lots of people got the jump on me this time

[novapsyche]

So LJ has been acquired by a Russian company, SUP. I don't know how I feel about this.

However, something I don't think many people have mentioned: If SixApart knew that this sale was close to being finalized, why on earth would they institute such a sweeping change as the flagging procedure beforehand? That, to me, just doesn't add up.

Edit: Did you know that two-thirds of LJ users are female?

Comments

[sophiaserpentia.livejournal.com]

Maybe SUP requested the flagging button patch as a prerequisite for the sale.

[atdt1991.livejournal.com]

I was thinking along the same lines.

[novapsyche.livejournal.com]

But that doesn't satisfy to me the why. Is it because SixApart already had a history of not caring what their userbase wanted, so it was easier for them to play the bad guy before the new owners showed up?

To me, the change now becomes something no one has to own. SixApart no longer bears any responsibility for it (especially if and when it proves to be more trouble than it's worth), and SUP can simply say it was something its predecessor implemented.

[bonerici.livejournal.com]

if you look at the history of lj, it has been static for the last few years in the usa and english speakers, so they couldn't find any buyer here, strangely in russia lj is still growing, so the best buyer brad fitzpatrick from six apart could find was SUP. the programmers don't know what is going on in management, so they put these flags in as part of their normally scheduled maintenance, and as a result of the flap they got for shutting down accounts -- this gives them a softer tool to use on accounts that are adult only content, instead of just shutting them down they can flag them instead.

Anyway, after a 20 minute meeting with SUP, six apart got a $30 million dollar offer, they basically jumped out of their shoes in haste to sign, I don't think anyone knew it would be this quick, now of course, $30 is a far cry from quoted valuations of $200 million, but six apart bought livejournal for $5 million and they know when the getting is good.

As for myself, I say, "Hail to our new overlords! Putin is a great guy and not a malevolent KGB assassin who kills his adversaries with plutonium. Hail Russia and SUP!"

[novapsyche.livejournal.com]

Polonium, not plutonium. :)

[sophiaserpentia.livejournal.com]

I don't really pay attention to what has been going on in the Russian-speaking side of LJ, though i've been aware that it has become a sizable part of the community. A lot of Russian-speaking LJ users are nervous that SUP intends to crack down on political dissent. In that case, the flagging button could serve more to flag dissenting posts rather than sexually explicit ones.

An alternate explanation might be that SUP wanted evidence that 6A was taking concrete steps to address the PR face-slap it took over the Strikethrough.

[bonerici.livejournal.com]

yes, yes Puton doesn't kill his political adversaries with polonium either.

[jojomojo.livejournal.com]

Well, Russia's Strategic Rocket Forces do in fact have quite a lot of plutonium sitting on top of ICBMs...so the option is there for him ;)

[dionysus1999.livejournal.com]

Well, at least I have connections when Russians buy out the U.S. government.

Все окликнули мать Россию!

[riverrealm.livejournal.com]

Have you seen the lj stats page? I like to look at it periodically.

[novapsyche.livejournal.com]

I hadn't, actually. I like the bell curve, though.

[brendand.livejournal.com]

I think that's exactly the why.