cimorene

No more basic accounts on livejournal - it's ad-supported or paid from here on. This move is, I think, the most stupid and shocking overall so far in the history of stupid (but generally not that shocking) moves, because the lack of ads used to be a big benefit, and people generally can be expected not to want ads all over their blogs. However...

Leaving LJ: no doubt thousands of other fandom denizens have said it, but it seems like the central thing so I'll say it again: alas, there is no better alternative. Traditional blogging architectures don't provide the same possibilities for networking, and those are a must for fandom use. We need communities, friendslists, and RSS feeds. The LJ clones in existence are not practical alternatives.

IJ is run by a guy who's interested and working in good faith, and the accounts are cheaper, which is a plus. But there are naming issues, there's the fact that the site is hideous and a bit buggy, there's the fact that the navigation doesn't show up in the layout, and there's the fact that, in fact, it also is full of ads.

JF isn't full of ads, but it's a labour of love and probably couldn't handle the traffic that would be caused by a mass exodus.

We're waiting for the technology, folks. Hopefully the OTW will provide something, or someone else will come along with a better blog networking site.