's a good one. Thanks!

  4. LiveJournal Entry for Jan 5th. by no+haters · · Score: 2, Funny

    Mood: Gossipy Listening to: Rumours by Keith Sweat You won't believe what I heard today...

  5. Re:FP by mkelley · · Score: 1

    slow digital garbage

    --

    m.kelley
    life is like a freeway, if you don't look you could miss it.
  6. Re:LiveJournal by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Thanks for your stunning insight. I assume you've read all 2.5 million of them in order to draw your conclusion.

  7. Why LJ? by KinkifyTheNation · · Score: 5, Informative

    Even if something does happen, there's always other LJ variants out there, such as DeadJournal and GreatestJournal if your privacy is concerned.

    And as hypothesis #2 states the removal of some features, the other variants will almost always have them.
    Livejournal isn't the only journal site out there.

    1. Re:Why LJ? by pez · · Score: 1

      I'll put in a shameless plug for my company's site Multiply which offers free blogging, digital photo album support, and much much more. The best part is that it's built on top of a unique messaging system, based on your social network, which routes notification messages when entries are added and/or replied to. It's pretty neat, and built entirely on free software. Give it a try!

      My Multiply page

  8. Hopefully not by OverlordQ · · Score: 1

    Why?

    MovableType Sucks.

    Why does it suck?

    1 J Random Luser on dialup one some old sparcstation IPC, and about 20 lines a Perl can bring any server to it's knees with comment spam.

    --
    Your hair look like poop, Bob! - Wanker.
    1. Re:Hopefully not by eraser.cpp · · Score: 1

      Behold the power of perl.

      More seriously, between various plugins and the new TypeKey service your argument is completely unjustified. MovableType is actually rather well designed and stopping comment spamming is no longer the least bit difficult.

    2. Re:Hopefully not by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

      69 lines of perl, actually.

    3. Re:Hopefully not by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Insightful

      It's well designed if you're a CS major.

      From the end user standpoint it's a pain in the ass.

    4. Re:Hopefully not by dahamsta · · Score: 1

      You'd wonder how long something like TypeKey will remain free though. Like Invision Power Board (and of course RealPlayer), they suffer from chronic We're-Not-Commercialising-But-We-Really-Are-And-We -Hope-You-Don't-Notice syndrome. Watching their site over the years has been like comical stop-motion-commercialism.

      There's nothing wrong with commercialism like, but seriously, piss or get off the pot.

      adam

  9. Oh no! by spellraiser · · Score: 5, Funny
    Chris Schmidt has, among other things, this to say:

    Sadly, I fear this will be the end of the LiveJournal Volunteer support system which I strongly support: I met the love of my life via doing support for LiveJournal, and it will be sad to imagine that others will not have that same oppourtunity [sic].

    Dang, there go my chances of ever mating in this life. Damn you, Six Apart!

    --
    I hear there's rumors on the Slashdots
    1. Re:Oh no! by crschmidt · · Score: 1, Funny

      Like you had a chance in the first place.

      --
      -- Christopher Schmidt YouTube Quality of Experience
    2. Re:Oh no! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      All your girlfriend are belong to us!

    3. Re:Oh no! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      5 minutes worth of digging will convince you that you do NO want all of crschmidt's girlfriend to belong to us. She appears to be a new-age loony toon (and he appears to be a college dropout with a bit of a grudge against Brad at LiveJournal for not respecting all of the free work crschmidt's done). Hey Scmitty, will you mow my lawn for free?

    4. Re:Oh no! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Well I dont think that was the point he was trying to make.

      Response #1: Even if he or I or anyone else on here for that matter does not find someone on there, it at least gives us/them some hope. Even if that hope is not justified one bit, some flawed hope is better than no hope at all, and its what keeps the "unstable" personalities from committing suicide I would bet. I know for me LJ is a release, true I may rant much in it but it is better than letting it fester and releasing my frustration out on someone in one way or another. In short, LJ may add very little to your social/sex life, but it is a good balancing tool for one's mental state. Or at least that is my $0.02.

      Response #2: [explitive] you [explitive] [explitive]!

  10. LJ staff hasn't spoken up about it yet... by Kingfox · · Score: 5, Informative

    See LJers freak about it here.

    1. Re:LJ staff hasn't spoken up about it yet... by Yaruar · · Score: 1

      OF course this is all just a ploy by Brad to test out his new fat pipe and load balancers in the best way possibly, but getting himself slashdotted.

      Probably the best test of server load there can be ;)

      --
      Working for the (other) man
    2. Re:LJ staff hasn't spoken up about it yet... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Your grammar skills are hurting me.

    3. Re:LJ staff hasn't spoken up about it yet... by mandelion · · Score: 1

      This is why I posted about it here: http://www.livejournal.com/users/agateway/140707.h tml?view=1761443 All Brad has to do is confirm or deny the fucking press conference to calm these excitable people down and he won't. Why? He's playing the hype game.

    4. Re:LJ staff hasn't spoken up about it yet... by Kingfox · · Score: 1
  11. And ...? by robocrop · · Score: 0

    Not to be rude, but this one really doesn't make any sense to me. Why would someone pay money for a site where people specifically create accounts just so they can post their every miniscule thought, reaction, or hourly whine?

    I can't even imagine how LiveJournal makes enough money for someone to want to buy it. Perhaps through ad sales, but I wonder if anyone is willing to do a study on how many of the clicks the site receives are the authors reading their own posts every five minutes.

    1. Re:And ...? by wintermute1000 · · Score: 1

      LJ offers some pretty cool (to the type of person who enjoys LiveJournal-type activities) incentives for users who buy subscriptions. I've certainly put more cash money into LJ than I have into, say, /. for example.

    2. Re:And ...? by smacktits · · Score: 1

      What are the advantages of paid accounts over free accounts? Not being a user of LJ, I don't know.

      And I did try and visit livejournal.com, but apparently it's blacklisted here at work ):

    3. Re:And ...? by mmkkbb · · Score: 3, Informative

      -more customizable layouts
      -more user icons
      -more picture storage
      -phone posting
      -email posting
      -username@livejournal.com forwarding
      -http://username.livejournal.com address
      -able to create journals for RSS feeds
      -(formerly) able to invite free users
      -etc. etc.

      --
      -mkb
    4. Re:And ...? by fe_plus · · Score: 3, Insightful

      The entire purpose of having a journal online is to share it with others. While I don't post every miniscule thought, reaction, or whine, I do record what recent experiences I found to be either interesting, insightful, or funny - sound familiar??

      And I do enjoy reading entries written by my real life friends who also use LiveJournal or some other blog. It's a good way to catch up with many friends within a few minutes without having to wait for a reasonable hour of the day and picking up a phone to find out. The benefits of using a blog service such as livejournal are recording key moments in one's life... and being able to share them with friends - if you... have any.

    5. Re:And ...? by exhilaration · · Score: 1

      And access to their faster servers. The site will frequently slow down to a crawl for non-paid users.

    6. Re:And ...? by cheezemonkhai · · Score: 1

      c'est pour moi?

      No you see I go and talk to my mates to catch up rather than reading their life on a website.

      Much better:)

    7. Re:And ...? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Even when they live across the pond?

      Seems pretty limiting to keep a pack of friends all within walking distance.

      I have friends all over the US and europe, Blogging is a GREAT way of keeping in touch!

  12. Oh No! by Alan · · Score: 5, Funny

    OH dea, I hope this doesn't mean the end of random, attention seeking girls showing their boobs off to their LJ friends to get comments! Say it ain't so!

  13. wheeeeeeeee dir hacking! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Index of /~oskard

    [DIR] deercam/
    [ ] index.php
    [ ] index.php.bak
    [DIR] proj2/
    [DIR] resume/
    [DIR] sircol/
    [DIR] stats/
    [DIR] temp/
    [DIR] xmas/

    Ooooh temp! Let's see what's in there... *grin*

    OK I hope it's just an htaccess misconfig. But please put away those hideous PHP files! They're an embarrassment for the php community. :(

    1. Re:wheeeeeeeee dir hacking! by oskard · · Score: 1

      Okay Anonymous Coward. I'll put them away. The school disabled server side scripts apparently, probably because of a new security bug.

      --
      Sigs are for Terrorists.
    2. Re:wheeeeeeeee dir hacking! by grahamlee · · Score: 1

      More likely an old security bug - like "allowing server side scripts lets people run stuff on your server". Especially if you're letting students write the scripts, this can be a problem. The student-access web server here only allows safe-perl scripts (mine allows WebObjects, but few people can upload to it :-))

  14. Sources by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Sources close to LiveJournal creator Brad Fitzpatrick say this is just a rumor, and that LJ is not being sold.

    In other words, Fitzpatrick himself discredited the rumor.

    1. Re:Sources by stupidfoo · · Score: 1

      They should sell.

      This whole Intrawebs thing is just a fad. Get out now!

    2. Re:Sources by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The owner of a company that the rumor is about is the LAST peroson you should trust. He may be contractually bound to dispell rumors until the deal goes through. It happens ALL THE TIME.

  15. i really don't think it'll matter by wintermute1000 · · Score: 4, Insightful

    As a LiveJournal user who's about to celebrate my journal's 3rd birthday, and who's young and female enough not to be embarrassed about it, I doubt most LJ users will know or care. It would be stupid to make more than minor changes to the interface, and if they do, I'm sure old interfaces will be selectable options (as is the case now). The fact is that the vast majority of LJ users came on when the site stopped requiring invite codes to join and feel very little connection with the LJ community as a whole--certainly, no obligation to become paid members just to support the site, or volunteer as coders, testers, or what not. I honestly don't think any of these people will notice anything beyond interface changes, except "Hey, my journal's loading faster than usual. Sweet!"

    I think it's telling that the blurbs about LJ don't mention that it's open source. Yeah, it's cool when it's an OS or a browser or a media format, but what movement of /. nerds wants to be associated with online diaries. Eeeeew.

    1. Re:i really don't think it'll matter by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I think Google's Blogger.com blogging website is far far better than livejournal.

      So the extinction of Livejournal or its sell out will not be missed by majority of the netizens.

