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flewellynSo, no doubt many of you have heard the cries of outrage sounding across LiveJournal at the news that Six Apart is going to begin using sponsored communities and features on the site.
What I think this means, on reading, is that companies will be allowed to create communities to advertise (within those communities) and gain feedback on their products, and that features which LJ staff are not particularly inclined or able to implement themselves could be provided by partner companies.
In particular, I'm thinking that this may be how they plan to address the lack of ability to search journals. LJSeek.com partially covers that, but only partially: you can only search public journals for which the owner has enabled search engine indexing. The ability to search a friends-only LJ (for which you are friended, of course), or to search for friends-locked or filtered posts, something I've long desired, simply can't be done that way. Doing so would require that the search engine have access to LiveJournal's database in order to check user permissions, and that would require either that Six Apart implement the search engine themselves, which they've repeatedly indicated they don't have the expertise to do well, or else contract with some other company who does have that expertise. I'm not sure who they might have in mind for this, but I'm sure that there's someone out there who has the needed expertise...
Of course, this change, like any change on LJ, is causing controversy. What the vast majority of commenters on the linked post seem to think the change means, is that Six Apart is selling them out, lying to them, breaking trust, turning LJ into MySpace, and in short, being so evil that the only thing which would be worse would be opening a kitten cannery or baby-mulching service.
Aside from the fact that I think the creation of "sponsored" communities is no big deal (you don't have to GO to them), and that the "sponsored" features might well address a need that has gone unmet ever since LJ was created...people, please. It's a frickin' blog site. If you want to, you can move to another one. There are several LJ clones out there, such as DeadJournal and GreatestJournal, and the LJ code is free software, so you could even start your own if you wanted.
But aside from all of that, I had just one thought: it's strange how, when Congress votes to suspend habeas corpus at the whim of the President, a man not known for making thoughtful or rational decisions, the majority of LJ users yawn and go back to bed. But, when Six Apart decides to make some harmless and possibly useful changes, everyone screams bloody murder. If even a tenth of the outrage and attention paid to the "sponsored content" business had been given to Thursday night's vote by Congress to destroy 800 years of legal precedent and protection, I might not fear for the future of this country as I do.
What I think this means, on reading, is that companies will be allowed to create communities to advertise (within those communities) and gain feedback on their products, and that features which LJ staff are not particularly inclined or able to implement themselves could be provided by partner companies.
In particular, I'm thinking that this may be how they plan to address the lack of ability to search journals. LJSeek.com partially covers that, but only partially: you can only search public journals for which the owner has enabled search engine indexing. The ability to search a friends-only LJ (for which you are friended, of course), or to search for friends-locked or filtered posts, something I've long desired, simply can't be done that way. Doing so would require that the search engine have access to LiveJournal's database in order to check user permissions, and that would require either that Six Apart implement the search engine themselves, which they've repeatedly indicated they don't have the expertise to do well, or else contract with some other company who does have that expertise. I'm not sure who they might have in mind for this, but I'm sure that there's someone out there who has the needed expertise...
Of course, this change, like any change on LJ, is causing controversy. What the vast majority of commenters on the linked post seem to think the change means, is that Six Apart is selling them out, lying to them, breaking trust, turning LJ into MySpace, and in short, being so evil that the only thing which would be worse would be opening a kitten cannery or baby-mulching service.
Aside from the fact that I think the creation of "sponsored" communities is no big deal (you don't have to GO to them), and that the "sponsored" features might well address a need that has gone unmet ever since LJ was created...people, please. It's a frickin' blog site. If you want to, you can move to another one. There are several LJ clones out there, such as DeadJournal and GreatestJournal, and the LJ code is free software, so you could even start your own if you wanted.
But aside from all of that, I had just one thought: it's strange how, when Congress votes to suspend habeas corpus at the whim of the President, a man not known for making thoughtful or rational decisions, the majority of LJ users yawn and go back to bed. But, when Six Apart decides to make some harmless and possibly useful changes, everyone screams bloody murder. If even a tenth of the outrage and attention paid to the "sponsored content" business had been given to Thursday night's vote by Congress to destroy 800 years of legal precedent and protection, I might not fear for the future of this country as I do.
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no subject
Date: 2006-10-02 07:14 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-10-02 10:07 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-10-02 10:38 pm (UTC)The main problem is that people don't have an easy venue to talk to their government - at least, it's nowhere near as easy as hitting "post comment" and typing bullshit into a box.
There's no direct email link to your personal senator at the bottom of the news article you just read. I think if there were, people would be more inclined to say something. Additionally, there's an element of "why would they listen to me?" and it's not like you'll get any sort of response aside from a form letter. On LJ, a real person might respond to your rant or friend you, etc.
is your point completely valid? yes. we should all be doing more to talk to our government and DO things and GIVE a shit. But it is genuinely easier to write a comment on LJ.
no subject
Date: 2006-10-03 02:35 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-10-03 07:27 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-10-03 07:28 pm (UTC)(here via metaquotes)
Date: 2006-10-04 05:20 am (UTC)When they bombed Iraq, I spoke out.
When they passed illegal amendments prohibiting gay marriage, I spoke out.
When they stole the second election, I shut up.
We're all listening to each other, and agreeing with each other, but it's not stopping them.
no subject
Date: 2006-10-04 05:34 am (UTC)I can't help but feel like we've lost the drive and commitment and willingness to put ourselves in harm's way in the name of principles that used to be such a benchmark of what it meant to be an American, and quite frankly that scares the crap out of me.
no subject
Date: 2006-10-05 05:57 am (UTC)Punk
Date: 2006-10-05 08:36 am (UTC)Hell, even JMS knows the importance of pancakes, afterall the entire show B5 is centered around them.
Now, everybody smile and nice to each other and no more meanies being mean to anyone in the world ever, and eat pancakes together and be happy. I demand meanness stop now. No more hurties or yellies or anything of that sort...
Or I will be sad.