now that I've had some sleep and time to think about it...

[geekchick]

LJ bought by 6A; world fails to implode (despite much insistence that it has).

Seriously. I admit to some amount of skepticism as with any buyout/merger, but I see no evidence yet to think that anything horrible and terrible and awful is going to happen. Most of the things I was most worried about myself (like, are we going to have to move to Typepad-like pricing, which would suck much ass) seem to have been addressed; sure, not completely thoroughly yet, but ferchrissakes it's been less than 24 hours since the announcement. The one thing I haven't seen yet is what happens if 6A decides it wants to be bought by Microsoft or Apple or some other large corporate entity, but it's been asked often enough I'd be at least a little surprised if that doesn't get addressed at some point.

I wouldn't have paid for my accounts for four-plus years if I didn't have some amount of faith in the folks running this company, so I'm giving Brad the benefit of the doubt and believing that he really does have the best interests of this site that he built in mind and sticking around until at least the end of my paid membership in November. I'll re-evaluate then, as I always do. If things have started to suck, I won't renew my paid account. I honestly don't get the rash of panic and threatening to flee for the hills right now I'm seeing in various places. The reason I'm with LJ rather than hosting my own blog is because I enjoy the sense of community; if everyone jumps ship pre-emptively because of what "might" happen someday, that will pretty much destroy what makes LJ special without our new corporate overlords 6A having had to do a damn thing. No?

[Edit:] For those who care, here's the diff of the TOS versions 1.4 and 1.5. (Found in a comment to a locked post elsewhere.)

Comments

Ahh Yes

[ryozu.livejournal.com]

The hoard mentality, gotta love it.

People are so fickle and afraid of what MIGHT happen that they go about bringing their own disaster.

A message was posted on a gaming message board that posed the question: Do you play Counterstrike:Source yet?

90% of the responses were along the lines of "I'll play it when more people play it."

Do people simply not see the irony in their actions?

[pixiecrinkle.livejournal.com]

Thank you! I hadn't gotten around to posting yet, but you took the words right out of my mouth!

[sjdr.livejournal.com]

You know, up to a point I trust Brad.

Up to much less of a point, I trust Six Apart. Well, kinda.

To even less of a point, I trust that Joi Ito has good intentions, for all he ever seems to do is talk about blogs, and thus seems liable to fall victim to the kinds of hyped up thinking that led to the dotcom boom. Still, he's obviously very bright, and does get it on some level.

But I don't trust Whitney, and Whitney is the money source.

Now, granted, I don't like 6A because I think what they did with MT was moronic - but all these people running around to reassure everyone that 6A isn't the devil are a little bit premature, because they don't even seem to realize that Joi Ito and Neoteny, and through them Whitney, are now permanently part of the equation. Now, if someone wants to make a case that Whitney isn't so bad, I'll listen to what they have to say, but the fact that most of the people on my flist (not you, personally) trying to be wiser-than-thou with their reassurances and condemnation of Chicken Little behavior don't even mention Whitney or Neoteny makes me have very little faith in what they have to say. Sure, blind mistrust of Brad is stupid, but so is blind faith that this situation will rock, and right now that's what I'm seeing from both ends.

The thing is, 6A pretty much already has been bought by some large corporate entity - not quite, but through Neoteny/Whitney's VC, they do have "higher powers" that they're answerable and accountable to, in a way that LJ previously did not, other than the bottom line of maintaining a system that could pay its own operating costs.

Prior to this, LJ could basically run at cost. Now, "cost" could also include things like Brad buying a house, and paying for salaries of the employees, and all that, so there was probably profit being made in a traditional sense; quite possibly even a substantial one. The question is, how much of a profit, and more to the point, what profit margin are Whitney/Neoteny/6A going to demand - and can LJ's business model really provide that, without substantial alterations?

[geekchick]

Oh, I wouldn't say I have complete and utter confidence in 6A and their VC overlords, I hope that's not what I seemed to be saying. If anything, the whole VC thing makes me want to keep my eye on them a bit more closely than I would otherwise if I'm being honest, even with their history of shooting themselves in the foot with their customer base. All I was really trying to say was that to me it makes more sense to give it some time to see what happens instead of hosing a cluster in a mad rush to download your journal entries before the announcement was even officially made. To scream that 6A will destroy the LJ you know and love and then bail out before the ink is even dry on the agreement just seems kinda silly to me.

