The future of lj?

[brightly_lit]

So ... how are people feeling about this whole lj-servers-moving-to-Russia thing? I saw on the home page a lot of people were afraid lj would abruptly shut down without warning. Just in case that does happen, I made a dreamwidth account--brightly_lit, same as here--where I'd love to hook up again with you ladies if you make the switch, as well.

I started with lj (under a different name) way back in its heyday in the early part of the millenium. I remember reading in the TOS that your posts and comments would be saved on lj's servers "forever," and I thought, "How cool, to have this thing for posterity when that's so rare. I wonder how they can promise that? But oh well, I guess they wouldn't say it if it wasn't true." Then they sold the company, again and again, and of course it ended up being just words, another tome created and ultimately perhaps lost to time, but if this is the end, it sure was great while it lasted. And I think dreamwidth has a lot of potential (even if for some reason it seems to lack much interaction between users).

I guess personally I think it seems unlikely they'll shut us down without warning, but it seems likely that lj might change a lot, maybe not for the better. Better to be safe than sorry in terms of coming up with a backup plan, in any case, is my opinion. Also, apparently it's quite easy to transfer your whole lj to dreamwidth if you're so inclined. I'd love to hear everyone's thoughts on the whole business. I saw it discussed at length on the home page, but I don't think a single person on my friends page mentioned it, so it sounds like none of my friends here, at least are worried, so that's good.

Comments

[madebyme-x.livejournal.com]

I've been largely absent from LJ due to the holidays, but I've seen a couple of people on my flist mention this.

I would hate to lose touch with all my friends here if something drastic does happen to LJ (I have files of my fics, but no friend back up!) I really don't know much about dreamwidth but I like the idea of opening an account as a sort of friends back up. I think I'll have to look into opening an account and seeing how easy it is to download all my fics too.

I certainly hope nothing will change, and I haven't seen any of my flist say they are leaving (yet!), but it's not great to hear about people leaving the platform.

[cuddyclothes.livejournal.com]

The LJ servers have always been in Russia.

[septembers-coda.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I've noticed that my flist doesn't seem worried, either! Most of the posts and comments I've seen on this subject are elsewhere, and range from "the LJ sky is FALLING! Run to Dreamwidth as fast as you can!" to "they said LJ was over before, ignore them, Dreamwidth sucks". So who knows? But you're so right on "better safe than sorry," and as you've said before, LJ does get buggy at times and it seems like it's no one's priority to fix it... so when I get a minute, Imma make myself a Dreamwidth account and see about copying everything over.

I'm interested to see what others think about this... thanks for the PSA/poll. :-D

[emmatheslayer.livejournal.com]

Yeah I have herd a lot of lj Russia has been a hoax but it's always good to back up I don't know who will staying but I hope my flist does

Hugs I am on dw but have no post Same name as my lj

[ladygreytowers.livejournal.com]

I know the LJ servers have always been in Russia. I think IMO that people are just running scared and not thinking things through. What with the investigation about the election hacking and trump being trump. I don't have a dw account and I find it hard to believe that people in Russia are all that interested; in what we all get up to, in our fandoms and talking to each other about our favorite actors/actresses. Russia is not going to be getting any state secrets from any of these things. Also if they want to waste time reading LJ journal entries. Go for it! It will bore them to death as well as keeping them occupied and out of mischief!
Really can you imagine whole teams of people assigined to read every story and log entry ever made; to find out state secrets???? REALLY I MEAN REALLY. If LJ gets buggy again I might go make a dw account just as a back up but only for that reason. So I say lets flood the Russian servers with all kind of fandom and let them try to find any secrets in this. Love my flist! Not going anywhere anytime soon! Hugs to BL and to SC.

[rosalui.livejournal.com]

I had mostly the same reaction - backed all of my posts up on a private DW account, but don't plant to move/start posting there unless LJ properly starts experiencing problems.

So I guess I'll still be here, until I need to be there, lol. XD

[milly-gal.livejournal.com]

*taps fingers on her desk*

*sighs*

Excuse me bb if this comes out either punchy or a bit snippish, it is NOT pointed at you, I just...I know I can be honest here so here goes...

I'M NOT LEAVING! *Crosses arms and stomps her feet* I am not leaving, end of. The most I will do is open a new DW account just in case (I haven't had access to my DW for ages, can't find the email I used for it and no idea of the password).

*shakes head* I've lived her for nigh on 17 years now and I am not upping sticks and f*cking off to another platform. I understand that people are worried, I also understand that lj has been slowly getting less active for some, but my flist is booming and this is where I've hung my hat for what seems like EVER.

I have over 6,000 entries on this lj, I can't even contemplate porting all that over. Can you even imagine?

Russia may well wanna come poking about in my business but as I have yet to form a anti-fascist group which is dead set on over throwing Putin, I doubt very much they're gonna gain anything of interest from me. If they wanna nosey into my extensive porn collection, or see what a fangirl does with her time when she should be cleaning, or even use my artwork as an example of how not to be a good human being, so bloody be it, but what are they really going to get from us fangirls that they can use in their fight against freedom of speech?

*sighs again*

Sorry hun, I just *hands* I get so sick of hearing how this is the platform that's dying. Year YEARS I've been reading posts about it from every fandom I've been in and yet HERE WE ALL ARE STILL!

*Plants herself* Fine, I'll sit and bounce a tennis ball off the wall to keep myself occupied when everyone leaves but I am not going any where.

Obstinate Milly is in the house ;)

Dreamwidth: Pros and Cons

[ladyjane]

The only thing that worries me, given Russia's stance on LGBTQ people, is whether they will ban users or delete posts that go against their laws. I'm not sure what the laws on erotica are, so that could be an issue, as well.

I've been on Dreamwidth for some time now, and I haven't had any issues with it. A huge plus is that DW has ZERO advertising; it's funding comes entirely from user fees and donations. They have both paid and free accounts - the whole set-up is very similar to LJ's.

They also have an incredibly easy tool for importing from LJ -- and you can crosspost to & from LJ. The biggest drawback I've heard about is with photo storage. I've always kept my photos on Photobucket, so I don't know anything about their capability.

[saimans.livejournal.com]

Everything is fine. Fear has big eyes and ears.....

[septembers-coda.livejournal.com]

^ That's not creepy or anything...