Before MySpace and Facebook, LiveJournal was the first convenient, fun network to keep in touch with your friends. We would document our lives in a journal and comment on each other’s entries daily. For many years LJ was the place to meet new people, express yourself creatively, even market a small businesses. And then something happened. LiveJournal became dead journal; posting in it was like screaming in a desert – no one will hear or care.
My sister wrote a piece about her personal experience on LiveJournal – why she started it, how it came to an end, and what the future holds. I just had to share.
Written by Kat V.
In an effort to show courtesy to my fellow LJ-ers, I went through my friends list and read their journals. I discovered that most had stopped posting regularly around 2006, which incidentally is about the same time I stopped caring for LJ too. The reason for this massive abandonment of a previously popular internet destination is Facebook. Like MySpace, LJ is suffering a slow and painful death. It is essentially a stabbed, bleeding half-corpse. “It’s like a superhero that’s been shot in the back and lunges forward, without realizing it,” one of the commenters evokes.
Some users, like me, still cling on for lack of motivation to start a new blog or maybe due to some nostalgic attachment to LJ. But in general, nobody cares for other people’s whining, especially when it’s laid out poorly and lacks pretty pictures. Nowadays, the preferred blogging platforms are Blogspot and WordPress, which have a cleaner, prettier layout. LJ is actually celebrating its 10th anniversary in April of this year. This means they’ve been around since 1999 – that’s before the millennium! They’re actually putting together a book with some highlights from LJ’s existence. I suppose what makes LJ different from Blogspot and the rest is that there are many communities, which I never took part of (and the one I did join, City Life, filled my friends page with gigantic photos of cities throughout the world).
Content wise, good blogs nowadays are rarely about the self. They usually entail some personal experience but try to reach out to a bigger audience with topics other than the blogger’s personal life. So I am now questioning the quality of my blog – or, rather, a journal. It was never meant to be entertaining. It was started when I was 18, and thus documented a good portion of my life and a good chunk of teenage idiocy. Now I’m wondering whether I should write a real blog that would be interesting to other people, not just me.
I went ahead and enabled anonymous commenting on my LJ. Maybe that’s what was preventing thousands of readers of brilliant and entertaining kat in the hat from leaving their mark? I changed the status of many entries from “friends only” to “public” because I realize that virtually none of my friends have LJ accounts, making “friends only” as good as “private”. I tried to remove most identifying content though, especially the kind that could embarrass The Company.
P.S. A friend of mine recently mentioned the word “Web log” a couple of times. I was very surprised to hear it. Most people have already forgotten that obsolete term.
Deerlings: what is your favorite social networking site today? Why?
I read your sisters article a few days ago, and it really touched me. I still Like LJ and even post there occasionally. Facebook is ok, but I only really use it to look at pictures of a few friends, and occasionally contact people. So my choice is still LJ and has been so since about 2001.
I liked LJ when i very breifly tried it. Easyer to have actual conversations on than blogspot and communities can be usefull to find stuff you might be interested in.
I think Blogspot basically wins over with its more professional looking layout, with pages having the feel of a personal website rather than social networking.
Though not as regular as it used to be, I’d say that most of my friends’ list still updates fairly regularly. However, due to the relationships I have on there, I find that my level of posting, the type of posts I make, has changed vastly since I moved to Bloomington.
I like to think that Livejournal still has a niche among the blogs, because it is a place that is still an online diary, as opposed to being a niched blog like so many are on Blogger & WordPress. However, it doesn’t seem to have the flexibility and manueverability that the others do in regards to networking, communicating, etc.
I’ve been in LJ for years but I never really used it as a network, only as a blog. I watched 2-3 people’s blogs that I knew that were on LJ and they are all there, doing their thing, just as I am! :)
But may favorite network must be Facebook. It really is something I feel EVERYBODY has, even my aunt’s that are 60 years old! (I’m not even sure I want that). Twitter hasn’t really reached Iceland yet but I have been using it a bit. Facebook seems to have everything I need to follow my friends and relatives life’s. And sometimes it’s a bit TOO MUCH information but I think it’s like an addiction. I check Facebook so often a day I should get my own life and stop watching some other people’s lifes! :D
But I’ll keep on blogging on my LJ blog because I’ve pretty much been doing it for 5 years or more and I’ll keep on loving and caring for it :)
Livejournal is my vice. I can’t abandon it.
