It looks like the ever growing powerhouse of LiveJournal may not only be on the market, but already in the process of being sold.
Om Malik on Broadband reports that Six Apart, the company behind TypePad and Movable Type is about to close on a deal for cash and stock to purchase LJ. The article goes on to say that the staff will be retained.
Is this a death knell or a good thing…. or is just something that will show up on Snopes in about 3 months?
Personally, this kind of thing could go one of 2 ways (if true). First… Mutually beneficial. Corporate backing meets LJ and the server and infrastructure improves. More staff, newer features… Everyone wins.
In the other direction is the more than likely influx of advertising to weigh against the free users. (Quite possibly the paid ones as well)… It will be curious to see under such circumstances if the ‘permanent’ users really are.
I remember the purchase of onelist by Yahoo and it’s eventual dissolution into the now unweildy Yahoo groups. Now lets see where this one goes…
Comments?
Edit:In my rush to post, I forgot to include links.
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Added links
As mentioned in the Edit. I posted so quickly I forgot to add the links.
I’m not sprurised. it has been a long time since the days when LJ was truly a community project. It has become more and more a money-making scheme. One more reason to move on.
I think this makes me sad, mainly because I did like the whole community feel of it, and corporate ownership bothers me about personal journals. I might have to think twice about it and start making my own site to blog on.
it definately makes me sad. . .one more place to be bombarded with advertising and intrusion. And probably increased fees, too, despite the ads….
…time to start looking for an alternative blog..
Assertion: Slashdot, as a website and community forum, was improved (or, at least, not significantly degraded) when it was purchased. It can therefore be argued that the purchasing of LJ is not a death knell.
Agree, disagree, draw analogies?
I definitely dislike the notion of LJ becoming more corporatized.