    2. Re:i really don't think it'll matter by Darren+Winsper · · Score: 1

      Getting involved in the greater LJ community at anything greater than a superficial level is bloody difficult. Just look at how many replies the news stories get, for example.

    3. Re:i really don't think it'll matter by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      So the extinction of Livejournal or its sell out will not be missed by majority of the netizens.

      I missed the memo about you personally being the majority of netizens.

      Let's hope you're outside the regular groupthink of /. because if you remember, choice is good.

    4. Re:i really don't think it'll matter by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Dude, LJ never needed invite codes in the old days either. I think they were only there for about a year.

      You're right, though, there's not going to be a migration away from there unless it's en masse. Back when everyone migrated TO LJ from Diaryland and stuff like that it was because of the friends list. Now you can't get out of it for fear of losing your friends list. They've got us hooked and they know it. Chucking in tons of ads won't stop people using it either.

  16. Attention seeking girls? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Attention seeking girls? WHERE!?!?!?

    <.<
    >.>
    <.<

    1. Re:Attention seeking girls? by doublem · · Score: 1

      Look for any LJ community with the name "naked" or a variation thereof in the name.

      Unless it's specifically geared towards showing pictures of guys, the photos will be there.

      Warning though, the photos, by and large, won't be up for long. The companies hosting the pics generally yank them as being a violation of the terms of service.

      And the groups burn out fast, so there's a lot of churn and you have to keep hunting to find them.

      Easier just to go to sourceforge and search for any projects with "porn" in the name. There are a lot of easy to use mass download utilities out there.

      --
      "Live Free or Die." Don't like it? Then keep out of the USA
  17. Yet more crud by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Rumour? I hope so. I seriously hope so.

    This is a weblog service, not the end of life as we know it. What's with the "sky is falling" routine?

    Sources close to LiveJournal creator Brad Fitzpatrick say this is just a rumor, and that LJ is not being sold.

    So why did you bother posting it?

    1. Re:Yet more crud by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      No-one has heard anything direct from Danga nor Six Apart, and eWeek claims that it is true, so these sources close to Brad Fitzpatrick might not be close enough.

  18. Oh My! by Dak_Peoples · · Score: 1, Informative

    The 12 year olds will have nothing better to do with their time. Hummm maybe catch up on some /. ;)

    --
    This is my signature.
  19. LJ. bleah by British · · Score: 4, Interesting

    I recently got rid of my LiveJournal, and feel a bit relieved. FOr some reason, I found myself spending too much time reading about the percieved(not exactly real) lives of other people who have no bearing on my life. I've been slandered twice on LJ, and in one instance my full name was not used, so I couldn't report them for TOS violations.

    That's what's great about livejournal. You can say anything you want, it's only one side of the story, and everyone on your friends list will kiss up to you and agree.

    Want to have some fun on LJ? Try to disagree with someone on your friends list, and watch the hilarity ensue.

    With interconnected friends networks, gossip can spread like wildfire and all sorts of wonderful sour attitudes towards one another can result.

    How would you like it if some LJ using friend of yours decided to tell the world about something you did or didn't do to your embarassment?

    I for one can't wait until the blogger bubble bursts.

    1. Re:LJ. bleah by Twanfox · · Score: 0, Offtopic

      I've actually had that happen. An ex-roommate wound up making some commentary about the manner in which we parted ways, and all his friends commented about how bad I must've been and how sorry they were that he had to live with me. Only thing is that while I admit I was not the best roommate, neither was he and wound up doing much the same as I did. That just never came out as valid since once we parted ways, he managed to be immaculate about his affairs.

      Took a few years just to sort out the animosity between us to be on speaking terms all because of that incident.

    2. Re:LJ. bleah by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I actually did this last night.

      A friend of mine was complaining on her live journal about her boyfriend and how she deserved to find a nice man.

      I pointed out the ways she had treated the previous nice guys in her life and not only did hilarity ensue but lack of friendship shortly followed

    3. Re:LJ. bleah by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      How would you like it if some LJ using friend of yours decided to tell the world about something you did or didn't do to your embarassment?

      Just a quick tip - you can avoid this situation by not making friends with any of the self obsessed, trivial, whiney, drivel-spouting retards that use LiveJournal.

      HTH. HAND.

    4. Re:LJ. bleah by mmkkbb · · Score: 1

      Funny, I don't have any of these problems. Maybe I just choose my friends wisely!

      --
      -mkb
    5. Re:LJ. bleah by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Actually I've had a similar event occur. Sadly, it spread across "friends" websites and I found out how much someone really hated me. Amazing.

    6. Re:LJ. bleah by edsarkiss · · Score: 1

      sounds just like high school.

      --

      SIGUSR1
    7. Re:LJ. bleah by dema · · Score: 2, Insightful

      That's what's great about livejournal. You can say anything you want, it's only one side of the story, and everyone on your friends list will kiss up to you and agree.

      How exactly is that any different from the internet itself? I could just as easily register a domain, put up a page full of gossip, generate hits from people likely to agree, slander without names, etc etc. If the problem with blogs is the ability to "say anything," isn't the internet just as flawed?

    8. Re:LJ. bleah by Threni · · Score: 1

      > I for one can't wait until the blogger bubble bursts.

      For some the bubble never formed. I've been online for years and seen plenty of laughable 'mi furst webpage' lameness so the blog fad was just amusing. I'm not suprised that people spent ages writing (and to a lessor extent reading other people's) blogs - the internet is full of wasted lives - but I am suprised that it gets such coverage on Slashdot.

      I keep getting emails from friends - that is, people I communicate with via the Net - asking me to read their journals. Perhaps there's some way they can see that I'm not doing so because they keep asking me but whenever I've looked at that site I just see a bunch of self-obsessed naval gazing and bad writing.

    9. Re:LJ. bleah by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Sounds like you take your online life too seriously.

    10. Re:LJ. bleah by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      People really throw around the word "Friendship" pretty casually. If someone un-friended you for that, they were not a friend to begin with, they were merely an "Aquaintence".

      Real friends can stand critisizm. Even if it might make them upset today, they will still be there tomorrow.

      Critisizing someone is a sure way to find out if they really are a friend or not. And if they weren't then who cares?

    11. Re:LJ. bleah by British · · Score: 1

      You are right(hey, I'm agreeing with you!). The term LJ uses, "Friends" is stretched a bit far. It's more like "reading lists". Unless everyone on your "friends" list will call you up and buy you a beer. Hell, not even a fraction of them when I had an LJ were up to the "get together and hang out, play ps2 games, etc" level, yet I was worthy of reading their friends-only posts.

      I've seen the nicest most constructive criticism on LJ get responded with by shrugs and catty comebacks. On Lj people are replied with what they want to hear.

    12. Re:LJ. bleah by RyuuzakiTetsuya · · Score: 1

      That's the wrong way to go about blogging.

      I just say whatever the hell is in my head despite what people think.

      --
      Non impediti ratione cogitationus.
    13. Re:LJ. bleah by celeste_ · · Score: 1

      If the people on your friends list have no bearing on your life... why do you have them on your friends list?

      And if all your friends do is kiss up to you and spread gossip/lies, perhaps you should try to find a different group of peers, rather than blame LiveJournal.

    14. Re:LJ. bleah by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      If the people on your friends list have no bearing on your life... why do you have them on your friends list?

      Because it's the only way to be given read permission for private journals. As a result, the word "friend" doesn't mean friend, it means some complete stranger I have never met whose blog looks like it might be vaguely interesting and adding them to an arbitrary list and giving them read access to my blog is the only way to actually find out if this is the case. It's a real triumph of language.

    15. Re:LJ. bleah by celeste_ · · Score: 1

      I guess I just don't understand the point of reading the journals of random strangers. You wouldn't expect that some random person you bump into at the grocery store would be that fascinating, so why would you expect the same of some random journal you click on?

      (and for the record, the journal owner has to list YOU as a friend in order for you to read their private journals)

    16. Re:LJ. bleah by arafel · · Score: 1

      Want to have some fun on LJ? Try to disagree with someone on your friends list, and watch the hilarity ensue.

      For normal people, disagreeing with friends is something that happens. It doesn't cause any particular problems.

    17. Re:LJ. bleah by arafel · · Score: 1

      Not that I'm defending her, particularly - since I don't know either side of the story - but it does occur to me that that kind of stuff is probably best done face to face, or at worst through email, rather than on a public journal. Otherwise people are going to get embarrassed and annoyed.

    18. Re:LJ. bleah by mdwh2 · · Score: 1

      Want to have some fun on LJ? Try to disagree with someone on your friends list, and watch the hilarity ensue.

      This is a problem with your friends, not with LJ.

      I've had plenty of interesting discussions on LJ where I've disagreed with someone.

      With interconnected friends networks, gossip can spread like wildfire and all sorts of wonderful sour attitudes towards one another can result.

      Just about all "friends networks" are already interconnected in real life; LJ just reflects this fact. This is no different to the way that gossip can spread like wildfire in real life.

      It may be true that it can happen more quickly online on LJ, but I think the benefits of having quicker and more efficient means of communication far outweigh the downsides.

      How would you like it if some LJ using friend of yours decided to tell the world about something you did or didn't do to your embarassment?

      How would you like it if some friend of yours decided to tell the world about something you did or didn't do to your embarassment?

      I for one can't wait until the communication bubble bursts.

      Before LJ, there existed methods such as emailing loads of people, or even telling them in real life, if you wanted to spread malicious gossip.

    19. Re:LJ. bleah by beallj · · Score: 1

      That's why I read the LJ journals of friends from real life. It's handy for keeping up with people you don't see that often (ones who are going to college in another state, who work the night shift, or just really busy).

    20. Re:LJ. bleah by celeste_ · · Score: 1

      Right, that's what I'm saying. It seems like everyone complaining is saying that LiveJournal sucks because the random journals they look at aren't full of intellectual babble, when most people just use it to communicate with friends.

