LiveJournal

LiveJournal (often abbreviated LJ) is the name of a weblog site allowing Internet users to keep an online journal or diary. It is also the name of the open source server software that was designed to run it. LiveJournal's differences from other blogging sites include its WELL-like features of a self-contained community and some social networking features similar to Friendster.

Community

Demographics

As of late September 2005, over 8 million accounts had been created, of which almost 1.5 million had been updated at some point in the last 30 days http://www.livejournal.com/stats.bml. Of those users who provided their date of birth, the vast majority were in the 15-23 age group. Of those who specified a gender, more than two thirds were female. This is notable because most internet media are dominated by males.

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LiveJournal is most popular in English-speaking countries (although there is a language selection feature), and the United States has by far the most LiveJournal users among users who choose to list a location. There is also a sizable Russian contingent, as many Russians have turned to LiveJournal as their primary blogging engine. The following are rounded figures as of late September 2005 (based on the information listed by the users):

Related Topics:
English - United States - Russian

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• United States - 3,940,639
• Canada - 281,156
• United Kingdom - 224,683
• Russian Federation - 212,409
• Australia - 102,277

The following is a breakdown of United States users, by state, as of late September 2005

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• California - 887,721
• Florida - 557,431
• New York - 517,743
• Michigan - 426,485
• Texas - 381,209

User interaction

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 (commonly referred to as a "flist" or "f-list") or block anonymous comments (meaning only LiveJournal users can comment on their posts), cause new comments to be "screened" (that is, hidden until approved by the author of the entry), or not allow commenting at all. The user has the additional option to have replies sent directly to their registered e-mail address.

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In addition, LiveJournal acts as host to group discussion boards, or "communities," encompassing a myriad of subjects. (For example, there is a community dealing specifically with Wikipedia http://www.livejournal.com/community/wikipedians/.) Each community has one or more maintainers who have access to the options and settings of the community account.

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Some areas of LiveJournal rely heavily on user contributions and volunteer efforts http://www.livejournal.com/site/contributors.bml. 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 continually degrading due to widespread frustration. Many attribute this frustration to a certain lack of involvement of LiveJournal's management in issues and problems.

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The development of the LiveJournal software has seen extensive volunteer involvement in the past. In February 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 http://www.livejournal.com/community/lj_dev/493562.html. 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.

Related Topics:
February - March 2003

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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 (which is sometimes stereotyped to be superfluous because many regular readers feel that LiveJournal has stopped caring about ideas from users and implement only the development team's own ideas, particularly since the buyout by Six Apart).

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In some cases legal and administrative concerns have led LiveJournal to prohibit some people from volunteering.

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Notable users and journals

Certain LiveJournals have become famous throughout the years for their especially interesting content, including political commentary and anecdotal advice on subjects ranging from household care to aquariums, or because they belong to otherwise famous or accomplished people, including many well-known writers, graphic artists, mass media personalities, programmers, etc.

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Other LiveJournals have instead gained notoriety for the infamy of their owners. See, for example,

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• the LiveJournal of Rachelle Waterman, username smchyrocky, an Alaska teen who was arrested on November 19, 2004 for the alleged murder of her mother; her journal's final entry mentions her mother's death.
• the LiveJournal of John Dallas Lockhart, username ohbutyouwillpet, a 36-year-old lawyer who fled Ohio as he was about to be charged by the state with multiple counts of child molestation involving a four-month-old infant
• the LiveJournal of Jeff Weise, username weise, a high school student in Red Lake, Minnesota responsible for the Red Lake High School massacre.

The instances of LiveJournal having a wider impact on the outside world include

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• homeless_at_nyu. In 2004, the LiveJournal of homeless New York University (NYU) student Steve Stanzak gained nationwide attention. Stanzak had lived in the NYU library for 8 months, being unable to afford the expensive cost of housing, and chronicled his plight in his LiveJournal. His weblog ultimately caught the attention of the media and school board, who provided him with temporary free housing and increased his financial aid. http://www.nyunews.com/news/campus/7383.html
• ea_spouse. Another user who generated wide discussion was the still anonymous user known as ea spouse. This user created a journal solely to make claims about unethical and possibly illegal business practices in use at EA Games. In November of 2004, the truth of those claims was disputed for several days on such sites as Penny Arcade and Slashdot, until a little over a week later a still-pending class action lawsuit was launched against EA over back pay.
• interdictor. An internet company's crisis manager who witnessed Hurricane Katrina firsthand from a datacenter in the Central Business District of New Orleans and documented it in his blog, becoming famous virtually overnight.

Controversial or dramatic LiveJournal entries can quickly attract thousands of comments, as users are quickly alerted to noteworthy posts by the robust social network, or external sites such as Encyclopædia Dramatica or LJ Drama, which categorize and link to them.

Related Topics:
Encyclopædia Dramatica - LJ Drama

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Frank the Goat

Frank the Goat is LiveJournal's mascot. Frank is treated like an actual living being by much of the LiveJournal userbase, and his brief "biography" as well as his "journal" reflect this.

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Sometimes, callers to LiveJournal's PhonePost service are informed "Frank the Goat appreciates your call." This occurs randomly http://www.livejournal.com/users/news/75379.html?thread=10040435#t10040435.

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