Why LiveJournal Matters
09-Jan-08
LiveJournal was sold to a new owner, SUP, a few months ago. My feelings about this are a lot like those of Danah Boyd (link) but I wanted to try sharing them in my own words. (As you can see, I’ve been in no rush to chip in my two cents.)
I’m involved in many social networks (both explicit social networking sites, and sites that have implicit social connectivity going on) and with these networks, I have varying degrees of engagement. However, my connection with LJ is an intimate one. Social networks can be “neat”, “useful”, “fun”, but LJ is one where it most feels like I “live” on the internet.
In terms of features, it has mature power-user capabilities that matter: decent interfaces, good aggregation, and reasonable and customizable privacy filters. (Why are privacy features so undervalued?).
Beyond that, I find that LJ has been good at creating a kind of “landscape” to the social content. Each user’s Friends page – the center of the average user’s experience – becomes its own kind of territory, customized to the reader’s own network of friends and interests. It’s an emergent property of the way that LJ is meant to be used: moving series of textual content, over time, over context, brought to you by people you probably know in some fashion.
I have noticed that there are many sites (such as Vox) that could do much of what LJ currently does, often with extra snazziness added on. Nonetheless, I’m willing to see how the new ownership will keep evolving the site – as they must! – to keep LiveJournal positively growing. I’m willing to find a new home online, but I do like the one i have.