Don't panic

[cleolinda]

Obviously I'm behind from my internet being out last night, but I just have to jump in with this (via my friend David):

The Russian Bear Slashes a Social Network.

The bubble in social networking has burst, decisively. LiveJournal, the San Francisco-based arm of Sup, a Russian Internet startup, has cut about 20 of 28 employees — and offered them no severance, we're told.

... The company's product managers and engineers were laid off, leaving only a handful of finance and operations workers — which speaks to a website to be left on life support. Matt Berardo, a Yahoo executive hired on last summer, is also believed to be gone.

... The brutal, abrupt cuts suggest something different: That Sup founder Andrew Paulson (above), who paid an estimated $30 million for LiveJournal a little over a year ago, has realized his expensive mistake in buying at the top of the bubble.

I don't think this is the end of the world per se; pulling the plug entirely would just lose them more money. Sure, LJ's "on life support," but it's still here, and you never know what might happen. This could be a weird blessing in disguise, if a company that had no clue what to do with LJ ends up dumping it on someone who does know. (Hint: "We're gonna be the next MySpace!" is not the way to run it.)

That said, it's time once again to look into archiving your journal (try LJBook or LJArchive, the one I use). You know... just to be safe.

ETA: Only 13 employees laid off? (Thanks, jdotmi.)

Comments

[jdotmi.livejournal.com]

They fail at numbers according to this (http://azurelunatic.livejournal.com/6225487.html). edit to add: it still sucks, though

[flamingtoilet.livejournal.com]

LJ-Dammerung?

[noizangel.livejournal.com]

Is that Christian?

[malhablada.livejournal.com]

Bah. I feel so bad for those people that lost their jobs.

All right, so with the backing up, do either of those save userpics too? I know they both do comments, but I did a TON of RPing a few years back, and the userpics were part of the story. I want to save them, if possible. Is such a thing possible?

[cleolinda.livejournal.com]

I think so, yeah. You can actually save comments through LJArchive.

[sweetsyren.livejournal.com]

Well that's...just crap. Also - that's a crappy way to treat your staff. Poor guys and girls. That's just not cricket...

They had a permi account sale not so long ago didn't they?? Ouch. I can see a lot of people being MIGHTILY pissed if they did buy a permi account and now this comes out...

[stagemanager.livejournal.com]

Yes. Yes, we are.

[katharhino.livejournal.com]

Just backed up both my journals yesterday. I figured the new year was a good time to do it. *pats self on the back for being so prescient*

I also agree that sometimes hard times weed out the people who just wanted to make a quick buck, and this could be good.

Although, how much does that suck for the 20 employees?

[ajnastarheart.livejournal.com]

In 'idiot-speak' (because I am not too experienced with computer-language) how did you do that, if you don't mind me asking?

I'm the kind of frood who always knows where her towel is

[kveran.livejournal.com]

Well isn't this just typical. Way to go, LJ. I just hope that the 20 people that were fired can find jobs.

[penknife.livejournal.com]

*nods* It sucks for the employees affected, and it sucks for us in that it's never fun for the future of LJ to be shaky, but I would think that if SUP can't run LJ and make a profit, they'd try to sell it to recoup some of their investment rather than just letting it go under. (Whether anyone is interested in buying, in this economy and given the questionable profitability of social networking, I dunno. But I think they'll try.)

[padawansguide.livejournal.com]

Wow, that's a scary bit of news... I don't know what I'd do without LJ!

[cleolinda.livejournal.com]

Hey, you're talking to someone who pretty much built her career on LJ. I'm just trying to be sanguine about it, I guess, because getting scared isn't going to help anything. It'll stay up or it won't, and if it doesn't, we get to go on an adventure, I guess.

[angelene.livejournal.com]

Sigh. Too bad that LJArchive just doesn't seem to work for me.

[neveth.livejournal.com]

Same here. If you can get to it when it's not being slammed LJBook works wonderfully.

From what I can tell LJArchive just hates people with nonstandard characters in their posts. (Mine is lots of japanese music)

[cindyg.livejournal.com]

::sigh:: 2009 barely in, and LJ is having yet *another* conniption fit. And me with a permanent account, too! Though I quite agree that it *is* early days yet, and if new management that knows what to do with LJ is the result, I'm all for that.

I'm so glad I built up actual mirror blogs instead of just creating backups - though I may do that also, now - of this one!

