LJ in the media: The Return of LiveJournal

[theljstaff]

Check out this Fast Company article for a glimpse of what you can expect at LiveJournal in 2012.

"LiveJournal, one of the web's most popular early blogging sites, is launching a comeback in the United States. Their plans for 2012 include massive changes for users. Oh, and "Game Of Thrones" creator George R.R. Martin is a big user."

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Comments

[miwahni]

So Livejournal needs to attract new traffic rather than catering to the existing clientele? Someone should explain to these folks that "retention" is every bit as important as gaining new users, only to lose them again the next time LJ institutes wildly unpopular changes. Churning your customer base is not a smart business practice. Instead, develop a reputation for dealing honestly and openly with users, listen to what your users are telling you, and watch your customer base grow. No point attracting new users if you're hemorrhaging users out the other end. I, and many like me, also have accounts at dreamwidth which treats their users 100 times better, and is growing more and more each day. The only reason I still participate at Livejournal at all is that I made the mistake of buying a permanent account.

[gelbes_gilatier]

The only reason I still participate at Livejournal at all is that I made the mistake of buying a permanent account.

I find it kind of sad that you feel that buying a permanent account was a mistake, as are many others. This should be a home to users, not a house they regret having moved into :(

[miwahni]

Exactly. Instead it's a tumbledown wreck of a house with shonky pipes, hooligans next door and now the council wants to build a sewerage treatment works at my back door.

[gelbes_gilatier]

See, what I don't get is... how could anyone think this is a good plan to succeed in business? Why this could be a smart is fully out of my area of comprehension. It just doesn't compute. Or, as I might quote from my latest addiction, Generation Kill, "There's layers of retardation that most people don't even know about."

[ealasaid76]

[conjure_lass]

Everything is better with the King of Pop.

[kshandra]

Marry me.

[ohhhlife]

Can you guys please get your shit together? Your website is so messed up I can't even see the pictures my friends post because this site can't even add my username to some database correctly. Yes, I have a help request up, and I've had to reopen it several times. Obviously I'm just running around telling all my friends how they need to join this site.

No, and my friends have been leaving slowly for years. If you care about community, you'll make your site look like it has professional coders on staff. You're all so behind the times it's embarrassing to tell my tech friends I have an LJ.

[sgteam14283]

I think that was a really shitty thing to say. Yes LJ has a bigger voice outside of the US now but it's those long-term users that you just shit all over that keeps the site going. LJ could easily go the way of MySpace and become a graveyard that talk-show hosts use as a punchline.

You'd think that someone in a customer-oriented business would get that while you want to reach new people you want to keep those who have been loyal to you in order to show that you have a viable business in order to attract those new customers.

[gymx]

It already IS a laughingstock amongst "serious" blogging/networking sites.

[cemeteryconsort]

Public relations disaster. Thanks for thinking of your 'loyal' customers. (walks away shaking head sadly side to side).

[seishin]

As a person who's worked in PR in the past, I seriously wonder who is heading up LJ's PR department.

My money is on a gerbil.

(no offense to gerbils. They're adorable. But PR practitioners they 'AINT.)

[meritocracy]

Speaking of relations, I noticed LJ seems to be rather proud of the fact that George R. R. Martin is a user. Perhaps he can be persuaded to publicly denounce LJ's indifference toward its veteran users.

[seishin]

Wouldn't that be a lovely kick in the teeth?