(Untitled)

[superflow]

Om Malik:

Folks have been predicting a big year for mergers and acquisitions in 2005, and we are starting the year with a bang. I have learnt exclusively that Six Apart, the parent company behind hosted blogging service TypePad and Moveable Type, is about to acquire Live Journal, for an undisclosed amount. The deal is a mix of stock and cash, and

Comments

[riotlounge]

My respect for LJ would plummet infinitely if they did this merger. Mostly for selling out - secondly for not being upfront and telling the public that they were in negotiations. Even if they don't owe us anything (although, as a pay user, I feel somewhat like a stockholder in this) they would do well to make a generous PR announcement and not let us find out this info third-hand, like some sneaky teenage girl gossip.

Six Apart has a horrible reputation of bungling pay systems and not being that great to their supporting public. These are things I do not like, and I would be upset if LJ's highly usable, and friendly system was corrupted like that. LJ is more than a blogging tool, it develops people. People connect people, not the actual OMG LIVEJOURNAL service.

[ardaniel]

LiveJournal doesn't exactly have the best rep with regards to telling us important shit and treating us like grownups when important shit happens

Open Source?

[jeffx]

Reading a lot of alarmist comments including my earlier one.

I am in the process of downloading the source code for livejournal. So it would be possible, if it all goes to shit, to begin something similar again. That is one of the strengths of open source.

Re: Open Source?

[superflow]

Smart move.

(I wonder if a lot of people are signing up to DeadJournal today?)

This was a bad way for even a hint of a 6A/LJ deal to get out, which I think is fuelling alarmism. That can only be combated by information.

Hm. I wonder if this is the way it happens. A natural downturn in LJ interest that some have perceived (and of COURSE these things always go in cycles) suddenly combined with a sense of instability, and then people ganking the source code and possibly spinning off into their own small LJ-powered hubs...

Re: Open Source?

[rans]

That seems to be how forum populations move around. The people that make things like LJ and forums fun tend to have a 6th sense when it comes to jumping ship. They're already on to the new hip thing and that will be discovered in time. So moves the Internet.

Social Chemistry at work.

Re: Open Source?

[boyecho]

i've moved with a large crowd through THREE separate forums pertaining to one of my main interests in this manner. so i do believe it. if shit goes to shit, then i'll just go back to my own old hideouts. no one needs to read my crap anyway.

[rhyo]

As about 90% of Live Journal is under 18s writing LOTR and anime and Boy Band slash, this oughta be an amusing clash of cultures....

[antitype]

http://www.livejournal.com/community/blog_sociology/124306.html

[josienutter]

Noooo!