life after livejournal?

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09 January 2009 @ 01:53 pm

I hadn't been taking any of the rumours about Livejournal's possible impending doom seriously, as for years there have been transfers of ownership & other changes, which I've not really cared about as I don't feel it's ever affected my journalling experience. But now that I've learned that

chasethestars has just lost her job at the livejournal office in San Francisco, I'm starting to wonder if there is a possibility that we will lose lj.

&that thought does make me sad; I had my first lj in 2000, when it first started (my first account is an early adopter account), and have since transferred the entire archives of all my online journalling (from 1998!) over so they are all in one place. I'm not worried about my entries as I backup regularly using lj archive (highly recommended! It saves your comments & everything), but I will be sad if the community disappears. I love that I have been able to keep in touch with some of the very first people I ever met online (in 1997) through lj, that there are many amazing journals & people I have discovered through this community. I don't know if it would be the same anywhere else now. I mean, I know other journalling places have communities of people, but I've gotten so used to this one, the friends I have made through this particular site after all these years. Some people I've never talked to, but I've been following their entries for like 6 years! I would miss that.

&I suppose it's partly laziness too; I love that it's all here on one site, that I can click on a friends link, and read the entries without having to go to multiple sites. I use an RSS reader to keep up with the other sites & blogs I read regularly so it's not like I couldn't add everyone's individual blog sites to that & keep up almost as easily; but the community feeling just isn't the same!

If livejournal disappears, where do you think you'll go? I can't imagine not having a blog site of some sort... I'm terrible with keeping up with emails & things, so I'd no doubt lose touch with some people quite quickly. There are so many people who's entries I would miss. I don't know where I'd move to.

If you have another site set up somewhere (I know a few of you have already snagged accounts at insanejournal & other similar places, just in case), please let me know? Or email addresses, last.fm accounts, facebook etc. Just in case I need to find you again.

[just for the record: my email address is jade.court @ gmail.com]

Tags: geek girl, online

23 comments | Leave a comment

23 comments —

( 23 comments — Leave a comment )

thisglasnost on January 9th, 2009 07:02 am (UTC)

If it were to disappear i would probably go to another similar site, like InsaneJournal (although i'm not sure which one i would choose yet; i would want to know what all my friends were doing). I have a Blogspot and although i update it i find the sense of community isn't as good and it's more difficult to keep up with everyone's blogs. I would miss so many peoples' journals if this thing disappears.

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mottledpigeon on January 9th, 2009 07:43 am (UTC)

Oh, man.

You have a cool user name and a cool icon and I love that picture in your friends only post.

Just... I don't know. Keep up the good work. :)

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thisglasnost on January 10th, 2009 04:59 pm (UTC)

Aww, thank you :) I don't get many random compliments on LJ!

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mottledpigeon on January 9th, 2009 07:28 am (UTC)

I'd probably set up a wordpress blog the way my journal has evolved. It's not so personal anymore. I'd really miss the ability to lock entries, though. Gah.

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urban_ballerina on January 12th, 2009 06:53 pm (UTC)

you can still lock entries to private on wordpress

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meimnaut on January 9th, 2009 08:22 am (UTC)

I'm not sure. The thing I like about livejournal is the communities I'm a member of, particularly the Melbourne based ones which have been SO useful over the years. And its easy to keep track of friends and while I dont necessarily comment a lot I'm always reading everyone's entries.
I dont really blog a lot anymore so I can't see myself setting up a blogspot/wordpress page because I'd never update it!
I have Facebook of course and a twitter page.

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crystalina on January 9th, 2009 08:54 am (UTC)

This is beginning to concern me as well.

I'll either use my wordpress blog exclusively - http://krystallos.wordpress.com - or I'll go to Vox.

But I want LJ to stay.

Oh, and I'm on Facebook, but we're already friends. =)

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kisstheviolets on January 9th, 2009 09:43 am (UTC)

I think my worry is that everyone would disperse if LJ shut down - I mean, there's this community of people here, but if LJ closed, some people would go to blogger, some to insanejournal or greatestjournal or vox, others to wordpress or privately hosted sites.... it definitely wouldn't be the same!

