Strikethrough 2007
My prescience is on the blink. It’s operating but not as well as it should. I’ve had a niggling feeling that July is not going to be the wankopolypse for about six months and it appears May is laying claim to that event.
I think we’ve done some good things in response to LJ’s little mess. fandom_counts was a great idea, for two reasons: 1) it gives LJ a clear, though inexact, count of how many fandom journals they’re hosting and 2) it gives us the same thing, and 3) it gives us the beginnings of a pan-fandom comm that could be used for all sorts of organizational efforts.
One thing I think we all need to take note of (and many of us have already done so) is this quote from the cNet article, “It was based on what community we want to build ...” I believe that 6A had a clear, definitive vision for LJ’s future when they bought the site. I don’t think it’s anything sinister, really. They simply want the same demographic the TV network owners are after: Males, age 16 - 30. Right now their user base is more female than male, but other than that they are well on their way to having a huge chunk of that dream demographic to sell to advertisers. That’s not so great for fandom, but it’s good for 6A and I can’t really blame them for wanting it.
In addition to insight into what fandom’s numbers are on LJ, I also noticed one other thing. 6A’s Management Team is almost completely made up of men. I was able to identify one woman (Mena) and one other possible-but-not-confirmed woman (Jun) on their Management Team and/or Board of Directors. More specifically, that’s 1 out of 11 Managers and 2 out of 14 combined Managers and Board Members. I don’t particularly like that ratio. I can’t do anything about it, but I still don’t like it.
A lot of y’all have posted much more coherent, intelligent entries on what this all means and what out of it should make us wary, but here’s my take, anyway. I think it boils down to one thing - Fandom is not the demographic they want. They would have preferred to get rid of a lot of these fandom comms quietly and for good, but their craptastic Management and PR teams screwed up and they got slammed with bad publicity. So for now they’re going to pretend like they still want fandom around. In reality, like any other 22 year old guy, they think it’s (don’t shoot me for these words, I’m using them to make a point) uncool, dumb, gay, and retarded and makes the site look stupid to the guys who are cooler than them their friends and the 22 year old girls they’re trying to hook up with, so could we please go stand on the other side of the room, or go away altogether.
The suggestion on how to get back at them I like best so far is to increase our numbers rather than run away. That’s like thumbing our nose at our collective big brother and wearing that stupid princess outfit and singing and dancing in front of his friends just ‘cause. Plus, I can’t do the thing where we dress up like pirates and actually do sing in front of their building because I don’t have a monkey.
At any rate, I’m not going anywhere and probably never was going anywhere. I do still have JF and GJ accounts and late last night I tried to friend a bunch of you on both. And I may even start posting there from time to time. Who knows? If I missed adding you on either or both, please let me know. And if any of you know how to deal with the not being able to read more than one page of the f-list issue on GJ, please, please, I beg of you tell me the secret!
It’s less than two months from the OotP movie and DH book. I hope we’ve all recovered in time!
Edited to Add:
A - Is anyone else having problems with LJ this morning?
B - Go read storge_space!!! They have a brilliant parody of Strikethrough 2007 going on!
I think we’ve done some good things in response to LJ’s little mess. fandom_counts was a great idea, for two reasons: 1) it gives LJ a clear, though inexact, count of how many fandom journals they’re hosting and 2) it gives us the same thing, and 3) it gives us the beginnings of a pan-fandom comm that could be used for all sorts of organizational efforts.
One thing I think we all need to take note of (and many of us have already done so) is this quote from the cNet article, “It was based on what community we want to build ...” I believe that 6A had a clear, definitive vision for LJ’s future when they bought the site. I don’t think it’s anything sinister, really. They simply want the same demographic the TV network owners are after: Males, age 16 - 30. Right now their user base is more female than male, but other than that they are well on their way to having a huge chunk of that dream demographic to sell to advertisers. That’s not so great for fandom, but it’s good for 6A and I can’t really blame them for wanting it.
In addition to insight into what fandom’s numbers are on LJ, I also noticed one other thing. 6A’s Management Team is almost completely made up of men. I was able to identify one woman (Mena) and one other possible-but-not-confirmed woman (Jun) on their Management Team and/or Board of Directors. More specifically, that’s 1 out of 11 Managers and 2 out of 14 combined Managers and Board Members. I don’t particularly like that ratio. I can’t do anything about it, but I still don’t like it.
A lot of y’all have posted much more coherent, intelligent entries on what this all means and what out of it should make us wary, but here’s my take, anyway. I think it boils down to one thing - Fandom is not the demographic they want. They would have preferred to get rid of a lot of these fandom comms quietly and for good, but their craptastic Management and PR teams screwed up and they got slammed with bad publicity. So for now they’re going to pretend like they still want fandom around. In reality, like any other 22 year old guy, they think it’s (don’t shoot me for these words, I’m using them to make a point) uncool, dumb, gay, and retarded and makes the site look stupid to the guys who are cooler than them their friends and the 22 year old girls they’re trying to hook up with, so could we please go stand on the other side of the room, or go away altogether.
The suggestion on how to get back at them I like best so far is to increase our numbers rather than run away. That’s like thumbing our nose at our collective big brother and wearing that stupid princess outfit and singing and dancing in front of his friends just ‘cause. Plus, I can’t do the thing where we dress up like pirates and actually do sing in front of their building because I don’t have a monkey.
At any rate, I’m not going anywhere and probably never was going anywhere. I do still have JF and GJ accounts and late last night I tried to friend a bunch of you on both. And I may even start posting there from time to time. Who knows? If I missed adding you on either or both, please let me know. And if any of you know how to deal with the not being able to read more than one page of the f-list issue on GJ, please, please, I beg of you tell me the secret!
It’s less than two months from the OotP movie and DH book. I hope we’ve all recovered in time!
Edited to Add:
A - Is anyone else having problems with LJ this morning?
B - Go read storge_space!!! They have a brilliant parody of Strikethrough 2007 going on!