El pueblo unido jamás será vencido

[beckyzoole]

Here's an alternate idea, one that will have a permanent effect without damaging LJ:

ONE DAY CONTENT STRIKE

For one day, make no posts. Make no comments. Let there be NO new content added to LJ.

SUP obviously does not realize that Basic users have given something of value to them, that it is content that drives the site

Comments

[eruditeviking]

It might be pointed out that you're still going to get those posts the day before or the day after because you're merely asking for the same basic principle of abstaining for a day. I think you'll create a negative spike down with two mild spikes up. Since daily content is also averaged to determine ad revenue the strike would have to be prolonged to seriously impact those numbers.

I'm deist personally but my father's a priest so I'm pretty in tune with the Christian community. Many of my friends are mixtures of pagan and atheist but still spend this time with family and friends. Free meals are often a major draw for the under-30 and broke crowd.

As for high posting day? I don't think so. Honestly my view of LJ recently (and I'm a journal hopper) is that we're very streaky to begin with. I know my friend's list, about 30 people, can be very dead at times. Even I'm that way. I spent most of last year posting about every 2 days. This year? I'm posting closer once a week than every day or two.

The momentum is stalled by an addictive mentality. Unless we can divest ourselves of LJ fully and honestly we can't really compete with them. Personally given that there are more than a million users, I'd be more in favor of everyone chipping in $20 a share and offering to buy the damned company back from SUP and setting up a privately held cooperations in the name of the users similar to USAA.

It won't matter if I will or won't. I've promised to go take care of my grandfather this weekend so that my father can do his job. I don't use his computer while I'm there out of courtesy.

[beckyzoole]

I'd be more in favor of everyone chipping in $20 a share and offering to buy the damned company back from SUP and setting up a privately held cooperations in the name of the users similar to USAA

This would be my dream as well. We're not really LJ "users", most of us. We're LJ members.

We'd need someone to organize it who has experience negotiating big business deals, can put together the legal paperwork necessary, and is savvy enough to hire the right people to actually run the place.

I wonder if anildash could be lured away from 6 Apart? He seemed to get what LJ was all about.

[eruditeviking]

I'm returning to school to get degrees in accounting, so in a few years I might be capable of just that. My business school is also an internationally accredited one to boot. My wife is working on business management with emphasis in contracts.

However it is a massive undertaking and would take some very carefully worked deals and agreements. Set in stone. I'd want no less than a full board that is not partisan to particular groups, with CEO, CFO, President, and a Chief Public/Member Liaison Officer. Even then you've still got to figure out how to fund the enterprise as a whole which is costly and the board would still have to have at least compensation for time spent and travel necessary plus the expenses of maintaining a small but functional full time staff at decent living wages.

[beckyzoole]

Agreed, to all your points.

Keep in touch with me.

[admiralmemo]

I wonder if anildash could be lured away from 6 Apart? He seemed to get what LJ was all about.

I posted a comment in his journal, linking to your comment.

[anildash]

That's a very kind thing to say, both of you. :) I'm really busy with Six Apart, but I'm frustrated too (just as an LJ user) by some of the missteps SUP's made. For what it's worth, Jason Shellen, the new VP product, is an old friend of mine, and really *gets* it. Now, I haven't talked to him enough to know if he's going to be able to impact the decisions SUP makes, but if they listen to him, they'll do some pretty clueful things. (Jason was one of the first people to work on Blogger on the business side, and did a great job there, pre-Google acquisition.)

For better or worse, I don't really have any sway at SUP, but I am obviously still an LJ member and care about the community and hope things work out. Most of the advisory board members are friends of mine, too... if they're given proper authority, that could be a useful way of enforcing cluefulness as well.

[beckyzoole]

I noticed from scanning Jason's other blog (not his LJ) that he's been down with the Cold of Doom recently. If he really does "get" LJ, then being feverish goes a long way towards explaining his missteps in comments to brad and news. I hope you will talk with him. I'm afraid he didn't make a very good first impression. I do give him points for being willing to put himself out there.

I once used an analogy with you of LJ being a city with 1.6+ million inhabitants. Like any city, it has its distinctive neighborhoods and generic suburbs. Certainly there are parts of the LJ community that don't much care about ads or Strikethrough or even about communities. There are parts of the LJ community that are inhabited by giggly teens, and parts full of standard bloggers who are only interested in getting people to read what they have written.

But what makes LJ distinctive are those "neighborhoods" that just don't exist in Vox or Facebook or Blogger.
LJ has a large contingent of fanfic writers who interact with each other, making it an enormously important online writers' workshop. They may be way out there on the fringe sometimes, with their furry slash and yaoi art, but LJ has been a place where they can feel at home.
LJ has a large block of tech-savvy tinkerers who really like writing their own code and fiddling with the machinery.
LJ has quite an impressive crowd of adult women, the ones who don't use other sites, and they tend to be well-experienced (thus skeptical) in dealing with marketers, spin-doctors, and 20-somethings.
LJ has a strong core of intelligent, idealistic social activists who want to make the world a better place, starting with unfettered access to information.
There are other "typical LJ users" who are not like these, but also add to that Je ne sais quoi, the set of characteristics that distinguish LiveJournal from any other blogging or social network site.

Quite seriously, I really do think that it is important for LJ to retain its heritage of intelligence, independence, fringe-friendliness, social activism and community. To do that, the best longterm business model may indeed be a user buyout. Unfortunately, I don't know nearly enough about venture capitalism to do more than wish for it.

[admiralmemo]

User buyout? I don't know enough about venture capitalism to do more than wish either, but that sounds like a good plan to me.

[eruditeviking]

The short answer, is that it would take a lot of bread, have to pass both Russian and US securities and exchange scrutiny, and would have to have legal and administrative capacity ready to take over the company immediately.

The plan I've proposed previously would create a privately held company with shares of interest similar to, but not openly traded like stocks. I'd also want to place limits on ownership to prevent further buyouts from happening.

That said you'd have to cerate some sort of profit for a return on the investment, and it would have a lot of rules and regulations which would spill over into user base purchases particularly since some sort of revenue would be needed to maintain the technical staff, administration, lawyers, and accountants who would keep this ship afloat. Pro-bono only goes so far.

[admiralmemo]

Sounds like a plan to me. A difficult plan, a plan that would probably take a large amount of time, but a plan nonetheless. As for profit, I say we take Brad's original plan and modify it slightly: Paid users pay for the bulk, like they always have, Plus users can sign up right away with no delay, and invite codes given to paid users can allow Basic accounts to be created (or allow Plus users to "downgrade" to Basic status).

[connie_chung]

my friends are mixtures of pagan and atheist but still spend this time with family and friends. Free meals are often a major draw for the under-30 and broke crowd.

I'm an atheist but I still celebrate xmas. Not for the religious reasons, of course. But it's a time to have family gather and spend a few days together without worries of work and school.