I’m sad you won’t be posting in LJ anymore. That’s how I follow your updates :( I have a lot of friends who use LJ, and I wouldn’t consider it obsolete myself.
Things like twitter/microblogging, and sites like facebook have just led to the same information about people’s lives existing in smaller pieces. I guess I also still like LJ because I enjoy reading longer pieces of writing, not just a sentence. I like to hear the stories in peoples own words.
The reason I’m not on wordpress or blogger is because as far as I’m aware you can’t have a friends list like LJ on those sites. At least on LJ if you have a friend with a wordpress blog you can syndicate it and still read. So, sorry to see you leave LJ, but best of luck.
I find Lj is the only blog/networking site that keeps my attention. Myspace/facebook have always been too advertising centered and tend to attract more in the way of creepy commentary.
I like how it allows me to keep up with the daily thoughts of my loved ones across the country, even when it’s whining.
It also allows me to document my life, privately or publicly as the mood strikes, and share myself with my friends in an easy to use way.
It has a much more versatile interface. Facebook and myspace always seemed more photo oriented. With Lj one can post polls, photos, and text with ease all in one post if desired.
I’m sad to hear you won’t be updating your feed on lj anymore. this means I will not get around to reading it as much as it will no longer feed into my lj but require that I check your blog specifically, which is much less convenient than it being fed into my friends/communities list.
I’ve been on LiveJournal for 5 years now, and yes my interest in updating my own wanes, (that is instead of 4x weekly updates I’d update 4x per month) with no plans to leave.
Your blog is possibly the only one I actually view. The reason I suppose because I remember you from Thunderpants (is that the name?) days even pre-lj (for me as I discovered you, and the other originals, on eBay). I think the lbg scene is one of the reasons I went to lj (althout it was a year before I made an account as my home pc at the time loathed lj).
I don’t like blogs for the reasons others do. The universal message and appeal. I don’t care. I like to know what makes people tick. What’s made them happy and why they’ve cried.
For that, so long as my friends (many of which I know irl) remain on lj, so will I. As for those who’ve left, I miss them and their lives.
Facebook is a snapshop of that moment, twitter too. LJ is the whole story, imperfections, typos and all.
I’ve only ever had a livejournal. This is partially because that was what I was introduced to first, and partially because there are too many bad people from my past that might find me anywhere else. This isn’t to say that I don’t like the other options out there, just, I don’t want to be found by those people.
I think, ultimately, go with what you feel works best for you. To each their own, and all that.
Big Facebook fan…easy to use, clean. Used to love MySpace, but I feel like it’s less “professional” than Facebook, though I’m guessing that’s just good marketing on FB’s part.
I heart Twitter, but never use it enough.
As far as blog engines go, I’ve used both Blogspot and WordPress and am now a HUGE fan of Squarespace, where I now host several of my blogs. It’s not free like Blogspot or WordPress, but it’s very, very inexpensive and does EVERYTHING for you, including all your tracking, charting, memberships, has forum and photojournal capabilities…pretty much everything but bringing you your coffee and bourbon in the morning.
Once upon a time, I tried getting into using LJ, but it never worked. For some reason, it never really appealed to me, outside of their immense collection of different communities. When I first tried using LJ, I was a daily user of MyOwnJournal (now who’s heard of that?). Overtime, my use of MOJ faded and I started using mySpace. Now, I currently blog on mySpace and deviantart consistently, and randomly on Blogger. I have to say, however, that LJ-Cuts are the most magnificent thing in the world. If any other site that featured blogging in it’s options would crate an adaptation of the LJ-Cut I would be in love!
I’ve been on LJ since 2002 I believe, but I started using it more regularly the summer of 2003 right after I graduated from high school. I quickly reconnected with a few friends that I had almost forgotten about from rock band message boards I used to frequent. I kept a record of meeting my now husband, the times we used to hang out, when we finally got together, moving in together, getting married and our life up until now (almost our 2 year anniversary).