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thisglasnost on January 10th, 2009 05:01 pm (UTC)

Yeah, this is what happened when Bolt.com shut down. I was a reg on the forums there for five years and had a really lovely group of friends. When the site shut down one friend opened up a new forum but many people didn't register over there (or they did register, but didn't hang around for long) and it just wasn't the same :(

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urban_ballerina on January 9th, 2009 08:58 am (UTC)

i hope it wont go down yet. i mean its really bad. looking bad. esp peoples reactions to it. migrating fast...and this will prob do the damage the most. i know lots of people are using wordpress. ive got to dowload my entries first though. thanks for the link to lj archive. i tried using lj backup but im either really cab...or its just a hard programme to use. youve been one of my greatest friends on here. ihope you not leaving too.

till the end?

haha blood brothers!

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mottledpigeon on January 9th, 2009 09:10 am (UTC)

http://en.blog.wordpress.com/2009/01/08/livejournal-migration-made-easy/

WordPress looking to capitalize on the Great Migration of Oh-Nine.

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urban_ballerina on January 9th, 2009 09:16 am (UTC)

yes. i read that. i think everyone has. its def only going to make things worse and if there is an end. it will be faster.

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kisstheviolets on January 9th, 2009 09:34 am (UTC)

for sure! I'm planning to stick around unless lj does shut down, but if you leave, make sure you tell me where you're going so I can check for updates!

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urban_ballerina on January 9th, 2009 09:36 am (UTC)

if i did leave it would be to wordpress. i just need to get my head around all the nerd stuff. ill be sure to let you know the link when i figure it out! i cadnt even figure out how to backup my entries, let alone back them up onto another blog site

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photogirl on January 9th, 2009 12:32 pm (UTC)

I wasn't going to panic about this.... but now I think I might!
The LJ backup link doesn't work for me.
Aaaaaaah! x

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turnedoffneon on January 9th, 2009 01:50 pm (UTC)

http://www.fawx.com/software/ljarchive/

or another service

http://www.ljbook.com

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ragdollstitches on January 9th, 2009 12:36 pm (UTC)

I've heard the rumors, but I don't think it's true... If LJ can't survive, I don't see places like insanejournal lasting very long from the loads of people who would move there. Deadjournal and greatestjournal were popular alternatives and they are long gone, but LJ is still here. I would probably use myspace or blogspot, but it wouldn't be the same. =[

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turtles_path on January 9th, 2009 04:01 pm (UTC)

i have to agree - i'd be concerned about a similar meltdown elsewhere, too.

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turnedoffneon on January 9th, 2009 01:48 pm (UTC)

i didn't even know anything about this.
in a few days i will have been on livejournal for 6 years!
if it does close down i already post on http://artschoolalex.wordpress.com or http://not-noticeably.net/electrique/ but it's mostly work-based and less personal. those, and facebook are 'public' though to real-life friends, but lj isn't.
i think if there is an end to lj, it would probably be the end of my personal posts. more and more i wonder if anyone cares other than myself and as a result i don't think i'd mind keeping it to my paper journal.

for those i would like to keep in touch with, i could hopefully write letters to, and for the others, i imagine i'd bookmark their new sites or whatever... but it wouldn't be the same.

ps. thank you for your christmas card! i forgot to thank you, ages ago. x

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starlakitty on January 9th, 2009 01:59 pm (UTC)

*hugs*

i hope lj doesn't shut down. i would be so upset, seriously.

i've already made a vox and a wordpress.

starlakitty.wordpress.com
starlakitty912.vox.com

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turtles_path on January 9th, 2009 03:59 pm (UTC)

i set up turtles_path at insanejournal, just in case this goes dark suddenly, but i don't like the tone of it and i haven't looked elsewhere yet. i'd definitely want to keep the same kind of community based forum and filtering capabilities, though. thanks for the updated e-mail addy! :)

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traversant on January 9th, 2009 05:22 pm (UTC)

LJ isn't going anywhere :)

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snowflakesugar on January 12th, 2009 06:42 pm (UTC)

i know what you mean, about being sad if livejournal goes down. i have been using blogspot for a while (here, if it interests you) but i miss the comment system, i miss the communities, i miss having a friends page. :( but most people i used to follow are no longer using livejournal anyway, which is why i set up a blogspot account.

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