About the whole Russian thing...

[katikat]

So, according to LJ news, Six Apart sold LiveJournal and LJ only, not Vox or whatever else they own, to SUP, a media company based in Moscow. Obviously they've been negotiating for almost a year now - explains all the witch hunts - and SUP now built a new company, LiveJournal Inc., based in San Francisco that will handle LJ only. They will still be subject to the US law but with control and orders coming from Russia...

Hm, will that be a good or a bad thing? Will these people take the time to handle complaints and abuse properly now that they can concentrate on LJ stuff only or will that mean more control, more censorship, more witch hunts? Who knows.

I have no idea what to think of it but since I live in a country that had been under occupation by the Russian forces for 20 years in the past, all Russian things make me very twitchy... Prejudice only? Maybe. At least I hope so.

Comments

[ckll.livejournal.com]

Let's hope for the best in LJ.

[katikat.livejournal.com]

*crosses fingers* I hope that it'll turn out to be a positive thing in the end.

[xtrek.livejournal.com]

I do have my doubts about SUP too. I really hope that they're only based on prejudices. Censorship and more control over the users' entries will make me leave lj. I don't want to support such actions by paying for my account. But maybe I should calm down a little, the whole thing has had me ranting on my lj enough already.

[katikat.livejournal.com]

I think that nobody except for people living in Europe, in countries that were deeply affected by Russia can understand our fears :( I hope that it'll turn out to be okay in the end, though *crosses fingers*

[sharona1x2.livejournal.com]

So many US companies have foreign owners. My hubby's company was bought by a French company this year. Things haven't really changed all that much for him since it happened. I'm going to remain optimistic. (I know, so unusual for me.) ^_^

So far, LJ hasn't made any changes in the time I've had my journal that have made me unhappy. Unless they get rid of permanent accounts and friends locking, I should be fine.

[katikat.livejournal.com]

I think that what makes me a bit uncomfortable is the fact that we are now owned by the Russians. I think that the Americans would probably feel the same if LJ was sold to the Chinese. We in Central/East Europe have had some really bad experiences with the Russians in the past so we tend to be a bit wary of them.

But I have no intention to jump the ship or go elsewhere. I still hope that everything will stay the same or even get better. SA was really messing up lately, so I hope that now everything will return back to "normal" without the maintainers starting wanks etc.

[sharona1x2.livejournal.com]

I don't think Americans have those kind of feelings for the Chinese, at least not people I know online and in RL. I grew up during the Cold War era, when we feared nuclear war with the Soviets. The big difference is, my country was never occupied (by anyone).

I'm curious to see what my Russian friends think of this. jurty hasn't posted anything yet.

[castalie.livejournal.com]

The negative reaction is pretty similar to the one we got to see when LJ was sold to 6A. Or when every big change happened. The difference being that we're now talking about a non-American company and from the sound of it, that's part of the reason why it's making people even more nervous. People who don't even have your background.

I think LJ can't win, anyway - whatever they'll do, they'll always piss people *shrug* Not talking about you, here, btw, your entry was nicely level-headed and calm.

Let's just hope for the best for LJ. I mean, see how many times people announced its death. And it's/we're still here *shrug*

[katikat.livejournal.com]

I hope that everything will turn out well. I mean, it's not bad that the company was sold so I see no point to bash them or whatever, I just hope that the result will be mostly positive *crosses fingers*

[castalie.livejournal.com]

Bashing just on principle seems to be a hobby that many on LJ enjoys; I just dislike it. On principle, yes lol

One worry that was mentioned, and one that I can understand, is the question about the location of the servers; would the servers stay on US soil or leave for Russia... but from what I read and from what I was told, it'd seem likely that aforementioned servers would stay in California, so it's a good point, already...

[klingonpoo.livejournal.com]

*hugs* I understand your fears. I'm hoping for the best. That is all we can do for now.

[katikat.livejournal.com]

Exactly! I'm not jumping the ship or whatever. I will cross my fingers and hope for the best. And if it doesn't pan out, there are a lot of other blogging/journal communities to choose from :)