I use LJ to keep in touch with those same friends from the message boards and new ones. I would not have started my online art magazine (see my website link) without LJ’s vast catalogue of artists sharing their work. I spend ages in the communities.
I think the communities are really what has changed livejournal the most. When I first started posting on there it was all about my life, my problems, those dreadful (but addicting) memes, and keeping in contact with a few people. I’ve tried getting my “real life” friends to join and participate, but I think it takes a specific type of person to record their thoughts on livejournal. I love that it’s more private as there are people on the web I am trying to avoid.
However, I got tired of using the site just to complain about my life. Everyone gets tired of that at some point. My shift in focus with the site changed when one of my friends pointed out an interior design community to me called SaucyDwellings (http://community.livejournal.com/saucydwellings/) the homes were amazing to say the least and it awakened a passion in me to see more interesting things that people had to say outside of their normal journals. Now I’m a watching almost 80 different communities, some don’t post very often but when they do it’s incredibly worth it.
I’ve gained all the makeup skills that I have from the makeup communities that Doe started posting her tutorials in, I’ve found out important information on the ins and outs of dying my hair pink, discovered my favorite notebooks (Moleskine), some of my favorite pens, new books, movies, etc.
For me there isn’t another social networking site that could replace LJ. I’ve tried. I don’t understand Facebook or it’s appeal, I hate Myspace and it’s overly cluttered pages and it’s habit for giving away too much information (this person last logged in… I don’t want people to know that), Blogspot doesn’t appeal to me whatsoever, Typepad does nothing for me, Vox seems foreign though that is probably where I would go if livejournal disappeared one day. I love my wordpress run sites, but there’s just something very appealing to me about having such a private and public world online like livejournal.
That was a little longer than I expected. :)
I’ve never been in Livejournal, but I did have a Xanga, hahaha.
My favorites would have to be Facebook or my blog.
I don’t think Livejournal is becoming obsolete at all, all of the blogs/communities I watch on it update very regularly, I sometimes have problems keeping up. I don’t think it’s fair to compare Livejournal to Myspace or Facebook, because it’s a different animal altogether. Livejournal is centered around the content of people’s posts, not what music you like or what you look like. I honestly don’t view it as a ‘social networking’ site at all, more of a place to gather information and help others out.
I’ve been using LJ for about 8 years now, with no plans of abandonment. I like that I know exactly who is reading, unlike Facebook where everyone just adds you. I can control who can see what if needed. Almost no entries are public and I like it that way!
I get sad when a lot of my friends abandon it. Many don’t post as much as they once did. I think part of it is that we’re older now and have way less free time than we did in college. I still love LJ and it will be the only time I ever “blog”, not that I even consider it one. I like that I can read what I was doing 5 years ago on this date. I guess maybe that’s the difference. LJ is mostly people that blog for themselves and a few friends- not the world.
Aww, I definitely remember your LiveJournal! I loved it.
I was never really a LiveJournal person. I’ve used Xanga since 2004 and still actively use it even though I know only five other people who use it. But I can’t bring myself to ever stop posting on it. I don’t post on it to entertain anybody, I just use it as my own personal journal where I can look back and see how much I’ve changed. It’s set to private and only close friends can view it.
I’m on all the social networks today though which are broadcast to the world. I’m in Tumblr, Twitter, Facebook, MySpace [which is where I first discovered LimeCrime], Flickr, DeviantArt… everything.
I started my LJ in 2001 and I still use it. A lot of my friends do as well. However I do like to keep my life semi- private so my journal is friends only and has been for years. My facebook and myspace profiles are as well. I do this mainly for work purposes. I dont’ need people at work knowing what I do in my private life. And I actually know quite a few people (like teachers for instance) who oppose their teachers to have myspace accounts. I still like live journal. It’s a good distraction from work and it helps me to keep in touch with friends. Facebook is also good but most people don’t post blogs on there. Myspace I tend to check less and less. It’s more annoying then anything.
What I wanna know is… What’s up with Twitter? Has anyone tried it? To me, it seems like it’s just Facebook status updates and that’s it… Seems pointless. I don’t really want to know what people are doing every second of the day – nor do I care. I post in LJ maybe once every 8 months or so, but I regularly log on to read other blogs of LJ “friends.”
