[LJ] Buy-out. Post for debating now open.

[dancefloorlandmine]

Given that there's sure to be some muttering on my friends-list about the newly announced sale of LJ to SUP (the company that's been running it in Russia for the last year), I hereby declare this a post on which you can discuss it, should you wish to - left open for linking and debate.

Personally, I think it could be a good thing, to have LJ go back to being run by an LJ-specific company, rather than being viewed mostly as a way to get advertising to people.

Even if I mutter about the description of LJ as "a social networking" product - which would at least explain SixApart's attempts to FaceSpace it.

For more information about the buyout, new communities lj_2008 and lj_policy have been created - the latter being a discussion board about LJ's policies, I believe with Brad Fitzpatrick on the policy committee again ...

Comments

[yaruar.livejournal.com]

The sky is falling down apparantly, as always with these situations.

[christhegoth.livejournal.com]

By Toutatis you are right!!! *glugs tea*

[d-floorlandmine.livejournal.com]

[grin] Mais oui, certainment!

I've got my priorities!!!

[christhegoth.livejournal.com]

If that means more foreign chicks on lj then fine by me :D

I'm so going to hell...

Re: I've got my priorities!!!

[d-floorlandmine.livejournal.com]

I'm so going to hell...
Aye.

[sigh]

And no, I don't think it necessarily will - LJ in Russia has been licensed by SUP for the last year, and Russia is already the second-largest user base after the US.

Re: I've got my priorities!!!

[mooism.livejournal.com]

Do we know what Russian ljers think of SUP?

Re: I've got my priorities!!!

[christhegoth.livejournal.com]

But there may Russian girlies of a cute and alternative nature into a bit of Brit?

Or am I scrabbling at straws?

Re: I've got my priorities!!!

[d-floorlandmine.livejournal.com]

Or am I scrabbling at straws?
More likely scrabbling at spam subject lines. [grin]

A change of owner does not necessarily mean a change of user base - those Russian girls are probably already using LiveJournal - they'll just be typing in Russian ...

Re: I've got my priorities!!!

[arkady.livejournal.com]

Yup, the company concerned has been running the Russian LJ for some time.

Every now and then I get friended by a Russian who doesn't bother checking my userinfo properly and assumes from my name that I'm Russian too. They're usually quite nice about it when I explain their mistake - though one girl thought that the ".uk" bit meant Ukraine....

Re: I've got my priorities!!!

[d-floorlandmine.livejournal.com]

though one girl thought that the ".uk" bit meant Ukraine...
[grin]

Re: I've got my priorities!!!

[christhegoth.livejournal.com]

Ah. That's me stuffed then. I can't read Russian anymore, and what little vocabulary I have left is, erm, very limited. I'll have to stick to Europe then ;)

[hairyears.livejournal.com]

Ahem. * SNORK * Said Nile, discreetly. Who somehow makes lots of friends when the Moscow Dojo fly in for Aikido seminars in England. All the pretty ones are on LJ and some of them are on my FriendsList.

Also, the mad ones. But they're Russian: it's kind of the same thing.

[d-floorlandmine.livejournal.com]

But they're Russian: it's kind of the same thing.
I'm now getting Babylon 5 flashbacks ... [grin]

[christhegoth.livejournal.com]

Ruskies+++ bonkers and loving it. Those crazy ferners ;)

[gaius-octavian.livejournal.com]

I'd have been happier if SUP's new operating company were based in Russia or the UK or at least somewhere in Europe. Too many damn Americans on the Interwebs.

[arkady.livejournal.com]

So that would be why Sixapart went briefly down last night then. It happened at about 11:15pm; LJ and the SixApart status page were only down for about 5-10 minutes, but Vox, TypePad and TypeKey were down a little longer.

[blue-condition.livejournal.com]

There is also some discussion on burkesworks.