The Decline (and Fall?) of LiveJournal

[monk222]

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.

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Sources:

Press Release

LJ post

some discussion

Comments

[mmmontserrat.livejournal.com]

i'm addicted to facebook. i have plenty of friends who use animations instead of photos. join us there! it's habit forming/addictive.

[hardblue.livejournal.com]

I've been hoping to see what's on there by just visiting the site, but it looks like you have to join to even get a looksy. But curiosity will probably get the better of me one day.

LJ Future

[poovanna.livejournal.com]

1. ...though at least it may be a slow death rather that a quick, fiery extinction.


2. ... Run on less money and rely on a niche clientele of serious diarists and other deviants.

I agree on both these points. And I do not think that point # 2 is bad; the world could use more deviants!

I cannot stand Facebook, MySpace etc. They are filled with teeny-boppers who bug you with their asinine status messages and running comentary about their relationships - Like anybody gives a shit.

I will continue to use LJ as long as it lasts because:

• of the great folks, and communities here;
• No ads on my pages;
• The non-LaTeX support is not a problem for me anymore.

Re: LJ Future

[hardblue.livejournal.com]

I hope most LJers feel some fidelity to the site, because it's hard seeing a lot of new people coming on to it. Teeny-boppers, after all, are the life-blood, the future - they usually mature sometime, heh.

[antilapsarian.livejournal.com]

As someone who converted over to Facebook, I have to say it won me over for two reasons. Ease of use and the ability to stay connected in a more Web 2.0 kind of way that no blog can match. The information, programs, and organization of information about your friends at your fingertips is dizzying.

That said, blogs (esp as a more anonymous thought-handling tool) will always have a usefulness. LJ certainly benefits from a community in some ways that other blog tools cannot. It's all about what style of interaction one is going for.

[hardblue.livejournal.com]

You seem like someone who has to do some serious writing. Does Facebook give you that opportunity? I think you once said that it isn't quite as friendly for such writing.

[antilapsarian.livejournal.com]

You know, it depends on how you use it. There are blogging applications you can add and it comes with a Notes feature which I personally use to write heavier items. When you post links it gives you only a small amount of space to comment though, but it depends on how you want others to see it, too.

[wordlesswriter.livejournal.com]

I have a myspace and a cafemom. but though both have blogging I do the magority of my blogging here. I think I have maybe blog three times on myspace, of nnothing intresting, and twice on cafemom. cafemom is more forum for me and I encounter a lot of low IQ people, and the ones with higher IQ are very rarely on. Myspace, is mostly full of bullitens and chains. and now they have APPS which get annoying.
I haven't tried facebook yet. I prefer LJ but have noticed that many are beginning to worry about it's futuer a are planning to jump ship, as we did to blurty.

[hardblue.livejournal.com]

Well, we left Blurty because the site was no longer able to handle the load. The site was very crippled. Though, Blurty runs real smooth now, but I guess that's because hardly anyone uses it, and I'm just surprised that the guy seems committed to keep running the site.

I have a feeling you will probably be a future Facebook person, but I don't think I'll be making that leap. I'm just going to hope that LJ survives.