  20. Re:LiveJournal by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Funny
    Come on now... don't lie on your resume:
    PROFESSIONAL PROFILE
    Experienced programmer and designer.
    Strong work ethic, ability to meet deadlines. Creative ideas and innovative attitude toward all projects.
    Prudent in software engineering. Able to detect problematic code and design.
    Proven experience to use good design and code knowledge to create professional results. Confident developer, excellent people skills with 4 years of professional experience in:
    o Logo / Layout Design
    o Site Construction
    o Web Applications
    o Operating Systems
    o Software Engineering and Programming
    o Marketing Strategies
    o Independent and Team Project Management
    o Networks

    TECHNOLOGY SUMMARY
    &#183; C/C++ and Java
    ASP, PHP, and Perl
    HTML, XML, and JScript
    Actionscript and VBScript
    SQL and Access
    Microsoft Visual C++, Basic, InterDev
    Adobe Photoshop, ImageReady, Premiere
    Microsoft Frontpage
    Macromedia Flash, Dreamweaver
    Many other software and languages known
    You don't know PHP. If you did, I wouldn't have been able to find your resume and that picture of your GF and your friend.
  21. Re:FP by fe_plus · · Score: 1

    Wait a minute... blogs are considered digital garbage? I take it you haven't visited the following: http://www.wibsite.com/wiblog/dull/ This is not only a blog, but it's artistic genius and hilarious as well! Digital garbage? There can be no such thing!

    somewhat sarcastic

  22. Perhaps this will... by Sanity · · Score: 1
    ...clear the way for something like LiveJournal but with a sane, usable web design.

    I mean seriously, LJ has got to be the most hideously unusable website since Sourceforge - are there any usability guidelines it doesn't violate?

    1. Re:Perhaps this will... by SmoothDime · · Score: 1

      I could'nt agree more. But it seems to have improved over the years.

    2. Re:Perhaps this will... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      http://www.livejournal.com/manage/siteopts.bml

      Change to Lynx view. Ta-da.

      Seriously, LiveJournal may not be the crowning point of web design - but it's absolutely nowhere fucking *near* the worst. It beats Slashdot, for one...

      (I agree about SourceForge, though.)

  23. LiveJournal doesn't profit through advertising... by vorpal22 · · Score: 3, Insightful

    While LJ toyed with the idea of placing adverts on the free account journals, the idea was discarded. This is largely one of the reasons that I *love* LiveJournal: they offer enough basic services for the majority of users to enjoy the site with free accounts, and enough bonus features to make it worthwhile for a small percentage of users to upgrade and thus cover LJ's costs.

    While I also love /., I find many of the advertisements obnoxiously tacky and intrusive, and I have no desire to pay for the service, unfortunately.

  24. I seriously doubt.... by SkankinMonkey · · Score: 0

    That any actual users will care that their journal is now owed by some giant conglomerate. The only people this really affects are those that contributed to the open development of livejournal.

  25. One of the most popular Open Source projects? by cuban321 · · Score: 4, Insightful

    I'll take a guess and guess that LiveJournal is in the top 5 of open source projects. By popular I mean user count.

    If you are looking at popularity by name count, it might even rival Linux.

    1. Re:One of the most popular Open Source projects? by supmylO · · Score: 1

      To verify the real winner on this one, all that need be done is consult Google.

      Results 1 - 10 of about 9,830,000 for livejournal.
      Results 1 - 10 of about 222,000,000 for linux

    2. Re:One of the most popular Open Source projects? by Dekks · · Score: 1

      Technically its both because the LJ servers run on linux?

    3. Re:One of the most popular Open Source projects? by stephenbooth · · Score: 1

      Yeah, but 219,000,000 of the Linux hits are Microsoft 'astroturf roots' campaign sites saying that Windows has a lower TCO than Linux.

      Stephen

      --
      "Don't write down to your readers, the only people less intelligent than you can't read" - Sign on Newspaper Office Wall
    4. Re:One of the most popular Open Source projects? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      It also does more traffic than /.

    5. Re:One of the most popular Open Source projects? by cuban321 · · Score: 1

      No I mean with normal people. Of course there will be more google hits.

      Go out on the street and see if 222,000,000 people know what linux is. I know you can find at least 5,500,000 people (their user count) who know what livejournal is.

  26. sniff it by Doc+Ruby · · Score: 2, Funny

    For the sarcasm impaired: this post seems to be a facaetious comment parodying the attitude of the corporate media towards blogs, which is that they're a threat to be bought out and quashed.

    Nerds: one way to detect sarcasm is to notice any surprising detail in any statement, like a Slashdotter demanding more ads, and consider whether the statement in a sarcastic tone rather than "straight". Then, compare its effect as sarcasm with its straight effect, and then choose. In fact, you can usually risk responding to a surprising statement as sarcasm with less danger than risking the reverse. Sure, all this sophistication will require practice, but soon you'll have parallelized the processes enough not to miss a beat. And the cynicism that it generates will help you find an apartment outside your parents' basement.

    --

    --
    make install -not war

    1. Re:sniff it by I+confirm+I'm+not+a · · Score: 2, Insightful

      For the sarcasm impaired: this post seems to be a facaetious comment parodying the attitude of the corporate media towards blogs, which is that they're a threat to be bought out and quashed.

      OK, I'll hold my hands up and admit that maybe, just maybe, I'm sarcasm-impaired. Maybe.

      ...but, and it's a big but, there's a strong elitist grouping on Slashdot who argue that blogs are the devil, and I read the OP in that light. The subsequent replies seem to bear out that train of thought...

      I'm also not sure if Corporate Media [TM] (you forgot to trademark that phrase, hah, beat you!) want to buy out and squash blogs - another possibility is that Corporate Media is just waking up to the money-making potential, and will milk blogs rather than squash them.

      Anyhoo, back to my parents' basement... ;)

      Disclaimer: I do not now, nor have I ever, maintained my own blog. I do, however, post on Slashdot and similar forums (fora?) and I find many blogs incredibly useful. Obviously I ignore the "I h8 my parents they are teh su><ors!"-type blogs...

      --
      This is where the serious fun begins.
  27. Wait for Apple ... by adzoox · · Score: 2, Interesting

    I think Apple might have all the rumor sites confused a bit or at least making an omission:

    Just as Apple bought Soundjam from Cassidy and Greene to make iTunes, and as they bought Logic to create Garageband and their own pro audio app - I see Apple making a foray into BLOGging and possibly integrating it into .Mac. Or it could be part of the iWork bundle.

    I would imagine they would go after a the biggest - either LiveJournal or Blogger.

    I thought I read that the owners of Blogger are big Mac guys.

    --
    Yell & scream & rant & rave... it's no use... you need a shaaaave ~ Bugs Bunny
    1. Re:Wait for Apple ... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Google bought Blogger yonks ago.

    2. Re:Wait for Apple ... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0
      I thought I read that the owners of Blogger are big Mac guys.


      I tought I read that the owners of Blogger are Google. Sure, they'll sell it to Apple, sure...

    3. Re:Wait for Apple ... by acaben · · Score: 1
      Apple has already announced their blogging plans. Tiger Server will include Blojsom.

      For more details, check out the Tiger Server page.

  28. Wow by cavemanf16 · · Score: 4, Funny

    Slashdot is now reporting on rumors about blogs.

    They might as well change the tag line to: "News for supermarket checkout lines, shit that we can neither confirm nor deny."

    1. Re:Wow by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      " Slashdot is now reporting on rumors about blogs.

      They might as well change the tag line to: "News for supermarket checkout lines, shit that we can neither confirm nor deny.""

      You're a reader of those checkout mags, then? Keep us posted on the latest! Thanks. Because if Jennifer Aniston and Brad Pitt are still having trouble making a baby, I could be of some service to Jennifer by demonstrating for Brad just how one goes about it.

    2. Re:Wow by Lehk228 · · Score: 1

      if Jennifer Aniston and Brad Pitt are still having trouble making a baby, I could be of some service to Jennifer by demonstrating for Brad just how one goes about it.

      Fuck that, what has Batboy been up to?

      --
      Snowden and Manning are heroes.
  29. Re:FP by limbostar · · Score: 1
    If blogs are digital garbage, what does that make Java then?
    A virtual machine with a blog collector, obviously.
    --
    this is a sig.
  30. LiveJournal is more interesting than you think by Bluecoat93 · · Score: 4, Informative

    Most geeks seem to react to hearing "LiveJournal" with something along the lines of "haha, livejournal sucks! it's just a bunch of 12-year-old girls complaining about their parents!" However, the service is quite interesting from a geek perspective: They run a pretty huge web application (700-800 pageviews per second at peak, most of them database-backed), and Brad has written quite a bit about the challenges and solutions they've come up with. They've also written several very interesting open source infrastructure applications like memcached (used by Slashdot) and perlbal. Thus, while the service may not be all that interesting, the tech behind it certainly is (at least to this geek).

    1. Re:LiveJournal is more interesting than you think by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      "(700-800 pageviews per second at peak, most of them database-backed)"

      700-800 isnt enough to withstand slashdot, therefore i mock their petty attempts to stay online ;).

    2. Re:LiveJournal is more interesting than you think by krokodil · · Score: 1

      They are also pretty advanced in terms of supporting
      new technologies. For instance they provide FOAF
      info for users, have rich SOAP API, was among first to support ATOM. They also allow to incroprorate syndicated feeds into your friends
      page. Posting by email and phone is pretty cool.

      As to demographics of their user base, I would try
      to avoid generalizing there. Yes, there are lot
      of young people there, but there are some serious
      blogs there, technical and otherwise. By the way, they also provide very nice stats (user distribution by age, buy location, etc.)

    3. Re:LiveJournal is more interesting than you think by crschmidt · · Score: 1

      That data is old. The current is more along the lines of 3 times that.

      Slashdot's traffic, according to the maintainers of /. and LJ, is significantly less than LJ's. Not to mention the fact that Slashdot is dealing with a miniscule amount of data in comparison to LJ.

      --
      -- Christopher Schmidt YouTube Quality of Experience
    4. Re:LiveJournal is more interesting than you think by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Funny how some of the more interesting sites, tech-wise, can be some of the less interesting for content.

      Take Gaia Online (www.gaiaonline.com) - it's an uber-customised phpBB with about 1.3 million users and an RPG system, currently in alpha. Unfortunately, most of the users are 13-year-old fangirls (although, like pretty much anything, there are interesting little corners to be found...)

