The Political Economy of LiveJournal

[fire_fly]

So, SUP, the company that bought LiveJournal from SixApart, has decided to stop allowing new basic (ad-free) accounts to be created. Not only did they decide this, but they failed to announce it in the news community because apparently it wasn't something that would affect existing users (which betrays how little they understand about how users use LJ

Comments

[out_fox]

The free users, while not paying, were extremely valuable because they produced the content that the paying users were there to consumeAnd the non-paying users who're less likely to consider a Wordpress blog. This is a big rub imho re: bloggers role in the transfer of cultural capital

[fire_fly]

LJ's appeal to me is it's cross-over potential beyond existing hierarchies of political voice & capital in other media.

Yeah, I was thinking pretty hard about that too. LJs hybridity between social networking and blogging makes it more informal and accessible than blogs, but also more personal than social networking sites. Part of the structure of LJ is its networking of different people through blog entries and increasing its userbase through proliferating content, which no other site has really managed.

DeadJournal, Blurty, InsaneJournal, GreatestJournal, JournalFen and Scribblit won't ever be as popular as LJ because they're copies of the same code and have dispersed the emigrés from LJ into different communities. LJ's centralisation paradoxically permitted more devolved power structures than more decentralised media. If the other sites permitted more cross-site compatibility, e.g. through OpenID and RSS feeds as well as comment feeds and password-protection of entries, it might work to have a more decentralised blogging

[punkistani]

Thanks for laying it all out so plainly. I understand now. What should we do? Wait and see?

[fire_fly]

You're welcome. Just wanted to get some thoughts out.

For you, I'd recommend you move to Wordpress or Blogger, since you have enough of a readership that they'd prolly follow you. Also, all the cool journos have blogs these days.

[punkistani]

yeah, I don't really know my own readership. but I like how I'm not on a blog right now. LJ is so down to earth!

[fire_fly]

From someone who doesn't know you at all it looks like you've got: a mix of personal friends, randoms and Kominas fans all reading yr LJ. It prolly wouldn't be much harder for them to read yr stuff on Blogsome or something (I'd keep reading).
Totally understood about the different vibe with blogs v. LJs, though.

[puddlesofun]

Right on.

Of course, alienating all your users + content creators makes terrible business sense as well, so the whole thing is stupid from every angle.

If they start enforcing ads on basic accounts (and I fear that may be the next step), I'm taking my blog and leaving. I won't have ads all over my writings, and if I did, I'd want a cut of the profits.

[tcpip]

Interesting the decision ensures that there were be no (or very few) new members.

[fire_fly]

Well, it seems their strategy for generating revenue is to increase pay-per-use features like v-gifts and extra userpics, if 6A's record is anything to go by. Which means holding on more tightly to existing users and milking them harder.

Also, I'm not sure that preventing new users from creating basic accounts will affect the signup rate, since ads are everywhere on the web these days. But it is enough of a change that older users, who remember the days when the site contained no ads at all, will feel miffed and leave. Or stop paying, since advertisers are now stepping deeper into the mix.

[tcpip]

Also, I'm not sure that preventing new users from creating basic accounts will affect the signup rate, since ads are everywhere on the web these days.

True, but that was one of the big advantages of lj which helped it get some market share; apart from the no-ads benefit the only other thing it really has going for it is the friends page; and those doesn't compare, for example, with the apps of facebook.

[fire_fly]

LOL, I hate Facebook apps!

It also has friends adding and communities, which increase the networking capacity. These are geared to creating and sharing content, as opposed to Fb, whose groups are better for inviting people to events.

[fire_fly]

Sure, link away. And yeah, I too am surprised at the uniqueness of the LJ model, given its success.