[highlystrung.livejournal.com]

Yah. I'm not panicking. Slightly because you know, hopeful heart, things turn out for the best, darkest before dawn, etc. etc. as well as all the rational reasons I'm sure people will come up with (I quite like the 'we might finally lose the douches!' theory ^^). The main reason, however, is just because there's nothing I can do about it. I can back up my journal (which I will) and then - that's it, really. If it goes down, it goes down. Not much I can do. I mean, I'll be sad and all. But I figure there'll be enough people clinging to driftwood who'll eventually start moving in a similar direction. A place like this doesn't flourish without demand. But even if we don't find an LJ2? Still not under my control.

So I'mma not going to stress over it. ^^

[symmetry.livejournal.com]

Why does LJArchive not support Macs :(

[highlystrung.livejournal.com]

Apparently this is good? http://antennapedia.livejournal.com/266462.html (I saw it in the comments in the link above, and have no idea if it works, but then I'm not a computer person. ^^ But, maybe?)

[syvia.livejournal.com]

Oi. -_- Oi, I say, oi. One more thing to be concerned about.

I think I'll look into LJArchive tonight.

[subluxate]

I'm really trying not to freak out (homebound cripple who spends the day online, largely on LJ), but damn is it hard.

[bluinkalchemist.livejournal.com]

Got LJArchive on the work PC after the last potential SNAFU. Thanks, Cleo!

[fangirlsays.livejournal.com]

As I said elsewhere, it's a shame fandom couldn't just chip in and buy it. We'll put on a show fanfic challenge and raise the money!!!1!!

[greedyskunk.livejournal.com]

Wow. Thanks for the heads up, Cleo. I think I'll be looking in to the LJArchive now. There's not much on my blog, but what is there I'd like to keep. I suppose I can always print it out. o_0

Someone earlier in the comments mentioned lj's account sale. Didn't they also recently move to a larger server facility in Montana or Minnesota? I know huge business maneuvers can't really be stopped on a dime, but damn. Was this bad timing or wishful thinking that they could weather the economy suckage?

[cleolinda.livejournal.com]

You know, I also wonder if servers might not be cheaper in Montana than California. Again, I see this more as SUP trying to economize than preparing to pull the plug.

[siliconhero.livejournal.com]

I don't really like where this is going, and I hope the people who have been let go are able to find some work. At the same time, I'm not 100% worried about it, because I mostly use my LJ to write fanfiction, and in the event that the site does get nuked (please don't let it happen *knocks on wood*), I have my favorite pieces saved to my own blog.

[wumbawoman.livejournal.com]

The Russian Bear Slashes a Social Network.

Man, I have to be more awake when I sign on. My first thought, "Pedobear is Russian? How do they know this??""

*yawn*
off to eat breakfast brunch

[siliconhero.livejournal.com]

Because in Soviet Russia, kid molests Pedobear they said so.

Could a change in ownership be in LJ's future?

[robinmc.livejournal.com]

I have to admit that I already panicked just a little bit when I saw the thing on Gawker. But that might have been because it was 3 in the morning and I wasn't in the best mood.

Thanks for the LJ Archive link. I think I know what I'm going to be doing tonight.

[dina-james.livejournal.com]

Have been trying to leave a "thank you for this post and for linking to the archive tools" comment, but I keep getting an error message. Hopefully this one works! Thank you!

[chaosvizier.livejournal.com]

I'm too weak to resist saying...

IN SOVIET RUSSIA, JOURNAL DELETES YOU!

[tinylegacies.livejournal.com]

LiveJournal has a Twitter account and they posted a note about this (http://twitter.com/LiveJournal/status/1099760975).

[winters-queen.livejournal.com]

I'd have more faith if they sent out a message through LJ land instead of another spot like Twitter or Facebook.

[kortirion.livejournal.com]

Well I do hope nothing happens to LJ because I really like it here and have made many friends that I know better than people in RL. Although I've got accounts at Facebook and Myspace I never use them - mainly because it seems to cater for the users having the attention span of a gold-fish - that and I want to write thoughts, not sound-bytes!

But just in case - I'm cyber-squatting my name on InsaneJournal... *shrug* At least I'll still be me - if you see what I mean.

[raechel]

Just curious, should LJ someday go belly up, where will you go?

[cleolinda.livejournal.com]

You know, I don't know. I have a Facebook and a Twitter, plus my Cleoland wiki, so people will definitely be able to find me (this is the advantage of trying out every little new service: not putting your eggs in one basket). I'm trying to read up on other blogging services so I won't be completely out in the cold if the worst ever happens, but I really don't know of one that has everything I like about LJ.