      Actually, depending on who you talk to, slashdot is also an example of a relatively uninteresting site which makes an interesting technical case study =P

  31. Re:LiveJournal by oskard · · Score: 0, Offtopic

    It wasn't supposed to be insightful, just my opinion. I don't enjoy reading them, I don't like them

    --
    Sigs are for Terrorists.
  32. While on the topic of Livejournal by spamfiltertest · · Score: 1

    I've been thinking of using their services, but for one reason or another, never moved on my idea.

    Can some LiveJournal users given their thoughts on it? How is the community? How is the service as a whole?

    Thanks.

    1. Re:While on the topic of Livejournal by beckerbuns · · Score: 1, Insightful

      I have only been on LJ for a few months but I've found it to be a warm and welcoming community. I have found groups of people with similar concerns and interests as mine and have been able to get support, advice, and commiseration (and joking around of course) there.

      The blog haters can just stay away, I guess. I find LJ to be a valuable resource.

    2. Re:While on the topic of Livejournal by iJames · · Score: 2, Informative

      The vast majority of LiveJournal users use it as a sort of melodrama aggregator. It's got all the features of a standard blog, and adds stickers on your locker (avatars), mood rings, and a "friends list" with all the emotional baggage and infighting that entails. It's like being in middle school forever. Note that I'm not against blogs. I honestly think blogs are transformative, and I'm having fun with my own experiment. But for the people who pick LiveJournal for their blog, the reason is almost certainly because all their friends are already on it. If that's not the case for you, you may find it a lonely and somewhat confusing place. (Again, like middle school.)

    3. Re:While on the topic of Livejournal by spamfiltertest · · Score: 1

      I've been in middle school once, don't need to redo it. ;-) Thanks.

    4. Re:While on the topic of Livejournal by fe_plus · · Score: 2, Insightful

      hehe, I'd rate that last post as a 5 for funny. Livejournal, IMO, is only useful if you have REAL-LIFE friends who use it too. So if you're friends are actually beyond the maturity of a middle-schooler, and you only add them as your livejournal friends - then it's all good. As far as the service goes I have no major complaints. The web design/interface as previously mentioned by another /.'er is unwieldy and difficult. There are other services just as good. This does do a good job of keeping you up to date with friends and family that you would otherwise contact and talk to via instant messenger, phone, or .. in person. *gasp* This is just another medium to do such a thing, IMO.

    5. Re:While on the topic of Livejournal by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Most LJs are different than the blogs I've seen. LJs are personal updates of people's daily lives, complete with all the little frustrations, epiphanies, and sweet moments thrown in; they range from casual comments to being deeply personal.

      I have about a dozen friends on my FList. One RL, the rest from different forums I hang out on or added after random LJ surfing.

      Overall, the "community" is nice. I've heard about some bad experiences, but they seem similar to real-life crap to me. The service is good, although there's some lag at peak times of the day. If you're thinking about getting an LJ, do some searching based on your interests and see if the site's right for you.

      -A Happy LJ User

    6. Re:While on the topic of Livejournal by stinerman · · Score: 1

      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.

    7. Re:While on the topic of Livejournal by poot_rootbeer · · Score: 1

      The vast majority of LiveJournal users use it as a sort of melodrama aggregator

      The "vast majority" of any group of people are idiots. But that doesn't discount the hundreds of LJers whose daily writings I find entertaining and thought-provoking.

    8. Re:While on the topic of Livejournal by spamfiltertest · · Score: 1

      Thanks to all for thier feedback. I think I will try it for the blog aspects, but not so much for the community. /off to LJ

    9. Re:While on the topic of Livejournal by iJames · · Score: 1
      The "vast majority" of any group of people are idiots. But that doesn't discount the hundreds of LJers whose daily writings I find entertaining and thought-provoking.

      Sure. But that doesn't mean they picked the best tool. LJ doesn't discourage brilliance, but it doesn't really offer anything to enable brilliance. What it enables, with its unique feature set, is melodrama.

      I will say one good thing about LiveJournal: the viral nature of their community makes it much easier to build an audience for your blog. All you have do is pick a few other LJers' sites and start commenting, and they're more likely start reading yours. This is how it works in the wider world of blogdom too, of course (including to some degree Slashdot), but the "friends" structure somewhat formalizes the process and encourages people to do it proactively. Of course, the quality of your audience will depend on the quality of the sites you choose to comment on.

    10. Re:While on the topic of Livejournal by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Just to keep historical accuracy, you didn't need referral codes at the beginning either. I was on before you needed them (Summer 2001), and they implemented them late Fall 2001. It was a good thing, because they absolutely could not handle the traffic they were getting at the time; pages often took minutes of refreshing to load.

    11. Re:While on the topic of Livejournal by sleeplesseye · · Score: 2, Informative

      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.

    12. Re:While on the topic of Livejournal by tigris · · Score: 2, Informative

      The only reason I stick with LJ is because of the filtering/locking option, which, to the best of my knowledge, is not available on any other blogging platform. This gives me a lot of control in who exactly can read my posts. If I have to, I can friends-lock the entire journal, keeping random surfers out. The new bundled photohosting for premium accounts is also a nice feature.

      LJ is sadly lacking in many areas though: no text search of blog posts or comments; available stock templates are pretty pathetic; only 15 icon slots; no post categorization, etc.

    13. Re:While on the topic of Livejournal by Billly+Gates · · Score: 1

      Well I found it because I kept finding the communities whenever I did a google search on some things I am interested in.

      I made friends and found my gf as a result of joining.

      LJ is a very nice thing to have if your a socially isolated person so to speak.

      Greatestjournal is much more for adults but I still use LJ for the friends I made.

    14. Re:While on the topic of Livejournal by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I actually find the LJ stock templates much nicer than a lot of the over-designed junk that other software, in particular Blogger, comes with.

      A few of the more recent ones have been a bit messy, and likewise the early ones were designed by programmers rather than designers, but many of them are perfectly acceptable and a few of them are pretty-much just sensible HTML with a particular stylesheet, so there's nothing to stop you applying a completely different stylesheet if you so desire.

    15. Re:While on the topic of Livejournal by metamatic · · Score: 1

      Read the article linked to in my .signature before you consider spending money on LiveJournal.

      --
      GCHQ Quantum Insert installed. If only our tongues were made of glass, how much more careful we would be when we speak
    16. Re:While on the topic of Livejournal by thephotoman · · Score: 1

      Well, you can't really depend soley on the community of LiveJournal to be its own independent community. It doesn't stand up that well, really. You need to know people on it, preferably ones that you want to communicate with. Most of my online friends (most of whom I've never met in real life) were people I met during my message board days. From that seed of probably 25 people, I've amassed a friends list six times that size.

      --
      Haec merda tauri est. Ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam.
    17. Re:While on the topic of Livejournal by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      good_benito@hotmail.com
      http://www.livejournal.co m/users/good_benito/
      When starting out in LJ two years ago, I actually found a good way to amass a decent reading list of friends was to find one journal that seemed mature and interesting, and then read their friends list and start picking through whichever journals seemed interesting. It's a bit time consuming, but if you're looking for intelligent reading material (and we're all our own judge of that, I know) it's better than simply clicking on RandomJournal and hoping something comes through.

    18. Re:While on the topic of Livejournal by Y0ungN3rd · · Score: 1

      I find LJ a most useful tool. It usually loads pages quite fast. And for the most part, is quite easy to use. You don't have to make friends on LJ, there is a way you can keep your journal completely private. I believe it's very amusing and when I'm bored it keeps me occupied. But, unlike most of you on /. I'm only 15 years of age, so I would not know for sure how you would feel about it.

  33. No. It wasn't sarcasm. by glrotate · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Many of us are tired about hearing about the latest entry in so-and-so's online diary, and wish they'd just go away.

    1. Re:No. It wasn't sarcasm. by PedanticSpellingTrol · · Score: 1

      Of course, this is only for all values of so-and-so which are equal to Roland Piquepaille

    2. Re:No. It wasn't sarcasm. by poot_rootbeer · · Score: 1

      Many of us are tired about hearing about the latest entry in so-and-so's online diary, and wish they'd just go away.

      Why do you hate Wil Wheaton so much?

      I mean, hating Wesley Crusher is understandable. But can't you separate that from the actor who played him...?

    3. Re:No. It wasn't sarcasm. by NATIK · · Score: 1

      I agree i personally hate the fact that while searchingfor something i hit tons of blogs about it before finding what i am looking for. Personally i think of the blogs as a kind of spam that spreads through searchengines, in the meaning that they spam the search output due to the fact that they speak of so many things that one page can be hit by many, many keywords.

    4. Re:No. It wasn't sarcasm. by arose · · Score: 1

      So any result you aren't looking for is spam? You should make a mind reading search engine or at least add '-blog' to your searches. Real search engine spam isn't that easy to get rid of. Never mind that blogs sometimes contain exactly what you are looking for.

      --
      Analogies don't equal equalities, they are merely somewhat analogous.
    5. Re:No. It wasn't sarcasm. by compro01 · · Score: 1

      that would be why on my livejournal, i checked the "block webcrawlers" box.

      my journal doesn't appear on any searh engine i've tried, unless you specifically punch in my username, and then it only shows up as a link to my journal on someone else's journal.

      --
      upon the advice of my lawyer, i have no sig at this time
  34. The hatred for random blogs by dema · · Score: 3, Insightful

    It seems to be the norm here that people dislike blogs that don't have a "purpose." What exactly is the problem with these? Is anyone here being forced to read blogs about random nonesense? Does it cause some sort of serious problem? If you want to complain about blogs, complain about the ones run by pseudo-intellectuals who feel they should have some sort of say in the world. Most of the livejournal community are just people interested in social networking. Yes, many blogs will just be random bullshit that no one except the poster will ever care about. But, so what? The people flaming blogging in general probably just need somewhere to vent outside of slashdot, a blog maybe?

    1. Re:The hatred for random blogs by NardofDoom · · Score: 1

      The issue I see most often is that blogs cludge up Google. Of course, there are solutions to this, like putting a default robots.txt in all blog software or Google making a blog search tool.

