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

[demonoflight.livejournal.com]

"Only" 13, huh?

I have used LJArchive to back my LJ up. Thanks for the tip.

[wolfsilveroak.livejournal.com]

http://xb95.livejournal.com/635394.html Guy's fiancee was cut.


And this is why I went to IJ last year about this time, and never looked back as far as actual journaling goes. Now, my LJ is for the friends list only.

[nycscribbler.livejournal.com]

Same here. Now I get to point and laugh at the LJ-Dammerung.

[wolfsilveroak.livejournal.com]

Yup! The hubby called, asked what I was doing, I said laughing at all the LJ drama over the cutbacks.

[maudelynn.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the LJbook link. It says it is in the progress of making my PDF file now :)

Don't panic? Your icon says differently...

[mollywobbles867.livejournal.com]

I'm not going to panic....

But, I'm going to make a "Where do we go if the apocalypse comes?" post.

[scarletsherlock.livejournal.com]

no_lj_ads links to a press release and several other informational posts here. http://community.livejournal.com/no_lj_ads/83519.html

What they have done to these people is awful, but I do feel reassured about the status of the actual site.

*It might be helpful if I actually include the link. FAIL.*

[hollyxu.livejournal.com]

Um, I'm on a Mac here and I can't seem to get either one to work... do you know of any other archiving services?

Thanks!

(And I don't think Lj will go under soon, it's just that the people in charge don't seem to realize it's not like facebook. Unfortunately.)

[jaclynhyde.livejournal.com]

Try LJ Migrate (http://antennapedia.livejournal.com/266462.html) (it stores posts, icons, and comments locally and can migrate posts only to an LJ clone).

[hollyxu.livejournal.com]

Thanks!!

[flaxenescapee.livejournal.com]

LMAO at Hitchhiker's reference. <3

[dachelle.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the links to the back-up services. I don't know what I'd do if LJ disappeared - Facebook isn't an effective alternative, and the fic fandom I'm in is entirely located on LJ. I'm not sure what we'd do.

[zeroxgirl1201.livejournal.com]

Damn. Well, I guess this means I'm backing my journal up tonight. There ain't much on there, as I tend to spread my stuff out between places anyway, but it's worth doing.

Hopefully we're all not panicing for no reason.

[shocolate.livejournal.com]

OT : did you know that there is a 'book' (http://www.amazon.co.uk/Robert-Pattinson-Inside-Mel-Williams/dp/1848120400) on RPattz??

I saw it today - it's only 48 pages!!

[cleolinda.livejournal.com]

Oh Lord--that's the second distinct book someone's told me about.

[dachelle.livejournal.com]

I bet it's like this book on Amy Winehouse that I saw at Borders the other day - I flipped through it and there was no original content whatsoever. Basically, it was like someone did a Google News search on her and printed the results. "In February, the London Lite reported... Two weeks later, the Sun said..." If I'd known it was that easy to write a celebrity bio I'd have submitted my proposal for Peter's years ago.

Re: Twilight laugh stress reliever

[trampchic.livejournal.com]

...and it's out of stock. D:

[thisiamdenied.livejournal.com]

I make a frowny face at LJ execs. :(

Twilight laugh stress reliever

[michawhiplash.livejournal.com]

I apologize if this has been posted before, but this made me laugh so much:
http://www.stardoll.com/en/dolls/1104/Robert_Pattinson.html

It's missing the toque and ray-bans though...

[amorphic.livejournal.com]

Thank you SO MUCH for those links. I have to agree about them pulling the plug = losing more money, therefore everything should stay as normal! XD

[jandriel.livejournal.com]

If things go kablooey, I'm gonna miss your linkspam!

[wmetoile.livejournal.com]

I've been trying to back up with LJ Book for about three days now, on and off, and it keeps giving me the overloaded page. I'm on a Mac. Does anyone know if they definitely require a donation?

[cleolinda.livejournal.com]

I don't think they do--apparently it really does get overloaded really easily, and of course everyone ran over there this week what with the layoff panic and all.