Welcome To LiveJournal, Comrades

[filkertom]

I thought it was a joke. Apparently not.

LJ's been sold to the Rooskies.

In Soviet Russia, LiveJournal comments on you.

Comments

[bronzite.livejournal.com]

In Soviet Russia, LiveJournal comments on you.

I can't remember the last time I laughed at a "In Soviet Russia..." joke, but that one was pretty good.

[allandaros.livejournal.com]

In Firefox, you keep tabs in browser.
In Soviet Russia, browser keeps tabs on YOU!

Eh? Eh?

...I'll get me coat.

[ddrussianinja.livejournal.com]

Lollerskates.

[druidsfire.livejournal.com]

Don't mention Firefox around the Russians, they still want Craig Thomas to pay for writing those two novels. ;)

[peachtales.livejournal.com]

I recently saw "In Soviet Russia, Tart Pops You". That didn't make me laugh near as much as the caption on the picture, which read "Toster Pirog" (Toaster Pirogi, loosely translated).

[ericthemage.livejournal.com]

Will it become LJSpaceBook?

[mouser.livejournal.com]

Nah - FaceBook was the company that just sold LJ.

This is actually (guardedly) good news for us.

[lothie.livejournal.com]

http://lothie.livejournal.com/1079987.html

[emiofbrie.livejournal.com]

Error 403 Forbidden

[lothie.livejournal.com]

Oh sorry, Tom's on my flist.

In the blogosphere of America
There's a growing feeling of hysteria
Conditioned to respond with all our hearts
To the latest crap from Six Apart
Mr Alden says it's a positive move
Should we subscribe to his point of view
This is is such an annoying thing to do
I hope the Russians love their journals too

[mouser.livejournal.com]

They love LJ *more* actually.

[batyatoon]

... *cannot. stop. laughing.*

[lothie.livejournal.com]

*bow*

[darkwolf69.livejournal.com]

Funny. Just last night, I told lothie that "Een Rossia, LiveJournal sells YOU to Seex Apart!"

[blueeyedtigress.livejournal.com]

Honestly, Six Apart has perpetrated such quintessential Ass-Hattery upon the fanfic communities that I'm more than willing to give the new guys a chance -- whatever country they hail from.

Co-incidentally, just before the sale was announced, I pried open my PayPal-ish wallet and paid up my LJ for another year. I do not regret this action. ;]

[shockwave77598.livejournal.com]

Hooray!!! Best news I've heard this month!

Although it is a sad commentary on how far we've sunk in this country, when we look to the Russians to protect our Freedom of Speech.

[admnaismith.livejournal.com]

My thoughts exactly. What a country!

[bryanp.livejournal.com]

Interesting. I didn't realize how popular LJ was in Russia. The LJ of an acquaintance of mine who happens to be a Russian immigrant to the US does get an awful lot of comments in Russian, but I didn't really think much of it. I'll have to ask Oleg what he thinks of this.

[pandoradeloeste.livejournal.com]

Oh yeah. I was looking for communities on buildering (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buildering) and parkour and other urban exploration-type stuff and I can't read at least half of the communities because they're in Russian.

(Not quite true - in theory I can sound the words out, but I don't know what they mean. That's where one year of Russian in college gets me - just enough knowledge to be dangerous, not enough to be useful.)

[tesral.livejournal.com]

As long as they don't let the Vikings run it I'm good.

No Worries tesrai

[tcgtrf.livejournal.com]

Last I heard, Russians hated Vikings.

Haven't you ever seen Alexander Nevsky?

(Yes, I know those were Teutonic Knights, the same folks who had the crusade against my ancestors in Lietuva, but I couldn't resist.)

Tom

Re: No Worries tesrai

[tesral.livejournal.com]

Not those Vikings, those Vikings.

(Ahem) Spam, spam, spam, spam, spam, spam, spam, spam!

[nimitzbrood.livejournal.com]

I for one welcome our new Russian overlords!

*ahem* I too will get my hat... ;-)

That said if LJ goes down the tubes there's always InsaneJournal or other places. (I'm lucky enough to have my own webserver but others are not so lucky.) The web seems to have no shortage of places to go for posting journals or 'blogs. LJ just gave them a good central location that's been stable for a long time.

[unclelumpy.livejournal.com]

This calls for a song, wouldn't you say?

[admnaismith.livejournal.com]

Let's break out the babka and the Stolichnaya
Say goodbye to Six Apart
The CEO from Kvetchnya's a two-bit playa
(Let's hope they won't flag that part!)

LJ's in the USSR
Not sure how lucky we are, guys
Blog in the US, Blog in the US, Blog in the USSR!

[psandusky.livejournal.com]

Good news though it may be, it still reeks of intestinal refuse of male bovine origin. I started hooting when I saw this...

When SUP established a licensing agreement with Six Apart to run LiveJournal in Russia in October 2006 Andrew Paulson said at the time: "LiveJournal is a very important Russian social and cultural phenomenon; our first duty is to 'do no harm,' LiveJournal is the 'blogosphere' in Russia, and being the caretaker of this service is a great privilege and a huge responsibility."

'Cause, y'know, the lot of 'em have the Hippocratic Oath of the Blogosphere tattooed on their... nevermind. That they would have this much concern for the second greatest contingent of LJ users is... touching, but in a squicky, someone-needs-to-flag-that-news-post-just-for-fun kind of way.

LiveJournal, Inc has announced the formation of the LiveJournal Advisory Board, which will be comprised of both industry experts and members of the LiveJournal community. One of the key members of the Advisory Board will be LiveJournal's founder, Brad Fitzpatrick, who recently left Six Apart for Google. Positions will also be reserved for two members of the LiveJournal community on a rotating basis via an open online election process.

I just wanna sit in on day one. Nevermind the election... just let me sit in on the initial sitrep. Please? Pretty please with maalox on top?

[shadowcat48li.livejournal.com]

for some reason thinking about a song about LJ being sold to the russians, and the first thing that comes dancing through my brain are assorted parodies of Mongol Birthday

"May the Journal that you make... etc"

[nagasvoice.livejournal.com]

You guys may want to check out today's post by twistedchick, with links to various Russian folks writing in English who know SUP and some of *their* un-open behavior.
That's here:
http://twistedchick.livejournal.com/1574528.html
There's already been some fun hi-jinks with SUP folks getting into user accounts without permission.
morgandaw also discusses in technical detail various ways on migrating without losing touch completely, here:
http://morgandawn.livejournal.com/790219.html
Sigh.
The way this sale has been handled is as stooopid as 6A-ever.
Were they *trying* to break up their community?
It's such bad *business practice* to scare away half the fanbase like this.

[nagasvoice.livejournal.com]

Editing would be nice, right?
That's user morgandawn, BTW.

[starcat-jewel.livejournal.com]

I'm thinking that at least the Russians might not be so quick to ask "How high?" when the Christofascists say "Jump!"

[mythdude.livejournal.com]

Careful, comrade Smith, or I will report you to the People's Directorate for your counter party propaganda!

[batyatoon]

It seems like a counter would be a silly place to hold a party. We'd all keep falling off.

[mythdude.livejournal.com]

LOL

Well, be that as it may, a counter top is all the alloted space for the party! :P

[zibblsnrt.livejournal.com]

I particularly pity the Russian LJers. (Or the "Russian" ones; if I recall correctly when SUP was given management of a big chunk of LJ's accounts, they defined "Russian" as "living in the former USSR" among other things.)