      --
      You have two hands and one brain, so always code twice as much as you think!
    2. Re:The hatred for random blogs by Threni · · Score: 1

      > It seems to be the norm here that people dislike blogs that don't have a
      > "purpose." What exactly is the problem with these? Is anyone here being forced
      > to read blogs about random nonesense?

      I just think that blogs are an awful waste of time. Sure, everyone can do what they like - I'm not calling for them to be banned or anything, but whenever I've looked it just seems like retarded nonsense by people who can't really write English very well, similar to the mid-late '90s when there were 209,000,000 webpages with pictures of peoples cats and fat girlfriends and twee little animated `under construction` logos and a hit-counter showing 00000000027.

      A lot of it does seem to be a 'social networking' thing but frankly when I'm offline I don't want to be reminded of the net anymore than I want to be reminded of the phone system, so the idea of going out of my way to meet people (friends of friends of....) is a little....sad? Perhaps if you're fat or ugly or you live in a small town and really really want to get laid by another geek then sure, start typing, but frankly if I were in that situation I'd probably rather just start dialling random phone numbers and speak to whoever answers.

    3. Re:The hatred for random blogs by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Sounds like something a "BLOGGER" would say. Guards! Seize him!

    4. Re:The hatred for random blogs by GeorgeH · · Score: 1

      ... or adding "-comment -trackback" to your search, or accepting that a blog entry was most linked to because it was the best source of information for what you're searching for.

      --
      Why can't I moderate something "Wrong" or at least "Grossly Misinformed"?
    5. Re:The hatred for random blogs by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      ...with pictures of peoples cats and fat girlfriends... ...so the idea of going out of my way to meet people (friends of friends of....) is a little....sad?

      Perhaps if you're fat or ugly or you live in a small town and really really want to get laid by another geek then sure...

      Ever heard of Projection?

    6. Re:The hatred for random blogs by gl4ss · · Score: 1

      one problem is that they infest search engines..

      not to say that they're that bad, but that's one.

      the real problem though, or reason why people hate random blogs, is the they're nearly always without any substance or even longevity - just couple of posts on something quite random without any insight into anything. basically they're just very bad journalism, if you will.

      you can complaing about shitty newspapers even if you don't read them, you can complain about shitty tv shows even if you don't follow them.

      for the record, bold and the beautiful IS SHIT!

      --
      world was created 5 seconds before this post as it is.
    7. Re:The hatred for random blogs by Jayjay75 · · Score: 1

      "The issue I see most often is that blogs cludge up Google. Of course, there are solutions to this, like putting a default robots.txt in all blog software or Google making a blog search tool."

      That would seem to me to be an issue with the search engine rather than with the blogs themselves. Maybe Google needs a "-noblogs" function for those who wish to avoid getting results from those sites. I think requesting such a feature would be more productive than whining about blogs' existance on /.

    8. Re:The hatred for random blogs by Y0ungN3rd · · Score: 1

      I agree completely! Kudos to you.

  35. Say it isn't so by beckerbuns · · Score: 0

    Well, if LJ is purchased by Six Apart it would be nice if it were left alone, since it's just finally getting to be useable. It sounds like this is unlikely. Also, it would be nice to see Brad Fitzpatrick confirm or deny this "news" on the LJ site.

  36. *Only* UI? by BarryNorton · · Score: 2, Informative

    Remember eGroups?...

    If so you're probably unable to bear, as I am, the take-over-resultant Yahoo Groups interface (I pulled everything I had on there off it), and know just how awful this could be...

  37. I find this comment totally inappropriate by timothy · · Score: 5, Funny

    since it comes with no supporting links.

    timothy

    --
    jrnl: http://tinyurl.com/c2l8yr / foes: http://tinyurl.com/ckjno5
    1. Re:I find this comment totally inappropriate by mmkkbb · · Score: 1
      --
      -mkb
    2. Re:I find this comment totally inappropriate by BaldGhoti · · Score: 4, Informative
      --
      [insert witty sig here]
    3. Re:I find this comment totally inappropriate by XorNand · · Score: 1
      From the admin's journal:
      A couple months ago we upgraded LiveJournal's connections to the net from 100 Mbps to 1000 mbps, as well as our internal network, but we haven't yet upgraded our load balancer, and it's been choking the past week as our bandwidth continues to increase.

      Baahaaahah!

      Love,Your boobie deprived friends at Slashdot

      --
      Entrepreneur : (noun), French for "unemployed"
    4. Re:I find this comment totally inappropriate by aztektum · · Score: 1

      What the crap! You guys actually read the comments section?? And people haven't inundated you with questions about Roland Piequpailley whatever and how come the site isn't W3C approved? I'm shocked. /.rs has let me down for the last time. Where's a good flame war when you need one?

      --
      :: aztek ::
      No sig for you!!
    5. Re:I find this comment totally inappropriate by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Oh dear God...free pr0n...

  38. Good Riddance by barik · · Score: 1, Troll

    All I can say is good riddance. I hope that LiveJournal gets bought, sold, transformed, hacked to death, and turned into something useful. Right now. LiveJournal is nothing more than a forum for immature emotional wankery, coupled with exhibitionist users who think that they should post every mundane detail of their life in order to validate their existence. Think I'm kidding? Just pick any random LiveJournal user, and then click on their friends. Here's one:

    "I realize that pork doesn't smell great when slow cooked unless it has stuff all over it. But why does the house reek of...gas or something? It's foul, and I just had to open the porch door with the fear that I'd keel over from some sort of poisoning."

    Wow, way to enlighten to us there, kid.

    But what's really annoying about all this is that it seems to be, largely, a LiveJournal phenomena. Blogger actually has some intelligent blogs hosted on it. Bloggers who host their own domains, by far, have something more substantial to contribute to the community. So what makes LiveJournal the pile of crap that it is?

    1. Re:Good Riddance by Hieronymus+Howard · · Score: 1

      Maybe it's different in the US, but here in the UK most of my LJ friends are intelligent and interesting people, mostly in their 20's and 30's. There's a much greater level of maturity there than on, say, slashdot.

    2. Re:Good Riddance by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Right now. LiveJournal is nothing more than a forum for immature emotional wankery, coupled with exhibitionist users who think that they should post every mundane detail of their life in order to validate their existence.

      and this is different from shashdot how?

    3. Re:Good Riddance by lisaparratt · · Score: 1

      I think you're missing the point - LiveJournal isn't a host for pretentious self-important "bloggers" to pontificate and spread their views as if they're someone of power. It's just a place for people to chit-chat with their friends.

    4. Re:Good Riddance by barik · · Score: 1

      If that's really true, then, why not have strictly friends-only journals? A large number of journals have private, personal, every day details, but are provided for all the world to see.

    5. Re:Good Riddance by stinerman · · Score: 1

      It seems to me that that is a good way to make friends.

    6. Re:Good Riddance by lisaparratt · · Score: 1

      *shurg* I know a large number of people who are friends only - I myself am that way, but then I'm a sensitive soul. Can't speak for others, but I suppose it's a good way of getting a feel for someone after you've met them off your head in a nightclub the night before.

    7. Re:Good Riddance by TheAwfulTruth · · Score: 2, Insightful

      I'll have to second that.

      I suppose that if all your friends are snot-nosed whiners, then I LJ might look like a universe of snot-nosed whiners. But in my case, most of my friends are quite level headed.

      LJ is a great way for groups of people to stay in touch. It offers a communication medium that email, "ICQ" and usenet don't match up to. It really is a nice medium for keeping in touch with friends and family.

      The big "danger" though is that you are relying on a comapny to store your data for you, and that company can be sold and your data destroyed or used for purposes that you did not intend at any time.

      I've been getting my personal website fixed up lately and have decided that I am going to post mainly to my own website from now on and merely provide links to it in lj. That way, even if LJ vaporizes tomorrow, I'll still have my data which I can link back to in another forum if I need to.

      --
      Contrary to popular belief, coding is not all free blow-jobs and beer. Those things cost MONEY!
    8. Re:Good Riddance by poot_rootbeer · · Score: 1

      I hope that LiveJournal gets bought, sold, transformed, hacked to death, and turned into something useful.

      Download the source and do it already, then. Isn't that the Slashdotter's Creed? Why wait for some corporation to create the product you want?

      And besides, is some kid's diary post about a strange odor in his kitchen any more trivial than the endless "Windows sucks" flames and GNAA trolls in the comments here on Slashdot?

      So what makes LiveJournal the pile of crap that it is?

      You tell me -- it's in YOUR mind.

    9. Re:Good Riddance by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You must be a lot of fun at parties. Someone introduces themself to you and you punch them in the face for not being interesting enough.

    10. Re:Good Riddance by c0bw3b · · Score: 1

      I'm in the US, but I'm with you there. I use LJ to keep up with real life friends, and to keep up with a limited number of people I've met online. I don't understand why people seem to be so anti-LJ... if you don't want to read posts about whiny immature crap, just remove that person from your friends list. Sheesh. Yeah if you click on any random LJ, you'll find a high proportion of stupidness, but by the same token, if you open up any random web page you will likely find stupidness also. Or porn.

      --
      ||:|::
    11. Re:Good Riddance by celeste_ · · Score: 1

      Well let's see. LiveJournal has (at this moment) 5,658,573 journals.

      If you were to go out to your local shopping mall (a large public place also greatly inhabited by young people), what percentage of the people there do you think would meet your criteria for intelligent and substantial? And now apply that percentage to the number of LiveJournals and tell me that you've been to enough random journals to determine that everyone on there posts nothing but immature emotional wankery.

      No, some thirteen year-old girl's journal is probably not going to be of interest to you (I'm assuming here) but there are plenty of interesting and intelligent journals out there. I also don't think that the point of LiveJournal is to post a bunch of "intelligent" ramblings for complete strangers to read, but to communicate and share things with friends.

    12. Re:Good Riddance by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Soo.. To express your displeasure at emotional wankery on LJ, you post your emotional wankery to Slashdot. Way to go, dude.