I will admit that I know nothing specific about Neoteny/Whitney, although I suppose it would behoove me to go poke around a bit now (and thanks for the nudge on that).

[sjdr.livejournal.com]

I didn't think you were - I'm just seeing a ton of people basically rushing to be positive about the acquisition, and felt like ranting, and I used your journal because you're, you know, a reasonable human being. :)

It is silly, really; what gets me is that almost no one seems to be doing due diligence on one side or the other, and yet almost everyone (again, present company excepted) is scrambling to portray themselves as the most sensible, realistic, and basically coolest party.

It's not what side people are taking, really, it's the way in which most people are choosing sides.

(But now I've ranted in my own journal and feel better, yay.)

Very belatedly, how was Wegmans'?

[geekchick]

you're, you know, a reasonable human being.

(Man, do I have people fooled or what?) *ahem* I mean, "thank you". ;)

Wegman's was fabulous, although there was just too much food. 22 pieces of sushi is a whole honkin' lot, even if you don't eat the three rather odd bacon/chestnut rolls. I think I've finally found a food that is not improved by the addition of bacon.

[sjdr.livejournal.com]

Oh, damn.

Because man, I was going to ask how those were. I mean... bacon chesnut?

Now, mind you, my favorite roll of all time is tuna + ginger + cilantro + jalapeno in combo seaweed, followed closely by the unagi + tamago + fish eggs in cucumber wrap, followed even more closely by the shrimp + tomato + onion + jalepeno, but that's... um... yeah.

I. Just. ... BACON?

[asetwoman.livejournal.com]

I have to admit I'm a little worried because of what I have seen with buyouts before. I've been bought out, too, and the results were terrible.

They won't necessarily be terrible now, but there will probably be changes, and people will object. Whether they are whining or have legit complaints remains to be seen. The problem with buyouts is that suddenly the people who were beholden to us no longer are, so anything can happen.

I'm not going to flee, though. We'll see. The changes could ultimately be good.

[geekchick]

The changes could ultimately be good.

But we're getting TrackBack, so that makes everything all better. ;)

I've been part of a buyout before too and it was terrible (mostly because the company that acquired us had a radically different culture than we did and it was a poor fit from the beginning); I'm hoping this one will work out differently, and I'm willing to give it some time. Like I said, if it starts to seriously suck, *then* I'll likely bail, but I'll give it a chance.

The voice of reason

[pdx42.livejournal.com]

What the hell are you doing on LiveJournal to begin with??? Don't you know you're supposed to be offended, paranoid, and ready to take up arms over this?

You know you're right. Even if things do change at LJ, it's going to gradual -- over a long term. 6A doesn't want to lose this userbase, and they are going to do everything they can think of to placate them.

Re: The voice of reason

[geekchick]

Don't you know you're supposed to be offended, paranoid, and ready to take up arms over this?

Nah, I'm busy being offended by people like Ric "Screw all y'all" Keller, so I'm all full up there. =)

"There's a wise saying we've used in Florida the past four years that the other side would be wise to learn: Get over it," said Rep. Ric Keller, R-Fla.

(Let's see if Ric remembers that saying next time the Republicans are in the minority.)

[zuggy9.livejournal.com]

It's funny... I'm on LiveJournal to connect with people. I've run various forms of blogs since 2000. I've used Blogger, LJ and my own coded interfaces. My only concern with any of this it the thought of losing connection with those only accessible via LJ.

Brad is an Open Source advocate, and has been since the beginning. I think the biggest testament towards optimism is that he is staying with LJ after the buy out. If he leaves, then I will be concerned. Until then, I'm not worried.

Besides, so long as I can get my geekchick fix... all is right with the world!

[geekchick]

I read that as getting geekchick fixed and had to blink a couple of times at my screen. =)

[nminusone.livejournal.com]

My comments are too long, so I put them here.