I actually still use LJ regularly. I got on there mostly for the excellent J-culture communities there, like egl and versaillesfans, that are still quite alive and kicking. :)
Reading this post made me really sad, but then I read the comments and felt better when I realized that there are still quite a few people out there who feel the same way I do about Livejournal. I’ve had mine for 7 years and don’t plan on closing it any time soon–not just because of nostalgic attachment, but also because, like others here, I’m interested in people’s lives. Most of my online friends are still there, and LJ is also how I found you, you lovely thing. I’m disappointed you won’t be on it anymore, as I don’t really have time to check individual blogs that aren’t on my LJ friends list.
I don’t know where you’ve been, but LJ is quite alive and well!
You can’t just expect people to read your journal unless you’re active, friend people yourself, and care. LJ is about friends and communities, not so much blogging for a commercial audience, so to speak.
I love LJ. I have lots of friends on there that I genuinely care about, and that’s why I read their journals.
If I ever wanted to open a blog more like this one, with less about my personal life and feelings and more writing on topics, etc, LJ wouldn’t be the platform to due it.
I only use facebook now but I do feel a little sad about lj. I started using it at about 14 and met some amazing people on it.
Also, I met a boy I was ~*~in love~*~ with on livejournal (he wasn’t interested ’cause I was you know, a minor and lived on the other side of the world) but I kept bumping into him online, on myspace and most recently on facebook and this month he came to israel to visit me after having “met” 6 years ago on livejournal. So yeah, lj will always have a special place in my heart. ;_; lol
not gonna lie, i still love LJ! Blogspot has always confused me and i love joining communities to join for inspiration or just to escape my regular life. (:
Well I absolutely hated facebook when I tried it. But then all my friends got it, and it got some fun applications so I started using it..
So I use facebook and myspace here and there, but myspace just got boring..
Facebook. It’s cleaner cut than Myspace. Nothing flashing or glittering or blinking or shouting or popping at you. Now don’t get me wrong, I’m all for glitter, but not when I’m trying to quickly and efficiently navigate the small chuck of interweb that is Myspace.
I had my spot of LJ, and I loved it. One of my friends actually documented her attempt at a Polyphasic Sleep Schedule on there. Fascinating stuff.
Noo you cant leave the lj world!! I keep up with you through livejournal. Whenever I mention livejournal in public everyones first reaction is “is that place STILL alive?” My best friend and I still keep up with it, honestly the communities provide a lot for me, I am hooked up with ones relating to my job (starbucks), makeup (How i ran into doedeere), photography, and music.
That was a fantastic post… although it also served as a kind of sad reminder that since Myspace and Facebook came along allowing us to bask in the glory that is us, we’re all so self-centred we couldn’t be bothered to continue frequenting sites like Livejournal. We used to visit people’s sites to see what they’d been up too… now we sign into our “social networking” site to see if anyone has commented on something we posted or added the pictures they took of us at some party, the whole while complaining about all the junk we have to wade through that people posted about their personal lives. I shall admit, I did become a part of the Facebook craze and am still an active user.
I have a web-log on blogspot and have joined and quite like the BlogCatalog community, but I haven’t been posting much at all… it doesn’t seem to be one of my priorities (even though I keep promising myself & my readers to start posting regularly again).
I fantasise sometimes about completely abandoning Facebook and any other non-blogging social-networking site, but I am realistic enough to realise it’s now a part of my life.
for me livejournal is still an integral part of my web experience. I’m a part of several communities who actively post, and it is also one of the only places I can say whatever and my mom won’t read it. hahah. (my 50 year old mother has a facebook)
I love livejournal and will continue to use it.
That was a great read! I started journaling on the internet on personal websites when owning a website was a terribly geeky hobby. Everyone had a domain and was using blogger for the most part. Eventually, I started using livejournal in 2001 and we all migrated over. Now I have my own website again for the first time in years, kind of in flux between a personal website and the wider appeal of “blogs”.
