An update on Vox
Why talk about Vox? In Mena Trott's introduction post to Project Comet (the code name for Vox during early development), she states that Project Comet was "something we’ve been working on for over a year". Since the post was made in September 2005, that means Six Apart had been working on it since before September 2004--before the purchase of LiveJournal. It is possible that one of the main reasons for LiveJournal's purchase was to help facilitate the development of Vox.
The Launch
Vox launched on the 26th to the public. Cue commentors who do not want the closed gate community to open people wanting early adopter perks. Current active users on that day was reported at about 85,000. Since the groundbreaking was on June 2, 2006, that's about...583 or so new users a day. (Granted, it probably started out much lower, and has grown to much higher levels later on. It will also probably skyrocket with the general opening.)
To compare, LJ's stats reported 1,852,211 active accounts on June 17th and 1,882,486 active users right now, a total gain of which is closer to gaining about 230 active accounts a day. (And the number of users that represents is probably less; people have multiple active accounts.) However, the number of journals created in that period of time is around one million. That's about 7,600 accounts created per day. LiveJournal is even smaller in ways than it used to be; from stats cached on 2005-02-24, the active number of accounts was 2,617,685. However, it at least appears that LJ is back on the gain instead continuing to decline.
Ads
Google ad targetting continue to be unintentionally hilarious.
There have been interstital ads between blog posts since about early September. They only show to logged out users; right now they are focused on sign up for Vox promos, but eventually the space will also be sold to advertisers.
The top of Voxes are now also used for ad space. Right now, the given example links to the Sponsored Vox http://7daysinasentra.vox.com/?Site=N06SENBIU. The exact purpose of the query string is unknown; I'm not sure, for instance, what would happen in the logs if the referral were say, MOOCOWS instead. While sponsored communities are clearly delineated on LJ through several methods, I cannot find any such distinguishments on Vox.
Even Vox's QoTDs are now sponsored.
Although the 7 Days in a Sentra campaign uses Google Analytics for tracking on LiveJournal, it is not being used on the Vox side of the campaign. However, it is detected on the TypePad (another Six Apart product) version of the blog.
Misc
Unlike earlier releases, Vox's front page retains the focus on potential recruits instead of already existing members. There's not even a Javascript enabled signin for the front page, but a link that takes the user to a different page to sign in, which is surprising considering Vox barely functions without JavaScript enabled.
Vox's implementation has not been without communication issues. For instance, they integrated with Stockphoto without asking the photographers whether they wanted to participate.
The Launch
Vox launched on the 26th to the public. Cue commentors who do not want the closed gate community to open people wanting early adopter perks. Current active users on that day was reported at about 85,000. Since the groundbreaking was on June 2, 2006, that's about...583 or so new users a day. (Granted, it probably started out much lower, and has grown to much higher levels later on. It will also probably skyrocket with the general opening.)
To compare, LJ's stats reported 1,852,211 active accounts on June 17th and 1,882,486 active users right now, a total gain of which is closer to gaining about 230 active accounts a day. (And the number of users that represents is probably less; people have multiple active accounts.) However, the number of journals created in that period of time is around one million. That's about 7,600 accounts created per day. LiveJournal is even smaller in ways than it used to be; from stats cached on 2005-02-24, the active number of accounts was 2,617,685. However, it at least appears that LJ is back on the gain instead continuing to decline.
Ads
Google ad targetting continue to be unintentionally hilarious.
There have been interstital ads between blog posts since about early September. They only show to logged out users; right now they are focused on sign up for Vox promos, but eventually the space will also be sold to advertisers.
The top of Voxes are now also used for ad space. Right now, the given example links to the Sponsored Vox http://7daysinasentra.vox.com/?Site=N06SENBIU. The exact purpose of the query string is unknown; I'm not sure, for instance, what would happen in the logs if the referral were say, MOOCOWS instead. While sponsored communities are clearly delineated on LJ through several methods, I cannot find any such distinguishments on Vox.
Even Vox's QoTDs are now sponsored.
Although the 7 Days in a Sentra campaign uses Google Analytics for tracking on LiveJournal, it is not being used on the Vox side of the campaign. However, it is detected on the TypePad (another Six Apart product) version of the blog.
Misc
Unlike earlier releases, Vox's front page retains the focus on potential recruits instead of already existing members. There's not even a Javascript enabled signin for the front page, but a link that takes the user to a different page to sign in, which is surprising considering Vox barely functions without JavaScript enabled.
Vox's implementation has not been without communication issues. For instance, they integrated with Stockphoto without asking the photographers whether they wanted to participate.