LiveJournal has been sold

You've all probably seen this already on your Friends pages, but...

LiveJournal has been sold, this time to a Russian company.

Interesting. Hopefully this bodes well for LJ in the future.

More news, not necessarily good

From lj_2008:

LiveJournal Advisory Board will be a group of informed thought leaders from the global online community, who will advise the management and board of directors of LiveJournal in the development of the LiveJournal platform;

The LiveJournal Advisory Board will publish and update on a regular basis a clear a set of aims and values. This will address such vital community issues as privacy, security, taste and decency. It will also provide a forum to consider any relevant legal, political or religious concerns. It will also focus on access issues including usability, technology, interoperability, open source, social graph, and more. The LJ Advisory Board will also take responsibility for overseeing all ongoing charitable work;

LiveJournal Advisory Board will be available to provide guidance to the management and the board of directors to address new issues and controversies as they arise; on occasion the management will ask the LiveJournal Advisory Board formally to vet specific decisions;

LiveJournal Advisory Board will, in equal measure, represent the users, offering them a voice, a sounding board and a forum for addressing not only the users' role in LiveJournal, but also LiveJournal's role in the online world;

LiveJournal Advisory Board will take responsibility for overseeing all ongoing charitable work, which the existing LiveJournal management supports.

Is it just me, or does this sound like a really, really, REALLY bad idea? "It will also provide a forum to consider any relevant... religious concerns." To me, that sounds like it could well mean: "If you're not Christian, you're fucked."

So, to summarize the events of the day...

So, to summarize the events of the day...

1) LiveJournal stepped in a big stinking pile of dookie.

2) Not once, but twice. ("Gee, let's talk about forming a board that COULD be used for censorship purposes -- the users will just LOVE that!")

3) Oops! Make that three times! (The "drunk" mood tag was particularly ill-advised.)

I simply can't believe this. Just about every LiveJournal user heard from is screaming in outrage, and yet LiveJournal has not issued any statement geared toward addressing their concerns as voiced. It's like a bad joke, but somehow I don't think there's going to be a punchline.

Ah, wank! And there'll be plenty of fresh stuff tomorrow.