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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.
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.