To My Friends

[poliphilo]

Don't give up on LJ.  Please.

Yes, the service is lousy at the moment but that's because it's under attack. LJ is liable to such attacks because it serves as a major platform for the anti-Putin opposition in Russia. Tell yourself you're suffering (if you can call it suffering) for someone else's freedom of speech and bear your discomforts with pride.

Comments

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

There's strength in numbers. Most of the LJ wannabes have long since faded away. At least LJ has the resources to fight back. Could DW stand up against the kind of attack LJ is experiencing right now? I doubt it.

[kishenehn.livejournal.com]

Yep.

As for DW, I have a very strong (and very negative) opinion of the site and the little group of trolls at its core ... but even if I didn't, I wouldn't consider it a valid backup option. That site operates basically on the whims of a single person, and if she grows bored with the exercise it could all disappear without warning. If one wants a backup, its much better to use an established site like Blogger or Wordpress, I think.

[ideealisme.livejournal.com]

Is this because they're the Social Justice Borg? You do get the feeling of rather totalitarian enthusiasm over there sometimes, all right.

In the meantime: http://ideealisme.dreamwidth.org/2496.html
and in fairness to DW it crossposted for me pretty nicely.

[kishenehn.livejournal.com]

Well, the short version of my DW rant would be that their self-righteousness is underlain with a fairly astounding level of hypocrisy. The group behind it spent years agitating trouble at LJ, both with the current and prior LJ owners ... sometimes with a hint of justification, more often without any at all. DW itself actually took flight not of a desire to do things better, but because one of its principals got laid off from LJ, and decided to take vengeance. And two years after DW's establishment, its hardcore supporters still spend countless hours trolling over here on LJ.

The ethics of all that trouble me, but beyond that I think that in general it's very unfortunate that they've spent so much time being so destructive. What they're doing is effectively helping to kill long-form blogging ... and given the onslaught of Facebook and Twitter and Tumblr, those sorts of actions are the last thing we old-school bloggers need.

[ideealisme.livejournal.com]

Oh that's interesting. To hear some of the DW Borg, one would think they were freedom fighters or something.

[cmcmck.livejournal.com]

But LJ is being attacked on Putin's orders because that's where the anti Vlad opposition organise. DW doesn't have Cyrillic services so is less under threat from such an overtly political attack

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

But attacks could come from any quarter. Including, of course, from sources nearer to home.