Don't drag the orchestra into this thing.

[reddragdiva]

My apologies for coming over all Chicken Licken. I got the discussion I was hoping for (technical discussion on how to implement separate blogs with friends lists, friends-only blog posts and that whole LJ as social life and way to get laid thing), but apparently it's been across LJ and back without people noting the bit in the linked post that says it's purely speculation, i.e. analyst wank. Sorry about that. Look at some of the linked response posts criticising the idea.

(redcountess and arkady both tapped me on the nose about this one. I didn't see fallout on my friends list, but Arkady sure did!)

I did think it was a serious enough threat to warrant discussion — Yahoo (and other companies) are known for buying things and cluelessly fucking them up, and we really have to solve the single point of failure problem in a way that's as technophobe-friendly as LJ. People who can't work computers can use LJ well. How do hundreds or thousands of individual blog sites run friends lists and friends-only posts as wonderfully easily as LJ with the user-friendliness of an appliance, so that people don't have to understand cryptography? (The dancing pigs problem — "given a choice between dancing pigs and security, users will pick dancing pigs every time.") It's a Hard One.

Nontechnical readers: you just need to know we're on the case so this last weekend of horror does not happen again and no-one needs to get a life or anything. Though in the middle future, not the near.

Comments

"given a choice between dancing pigs and security, users will pick dancing pigs every time."

[loosechanj.livejournal.com]

I prefer bouncing cows (http://www.jwz.org/xscreensaver/bouncingcow.jpg) myself.

[death4breakfast.livejournal.com]

*I* understood that.

Anyway, it's not playing Chicken Little when they sky *could* fall, even if the odds are currently against it. Particularly when they've just gotten considerably *less* against it.

(As they just have with the possibility of LJ being acquired by clueless dot.com fuckwits.)

It is however human nature to get pissed at people who point out potential problems and risks, this being so much easier than actually making contingency plans.

[lothie.livejournal.com]

Listen, I'll still do ya.

[reddragdiva]

I look good in PVC too ;-D

[lothie.livejournal.com]

I'll be right over!

Well, in a couple weeks.

[poggs.livejournal.com]

Visions, yes.
Wild and crazy fear-ideas for the future, no.

Our lives will adapt at just about the right speed for us to think those younger than us are whizzkids, and get told by those older "I remember the days of Betamax..."

Nothing will be too wow for long. Nearly everyone has a mobile phone now, but ten years ago they were significantly less common. Many of us have broadband at up to 2Mb, but even five years ago, 2Mb cost £25k and I thought that 24kb/sec from work was fast.

So, if LJ sell out to Yahoo, many will stay, a few will go, and it'll change its market. We will then go and find something else to do for the next four years that hasn't been bought out, and the cycle repeats.

Oh, and Microsoft will offer a blog that will have an irritating community of stupid users.

[reddragdiva]

I'm sure whatever follows will also reimplement Usenet, poorly.

(Is there web board software anywhere that doesn't fit that description?)

[phelyan.livejournal.com]

Meh. Post, but never apologise for what you post.

[reddragdiva]

Well, I should have made it clear it was analyst wank, not anything actually in progress.