    13. Re:Good Riddance by metamatic · · Score: 1
      So what makes LiveJournal the pile of crap that it is?

      Policy? Anyone who tries to post anything informative or intelligent eventually pisses someone else off, and gets stomped by the "Abuse" team, who seem to think that troll rights are more important than the rights of paying users who contribute interesting content. I know several people who left LJ for other systems.

      --
      GCHQ Quantum Insert installed. If only our tongues were made of glass, how much more careful we would be when we speak
    14. Re:Good Riddance by metamatic · · Score: 1
      The big "danger" though is that you are relying on a comapny to store your data for you, and that company can be sold and your data destroyed or used for purposes that you did not intend at any time.

      Actually, LiveJournal can and will deny you access to your own data if they feel like it, without the company being sold. They've already done it to a number of people.
      --
      GCHQ Quantum Insert installed. If only our tongues were made of glass, how much more careful we would be when we speak
  39. Where to start blogging? by cryptochrome · · Score: 1

    I have a slashdot journal but only /.ers can post to that and the interface isn't nearly as good as a lot of the blogs I've seen, not to mention no images. I post semi-regularly to a half dozen communities but often have things to say otherwise. Ideally of course I would like to not just be talking to myself... so I think I should start a blog.

    Any recommendations on where and how to start? I don't know where to begin. What sites are free, reliable, easy to use, good looking with clean interfaces, and offer ways to publicize your blog (random sampling perhaps). Is there any way to move my journal over without doing the old cut-and-paste? There's a real emphasis on science and geeky stuff in my journal. Categorizing of posts would be nice for me.

    --

    ---If you can't trust a nerd, who can you trust?

    1. Re:Where to start blogging? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      For categories http://www.typepad.com/ is your best bet, although it's a minimum of $5 a month.

      For free my reccomendation would be Blogger. LJ if your looking to be part of an enclosed community.

    2. Re:Where to start blogging? by NardofDoom · · Score: 1

      Get your own hosted web space. It's good for more than just blogs, and often comes with free installer scripts for blogs. I use Hostdime, but there are plenty of other hosting companies out there.

      --
      You have two hands and one brain, so always code twice as much as you think!
    3. Re:Where to start blogging? by jarsonic · · Score: 1

      I'd recommend ModBlog (http://www.modblog.com). I've been there since it started, and it's really good, and free, to boot. Unlimited free image hosting, free domain pointing, customizable layouts, RSS feeds, commenting and a chatterbox, a growing community -- there's nothing not to like :) Take a look at mine for an example. http://jarsonic.modblog.com/

  40. Six Apart is desperate for talent. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Worst comment I've read about the whole thing...

    Holy crap, folks, this is as big as it gets. This is Cingular buys AT&T. This is huge.

    Ahem. Anyway, truth is Six Apart just needs to make some money. Livejournal makes money. End of story. Hopefully LJ backs out and Six Apart can go ahead and die at the hands of the VC snakes. Whoever decided to pump millions into that company is going to get what they deserve.

  41. Not bloody likely (I hope) by Audigy · · Score: 2, Insightful

    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.

    --
    [an error occured while processing this directive]
  42. i'll tell you in 20minutes by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0


    then the JVM should of finished loading by then

  43. Live journal not Available? by joebetoblame · · Score: 1

    you can always talk to the guys over at http://www.deadjournal.com/ and see if they want to get bought out.

    --
    Bringing your mosaic ideas to life. Mosaiclegs
  44. Tiger Server Will Have Blog Capability by WombatControl · · Score: 1

    The next release of Mac OS X Server (10.4) will have the Blojsom blogging system built in although I'm not sure how heavily they'll promote that.

    Also, I believe that there's a feature for .Mac called iBlog that lets you blog to your .Mac account, although I've not used it.

    1. Re:Tiger Server Will Have Blog Capability by adzoox · · Score: 2, Informative

      Yes I know about those ... but thanks pointing those out.

      I didn't do my homework on Blogger as posts have indicated here.

      I think BLOGging is the next big thing - and I think /. and the past election prove that. Many websites are now just BLOGs with pictures.

      People expect less from a BLOG - so a lot of flashy HTML and graphics aren't necessary. This is the new webpage boom if you ask me.

      Claris Homepage was cool, but not robust. I think Apple could buy out a major player and REALLY promote it heavily.

      --
      Yell & scream & rant & rave... it's no use... you need a shaaaave ~ Bugs Bunny
    2. Re:Tiger Server Will Have Blog Capability by wankledot · · Score: 1
      "Many websites are now just BLOGs with pictures."

      I would respond by saying that Blogs are just websites.

      --
      My sig is blank, I typed this by hand.
  45. LJ seems to be what most think about blogs by ShatteredDream · · Score: 5, Insightful

    So much of the criticism about blogging that I have seen seems to be embodied in LJ. Most of the real blogs I have seen that use WordPress or MovableType seem to be done by people who are at least semi-serious about what they write. Most MT users I have seen, for example, put at least a modicum of thought into what they write and it's rarely about their life unless it affects the direction of the blog or is amusing to the readers.

    LJs are appropriate for people who want to help people in their lives who are far away keep up with what's going on in their life and stuff like that. They don't seem to be very useful for much else. Blogs on the other hand tend to be focused on issues like politics, coding, music, etc.

    1. Re:LJ seems to be what most think about blogs by geoff43230 · · Score: 2, Insightful


      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.

    2. Re:LJ seems to be what most think about blogs by Discoflamingo13 · · Score: 1

      A blog is what you make it - some people want to be serious writers, and some don't. When I joined LJ in 2002, it was the best of breed free blogging program. People have been flocking to it as the other free sites went under; these are usually people who can't afford to (or just won't) pay for a program like MT, aren't technically savvy enough to write their own blogging system, or know lots of people on LJ.

    3. Re:LJ seems to be what most think about blogs by bbtom · · Score: 1

      Yes. It is amazing how people criticise blogs when all they are is a method for posting material on the Internet in an easy manner. On the same logic, you can criticise the static HTML/webspace/FTP since it is possible to put exactly the same content as a blog up, but you have to do it in a different manner. The content is the problem, not the technology.

      Plus, a lot of people working on blogs are geeks, and are coming up with lots of cool ways of creating interactive "stuff" that will solve the problems of actually finding interesting content among the many, many thousands of weblogs.

      --
      catch (HumourFailureException e) { e.user.send("You, sir, are a humourless idiot."); }
    4. Re:LJ seems to be what most think about blogs by fling93 · · Score: 1

      I personally have both a MT blog and a LJ for this exact reason: to keep the material separate. I'm hoping a merger will help make these a little easier to manage by letting me choose a single posting interface.

    5. Re:LJ seems to be what most think about blogs by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      LJ *and* Xanga are the majority that contribute to this criticism

    6. Re:LJ seems to be what most think about blogs by Peganthyrus · · Score: 1
      The front page of LJ used to say something like "Tell the world about your life! Create a Livejournal!". Now it's more marketspeaky stuff about blogging.

      Most LJ users I know put a lot of thought into what they write. Sometimes it's about their life. Sometimes it's about other things. Sometimes these are intertwined.

      I have a friend who has five or so different LJs, for different purposes. Me? I've thought of separating things out, but in the end, I prefer to keep my sketchbook scans and finished art intertwined with the rest of my life. The focus is on my life and thoughts, not "my thoughts on politics", "my thoughts on CSS", "my art", "my sex life", or whatever.

      --
      egypt urnash minimal art.
  46. Ummmm by metalhed77 · · Score: 1

    Don't you think that your characterization of late joining LJers is a egregiously unfair? We're not all assholes.

    --
    Photos.
  47. Comment removed by account_deleted · · Score: 0

    Comment removed based on user account deletion

  48. Comment removed by account_deleted · · Score: 1

    Comment removed based on user account deletion

  49. Where will all the Goth and Gamer Girlzzz go? by syntap · · Score: 1

    LiveJournal is the only reliable place to find them.

    1. Re:Where will all the Goth and Gamer Girlzzz go? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      They are all over at http://www.deadjournal.com/.

  50. Rumour? Rumor? by sam0737 · · Score: 1

    If it's not a rumour, it probably is a rumor. The other way round is also true.

  51. Not a good thing by Turn-X+Alphonse · · Score: 1

    Even though it is used mostly by whining 12 year olds complaining noone thinks they are cute. The system it's self is very useable and pretty advanced. It's always going to be known as "The whiney blog site", but the simpleness of the place (and yet still powerfully customizable) makes it worth keeping around, if only to see what comes out of it in the future.

    --
    I like muppets.
  52. How can you be sure? by Doc+Ruby · · Score: 1

    Grazzy, is that you? Only Grazzy is qualified to say for sure whether it's sarcasm. Just because you agree with the statement doesn't mean it's not sarcastic: not all sarcasm is accurate. In this case, though, your problem isn't the blogs, but rather that you keep hearing about them somehow. Since blogs require clicks, I think you should stop clicking them, or get your friends to stop emailing you about them. Annoying people aren't going "away" in our shrinking world: you have to learn to control your own environment better.

    --

    --
    make install -not war

    1. Re:How can you be sure? by grazzy · · Score: 1

      I just love to start a good old flame on slashdot :)

      No seriously, some blogs are good, they're not many, and most of them would qualify under what slashdot was "before" the big "blog"-thing.

      I dont see the need to lump some of the serious, quality I actually DO read into the "blog" category.

      A blog for me is something that is read by 10 close friends at best and contains what a certain person did the day before - not intresting at large.

      One of these examples is the dear raed-blog, which clearly is a blog, however it carries another value, namely real live reporting from Bagdad when every other source is biased in an american way. You cant blame me to be intrested in that.

      I dont see the need to qualify dear read as a blog becuase it has a journalistic value.

    2. Re:How can you be sure? by Doc+Ruby · · Score: 1

      "Journalism" is from "journal", which is a 'blog, on or off the Web.

      --

      --
      make install -not war

    3. Re:How can you be sure? by grazzy · · Score: 1

      Yeah, so?

    4. Re:How can you be sure? by geminidomino · · Score: 1

      How do you have a (we)blog "off the web?"

