Comments on: 12 of 28 Employees Axed at LiveJournal: Start Backing Up Now

By: Ann Somerville

Ann Somerville — Fri, 09 Jan 2009 04:16:28 +0000

Early media reports seriously exaggerated the impact of the decision on the continued existence of LiveJournal as a company and misrepresented the scope of the staff cuts. The cuts were part of a restructuring that shifted global design and product development to the LiveJournal office in Moscow. Product decisions for the English-language site will still be made in the U.S., and LiveJournal Inc. remains headquartered in San Francisco. Well that's all right then [/sarcasm]

By: ジェーン(Jān)

ジェーン(Jān) — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 10:33:19 +0000

The most recent versions of ljarchive are now kept at sourceforge: LJarchive For Macs you can use Ljmigrate and tell it not to migrate so it just downloads a backup: Ljmigrate

By: Ann Somerville

Ann Somerville — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 09:54:53 +0000

This report says 12 employees represents about a fifth of the workforce, so it’s not as drastic as early reports indicated.

@Anion:
Are you a Mac or PC user? This is for Windows users:
http://brown-betty.livejournal.com/284083.html

Mac users can use Xjournal’s history feature to download their journal
http://community.livejournal.com/xjournal/

By: Angie

Angie — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 09:52:05 +0000

@14 Anion — I use ljArchive, which saves both posts and comments. Info and links are here. Particularly note Caveat 2, about how you have to have the .NET framework installed; do that first.

This is PC/Windows, BTW. I don’t have any info for Mac users.

Angie

By: Anion

Anion — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 09:47:35 +0000

Could someone provide a link or something to how to back up entries? My professional lj is mirrored on my site, but my old personal journal, which I kept throughout my second pregnancy and beyond… I’d really hate to lose that.

By: Jane

Jane — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 01:48:51 +0000

@Julia Sullivan: I thought it said 20 out of 28 this morning.

By: Julia Sullivan

Julia Sullivan — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 01:43:12 +0000

Yes, the “20 out of 28″ thing was pretty wack, and then correcting it without a disclaimer as they did made Gawker/Valleywag look like maroons.

By: SonomaLass

SonomaLass — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 00:02:36 +0000

The link says 12 of 28, which is less frightening than 20 of 28. But it is still scary for people who use LJ a lot. I’ve passed the warning along to those I know in that category.

By: Karin

Karin — Tue, 06 Jan 2009 23:20:12 +0000

Wow. This whole thing is rather odd. It makes me happy that I rarely ever went to LiveJournal.

By: Ann Somerville

Ann Somerville — Tue, 06 Jan 2009 22:34:57 +0000

Good thing I have mirror accounts on InsaneJournal.

Better to move away from LJ clones entirely. I’m ever so glad I set up my blog on my own site. Though I need to back up years of LJ entries – lot of memories there.

By: Emmy

Emmy — Tue, 06 Jan 2009 22:21:53 +0000

But it’s hard to pick through actual news vs the hysterical screaming of “ZOMG, this is my Only Social Interaction with the Universe!!1! If LJ goes Away, i shall has NO Friends!!!!”

By: Emmy

Emmy — Tue, 06 Jan 2009 22:17:03 +0000

This guy said his fiancee got fired with no notice whatsoever.

By: ジェーン(Jān)

ジェーン(Jān) — Tue, 06 Jan 2009 21:36:28 +0000

I know. I didn’t believe it until I saw the code (programming code that is). But my Eastern Block friends and especially my Russian friends keep telling me you can never be too paranoid about the Russian government or mafia.

Now I keep imagining the head of SUP with a white Persian cat on his lap. ;D

By: Cathy

Cathy — Tue, 06 Jan 2009 21:25:27 +0000

It seems LJ product will now be maintained out of Moscow. I am extremely uncomfortable with that. It long been speculated that the owner, who is close friends with Putin, wishes to shut down the Russian dissidents because one of the last remaining forums for them is LJ. It’s known that the Russians had secretly placed monitors on Russian journals to track activity, secretly until they were caught that is. Now they can do whatever they want with the software. I feel sorry for the Russian members.

This is really interesting. And, also, very weird. I feel like I just walked into a 50’s spy novel. I’m definitely going to start looking at alternatives for my blogging.

By: ジェーン(Jān)

ジェーン(Jān) — Tue, 06 Jan 2009 18:52:48 +0000

There's a press release now: http://livejournalinc.com/press_releases/20090106.php It seems LJ product will now be maintained out of Moscow. I am extremely uncomfortable with that. It long been speculated that the owner, who is close friends with Putin, wishes to shut down the Russian dissidents because one of the last remaining forums for them is LJ. It's known that the Russians had secretly placed monitors on Russian journals to track activity, secretly until they were caught that is. Now they can do whatever they want with the software. I feel sorry for the Russian members.

By: ジェーン(Jān)

ジェーン(Jān) — Tue, 06 Jan 2009 17:18:46 +0000

Well, hell. Good thing I have mirror accounts on InsaneJournal.

Emmy, can you share any of the LJs you’ve been reading? I have a couple of communities I maintain there and would like to keep a close watch.

By: Emmy

Emmy — Tue, 06 Jan 2009 15:45:56 +0000

I’ve read the journals of some of the people laid off…oddly, they’re still using LJ themselves…and it does seem to be a hot mess.

Interestingly, they just had a drive in December to sell paid lifetime memberships- for $175 a pop. Bet the people who actually laid out the cash weren’t expecting that “lifetime” to translate into “a few months”.

By: Angie

Angie — Tue, 06 Jan 2009 15:40:43 +0000

According to someone closer to the events than the Gawker, 13 employees are going and 17 are staying, so it's not quite the slaughter reported. That said, though, keeping back-ups is always a good idea, and there are some tools that make it fast and easy. (At least for Windows -- I don't know about the Mac side.) Angie