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.

Sale to Six Apart

LiveJournal's parent company, Danga Interactive, was initially formed and held entirely by Fitzpatrick. However, as LiveJournal's popularity gained, Fitzpatrick was approached by many others to sell the popular journaling service. He initially resisted many of these offers, not wanting his pet project (which he has characterized as his "baby") in the hands of those who did not understand the site's core principles--reliance on paid memberships to fund site operations, the absence of advertising, the volunteer support model, and LiveJournal's support of the free software movement. Nonetheless, as the administrative aspect of LiveJournal began to consume more of Fitzpatrick's time, which he would have rather spent working on the site's technical workings, he began to take the acquisition offers more seriously.

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Finally, Fitzpatrick was approached by Ben and Mena Trott, co-founders of Six Apart, who gained his trust and seemed to understand LiveJournal's core principles. He felt that a sale to Six Apart would allow him to focus on technical aspects of the site, while Six Apart's usability and design expertise could improve LiveJournal. Six Apart was interested in buying Danga and LiveJournal to complement their other blogging products.

Related Topics:
Ben - Mena Trott

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Community reaction

Rumors of Danga's impending sale to Six Apart were first reported by Business 2.0 journalist Om Malik in his blog, on 4 January 2005.http://gigaom.com/2005/01/04/six-apart-to-buy-live-journal/ The rumor immediately spread, as users began to speculate (and some panic) about the prospect of the sale of LiveJournal's parent company.http://crschmidt.net/blog/archives/13/livejournal-to-be-bought-out-by-six-apart/ http://crschmidt.net/blog/archives/14/livejournal-and-sixapart-take-2/ http://slashdot.org/articles/05/01/05/1537257.shtml?tid=95&tid=98 http://www.livejournal.com/community/lj_maintenance/97600.html?thread=6418240 By the next evening, speculation of major changes, including a rumor that LiveJournal would require non-paying users to purchase memberships, had caused enough users to backup their journals to impact the site's performance.http://www.livejournal.com/community/lj_maintenance/99736.html A few hours later, Fitzpatrick confirmed the sale, and insisted the site's core principles would not be discarded by the new ownership.http://www.livejournal.com/users/news/82926.html He also stressed that he and other Danga employees would still continue to manage LiveJournal and that he had determined that Six Apart was committed to the site's core principles before selling.

Related Topics:
Business 2.0 - Journalist - Om Malik - 4 January - 2005 - Backup

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While the userbase was generally supportive of Fitzpatrick's decision, a few have questioned the deal, objecting to Six Apart's sale of proprietary software, or objecting to changes in LiveJournal's "Guiding Principles" document http://www.livejournal.com/users/fuzzie/133601.html. In addition, some users had developed a trust of Fitzpatrick, but felt that the sale of Danga to an outside company meant that Fitzpatrick was not ultimately in control of the site.

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Fitzpatrick's supporters offered rebuttals to many of these arguments.http://www.livejournal.com/users/evan/769381.html They noted that the bulk of the code running LiveJournal at the time of the acquisition would continue to be open source, as it was licensed under the GPL. Furthermore, it was noted, most of the changes to the "Social Contract"/"Guiding Principles" document were minor rewordings to prevent legal problems. (The document was never a binding legal contract.)

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Others argued that Fitzpatrick, as the sole owner of Danga Interactive, had every right to sell the site, without first consulting the users.

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Finally, Fitzpatrick himself noted he was growing tired of the administrative aspects of the site — to the point where he had contemplated shutting down the service — and "I knew I would've shut down the site on my own if I didn't get help."http://www.livejournal.com/users/evan/769381.html?thread=4897125#t4897125

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