(Untitled)

[gamahucheur]

I didn't join this comm to announce my departure, but the fact is that the ulitmate power that LJers have over the LJ administration is the ability to depart. I suggest, then, that we dicuss how one may most effectively depart.

One of the things that has occurred to me is that those who leave could form an LJ Refugee webring, and use LJ Refugee

Comments

[imaria]

In this respect, where it's a discussion about keeping the option open as a bargaining chip, I fully agree.

There are a number of tools that help LJ users transfer their content away; collecting information on them here would be a good plan.

I've found LJMigrate effective on a Mac, and there is also a Windows version available. It allows both archiving or transferring your journal directly to any of the LJ-based clones (GreatestJournal, DeadJournal, etc.)

[gamahucheur]

Actually, there is really just one version of LJMigrate, but it will run on any system that has Python, and Python is worth installing for more than just LJMigrate. (For example, many cell-phone users could then run BitPIM.)

[ex_rogerpit]

There is also LJ Book, which allows you to convert your journal into a PDF document. The service is free for two uses, after which you must make a donation in order to make additional copies if desired (say, if you create backup journals once a year). LJ Book preserves not only your entries, but comments as well.

[cygnus]

Another utility is LJArchive.

I haven't checked out any of these sites except LJBook; I've used it in the past, and IMO it's quite effective even without the donation.

[pyrop]

This begs the question: does the administration notice the departure of individual users?

I mention this because there has been a trend of decreasing activity in LJ since 2005: the trend is both too long-term and too steep to be made entirely of people who have left because of the way LJ is being run. As i've mentioned before, even if the entire 35000 accounts that are members of fandom_counts left at once, it would only result in a 2% decrease in activity level. More likely the ongoing trend of decline in activity is due to an aging userbase, a decline in the general popularity of weblogging, and competition with sites like Facebook and MySpace

[gamahucheur]

And the point here is to discuss what, then, we must do to beyond simply leaving. Perhaps there are no adequate remedies, but we can at least discuss the possibilities.

[matgb]

I've never got the desire to move to a clone, other than familiarity. The LJ server code is both dated and clunky, and any clone is at best to be a pale immitation, and at worst simple poor (the recent GJ problems case in point).

I know a bunch of people have backed up to Wordpress or similar and are moving on in that way, not leaving LJ as such, but moving on to something they've got a lot more control over.

The aim to me must be to make that process as easy as possible for those that want it in order that migration is easy. With OpenID and RSS auth=digest, it should be possible to keep the community, as you can read your 'friends' list in any decent feedreader or online aggregator and loging to comment on any blogging platform regardless.

Not sure about the webring idea, but ensuring that everyone links to a centralised point, some sort of aggregator or friends finder a lá Technorati but more 'journal' friendly could be good. Hmm...

the ability to depart

[justgoto]

I've tried; I haven't "the ability!"

[cygnus]

I don't plan to leave LJ -- i.e., delete my account -- but I do know that I'm not renewing my paid account any longer. My use of the site will likely decrease, as I plan to set up a main blog elsewhere, but I think one of the only ways to really stick it to LJadmin in such a way that they are forced to pay attention to their users' concerns is by speaking with our money. That would involve figuring out exactly where the biggest revenue comes from: paid accounts/upgrades or click-through ads. I'm almost positive it's the latter, but I'm not sure.

Pulling something like that off is another story, but it would be effective. It's a business; their #1 priority is to make a profit. Stop them from doing that, and that would be a start to seeing something different.

[altamira16]

I quit paying for the LJ account around the time that they decided to put ads on various log on screens.

[cygnus]

I know that LJ once had a pledge to never sell advertising space, but once SixApart bought the place, that was a pipe dream. I never really had a problem with that. It's the way of the internet, unfortunately; white space is going to be used as advertising space if any money is going to be made off the site. I know a lot of people were pissed about that when it happened, and I understand why... it just never was an issue for me. The stuff that's happened in the past year or so, though... this is like making payments on a car that refuses to make left turns and won't go any faster than 50 mph.

[altamira16]

I didn't care about ads on screens for free accounts with more features, but I did care about ads on the front page and various places where people log in before you know whether they are paid or not.