Six Apart and LiveJournal
Six Apart has purchased LiveJournal!
The rumors were running wild before the actual announcement was made, and it gave me some time to think about the prospects. And I’m excited!
In general, I’ve been hearing for so many years that LiveJournal is an amazing place for a community. Community is such a cool thing, no matter where you are... back when I had more blogging time (as a Movable Type user), I have felt like I was part of an amazing community of friends with like-interests. And when I read some TypePad blogs as I’ve gotten more TP-friendly through work, I see that there is a lot of community interaction going on there too. So I know that lots of different weblogging systems can form cool communities too! Because of this diversity between people’s needs and the tools that make their software work, I have often thought it would be cool if there were more ways to cultivate this community between the systems. 
I guess I’m probably not the only one! And now, I wanna learn more about LiveJournal, too - its a good time to get involved, I do believe!
Of course, I haven’t personally used LiveJournal, so I’m looking forward to seeing how some of my friend who have used both Movable Type and LiveJournal are thinking - like Zalary and Lisa . And then my good friend Suzy has been using LJ for a long time now, so she’s another person I look forward to hearing from. I do feel bad that the rumors came out early and gave people time to worry. I would have liked to say (yesterday) don’t worry, I trust these people at Six Apart so much to do things right!
Knowing the Six Apart team like I do, I’m absolutely sure that they will do good things in this deal. Of course, through reading a few of the rumors, I couldn’t wait to hear what Mena would say because it would be eloquent and reassuring. And it is. (see also the FAQ) I was equally impressed by Brad’s thoughts and FAQs on the LiveJournal site.
This all brings exciting prospects to my head, and I look forward to see where things go next. Congrats to everyone involved in the deal!
Comments
lj needs a /users/ in there, btw, or the user name.lj.com (if it’s a paid account), fyi. : ) I didn’t know Zalary had an lj - wondered why I didn’t see many posts on her blog anymore.
Posted by: Rina![[TypeKey Profile Page]](http://kadyellebee.com/nav-commenters.gif)
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January 6, 2005 03:06 PM
Oh, thanks for point that out, Rina, I even had the webpage up in the other tab, but didn’t copy it obviously and just typed the link from memory!
Posted by: Kristine![[TypeKey Profile Page]](http://kadyellebee.com/nav-commenters.gif)
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January 6, 2005 03:32 PM
No prob - I just went to check the flist out and was momentarily horrified. ;) Took me a minute to realize the problem.
Posted by: Rina![[TypeKey Profile Page]](http://kadyellebee.com/nav-commenters.gif)
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January 6, 2005 05:00 PM
I use my LJ more often than I use my route15 journal these days. Even though it’s password protected, I like that I can filter stuff and make it friends only or public, and not have to hack around the software to be able to do it. I love the threaded comments and mood themes and phone posting and all of the silly little things about it. I like having a friends list, and being a part of little communities and groups inside of one large whole. I realize that some people don’t want to have to create and login to a LJ account just to read my journal, which is why I haven’t made the move to run route15 off of LJ.
Personally, I trust the 6A team, and I’m pretty confident that the "changeover" is going to be for the good of LJ users. I think that whole MT pricing fiasco thing (which is the basis for a lot of the worries re: 6A and LJ) was pretty shitty, but I also think that 6A handled the incident as well as they could have in the aftermath.
There are some people over there who think it’s going to be like the armageddon of online journalling as we know it - they’re all like, "head for the hills, livejournal is going to hell!" or "6A is the devil incarnate!!" It’s pretty funny.
As long as I can still write the stupid irrelevent stuff that I post there, make phone posts, and have icons... it’s all good to me.
Posted by: Cori | January 6, 2005 05:21 PM
I was never a LJ fan, I found it too limiting but I really LOVED some aspects like the friends only options. The way I see it, LJ can only get better.
Posted by: Carla![[TypeKey Profile Page]](http://kadyellebee.com/nav-commenters.gif)
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January 6, 2005 07:06 PM
I like LJ because I can post things there and control who has access. But honestly, the sense of community and friendliness (for me anyway) is much stronger through blogging than LJ.
Does 6A need a spiffy developer, support, Girl Friday in Colorado?
Posted by: Lisa![[TypeKey Profile Page]](http://kadyellebee.com/nav-commenters.gif)
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January 6, 2005 09:04 PM
I’ve been using LJ longer than I’ve been using MT, and I’ve continued to use LJ even as I’ve been using MT. The community aspects of LJ are definitely a powerful draw - not only the communities themselves but also the use of friends lists. I have met more interesting people through LiveJournal than I have through any other blogging service or experience. I’ll give you more thoughts later too, when Im' more coherent. By the way, since you are not updating this site much at all anymore, are you updating somewhere else? I just assumed that you and E. were busy with the new house and all that, so I hadn’t said anything, but it’s been at least a month now and I’ve been worried about you!
Posted by: Meredith![[TypeKey Profile Page]](http://kadyellebee.com/nav-commenters.gif)
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January 7, 2005 06:36 PM
I’ve also been a long time Livejournal user. I think I prefer using it for the ease of community options as it’s very popular with my friends. Six Apart buying Livejournal must be the best news I’ve heard all day! I just hope Livejournal re-opens soon as it’s site has been down all day.
Posted by: Wendy | January 15, 2005 07:51 PM