Spreading The Rumour ...

[coalescent]

Six Apart to buy livejournal?

Folks have been predicting a big year for mergers and acquisitions in 2005, and we are starting the year with a bang. I have learnt exclusively that Six Apart, the parent company behind hosted blogging service TypePad, and Moveable Type is about to acquire Live Journal, for an undisclosed amount. The deal is a mix of stock and cash, and could be announced sometime later this month, according to those close to the two companies. If the deal goes through, then Six Apart will become one of the largest weblog companies in the world, with nearly 6.5 million users. It also gives the company a very fighting chance against Google’s Blogger and Microsoft’s MSN Spaces.

I don't know much about Six Apart; neither do I know much about Om Malik, except that people seem to think he's a reliable source. Interesting musings elsewhere:

My biggest concern is that a merger will stunt the cultural growth on LiveJournal that makes it so fascinating. My second concern is that Six Apart will not be prepared to deal with the userbase and will initiate practices that are more detrimental because of fear. [For example, what's the best way to handle an LJ community dedicated to cutters trying to outdo each other via images?] It takes a resistance-based culture to support a community of resisters and Six Apart is by no means a resistance-minded company. My third concern is that LiveJournal will shift because of investor value. It's already compared to blogging, but as its own entity, it doesn't have to be evaluated on those terms. If bought by Six Apart, i'm concerned that SA's investors will evaluate it on SA blogging's terms instead of in terms of LJ. My fourth concern is that fear of control will limit the evolving identity production/consumption that makes LiveJournal so valuable for youth and marginalized populations. It's already far too public for more people, but easy access to LJ from MT/Typepad could be a disaster for many LJers.

Do you think a merger such as this would affect how you see and/or use LJ?

EDIT: Another source says the acquisition will be 'announced on thursday'. So that'd be tomorrow, then.

SON OF EDIT: There is is. Comment at plastic bag.

Comments

[sbisson.livejournal.com]

No change for me. But then, I tend to use LJ as a host for my blog, and as an aggregator of of other blogs on the site...

[coalescent.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I think I'm pretty atypical in the way too. I do value the community aspects, but they're not the be-all and end-all for me.

[ninebelow.livejournal.com]

An interesting thread on MetaFilter. Here's the comment that I take from it:

I see no advantage whatsoever to Six Apart buying up a huge customer base, unless it plans to become an advertising broker instead of a blog software company.

[coalescent.livejournal.com]

This person appears convinced that it's going to happen. I have no idea who they are, other than that he does support (tinyjo, anyone you know?)

[crschmidt.livejournal.com]

Did. They kicked me out in June/July for "Breach of trust" bullshit.

I don't know much more than most people, but I do have some external people telling me this isn't a new thing.

[tizzle-b.livejournal.com]

Started to spring up on the last news post - half way down here - in comments by users.
No official word yet.

[coalescent.livejournal.com]

Thanks. As long as we're collecting links: thread on livejournal_uk.

[swisstone.livejournal.com]

No official word yet.

In fairness, the story doesn't seem to have broken on LJ until about 1 AM Portland time. So I wouldn't expect official word until the folks on the Pacific Coast wake up in about four hours' time. But I guess there will have to be an official comment soon after that.

[ex-susumu64.livejournal.com]

I dunno. I don't know much about Typepad either except for that it's a version of Moveable Type that you pay for and someone else looks after it.

The main reason I started using Livejournal was that loads of people I know had one and it seemed like a good way to keep up with what they were talking about. I got more into it, and then I gave them some money. That doesn't seem to be an option with Typepad, where you give them money and then see if you like it.

As long as I can continue to use whatever the service turns into in a very similar way to it works now, I don't really mind. I can totally see how it will, like, really piss off all the kids, though. They fear change. Especially the emo ones.

[snowking.livejournal.com]

Well, it's hard to say how something so nebulous and vague will affect LJ. It could be Six Apart vastly change everything, cease development of the codebase and new features, put in advertising and roll over for anyone with a complaint an account. Then again, they might just keep LJ going on as it has. Both seem unlikely as I'd hope they're not stupid enough to do the former and suspect they won't be smart enough to do the latter.

[pnh.livejournal.com]

I have to say that, even in their current, larger and more corporate incarnation, Six Apart makes a pretty poor example of The Man.

Even the great Movable Type 3.0 licensing clusterfuck of last year ultimately showed them to be pretty good eggs. They dealt with it by recognizing they'd made a huge mistake, apologizing to their users, and changing course. Most importantly, they talked about it in human-being language, rather than corporate mushspeak. I don't agree with their every decision or priority, but I will forgive a lot for people who talk to their customers like, you know, people.

[tefkas.livejournal.com]

Well, when I signed up for LJ, I was pretty certain I was promised no advertising, ever, and that I would never be forced to be a paid user.

I like LJ, I like the concept, I like the fact that it's open source, and I like the fact that the LJ team try to keep us abreast of what's happening technically and so on. So yes, I'm a paid user of a service I could get for free.

If Six Apart eihter introduce ads, or if the commercial aspect of the thing is pushed harder, then I may have to depart to waters new, although I really don't want to, because all my friends are here.

My LJ is a personal LJ, and I don't really go in for the communities that much (although I have a few): I'm hoping that the sale will be more or less meaningless to us as end users, but who knows.

Currently LJ is open source. If things get intolerable, I'm certain someone will take the existing wheel and set it up somewhere else for the disaffected to migrate to.

[xsabx.livejournal.com]

If things get intolerable, I'm certain someone will take the existing wheel and set it up somewhere else for the disaffected to migrate to.

Which would, after it becomes large and popular, no doubt be bought up by the Next Big Player. Ladies and Gentlemen, welcome to The World of Business.

Yes, we'd all love a world without advertising, but the fact remains that it's still one of the best ways to make money. If BSkyB succeed and manage to patent their ad-free TV technology, that might change (at least in the UK) or at least evolve, but until then I don't see it as a big issue. However, if these people do buy LJ out and start enforcing censorship or any cramping of free speech, my attitude would change pretty damn fast.

[(Anonymous)]

the cultural growth on LiveJournal

LJ != cultural.

It's already compared to blogging

LJ = blogging.

zephoria = lose.

-- tom

[coalescent.livejournal.com]

Danah Boyd, aka Zephoria, now has a piece up at Salon:

It is the intimacy of friends, family and people-like-me that LiveJournal has fostered. When Six Apart bought LiveJournal, it did not simply purchase a tool -- it bought a culture. LJ challenges a lot of assumptions about blogging, and its users have different needs. They typically value communication and identity development over publishing and reaching mass audiences. The culture is a vast array of intimate groups, many of whom want that intimacy preserved. LiveJournal is not a lowbrow version of blogging; it is a practice with different values and needs, focused far more on social solidarity, cultural work and support than the typical blog. It is heavily female, young and resistant. There is no doubt that Six Apart values this, and it should. But at the same time, the act of purchasing someone's house does require responsibility if you want to do right by the tenants, even when those tenants look nothing like any other tenants you have ever seen.

The freaks, geeks and queers need LiveJournal now more than ever before -- they need the safety net that will help them find grounding. My hope is that Six Apart will learn from LiveJournal and treat LJers with nonpatronizing respect. In essence, the company must first value the social contract and culture that are LiveJournal and then let LiveJournal teach it how to make those better.

Some of that is truthful, but still: I'm more worried about being patronized by her than by Six Apart, I think.

[ninebelow.livejournal.com]

What it really menas.

[(Anonymous)]

Extra prison! SUPER DOUBLE SECRET PRISON!!!

-- tom