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I've had a vast amount of time to consider this moment, something I have pondered since this year began and especially during that last round of LJ Idol that took up the bulk of my entries during 2017.
As one of LiveJournal's biggest promoters, researchers and fans, it pains me greatly to have come to this conclusion. But this choice was not my own. It was an inevitability of circumstances, none of which I created.
I didn't create the blogging craze, I was just there right before it started.
I didn't suggest that Brad Fitzpatrick thoroughly investigate SixApart before selling his precious platform to them. I was just in the mix of internet property that changed hands to make him a millionaire.
I wasn't on the advisory team to help 6A figure out ways to earn a profit from LJ without demolishing everything people liked about it. I was just one of the voices shouting and pleading with them to listen to the userbase.
I wasn't aware of what was happening in Putin's Russia and what role LJ was playing there at that time, I was just one of the Westerners marveling at how ZheZhe was as popular with Russian celebrities and politicians there as twitter was with US celebs, here.
And I wasn't a person who abandoned the site when things slowed down. I always considered El Jay my home on the internet, so I was never too far, even as I went weeks or sometimes months without posting or commenting.
But a year ago, when the Russian Overlords that own LiveJournal demanded we sign their TOS, the writng was on the wall. Especially in the wake of our US Presidential election and what we are still discovering about it. I cannot participate here and feel safe and confident about anything, as we are collectively learning the facts of the intricacies and minutiae that was executed to both reduce our democracy and help a tyrant who is squeezing every Ruble he can from his citizenry.
I considered waxing poetic, being nostalgic and taking time to reminisce. No. That is inappropriate for this, what I view as a hostage crisis that will never end. I am angry that I am in this position under no fault of my own. So, this is not the time for pleasantries.
My final choice for what will happen with this journal is simple. I am going to permanently lock it in early 2018. I won't delete or nuke it, so all my comments will remain intact. And all of the comments made here will also stay, except with no access, anymore... except for this journal's owners, I presume.
I'm splitting the difference by keeping this journal rather than deleting. I don't see how, or under what conditions, I would ever return to post here. But by leaving it, I am leaving a tiny window to crawl back, in the impossible event that this situation drastically changes.
I will no longer be crossposting entries written on other blog services in this journal. I hope, if you want, that you will find me back on an American blogging site if what I write is still of interest.
Sixteen years, nine months, six days. It was a good run.
There is a long-standing Circus tradition. When it's time to go, the performers never said goodbye to their patrons. The phrase was "see you down the road," because the hope was that those that came to view this spectacle, and those that presented it, would cross paths again.
Despite all of the ups, the downs, the great and the horrible, throughout all of my time on LiveJournal, I conclude on my terms, with this final statement, and I mean it with all my heart...
See you down the road.
As one of LiveJournal's biggest promoters, researchers and fans, it pains me greatly to have come to this conclusion. But this choice was not my own. It was an inevitability of circumstances, none of which I created.
I didn't create the blogging craze, I was just there right before it started.
I didn't suggest that Brad Fitzpatrick thoroughly investigate SixApart before selling his precious platform to them. I was just in the mix of internet property that changed hands to make him a millionaire.
I wasn't on the advisory team to help 6A figure out ways to earn a profit from LJ without demolishing everything people liked about it. I was just one of the voices shouting and pleading with them to listen to the userbase.
I wasn't aware of what was happening in Putin's Russia and what role LJ was playing there at that time, I was just one of the Westerners marveling at how ZheZhe was as popular with Russian celebrities and politicians there as twitter was with US celebs, here.
And I wasn't a person who abandoned the site when things slowed down. I always considered El Jay my home on the internet, so I was never too far, even as I went weeks or sometimes months without posting or commenting.
But a year ago, when the Russian Overlords that own LiveJournal demanded we sign their TOS, the writng was on the wall. Especially in the wake of our US Presidential election and what we are still discovering about it. I cannot participate here and feel safe and confident about anything, as we are collectively learning the facts of the intricacies and minutiae that was executed to both reduce our democracy and help a tyrant who is squeezing every Ruble he can from his citizenry.
I considered waxing poetic, being nostalgic and taking time to reminisce. No. That is inappropriate for this, what I view as a hostage crisis that will never end. I am angry that I am in this position under no fault of my own. So, this is not the time for pleasantries.
My final choice for what will happen with this journal is simple. I am going to permanently lock it in early 2018. I won't delete or nuke it, so all my comments will remain intact. And all of the comments made here will also stay, except with no access, anymore... except for this journal's owners, I presume.
I'm splitting the difference by keeping this journal rather than deleting. I don't see how, or under what conditions, I would ever return to post here. But by leaving it, I am leaving a tiny window to crawl back, in the impossible event that this situation drastically changes.
I will no longer be crossposting entries written on other blog services in this journal. I hope, if you want, that you will find me back on an American blogging site if what I write is still of interest.
Sixteen years, nine months, six days. It was a good run.
There is a long-standing Circus tradition. When it's time to go, the performers never said goodbye to their patrons. The phrase was "see you down the road," because the hope was that those that came to view this spectacle, and those that presented it, would cross paths again.
Despite all of the ups, the downs, the great and the horrible, throughout all of my time on LiveJournal, I conclude on my terms, with this final statement, and I mean it with all my heart...
See you down the road.