You're traveling in the right direction, but you're going there the wrong way. It's roughly akin to flying west from LA to get to New York. EVENTUALLY you'll get there, but it's much more direct to fly East.
You're right when you say that Live Journal needs better marketing, but you've got the wrong idea about how to get there. We don't need Obama or Oprah. People like Live Joural because it hasn't changed. Furthermore, if you had read : LiveJournal Users: Passionate, Prolifc, and Private, you would know that Live Journal interact on a much higher level than Twitter or the rest. We discuss ideas here at lenght, not make the most atrocious background and play twenty songs and videos at the same time.
As much as I'd like to see LJ pick up some steam in the world, I do not want to see this happen at the expense of what we already know Live Journal to be. As much as I'd love to support your nomination, I do not want to be responsible for the bastardization of Live Journal. Therefore, I do NOT support your nomination.
Feel free to unscreen this comment to further discussion of your platform.
P.S. Live Journal had Friends List long before Facebook or Twitter were even thought of. Friending had long ago become a verb before these services existed.
Hey, sorry for taking so long to get back to you, I was swamped with work for the last week (I actually wrote my platform during lunch!)
Even though I already didn't make the ballot, I do want to take a bit of time to respond to your comment. Please don't misunderstand my position: I love Livejournal and I love it for a lot of reasons in that essay. However, at the same time, I think I loved it more in 2004, and maybe you did too. In 2004, LJ was still about the same as it was today, but what was different was the level of activity. I dunno about you, but for me, almost half of my f-list have left for other sites, and communities I'm part of that once had 30+ comments a topic can barely make 3. I love discussion as much as you do, but I just feel we need more people here to keep the discussion going.
So my end goal is just to bring activity on LJ that even surpasses 2004, and I personally felt that the main reason so many members left was because there wasn't enough change. And by change I didn't mean adding "songs and videos" -- I've take jabs at the MySpace layout on my blog all the time. :) I'm talking about, say, making it easier to navigate and upload on Scrapbook, or making searching for others with similar interests more efficient, or inventing some new features no other site has. Then advertising the great things we already have, like posts without limits, clean layouts, communities and ad free options.
I don't want to generalize members on other sites. I have really bright friends who are on Facebook and Twitter, while I've seen people on LJ whose blogs and comments are only a line or two. In the end, I just wanted LJ to be diverse and for everyone. You can post a page, or you can post a line. You can get an active discussion going about Shakespeare, or one about which Jonas Brother is cutest. It doesn't have to always have to be high-brow or long, but it also can be. I just wanted LJ to be a place where you can find all sorts of people and discussions. As for the celebs, hey, I wanted them to find them too. I'm sure they'd be more interesting when they have more than 140 characters to say. ;) I would've done anything to get all these kinds of people to come to LJ, make it active again and give them reason to love LJ and keep coming back.
Lastly, about Friending, that's why I pointed it out -- I couldn't believe the Twitter or Facebook guy almost making claim to creating the Friends idea!
Anyway, thanks for giving me some constructive criticism to work with for next year. ;)
You're right when you say that Live Journal needs better marketing, but you've got the wrong idea about how to get there. We don't need Obama or Oprah. People like Live Joural because it hasn't changed. Furthermore, if you had read : LiveJournal Users: Passionate, Prolifc, and Private, you would know that Live Journal interact on a much higher level than Twitter or the rest. We discuss ideas here at lenght, not make the most atrocious background and play twenty songs and videos at the same time.
As much as I'd like to see LJ pick up some steam in the world, I do not want to see this happen at the expense of what we already know Live Journal to be. As much as I'd love to support your nomination, I do not want to be responsible for the bastardization of Live Journal. Therefore, I do NOT support your nomination.
Feel free to unscreen this comment to further discussion of your platform.
P.S. Live Journal had Friends List long before Facebook or Twitter were even thought of. Friending had long ago become a verb before these services existed.
Reply
Even though I already didn't make the ballot, I do want to take a bit of time to respond to your comment. Please don't misunderstand my position: I love Livejournal and I love it for a lot of reasons in that essay. However, at the same time, I think I loved it more in 2004, and maybe you did too. In 2004, LJ was still about the same as it was today, but what was different was the level of activity. I dunno about you, but for me, almost half of my f-list have left for other sites, and communities I'm part of that once had 30+ comments a topic can barely make 3. I love discussion as much as you do, but I just feel we need more people here to keep the discussion going.
So my end goal is just to bring activity on LJ that even surpasses 2004, and I personally felt that the main reason so many members left was because there wasn't enough change. And by change I didn't mean adding "songs and videos" -- I've take jabs at the MySpace layout on my blog all the time. :) I'm talking about, say, making it easier to navigate and upload on Scrapbook, or making searching for others with similar interests more efficient, or inventing some new features no other site has. Then advertising the great things we already have, like posts without limits, clean layouts, communities and ad free options.
I don't want to generalize members on other sites. I have really bright friends who are on Facebook and Twitter, while I've seen people on LJ whose blogs and comments are only a line or two. In the end, I just wanted LJ to be diverse and for everyone. You can post a page, or you can post a line. You can get an active discussion going about Shakespeare, or one about which Jonas Brother is cutest. It doesn't have to always have to be high-brow or long, but it also can be. I just wanted LJ to be a place where you can find all sorts of people and discussions. As for the celebs, hey, I wanted them to find them too. I'm sure they'd be more interesting when they have more than 140 characters to say. ;) I would've done anything to get all these kinds of people to come to LJ, make it active again and give them reason to love LJ and keep coming back.
Lastly, about Friending, that's why I pointed it out -- I couldn't believe the Twitter or Facebook guy almost making claim to creating the Friends idea!
Anyway, thanks for giving me some constructive criticism to work with for next year. ;)
Reply
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