The internet has changed and left me here

[ataxi]

If the user population of sites such as LJ and Blogger is going to shrink and possibly disappear as a consequence of mass migration to Twitter, Facebook et al., what is there to do about it

Comments

[dfordoom]

You have to remember that when the world was young and LJ was new hundreds of thousands of people set up accounts here simply because it was the latest thing and all the cool kids were doing it. Most had no idea what they were going go do with their LJs. When all the cool kids started joining facebook these same people rushed to do the same. In a couple of years we’ll be hearing stories of how facebook is dying because all the cool kids will have moved on to the latest next big thing.

It doesn’t really matter if the user base shrinks to half of what it was at its peak. What matters is whether the people who are left are still committed to LJ. The important thing is not to create a self-fulfilling prophecy by joining the chorus of doomsayers.

It’s the same with LJ communities. Most communities were set up by people who didn’t have a clue what they wanted to do with them or how to run an online community. Those communities were always going to die.

I can see no evidence that LJ is dying. My communities are mostly more lively than they have ever been. My f-list is stable - for each person who vanishes someone new comes along. And most of the people who have disappeared from my f-list in the past couple of years had been more or less inactive for aeons.

It’s not the numbers that matter, it’s the quality of the discussions and how interesting the people are. And LJ is still a hell of a lot more interesting than facebook or twitter. And I suspect that the facebook and twitter bubbles will burst much more quickly than the LJ bubble burst. LJ is basically a very very good idea. Facebook is just a time sink.

[ataxi]

That's all true of course. I don't really mind that LJ is shrinking, I suppose I'm just bored with my blog or something.

[dfordoom]

I'm just bored with my blog or something.

That happens to me at regular intervals! I go through bursts of enthusiasm, and periods of boredom and despair.

[ataxi]

"I can see no evidence that LJ is dying."

I don't think the population here is declining to zero, but I do think the platform might be moribund, or the holding company unwilling to continue maintaining it if their business is shaky.

The slow fix to the exploit the other day (is it even fixed yet, or are they still just disabling all embedded content?) didn't help.

I need to back up my posts somewhere, in other words.

[dfordoom]

If Live Journal goes, that will be it for me with the internet. I'm just not interested in starting all over again. But I'm inclined to think the LJ population will probably stabilise. It will increasingly get to the stage where the people remaining are here because they really like LJ and really dislike the alternatives.

Yahoo Groups went through a calamitous decline a few years back. The groups I was running became almost completely inactive. Activity there has picked up enormously in the past year or two. The groups that were badly run or were never viable in the first place have died off, and the ones that are left seem quite healthy and they've survived because they're run by people who ae determined to keep them going. I think the same thing will happen to LJ communities.

[dfordoom]

I need to back up my posts somewhere, in other words.

That's basically what I use my blogspot account for. I post my movie reviews there as well as on LJ.

I know you can get an LJ archive program, but it doesn't work for the Mac so it's no use to me.

I'd use Dreamwidth as a backup but I suspect it's much less viable and much less likely to survive than LJ.