As insomnia likes to point out, LiveJournal is shrinking. Many blame SixApart and SUP for this decline, and it true that the actions of those corporations have contributed to the slow bleed of users. However, I believe the root cause is much deeper.

The tone of the LiveJournal community has changed. It has become more vicious, more snark-centric, more hateful and cliquish. There has always been drama on LiveJournal, but it has not always been like it is now. Often now one misspoken word in a community or the mention of a viewpoint out of the mainstream will be taken out of context and a flood of mean-spirited attacks will flood the comments of a post from users mobbing in from any one of the countless snark communities that have cropped up.

I've been on LiveJournal almost 7 years at this point, and this increasing ugliness has me more concerned for LiveJournal than anything SixApart did or SUP is doing. Neither SixApart nor SUP are LiveJournal, LiveJournal is the community that inhabits this virtual place and that community is decaying. I'm sure I'm far from the only long-time user who is disenchanted by the current LiveJournal environment and I don't see what the motivation would be for many new users to become part of it.

I have not been involved in any drama around here recently, so this post hasn't been triggered by a specific event. The problem is that LiveJournal doesn't seem like a community anymore, at least not a communities that I want to consider myself part of. I don't intend on leaving completely, but I've been spending a lot less time here. I've got other things to do.

What the fuck?

As part of the current pattern of actions, this is quite alarming — it demonstrates that SUP/LJ now actively and openly disapproves of and targets specific groups.

I doubt I'll leave over the removal of basic accounts. I've already stopped recommending this site to new people, so after grumbling and griping a bit, I'll probably just get on with my journaling. If there is a true mass exodus, I'll join it. But right now, as much as I dislike the direction LiveJournal is going, there still isn't anywhere good enough to entice me away from my permanent account. With all the effort involved in changing journal sites and moving my old entries, another site will not just have to be somewhat better — it will have to be a whole hell of a lot better.

LiveJournal has secretly removed basic (free) accounts. Even brad is openly pissed about this one.

Even if I thought was a good decision, the lies of omission does not promote a trusting relationship between the SUP and their users.

What is widely seen as paranoia or laughable conspiracy theories can quickly transform into fact. Just take these recent news items:

Vaccines containing mercury can be linked to "autism-like symptoms" in children.

There are drugs in the water and this has kept secret from you for fear that you "might be unduly alarmed".

It's amazing. If a week ago I had said that were drugs in my tap water, I would have been labeled as schizophrenic. If I say the same thing today, I'm just someone who reads the news. However, I would have been just as right a week ago or even a year ago. It goes to show the truth in that old saying: "Just because your paranoid, doesn't mean they're not out to get you".

This comment in the most recent post in lj_policy may be right on the money. If these censorship maneuvers by LiveJournal have been in response to behind the scenes legal action against them, then their lack of communication with users makes sense. If this is the case, it is likely going to effect any site that gains sufficient notoriety. A lot of these alternative sites may be able to get away with looser restrictions only because they're still flying under the radar screen.

SUP has purchased LiveJournal from Six Apart.

Poll #1099590 SUP
Open to: All, results viewable to: All

Are you optimistic about the future of LiveJournal under SUP's control?

Did the quality of the LiveJournal experience improve or decline under Six Apart's control

I'm still here. But I'm just not as enthusiastic about this place as I was. Everything now seems to require a workaround. I no longer encourage others to start journals here. I no longer feel any loyalty to this place. I'm only here because there doesn't seem to be any place better. But as soon as that better comes along, I don't see much keeping me on LiveJournal. Six Apart has run what a place I loved right into the ground.

I don't want to leave LiveJournal. I know I said goodbye –; but it is the community that keeps me here, not Six Apart. There isn't anywhere else I feel like setting up shop. Everyplace has its own problems; some, such as on facebook, are much worse than anything here. and hosting my own blog would mean giving up on the community aspect entirely. So, I've changed my mind, I've decided to stay — for now. I just wish that brad never sold out.

I just went down to UPS to return some Verizon components. Verizon had given us a return UPS label, so there wasn't really a choice who to use. I had to buy a box there, and for one small package box I was charged $4.50. U-Haul charges less than $4 for their large boxes. UPS apparently sells moving boxes as well now, but given the prices of their small shipping boxes, I can't imagine how much they're charging for the moving boxes.

UPS is rather pointless anyway (unless your a large corporation with a mass shipping deal). FedEx is faster and more reliable, the USPS is cheaper. UPS seems the worst of both worlds and I tend to avoid them unless I'm required to use them like today.

I've been very impressed by how many Boston area liberals have gained a sense of rebellion in recent days by rallying around mega corporation Turner and their corporate lackeys who planted the devices. It's almost surreal that commercial culture has taken such a grip that even rebellion against authority has a corporate edge. None of the myriad of REAL abuses of authority since 9/11 have garnered such a tremendous response. Fail to give a favored marketing firm free reign to do whatever they please in the city, especially if they're advertising an important cartoon network show, and you have a massive outcry.

Berdovsky sent an e-mail to friends at 1:25 p.m. telling them not to talk about the marketing scheme to promote the animated television show "Aqua Teen Hunger Force" on the Cartoon Network. "My boss from the Cartoon Network’s ad agency just called -- she is asking that we pretty please keep everything on the DL," or down low, wrote Berdovsky, according to a copy of the e-mail provided to the Globe. ... Moments after facing the felony charges, Berdovsky and Stevens mocked reporters at press conference outside court, deflecting questions about their culpability with non sequiter quips about haircuts in the 1970s. "Hair today, gone tomorrow," said Stevens, Berdovsky added: "I'm quite enjoying this." full article

Because actively suppressing critical security information to further the greed of your corporate masters is fun!

Does anyone else find it odd that Turner-owned CNN continued to hype the suspicious devices story even as Turner executives were aware of the situation and what exactly the devices were? If anyone was intentionally spreading fear it was Turner, not Boston Police Department.

For each person or category of person, please indicate how ethical they are (on average) in you opinion. 0 indicates completely unethical scumbags, 10 indicates saintly perfections of ethics. For the purposes of this poll, "ethical" means whatever you view as ethical.

Poll #892485
Open to: All, results viewable to: All

yourself

me

your parents

the average person

the average man

the average woman