I was surprised but not shocked to learn that LiveJournal has cut back roughly 1/5 of its staffing levels. Although some blogs reported that “20 of 27″ employees were let go, the real number of heads chopped off is somewhere around 12, which works out to 20% of the company’s workforce.
This is a news byte near and dear to my heart – having been a member (albeit not very active) for many years, I would be saddened to see the company disappear from the map as fast as some of its lesser-known competitors. Although the LiveJournal platform is out-dated and average by today’s Facebook and WordPress standards, it is famous for its use as a forum for teenagers airing their latest high school drama.
In a world where even politicians are leveraging online tools, I believe LiveJournal still has a comfortable niche, if not a large part to play in the continuing growth of social networks. Since it already has many of the best features of both Blogger and Facebook platforms, there is no reason it should continue to allow itself to be thought of as a toy version of either, as if it weren’t something that could be taken seriously. LiveJournal is a unique community platform; but guys, drop the Harry Potter slash SIGs (if you don’t know what I am referring to… trust me, you don’t want to).
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