I still like livejournal, I’ve actually seen an increase in usage from my perspective. I keep it as a private journal for my real life friends to read – and then anyone else who wants to.
I think the problem with livejournal, is that some people have really boring lives. It’s not like that on mine!
Livejournal, I look forward to going to my friend’s list and seeing all the updates from all of the communities I am in and friends I have. As far as I know LJ is the only one with the community system and I love some of the communities I am in such as What I Wore Today, SaucyDwellings, A Day In My Life, Lomography, What’s in my Purse, etc. Facebook only keeps my attention for about 3 minutes, and myspace even less. I would rather read about my closest friends days in length then a million random facts about nearly strangers.
Sad that you are leaving LJ..
I used livejournal for a while, but I was (and still am) using diaryland for much the same purpose. I’ve never used myspace or facebook… So my most major social networking site is flickr!
I was on LJ for about 5 years, during which time I think I changed my journal once and had about 4 re-names. I thoroughly enjoyed it for the most part, but I left (around November of last year) due to the fact that if I did not post pictures, no one seemed to comment. I don’t really know what it was, but due to that fact my motivation to post even the slightest snippet from my life was lost. I didn’t care to share because no one was really listening. I still use my account mind, for community purposes. I still love the body mod communities and Oh No They Didn’t (epic comm). And there are still a couple of dailies I check up on – amazing people that I met and can’t seem to let go (although I have them on Facebook as well!). I don’t write there any more though and probably never will. No one I new RL used LJ so I never really compared FB to LJ, they where both different in my eyes. But I do love my FB, it’s a wicked way to keep in touch with old school mates and even family these days! I always get the odd ‘itch’ to start writing in my journal again, which is probably why I haven’t deactivated my account yet, but I doubt the motivation to post will stick. It’s changed a little too much I think.
I started way back on Xanga, and then went to Livejournal briefly for about a week before figuring out that most people in my “clique” were on Greatestjournal. I kept a journal there for about 2.5 years, and I still hold that some of my best writing lurks there. But its unfortunate, all of those sites died once Myspace, Blogspot and Facebook become dominant forces. I sometimes still log into my journal to see what my friends are up to, but their journals have long since been empty of new posts. Its sad. I feel detached from their lives.
I love livejournal! I created a feed of this blog (deereblogazine is the username) that automatically updates my friends list when you post, so even if you stop posting on Lj (I didn’t know you did actually except in makeuptutorials) other Lj folks like me can stay updated.
I still love LJ most of all. I don’t have to know a person in real life, I can only be interested in him/her if there’s interesting content. I don’t like Facebook with all the stupid gifts there and so on.
I still believe in LJ as a place to express yourself.
LJ is by no means dead… What is great about it is the communities, which you don’t really get on the others… Not as developped anyway.
Facebook is good to find people and look at pictures.
Myspace is dying, but is still a good place to find bands and info about them.
This entry doesn’t say that Doe will stop posting on LJ.
But she said so on LiveJournal. That she had made her last entry and linked to this entry.
LiveJournal, definitely! The only thing I don’t like about it is the friends-only state in which I feel we’re pushed to be, and that it’s never considered a blog, just a journal, and you can never get a big amount of comments just posting personal stuff.
I’m a pretty active LJ-user, I’m in lots of communities and the people on my f-list all post regularly. I can’t really say that I feel it’s slowly dying, actually..
I use facebook often as well, but I see it more as an addition to LJ, instead of a replacement.
I actually found you (Xenia) on livejournal a lonnggg time ago. And oddly enough, I STARTED with a blogspot blog, and moved on to livejournal in early 2000 and now I find myself looking back to blogspot. I still use livejournal, but mainly for the community aspect and nothing else.
I don’t care for facebook except for finding people, it’s too cluttered and messy, and myspace is slowing down but it’s still one of my favorites.
I guess overall, I can’t find a favorite, solid networking site for now.
Am I the only one who uses LJ as an actual journal and not for social reasons or as a completely public blog whose purpose is to attract comments and discussions? I do make some public entries and I have some regular commenters, but most of my entries make use of the wonderful ‘completely private’ setting. In fact, my entire diary of over 8 years is on there.
