Comments | japewierd: It's all about knowing when to get your knickers in a twist!

japewierd

It's all about knowing when to get your knickers in a twist!

Dec 03, 2007 10:50

So I woke this morning to the news that SUP have bought LiveJournal... WTF!... *flails*, and to be honest that worries me more than absolutely anything else that has happened here in the last two years. In fact my immediate reaction is to backup my LJ in preparation for moving home to one of the other journalling sites ( Read more... )

livejournal, sup takeover

Comments 13

bubble_blunder December 3 2007, 11:16:20 UTC

So far my replies in the comments have focused primarily on the whole "We want your input!" theme that is, ironically enough, being voiced by the same people who have been putting me off with empty reassurances for the past several months ( ... )

japewierd December 3 2007, 11:36:57 UTC

If the fannish people stick together (ie we all get behind one person*) then, barring any shenanigans on the part of LiveJournal, Inc, then I'm confident we can get someone who knows our ways and will reflect our wants and needs accurately on the Advisory Board. Whether LiveJournal, Inc actually acts on whatever the Advisory Board says is a completely different matter. I'm sticking with cautious optimism for now though ;) We (fen) need to take this seriously, and in good faith ( ... )

bubble_blunder December 3 2007, 11:47:24 UTC

The problem with that being that fannish people may just vote for the latest BNF in the latest hot fandom. Fen, as a whole, need to get a real handle on making sure that doesn't happen and that we nominate/elect the person who would actually do the most good (whether that's you or someone else). Maybe fen need to pre-empt the actual LJ nominations process and sort out who would work best on our behalf - way in advance - so we can do that.I love this idea! I have no earthly idea how it could be gone about, but I love it! And I am certainly not going to say that I would be the best option. I know that you know how my name got brought up as a possibility, and I know that it's because of the whole "open letter" thing that I was mentioned. That most certainly doesn't mean that there isn't someone else out there who is much better qualified to do this and represent us well. And frankly, my vote is going to go to whomever I think is going to be the best bet for the userbase, with an obvious focus on fandom since we've been such a ( ... )

japewierd December 3 2007, 16:51:25 UTC

fandomnominates ... it's a start at least. Pimp!

I'm betting on... see I think they'll wait till at least the 100 days is up so... June '08

kazzy_cee December 3 2007, 13:52:07 UTC

Why does SUP bother you particularly?

japewierd December 3 2007, 14:25:30 UTC

This would be a good place to start. To be honest I'm not sure how much of what I've vaguely heard around LJ has been wrong/unsubstantiated rumours. The general feeling that I've gotten since they took over the Russian section of the site is that a portion of Russian LJers do not trust them for one single second ( ... )

kazzy_cee December 3 2007, 14:59:23 UTC

Well as a permanent account holder, I suppose I can't vote with my feet anyway, so it would depend if things radically changed here.

Personally I doubt it. This site works quite well, and I'm pleased to see the back of 6A.

I dunno - my husband's company has been taken over 4 times during the time he's worked there. He's gone from being an American, to a German, French, back to American company. Basically it really hasn't affect him much because the company has to abide by the rules made in this country.

I imagine that as SUP have registered their company in the US then they are bound by the same legislation that 6A were, so I wouldn't have thought there's much they will be able to change.

Of course I've been wrong before, but I think we need to wait and see and it's encouraging they seem to want to talk. Although 2 people representing over 13 million registered users seems a little on the tiny side..... I do like that Brad is involved again!

japewierd December 3 2007, 15:06:48 UTC

I'm not sure it being registered in the US is all that comforting, considering what their laws allow.

Although, yes, I'm happy to wait and see what happens. Watching closely. Very closely.

First step is running those elections in a good way.

Edit: because > =/= <

Thread 5

kseenaa December 5 2007, 22:26:28 UTC

I seriously don't get it. When SixApart got LJ, everyone was panicking. Now SixApart (who we don't like, I thought...) are selling to others, SUP AND they are giving the users opportunity to say what they want. Now.... Why, pray tell, is this a bad thing? *annoyed*

japewierd December 5 2007, 22:40:12 UTC

We definitely don't like SixApart ;)

It's long; it's complicated; it's full of half truths, rumours and supposition; but basically it comes down to one of the owners of SUP having links with the Kremlin and what that could possibly mean to a certain percentage of political Russian bloggers. Most of us, so long as the offices stay in the US, have absolutely nothing to worry about... hopefully ;)

kseenaa December 5 2007, 23:02:37 UTC

Ah. So it is the old cold-war fear that lingers. :-( Excuse me while I go being annoyed.

*goes being annoyed*

*returns*

And as you say it is to many half-truths and rumours going around, it might not even be true... *shakes head*

japewierd December 5 2007, 23:08:04 UTC

Well except the part where it was the Russians (and people who are not Russian but who have the majority of their journals in Cyrillic) getting annoyed at SUP taking over their part of LJ and them not wanting their details stored by them, for what one assumes are valid reasons, and having to opt out back to the US version that... well, made people concerned in the first place.

It's certainly not a case of 'Russians = bad guys' on the part of the non-Russians. As least as far as I've seen.