"LiveJournal"
(often abbreviated LJ) is a virtual community where internet users can keep a blog, journal or diary. LiveJournal is also the name of the free and open source.server softwarethat was designed to run the LiveJournal virtual community. LiveJournal's differences from other blogging sites include its well-like features of a self-contained community and some socia networking features similar to other socialnetworking site.
LiveJournal was started in March 1999 byBrad Fitzpatrick as a way of keeping his high school friends updated on his activities. In January 2005, blogging software company six part purchased Danga interactive, the company that operated LiveJournal, from Fitzpatrick.
On December 2,2007, Six Apart announced it was selling LiveJournal to SUP, a Russian media company that had been licensing the LiveJournal brand and software for use in Russia. The new owners unveiled a plan to upgrade the service, engage with the LiveJournal community and launch new products for advertisers. This work would be undertaken by the newly formed American-based company LiveJournal, Inc.On january 6,2009, it was announced that LiveJournal had laid off a majority of their San Francisco-based employees and moved product development and design functions to Russia.
LiveJournal was started in March 1999 byBrad Fitzpatrick as a way of keeping his high school friends updated on his activities. In January 2005, blogging software company six part purchased Danga interactive, the company that operated LiveJournal, from Fitzpatrick.
On December 2,2007, Six Apart announced it was selling LiveJournal to SUP, a Russian media company that had been licensing the LiveJournal brand and software for use in Russia. The new owners unveiled a plan to upgrade the service, engage with the LiveJournal community and launch new products for advertisers. This work would be undertaken by the newly formed American-based company LiveJournal, Inc.On january 6,2009, it was announced that LiveJournal had laid off a majority of their San Francisco-based employees and moved product development and design functions to Russia.
The unit of social networking on LiveJournal is quatenary (with four possible states of connection between one user and another). Two users can have no relationship, they can list each other as friends mutually, or either can "friend" the other without reciprocation. On LiveJournal, "friend" is also used as a verb to describe listing someone as a friend.
The term "friend" on LiveJournal is mostly a technical term; however, because the term "friend" is emotionally loaded for many people, there have been discussions in such LiveJournal communities as lj dav and lj biz, as well as suggerstions about whether the term should be used in this way; this conflict is discussed in greater detail below.
A user's list of friends (friends list, often shortened to flist) will often include several communities and RSS feeds in addition to individual users. Generally, "friending" allows the friends of a user to read protected entries and causes the friends' entries to appear on the user's "friends page." Friends can also be grouped together in "friends groups," allowing for more complex behavior in both of these features.
The term "friend" on LiveJournal is mostly a technical term; however, because the term "friend" is emotionally loaded for many people, there have been discussions in such LiveJournal communities as lj dav and lj biz, as well as suggerstions about whether the term should be used in this way; this conflict is discussed in greater detail below.
A user's list of friends (friends list, often shortened to flist) will often include several communities and RSS feeds in addition to individual users. Generally, "friending" allows the friends of a user to read protected entries and causes the friends' entries to appear on the user's "friends page." Friends can also be grouped together in "friends groups," allowing for more complex behavior in both of these features.
As with most weblogs, people can comment on each other's journal entries and create a message board-style thread of comments – each comment can be replied to individually, starting a new thread. All users, including non-paying users, can set various options for comments: they can instruct the software to only accept comments from those on their friends list or block anonymous comments (meaning only LiveJournal users can comment on their posts). They can also screen various types of comments before they are displayed, or disable commenting entirely. Users can also have replies sent directly to their registered e-mail address.
In addition, LiveJournal acts as host to group journals, dubbed "communities" (frequently abbreviated as comms). Anyone who joins a community can make posts to it as they would on a regular journal; communities also have "maintainers", ordinary users who run the community and oversee membership and moderation.
Some areas of LiveJournal rely heavily on user contributions and volunteer efforts.[7] In particular, the LiveJournal Support area is run almost entirely by unpaid volunteers. Similarly, the website is translated into other languages by volunteers, although this effort is running down due to a perceived lack of involvement from the LiveJournal administration.
The development of the LiveJournal software has seen extensive volunteer involvement in the past. In Febuary and March 2003, there was even an effort, nicknamed the Bazaar, to boost volunteer performance by offering money in return for "wanted" enhancements or improvements. The Bazaar was intended to follow a regular monthly pay-out scheme, but it ended up paying out only once, after which it was neglected without a word from the management until about one year later when it was shut down.
Nowadays, voluntary contributions to the software are considered for inclusion less and less as the company has acquired more and more paid employees who focus on the organization's commercial interests. This has led to the formation of several forks, many of which introduce new features that users would like to see at LiveJournal, especially features that are brought up repeatedly in LiveJournal's own suggestions journal.
In some cases legal and administrative concerns have led LiveJournal to prohibit some people from volunteering.
In addition, LiveJournal acts as host to group journals, dubbed "communities" (frequently abbreviated as comms). Anyone who joins a community can make posts to it as they would on a regular journal; communities also have "maintainers", ordinary users who run the community and oversee membership and moderation.
Some areas of LiveJournal rely heavily on user contributions and volunteer efforts.[7] In particular, the LiveJournal Support area is run almost entirely by unpaid volunteers. Similarly, the website is translated into other languages by volunteers, although this effort is running down due to a perceived lack of involvement from the LiveJournal administration.
The development of the LiveJournal software has seen extensive volunteer involvement in the past. In Febuary and March 2003, there was even an effort, nicknamed the Bazaar, to boost volunteer performance by offering money in return for "wanted" enhancements or improvements. The Bazaar was intended to follow a regular monthly pay-out scheme, but it ended up paying out only once, after which it was neglected without a word from the management until about one year later when it was shut down.
Nowadays, voluntary contributions to the software are considered for inclusion less and less as the company has acquired more and more paid employees who focus on the organization's commercial interests. This has led to the formation of several forks, many of which introduce new features that users would like to see at LiveJournal, especially features that are brought up repeatedly in LiveJournal's own suggestions journal.
In some cases legal and administrative concerns have led LiveJournal to prohibit some people from volunteering.
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