    5. Re:How can you be sure? by Doc+Ruby · · Score: 1

      In the previous post's parlance, a weblog is just a diary. Which is a journal.

      --

      --
      make install -not war

  53. It's a blog by cheezemonkhai · · Score: 2, Interesting

    I'm not trolling here before I do get flamed, however who gives a monkeys.

    What relevance does a blog have to most people. I find them annoying and they tend to have people bitching about their mates etc.
    Any sensible person wouldn't post that they had done x on a blog unless they were trying to tell the world.

    People who weblog are craving attention from the rest of the world.

    Sorry but go get a diary and write in in there.

    (In case you hadn't noticed, yes I hate bloggers)

    1. Re:It's a blog by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Yes it is a blog. But so is slashdot. What does that make you, as one who comments on a blog?

    2. Re:It's a blog by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0
      I'm not trolling here before I do get flamed, however who gives a monkeys.

      What relevance does a Slashdot post have to most people. I find them annoying and they tend to have people bitching about bloggers etc. People who post on Slashdot are craving attention from the rest of the world. Any sensible person wouldn't post that they disliked x on a Slashdot post unless they were trying to tell the world.

      Sorry but go get a diary and write in in there.

      (In case you hadn't noticed, yes I'm a sarcastic bastard)

    3. Re:It's a blog by Jim_Callahan · · Score: 1

      Actually, the Livejournal Blogs are usually intended to communicate with a group of people you already know, rather than the entire world. I use mine for two things: telling my friends things all at once so i don't have to zarking repeat it 20 times, and informing them what general area of the country I'm in if they need me.

      My main beef with livejournal was that it seemed to somehow encourage people to abandon proper punctuation and syntax. However, experience with such allowed me to decode the parent post, so I guess it's not all that bad.

      --
      ...it's really a sad day for America when we require a goddamn ACT OF CONGRESS to make our DVD players work properly. ~
    4. Re:It's a blog by arafel · · Score: 1

      If you find blogs annoying, the simple solution is don't read them.

    5. Re:It's a blog by vertinox · · Score: 1

      What is the point of writing something if no one reads it?

      The only thing I can think of is personal entertainment and being able to organize your thoughts.

      Even diaries will be read by other people unless you destroy them before you die.

      Lastly, like most forms of media, no one forces you to read them. If you don't have anything better to do than read blogs/journals than perhaps your energies would be better spent writing in that pen and paper diary you speak of.

      --
      "I am the king of the Romans, and am superior to rules of grammar!"
      -Sigismund, Holy Roman Emperor (1368-1437)
    6. Re:It's a blog by cheezemonkhai · · Score: 1

      I don't, but I still hear some blogging mates go on and on about it.

  54. I met my wife via livejournal by apparently · · Score: 0

    don't underestimate the power of the blog.

  55. all things in moderation by museumpeace · · Score: 1

    The real difference between slashdot and all the jetsam and blogsam bobing in and out of the attention of the surfing public is the peer refereeing: the moderation.
    This becomes a "blog" worth reading on the strength of its participants/readers [and fails with their weaknesses: sloth, bias, misinformation...just read some of my comments!] more than on the strength of its "writers" [the bizzare zoo of /. eds and Roland Clique-appeal wannabes] who drag stuff in for us to kick around.

    Nope, quite different from the usual blog and worth the trouble.
    And if you think the moderation is spotty and random, get off yer arse and metamoderate!

    --
    SLASHDOT: news for people who can't concentrate on work or have no life at all and got tired of yelling back at the TV.
  56. Quick download the source! by BestNicksRTaken · · Score: 2, Interesting

    http://www.livejournal.org/download/code/

    If 6A screw it up, we just make our own!

    He, maybe my LJ client will never get finished now, they'll probably shut down the API.

    --
    #include <sig.h>
  57. Filling up search engines with crap. by glrotate · · Score: 1

    That's another reason I'm sick of them.

    1. Re:Filling up search engines with crap. by Doc+Ruby · · Score: 1

      Again, that's a problem with the search engines. Why not ask Google for a "no blogs" checkbox in "Advanced Search"? That's what they do - hide the Internet you want to ignore.

      --

      --
      make install -not war

    2. Re:Filling up search engines with crap. by bbtom · · Score: 1

      Why bother? Weblogs are just a series of HTML pages containing content. Just because you don't like the content doesn't change the fact that they contain it.

      --
      catch (HumourFailureException e) { e.user.send("You, sir, are a humourless idiot."); }
    3. Re:Filling up search engines with crap. by Doc+Ruby · · Score: 1

      Because they're different enough from other webpages that some users, like our cantankerous threadmate, want to exclude them from their view. There's structure in them thar hills!

      --

      --
      make install -not war

  58. LJ is a great communications tool by kieran · · Score: 1

    I'm a big fan of LJ. I used to run several mailing lists, some of which were simple "group of friends" lists, but those in particular were hellish to run - after all, in a large enough group to be interesting, there are bound to be people who don't get along.

    Everyone has an LJ now, and it's a much more elegant solution. You pick who can read your posts, you pick whose posts you read, and that means you can fit your journal to the dynamics of your own group of friends. It's a fantastic way to keep in touch, to organise events, and to simultaneously keep a (partly private) diary to look back on years later.

  59. it will only be better by adeydas · · Score: 1

    don't worry, six apart invented the best blogging script out there and if it accquires LJ, it will give it some much needed trimming. and besides there may be paid versions, but there is always a free version for personal use.

  60. Fast servers by pne · · Score: 1

    Though "fast servers" are a thing of the past - I think they got rid of paid-user-only servers quite a while ago.

    They have something similar with "express lane", though, where the load balancer has two queues, one for paid users and one for free ones, and paid users get priority when site usage is high and requests queue up faster than they can be served.

    --
    Esli epei etot cumprenan, shris soa Sfaha.
  61. Blogging is interesting, but LJ is not. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Flamebait

    The problem with LJ isn't the system itself, which is technically impressive, and it's not the concept; its the LiveJournal usrs. LiveJournal seems to have attracted every last nutcase on the 'net who have nothing better to do than rant and rave (and Lord help you if you post a dissenting opinion or give constructive criticism).

    I'm serious; the vast majority of LiveJournals I've looked at seem to belong to people with admitted mental problems, drug abuse issues, the disaffected or the just plain lazy. Why people would expose their own socially-inappropriate behavior and air out their dirty laundry in public and yet not expect to be taken to task is beyond my comprehension. Best of all these nutbags make their journals 'friends only' which allows them to surround themselves with people who only reinforce the bad behavior. Looking at it from this angle, LiveJournal is probably costing society more than it's contributing.

    Then there's others who post the most mundane things imaginable, boring my CPU to death, or post treacly stories and then provide an RSS feed. If I want to see shit on my screen, I'll look up some coprophilia sites, not your RSS feed.

    There's also a smattering of people who don't want to work for a living and whose Live Journals consist of the most amazing tales of woe ever imagined, most of which aren't true but all of which can be rectified by a PayPal donation or contributions to an Amazon wish list.

    IMHO Fitzpatrick should take the money and run, but only if he promises to send each and every paid member of LJ a gun with one bullet in an attempt to rectify the damage.

    As for crschmidt: you met your girlfriend doing free support for LJ? Good for you; seeing as birds of a feather flock together I'm sure she's a goofy fuck just like yourself. Personally, I met my woman on the beach in Ft Lauderdale, and I'm pretty sure I got better quality control.

  62. journal features on Slashdot by Pentomino · · Score: 1

    Does anybody use the journal features of Slashdot? It has many features similar to Livejournal, most notably the friends list, and the view of friends' journals.

    Slashdot even goes one better -- you can also define a foes list. If LJ had that, it would be World War III.

    1. Re:journal features on Slashdot by LPetrazickis · · Score: 1

      Yes, we do. Take a look at my Friends List. If you configure Slashdot to email you whenever someone replies, the journal becomes a very cozy setup.:)

      --
      Is this a sigs-optional kind of place? 'Cause I am totally down with that if you know what I mean.
    2. Re:journal features on Slashdot by LPetrazickis · · Score: 1

      And, by "My Friends List", I meant My Friends List, not the current user's friends list.;)

      --
      Is this a sigs-optional kind of place? 'Cause I am totally down with that if you know what I mean.
  63. Re:LiveJournal by SComps · · Score: 1

    hey now! That picture was from one little party that got just a little too carried away. They haven't slept with eachother more than three times since then!

  64. Privacy? by Lord_Dweomer · · Score: 1
    I wonder what they'll be doing with the member information they now have? If this buyout does happen, I think a reread of their privacy policy will soon be in order.

    --
    Buy Steampunk Clothing Online!
  65. Unlikely by EdMcMan · · Score: 1

    For those of you who don't know anything about Brad F., Livejournal is really his life. His company, Danga Inc., is mostly dedicated to running Livejournal (although it does develop a lot of neat, free software). I honestly couldn't see him doing anything else. It's not about the money for him, and he loves what he's doing.

    I think most Livejournal users would be fairly upset if it was sold.

  66. Blogger is owned by Google by eldalonde · · Score: 0

    Google bought Blogger a little while ago. I doubt Apple would want to buy Blogger from Google and I doubt Google would want to sell it. However, I see the possibility of some sort of blogging service from Apple. I believe they already bundle the iBlog software with .Mac.

  67. Mesh conversations are not "journalling" by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    LJ turns conversations which would otherwise be one one one into politicized mesh conversations. It is totally inauthentic and phony. It's all about men trolling for ass, and women trolling for attention.

  68. Getting closer by Nurgled · · Score: 1

    eWeek seems to think that the rumors are true and the deal will be announced tomorrow. Still no word direct from either Six Apart or "Danga", though.

  69. The network effect by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    The value of LJ is in the network; the possibility of using social-network data to authenticate users and have private posts without all of the readers needing a separate password for your blog. The true value of this is in restoring the private register (which is present in private conversations in real life, but absent in anything placed on the world-accessible, searchable web).

