| Revision as of 10:52, 15 December 2002 editSam Francis (talk | contribs)2,175 edits moved & slightly expanded "invite code" paragraph← Previous edit | Revision as of 10:55, 15 December 2002 edit undoSam Francis (talk | contribs)2,175 edits (often referred to by its users as '''lj''', capitalised or not)Next edit → | ||
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| '''LiveJournal''' ('''lj''') is a ] where some ] users keep a ] or ]. It is one of many sites that come under the term ], or ''weblog''. The software running the site is ]. What distinguishes LiveJournal from other blog sites is the "Friends page", a list of the most recent posts from people a user has added to their "Friends list" -- this turns LiveJournal into a community of interconnected weblogs. | '''LiveJournal''' (often referred to by its users as '''lj''', capitalised or not) is a ] where some ] users keep a ] or ]. It is one of many sites that come under the term ], or ''weblog''. The software running the site is ]. What distinguishes LiveJournal from other blog sites is the "Friends page", a list of the most recent posts from people a user has added to their "Friends list" -- this turns LiveJournal into a community of interconnected weblogs. | ||
| LiveJournal used to be open for anyone to join; however, because the number of users was increasing at such a fast rate, and the vast majority are free users, the growth of LiveJournal had to be checked somehow -- the "free" servers (those dealing with the free accounts) became unreliable as ] increased. An "invite code" system was introduced, where new users needed to either obtain a code from an existing user, or buy a paid account. | LiveJournal used to be open for anyone to join; however, because the number of users was increasing at such a fast rate, and the vast majority are free users, the growth of LiveJournal had to be checked somehow -- the "free" servers (those dealing with the free accounts) became unreliable as ] increased. An "invite code" system was introduced, where new users needed to either obtain a code from an existing user, or buy a paid account. | ||
Revision as of 10:55, 15 December 2002
LiveJournal (often referred to by its users as lj, capitalised or not) is a website where some Internet users keep a journal or diary. It is one of many sites that come under the term blog, or weblog. The software running the site is open source. What distinguishes LiveJournal from other blog sites is the "Friends page", a list of the most recent posts from people a user has added to their "Friends list" -- this turns LiveJournal into a community of interconnected weblogs.
LiveJournal used to be open for anyone to join; however, because the number of users was increasing at such a fast rate, and the vast majority are free users, the growth of LiveJournal had to be checked somehow -- the "free" servers (those dealing with the free accounts) became unreliable as server load increased. An "invite code" system was introduced, where new users needed to either obtain a code from an existing user, or buy a paid account.
Like most weblogs, people can comment on each others' journals and create a message board style thread of comments -- each comment can be replied to individually, starting a new thread from every one. All users, including non-paying users, can set various options for comments: they can instruct the software to only accept comments from those on their Friends list or block anonymous comments (meaning only livejournal users can comment on their posts). In addition, LiveJournal acts as host to group discussion boards, or "communities," encompassing a myriad of subjects. (For example, there is a community dealing specifically with Misplaced Pages .) A community is created as a regular journal account -- either with an invite code or by paying -- and can then by converted into a community account.
LiveJournal was started by Brad Fitzpatrick. As of December 2002, over 800 thousand accounts had been created, of which about 300 thousand had been updated at some point in the last month . Between them, these users make about 130 thousand individual posts per day. Of those users who provided their date of birth, the vast majority are in the 15-22 age group. Of those who specified their gender, almost two thirds are female. Livejournal is most popular in English-speaking countries (although there is a language selection feature), and the United States has the most livejournal users by far. Following are rounded figures from December 2002:
- United States - 518,000
- Canada - 34,000
- United Kingdom - 24,000
- Australia - 13,000
Because LiveJournal is an open source project, many other communities have been designed based off the original. However, these, apart from DeadJournal, tend to be unstable and short-lived. These include, but are not limited to:
- DeadJournal
- ParaJournal
- uJournal
LiveJournal is also the name of the server software that runs on the sites listed above.
External links
- LiveJournal.com
- "Journals might be gaining ground", The Mercury News