LJ Rumours

[andrewducker]

There's a rumour going around that LJ is being bought out by the makers of Movable Type.

I rather hope not - and I doubt it - LJ's never been run as that kind of business and nothing Brad's said has made me think he wants to do so now.

Comments

[cruft.livejournal.com]

I hope not, too! If you know about it already, I should have thought it'd have been debunked somewhere if it's not true, but I don't know where to look. Not a peep in lj_biz.

[derumi.livejournal.com]

So far, just that one blogger has news on it. I dunno who his sources are, but I haven't heard back from anyone I know that might know. Probably a false alarm, though it would be interesting if my prediction came true.

[adders.livejournal.com]

Note that the blogger in question is a respected journalist who writes for Business 2.0. He might well have the inside track on this.

[adders.livejournal.com]

To be honest, it wouldn't worry me. I use both Movable Type and Typepad and find Six Apart a friendly, helpful and enthusiastic company.

[allorin.livejournal.com]

Well, it seems to have started in one place (that you linked to), and grown from there.

It highlights, though, one of the things that *really* pisses me off about the 'net these days - the complete lack of sources.

OK, he's 'breaking' a covered news story, and maybe doesn't want to reveal his exact source, but all he states is "I've learned..." No "from someone close to Six Apart" or "from someone close to Livejournal", or any kind of approximation on source accuracy. Leanred from where, exactly? His crystal ball?

It really annoys me that rumours like this can spiral on the 'net, whether they are accurate or not, without any sort of solid base to start from.

Worse, the first trackback comment on the entry you linked to states:

"Om Malik reports Six Apart will acquire Live Journal and the deal should close by the end of the month. WOW. Om has been correct in every scoop I have seen, so I consider this news very accurate"

But then doesn't actually mention a single other 'scoop' of Om Malik's that proves this statement.

I mean really - the internet is fast becoming unbearable to me, as it's now the province of people who can say what they like about whom they like, without any basis in fact, and it's taken as read.

By the way, I won 10 million pounds on the lottery over Christmas, but I gave it all away to the tsunami appeal....

[perceval.livejournal.com]

Don't be daft. You won 1 million, and half of that was used to pay for a great new sports car which you crashed the day you bought it.

[figg.livejournal.com]

From: http://www.livejournal.com/users/crschmidt/266754.html?thread=1250050#t1250050

There's a few things that lead me to believe otherwise:

1. My speculation 6 months ago that Brad would be getting out of the game soon to work on his own things.
2. Some rumblings from others more in the know than I am that this was the case.
3. The timing of the sites posting it: pretty much all at the same time, as if it was a predetermined time
4. LiveJournal administration telling support volunteers they shouldn't talk about it in the support IRC channel
5. At least two employees definitely being aware of it (unless they're blind) and not mentioning a thing in their post-announcement journal entries. (Typically, they'd scoff.)

4 and 5 are what gets to me the most.

[drainboy.livejournal.com]

You doubt it, but you're wrong

http://slashdot.org/articles/05/01/06/0631252.shtml?tid=95&tid=98&tid=1