    The problem is that each site has its own set of users and accounts used for such authentication. Thus there is little value in signing up for any service but the one all your friends are on, and the dominant service (i.e., LJ itself) is the one most likely to have people you know on it. If that goes (or is compromised), social networks will be fragmented into (a) those who stay behind with the new SixApart service, (b) those who go to DeadJournal, (c) those who go to GreatestJournal, and (d) those who say "sod this", switch off the computer and get a real life.

    1. Re:The network effect by KinkifyTheNation · · Score: 1

      I figured i'd just download the source code and host a free copy for all of my friends.

      They also wouldn't have to worry about things such as paid account features.

  70. eWeek CONFIRMS SALE (ANNOUNCEMENT TOMORROW!) by VE3ECM · · Score: 1
    1. Re:eWeek CONFIRMS SALE (ANNOUNCEMENT TOMORROW!) by Robotech_Master · · Score: 1
      --
      Editor Emeritus and Senior Writer, TeleRead.org
  71. It's a Done Deal! by VE3ECM · · Score: 1
    http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,1759,1748489,00.as p

    Dun dun dun... another one bites the dust!

  72. All blogs are subject to Sturgeon's Law by Watts+Martin · · Score: 1

    ...probably in an even higher percentage. And this has nothing to do with the back end software you're using.

    The difference with LiveJournal is simply that it puts all its journals on the same "level," because they've had a much stronger focus on community than any other blogging service and certainly more than independent blogs. I'd suggest that most bloggers who host their own domains don't have anything more substantial to contribute to "the community" than LJ users do; the difference is that 99% of the weblogs out there are never seen by anyone except their owner and the five people they've given the URL to.

    Outside of LJ, there really isn't a "community" for blogs: there's a handful of big name ones in various fields (mostly politics and tech), a second tier that shows up from association with the big names, and a whole bunch of never-seens. What LJ critics see as its weakness is also its strength compared to every other service--there's a whole big honking heap of metadata there. You can search for people by physical location, by interests, through friend-of-friend lists. All of the things that FOAF and Trackbacks and Pingbacks and blogrolls try to do, with very limited success, have been done successfully for years over on LiveJournal.

    There's some fine writing on LJ, too -- in general, because of the way "friends lists" get interlaced, finding one thoughtful journalist will lead you to a lot of others. Finding an uninteresting journal will, well, usually lead you to more uninteresting ones. Does LiveJournal have a higher percentage of crap than other systems? Possibly, because it has a lower barrier of entry--it can be both no cost and no work, unlike any other system but Blogger. I suspect if you could limit random searches to only paid LJ accounts, the quality would marginally improve; likewise, I suspect if you could actually get a random Blogger-powered journal with a button click, you'd find much the same level of cow dung there as you do on LJ.

    Frankly, I hope this rumor doesn't pan out. After trying for a while to move my LJ to MT (and writing a little 'echo' patch that mirrored the MT posts to the old LJ account), I realized that the only value being brought by this approach was the ability for spammers to bomb my Movable Type installation. By flipping things around--using LJ as the main back end, and embedding a custom view of it on my home page--the ones and ones of people who were reading my weblog on my home page still get to do it, with very little visual change, and I keep all the considerable benefits of LJ's community. And no damn comment spam.

  73. Re:FP by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    zing

  74. *shrug* by Peganthyrus · · Score: 1
    I don't see any technology advantage to LJ in this. I don't know what their finances are like; they need a lot of bandwidth for their tons of active users and the many user icons. And they recently started an integrated photo-hosting thing, too.

    Is LJ turning a profit or breaking even? Is 6A? I don't know. I believe LJ is supported mostly by paid users, not by venture capital - it's never positioned itself as an Internet bubble thing.

    On the other hand, LJ has really nice comment-spam blocking (partially due to their size; they can detect an address flooding lots of journals with similar crap in ways an individual blog can't), while 6A's been fighting a losing battle against comment-spam on both TypePad and individual MT installations - my LJ has anonymous comments turned on, and I've gotten about three spam comments in its entire life.

    As to all the people dismissing LJ as whiny 12-year-old girls... you can find self-absorbed blogging teenagers on Blogger, TypePad, and personal Movable Type/Wordpress/etc installations. LJ has no monopoly. It's just that there's no 'random personally hosted blog' link the way there's a 'random LJ' link, and the 'blogroll' column taking up screen real estate on the front of your blog isn't as easy to peruse as someone's LJ friends list.

    Wait and see, I guess. I already had my internet rumor freakout of the month yesterday when I read about Adobe's plans for the next release of Illustrator.

    --
    egypt urnash minimal art.
    1. Re:*shrug* by Audigy · · Score: 1

      LJ is nice if you know where to look. Many 'cliques' I know of on there (as do you, wahaha, I know of you) could be modded +5 Insightful :)

      (not stalking, I promise)

      --
      [an error occured while processing this directive]
    2. Re:*shrug* by Peganthyrus · · Score: 1
      Am I infamous yet? Cool!

      Now if I could just decide if you're saying my LJ is sometimes +5 Insightful, or if you're saying I'm occasonally found around people who're regularly so. Or both. Maybe both.

      And stalk away!

      --
      egypt urnash minimal art.
  75. Can you say, "socially inept?" I knew you could. by Max+Threshold · · Score: 1
    How do you think this differs from any other social network? If you don't associate with immature idiots, you won't have these problems.

    LiveJournal isn't just a bunch of kids spreading rumors. I've met several very cool people via LJ -- some of them in meatspace, and some of them *gasp* FEMALE! Old school LJers (who had to be invited by paid members) have a pretty vibrant social network going on. You just can't get into it because you're obviously a WHINING EMO LOSER!

  76. No easy way? What sort of geek are you? by Tink2000 · · Score: 2, Insightful

    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.

    1. Re:No easy way? What sort of geek are you? by Tink2000 · · Score: 1

      Sadly, I was wrong about the buyout. :(

      But I'm still right about the archiving!

  77. Good riddance! by Baloo+Ursidae · · Score: 1

    After LiveJournal defaulted on payment for Christmas wreathes their corporate HQ on Greenbrier Parkway in Beaverton, OR that they purchased through my Scout troop's fundraiser back in the late 1990s, I hope the takeover is quick, and everybody currently with LiveJournal finds themselves without jobs quite quickly. Go takeover!

    --
    Help us build a better map!
  78. LiveJournal is not a blog service by acb · · Score: 1

    Contrary to popular belief, LJ was not intended as a blog service, in the sense of personal publishing. It is more of a social-network system with built-in diaries, and its features (friends-only posts, user icons, mood/music fields) indicate that.

    The key difference is that a blog is for communicating with people, including strangers, interested in a subject (or sharing a set of interests). A LiveJournal is for communicating with one's friends. Communication with friends, by definition, can involve things which an outsider would consider irrelevant or content-free.

  79. Got a LiveJournal? Back it up! by NeuralAbyss · · Score: 1

    I wrote this script after hearing the rumours.. can also be a good thing if you just want a backup of your livejournal.

    LJExport v0.1

    Any comments are welcome.. released under the BSD license.

  80. Not every LJ user is a 12-year old girl... by VE3MTM · · Score: 1

    Hello, people, not everyone on LJ is a 12-year old girl complaining about her life.

    I have kept an LJ for over a year now, along with a (growing) group of friends. Now that many of us have left for university and co-op work terms abroad, it has become a way to keep up with what's going on with them.

    It turns out that some of the people in my residence section also keep LJs, and recently my girlfriend has started one. Over the holidays, when we've been split up, I've kept up with them by reading their LJs. Yes, I do talk to many of them over IM, but reading a post on an LJ beats telling at least a half-dozen people the same story. I find other people's posts to be interesting to read, and I hope other people think the same of mine.

    As other people have said, yes, these entries are generally not very insightful writings, and are retellings of the days events. Because many of the people who read my LJ are not geeks, I hide overly geeky talk behind an "LJ cut" (a link to the full text of a hidden part of a post).

    Seriously, stop it with the stereotyping of LJ users.

    --
    09 F9 11 02 9D 74 E3 5B D8 41 56 C5 63 56 88 C0 Whoops, silly middle mouse button...
  81. I seriously hope so.? Whats wrong with you? by blanks · · Score: 1

    Why would you want a company to buy a free service, with no ad's and no costs unless you want better features.

    If this was the case, I would bet money on the fact that it would have considerable changes over a small amount of time, and naturally if a company is willing to buy a free service, they expect to make that money + more off the services. And how do you think they would do that?

  82. Hype is the new black and Brad is living it up by mandelion · · Score: 1

    From when the first article was posted, people started going insane. He knew this was going to happen. Support requests were opened and ignored. People of course start talking out their ass and rumors start flying, like here: http://www.livejournal.com/users/kyoto_falls/8464. html Give me a break. Instead of making stupid memes and graphics (ok, my friend and I did to make fun of these people), why not ask Brad? He didn't address the issue until one of the servers was about to crash and even then - he didn't say anything: http://www.livejournal.com/community/lj_maintenanc e/99736.html?page=1#comments So yeah, he's playing the hype game quite well. Look at the amount of posts, people backing up to the point servers are crashing, and non-stop posting about it. If these people could organize and riot, they would. I posted, asking why no one was asking Brad out of all these people posting these cute little memes talking about saving their LJ's and am told Brad couldn't talk. About a press conference? He could confirm that and at least calm some of the masses down. He has 5 million journals and he's playing it up for all it's worth. I post saying this and people get pissed. http://www.livejournal.com/users/agateway/140707.h tml And now that I have said this - Brad made it official 4 minutes ago.

  83. Officially confirmed. by Bahumat · · Score: 1
    --
    "To pass through the jungle; silence, courtesy, ferocity, as the occasion demands." -- Kamau, "Proper Passage"
  84. Rumors on the Internets by SELainWhoAmI · · Score: 1
  85. *NOT* rumour but *TRUE* by jark · · Score: 1
    This is no longer a rumour but confirmed true by 6A and LJ. Check out the following links:
  86. Confirmed. by Eideteker · · Score: 1
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    sic
  87. News posted on sites, by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    It is official. Both websites have info on the buy up on their main pages.

  88. Re:FP by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    A virtual machine with a blog collector, obviously.

    Best...post...ever...thatdidntgetmoddedup