Jan. 7th, 2009

monk222: (Noir Detective)
There was a time when just the term ‘blog’ carried a certain cachet, an aura of coolness. All the high schoolers and college students didn’t want to be left behind without one. And LiveJournal rode high on those cultural currents, even spawning many imitators wanting in on the action. In fact, it was through Blurty that I came in on the fun, and it was hard to see that site stall and all but die.

But fashions and cool currents rise and die fast in the information age, and the economic downturn is shaking up the business of Internet social life. Blogs now seem old as dinosaurs. MySpace was a significant but tolerable incursion into the blogoshpere, but that technology has matured into the Facebook phenomenon, which in conjunction with the growth of webcam sites, such as Justin-TV, now threatens to render LiveJournal as obsolete as Tyrannosaurus Rex, though at least it may be a slow death rather that a quick, fiery extinction. I don’t expect LJ to go the way of GreatestJournal in my lifetime, but it seems to be going that way.

With my old, beaten face, a site called Facebook doesn’t sound like a promising avenue of experiment. But LiveJournal doesn’t seem to have a sustainable business model, and maybe its market will be limited to homely, somewhat introverted writers who find an e-diary to be better than maintaining a growing collection of scribbled notebooks in the closet, and who enjoy some connectivity with others to discuss news and some personal affairs.

Ironically, LiveJournal’s survival may depend on its more sexually adventurous clients, which were the people they started pushing out when they were making a bid to get profitable in the Facebook age. A mass-audience site will presumably have to keep it pretty PG-rated and family friendly. So, maybe LJ will be less hostile to the non-anti-social perverts who just like to write out their dark passions. Run on less money and rely on a niche clientele of serious diarists and other deviants.

__________

Sources:

Press Release

LJ post

some discussion
monk222: (Noir Detective)
There was a time when just the term ‘blog’ carried a certain cachet, an aura of coolness. All the high schoolers and college students didn’t want to be left behind without one. And LiveJournal rode high on those cultural currents, even spawning many imitators wanting in on the action. In fact, it was through Blurty that I came in on the fun, and it was hard to see that site stall and all but die.

But fashions and cool currents rise and die fast in the information age, and the economic downturn is shaking up the business of Internet social life. Blogs now seem old as dinosaurs. MySpace was a significant but tolerable incursion into the blogoshpere, but that technology has matured into the Facebook phenomenon, which in conjunction with the growth of webcam sites, such as Justin-TV, now threatens to render LiveJournal as obsolete as Tyrannosaurus Rex, though at least it may be a slow death rather that a quick, fiery extinction. I don’t expect LJ to go the way of GreatestJournal in my lifetime, but it seems to be going that way.

With my old, beaten face, a site called Facebook doesn’t sound like a promising avenue of experiment. But LiveJournal doesn’t seem to have a sustainable business model, and maybe its market will be limited to homely, somewhat introverted writers who find an e-diary to be better than maintaining a growing collection of scribbled notebooks in the closet, and who enjoy some connectivity with others to discuss news and some personal affairs.

Ironically, LiveJournal’s survival may depend on its more sexually adventurous clients, which were the people they started pushing out when they were making a bid to get profitable in the Facebook age. A mass-audience site will presumably have to keep it pretty PG-rated and family friendly. So, maybe LJ will be less hostile to the non-anti-social perverts who just like to write out their dark passions. Run on less money and rely on a niche clientele of serious diarists and other deviants.

__________

Sources:

Press Release

LJ post

some discussion
monk222: (Strip)
WASHINGTON (CNN) — Another major American industry is asking for assistance as the global financial crisis continues: Hustler publisher Larry Flynt and Girls Gone Wild CEO Joe Francis said Wednesday they will request that Congress allocate $5 billion for a bailout of the adult entertainment industry.

...

Flynt and Francis concede the industry itself is in no financial danger — DVD sales have slipped over the past year, but Web traffic has continued to grow.

But the industry leaders said the issue is a nation in need. "People are too depressed to be sexually active," Flynt said in the statement. "This is very unhealthy as a nation. Americans can do without cars and such but they cannot do without sex."

"With all this economic misery and people losing all that money, sex is the farthest thing from their mind. It's time for congress to rejuvenate the sexual appetite of America. The only way they can do this is by supporting the adult industry and doing it quickly."


-- CNN

Flynt and Francis are spoofing the bailout mania, of course, but the claim may be more reputable than that of many Wall Street and corporate execs - the greatest robber barons yet.
monk222: (Strip)
WASHINGTON (CNN) — Another major American industry is asking for assistance as the global financial crisis continues: Hustler publisher Larry Flynt and Girls Gone Wild CEO Joe Francis said Wednesday they will request that Congress allocate $5 billion for a bailout of the adult entertainment industry.

...

Flynt and Francis concede the industry itself is in no financial danger — DVD sales have slipped over the past year, but Web traffic has continued to grow.

But the industry leaders said the issue is a nation in need. "People are too depressed to be sexually active," Flynt said in the statement. "This is very unhealthy as a nation. Americans can do without cars and such but they cannot do without sex."

"With all this economic misery and people losing all that money, sex is the farthest thing from their mind. It's time for congress to rejuvenate the sexual appetite of America. The only way they can do this is by supporting the adult industry and doing it quickly."


-- CNN

Flynt and Francis are spoofing the bailout mania, of course, but the claim may be more reputable than that of many Wall Street and corporate execs - the greatest robber barons yet.

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