For social networking, I’m completely into Facebook these days. I still have a Myspace but I don’t use it.
Facebook is cool, i like it because the only people on my list are people i actually know, no strangers, so it makes it fun for me and trusting, but i’m barley on it…i’m more of a polywhore…LOLOLOL!
It’s good to meet people from all over the world and still be creative.
I still use LJ and it’s probably the website I visit most.
LJ is a platform if you’re looking to share your feelings, life, etc, in a close knit community. There are some awesome friends to meet on LJ and get to know about.
If you’re looking for a lot of readers then no, LJ isn’t your platform. LJ is about friendship and reading about people you care about. Or it’s a personal thing.
If I made another blog targeted at a more commercial audience, I wouldn’t use Livejournal as a platform because that’s just not it’s purpose.
But by no means is LJ dead. It’s only dead if you stand by waiting for readers without reaching out and being a friend.
I might be wrong, but I believe The Open Diary came before Livejournal. They used to have a subsite called Teen Open Diary, which is where I blogged, networked with friends and commented on entries during my early years on the internet. Eventually I found out about Livejournal (it was still in the friend code phase, where you needed an invite to join) and blogged on both before I outgrew Teen Open Diary, which folded a few years ago – there’s pretty much no trace now.
I would venture to say that MySpace has become pretty dead and Xanga operates under the radar, but by no means is Livejournal dead. You said you don’t participate in any communities, which is probably why it seems that way to you. :) There are a ton of thriving communities. Just for an example – the community “ohnotheydidnt” just recently had to switch back to an older name because they surpassed their comment allowance!
I love Lj, and have kept the same LJ since I was 14—so, six and a half years now. I see mine as a valuable relic of how I’ve grown over the years. I have also heard that the reports about LJ’s death are greatly exaggerated.
Yeah, some people whine. But there are also plenty of people who have fun, interesting Ljs or who talk about their personal lives with sensitivity and reflection.
I can’t stand Facebook, much less Myspace’s irritating layout. Every time I’m on facebook I feel like I’m bombarded with useless information that doesn’t mean a goddamned thing. The level of meme-stupidity and inane pointlessness is far worse than on LJ.
I don’t intend on abandoning LJ for the “next cool thing”, and as long as the communities I’m part of still update and draw my interest, I don’t get the feeling that I’m alone on there. I don’t need the constant “social” aspect of facebook to be happy with LJ.
I’m 16, almost 17 now. Most of my friends really started getting into the social networking/blogging world when they were about 13 to 14, just when Myspace was popular, and Facebook on the rise. Before that, from ages 11 to 14, we all had Xangas. Anyone remember those?
I don’t think I know anyone who owns a blog, so I can’t comment on how popular LJ, blogspot or wordpress is. However, LJ was never part of our generation.
I’m afraid I have to disagree. LJ is very much alive and all of the communities that I’m a member of continue to grow in readership on a daily basis. Prime example is “Oh no they didn’t”. Everyone I know reads it, even people who don’t have Livejournals themselves and it has given stiff competition to TMZ and Perez Hilton. This, from a little ol’ LJ. That’s just one example out of many.
Your LJ experience is completely based on who your “friends” are and which communities you join. Sounds like your sister had a bunch of cry babies on her friends list.
I’m a member of every blogger/social networking site imaginable, but LJ will always be #1 for me :)
Before LJ, I was hosted on a friend’s domain and used Grey Matter and PHP-Blogger scripts. I switched over because of the privacy features, because back then it was popular to write about your personal life. Nowadays, though, like your sister pointed out, “real” blogs are for other people.
I’ve been on LJ since I was 13 or so – I love it and I don’t think it’s dying at all. I agree with Heidi, it’s a personal kind of site, so I can kind of see why people would think it’s dying. People on LJ don’t randomly go through the site looking for people’s journals to read. And if you ignore the communities (which is where all the action takes place), you’re not going to see anything happen. I switched over to Livejournal, and not, say, Deadjournal or Tabulas (hahaha has anyone else even heard of Tabulas), because there are more people using it, which can be seen in the communities.
And personally, I don’t like blogger’s layout – their comment page format pisses me off. :P