preserving the LJ emergency network

[rm]

Can we talk about something?

I don't want to be all, "LJ is dying" but it's certainly slowing down/transmuting/something.

There's the splintering/relocating/mirroring to Dreamwidth and other services; the increased popularity of Twitter and FB amongst LJ people who used to say they didn't care for such; the fandom focus on Tumblr and A03; and people like me fleeing for their own domains.

Yet, one thing LJ has been remarkable for is the people helping people thing, because it engenders (and has engendered over time) relationships that make need and veracity somewhat easier to verify.

So how and how much we use LJ is changing. In the face of that, how do we preserve the "help solve a scary problem" factor in a way that's meaningful, decentralized, participatory, and based on networks of trust and expertise?

Comments

[atrophying]

Same here. I joined for a small crowd of people in 2000 - most of those people are still here and using LJ.

I do wish that those of us who are active (English) users had more of an active say, but it is what it is. Of course, I suspect most of my apathy has to do with the fact that I'm a permanent user[1] and somewhat shielded from the company, as such.

I still have FB and Twitter and a half-dozen empty domains and a tumblr and everything else. But LJ is its own thing, and short of trying to rebuild the community I have elsewhere, I'm okay with just staying.

[1] I feel odd that I've had a permanent account for so long that it's paid for itself multiple times over. It also makes me miss BradFitz and his innate understanding of what LJ is.
[2] Can't we just start a cooperative corporation, buy out whoever owns LJ these days, and run LJ that way?

[azurelunatic]

I suspect you'd have better luck asking to buy only the English side of it than the whole thing: it's the #1 blogging platform in Russia.