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?
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branchandroot
no subject
Date: 2005-01-06 01:03 pm (UTC)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?