LiveJournal actually appears to be changing its attitude to users...

[cloudsinvenice]

So, something seems to be brewing at LiveJournal. They recently made a post responding to people's criticisms of the latest release, in which they admitted:

"We know that things changing abruptly can be frustrating, and that we don't have the greatest track record when it comes to making changes based on your feedback. We're working on changing

Comments

[semyaza]

I thought it was interesting, too. It remains to be seen whether they'll continue with this approach but the change in tone is a start. Perhaps it's a question of 'figure out how to make the site attractive in a world full of social networking options or go under'.

As for social capital - I turned it on for a while to see how it worked and I found that it was tied in with community participation. When I started to post and comment on a community my social capital hit the 60s and my rating was around 120. When I stopped, it went down.

[cloudsinvenice]

That explains why it's so variable! Good sleuthing...

[semyaza]

Someone who appears consistently in the top 20 has a journal that's less than a year old, has fewer friends than I do, doesn't post often, mods no communities, and follows one or two communities. Clearly, her rating is based on her comments elsewhere. However, I think that those of us who don't participate in communities have a 'base' reading calculated from age of account, communities modded, number of friends etc. That must be the case because there's no other way to account for why my capital is quite high.

On the other hand, how did GRRM get into the Top 10? Is he a commenting fiend? :D

[cloudsinvenice]

Perhaps he replies to a lot of the comments he gets? Otherwise, the number of comments TO a journal must play a part - Cleolinda's often in there, and her journal is still a hub for discussion...

[cloudsinvenice]

Apparently it's about community participation, which I guess makes sense for a social capital index...

[dfordoom]

My social capital is apparently 10. which sounds like it's either very good or very bad!

[cloudsinvenice]

And you're in a lot of comms, right? That makes sense, based on what semyaza figured out...