LiveJournal sold to Russian Company SUP Fabrik

[cold_starlight]

I will not repeat the news, as I am sure everybody already knows it. I want to say, however, that in Russian segment of LJ (which is second biggest after English) there is a strong opinion that the deal was planned to come through exactly after the parliamentary elections in Russia, so all the Russian blogosphere would discuss the fact of sale of

Comments

[beckyzoole]

I'm pretty sure that the sale had been planned and negotiated for a lot longer than the day after the Russian elections. And if the elections had had a different result, do you think they would have canceled the sale, or postponed the announcement?

I understand that the Russian blogosphere is largely LJ-based. But to the rest of the world, LiveJournal just isn't all that important. Frankly, the Russian elections just aren't all that important to most of the blogosphere. The few English-speaking people who would have blogged about the Russian elections, did so anyway. Most of the people in LJ-land who were upset about the sale had no idea that there had been elections in Russia until conspiracy theories mentioned them.

So, let's discuss SUP on its own merits. As you said, there are certainly other reasons to be concerned about the way SUP will run LJ.

[sushis]

It seems to me that, given that SUP is a Russian company, the past experiences of Russians with SUP are particularly valid to understanding the merits, or lack thereof, of the company. That many non-Russians don't know much of anything about Russia does not make what goes on there unimportant.

[beckyzoole]

Absolutely, the past experiences of Russians with SUP is important. I'm saying, let's look at that.

But the OP says that the reason why 6 Apart sold LJ to SUP was so "the blogosphere would discuss the fact of sale of LJ and not the unfair elections" in Russia last weekend!

That's pretty darn ridiculous, in my book.

[cold_starlight]

I meant, Russian blogosphere of course, why do you have to immediately resort to sarcasm?

[merig00]

Well SUP does not control Wikipedia, that one i know for sure

And speaking of elections...if SUP announced it before the election everyone would be screaming that long and bloody hand of Kreml is trying to shut the opposition down before the election. If they announced it after the election everyone would say that this is the first step of Kreml to completely destroy opposition.

[krace]

speaking of elections... "the fact that you're paranoid doesn't mean they're not out there to get ya".

[andy]

I am a SUP employee, but I would like to say a couple of words not as a representative, but as a regular LiveJournal user. I am currently unsure which is our official position regarding such concerns (and actually responding to feedback in English-language communities is outside of my scope), so.

First, I want to describe a little fact the people around here who don't know Russian may not be aware of: trolls are more willing to explain their opinion than the most of the users. This is, regular users can just perceive all this situation in the way of "lolwut, SUP bought LJ? okay, this changes nothing" or similar, without expressing any feedback and furthermore going to no_lj_ads to make you aware of their feelings. This is natural, you know

[sushis]

I'm uncertain why I should take your opinion, that the majority of Russian LJ-users who comment against SUP are "trolls" to be the truth.

By way of analogy: I am an American citizen, living in America. I have been unhappy with many of LJ's recent actions, prior to the purchase of LJ by SUP. I have complained about these actions on news along with many other English-speaking users who feel the same way as I do. We complain because we feel we have legitimate grievances about LJ's treatment of its users. We are not "trolls" for the most part.

Why should I take your word for it that the Russians who complain about SUP do not have legitimate complaint, just as the Americans/U.K./Canadians who have complained had legitimate complaints about LJ when it was with Six Apart?

[dabroots]

Agreed. That only days after it slipped in a bit of news about Adult Content banners, flagging, etc., Live Journal announces it's been purchased by a company in Vladimir Putin's Russia seems unreal. But it's very real, and I'm not feeling great about it.

[andy]

Obvious things: Adult Content nags are not a censorship if they are used as intended, and flagging is basically just an easier way to get in touch with the Abuse Prevention Team, which existed way, way before SUP was established.

[joyeuxnoel]

Just one more little detail - the Wikipedia article about LiveJournal is locked to free editing :)

Not to be confrontational, but I just wanted to point out that that's pretty much the norm for any current news story or issue. The temporary protection usually goes away within a few days afterwards (and looks to be gone now, actually.)

The news of the sale/press release broke on some pretty big sites including Digg and Slashdot among others. Granted, it's not anything like Stephen Colbert and elephants but...

[ex_uniquewo]

Providing seemingly accurate information is not being confrontational. It's being useful. :) I wish the OP would edit their post to mention this.
Thank you.

[pyrop]

This whole different-language thing is going to be a huge pain in the ass for any English-speakers who want to get an accurate description of LiveJournal's Russian members' interaction with SUP. The Russian side and English side of LJ don't interact very much (for obvious reasons). If i want to determine LJ.en's opinion on something, i can go out and read people's posts. I myself, and other nonrussophone users, can't do that for LJ.ru. We have to rely on those users from the Russian side who can communicate in English

[cold_starlight]

I am bilingual, but I don't know what you mean by "trustworthy" and if I fall in this category :)

[foxfirefey]

merig00 has done fieldwork in this area for us before, I know.