What Livejournal is for Russians

[james_davis_nicoll]

The word for "blog" in the Russian language is literally 'ЖЖ' -- the abbreviation for Живой Журнал, or LiveJournal. (Although the automatic translators tended to render it as 'Alive Magazine', which always amused me.) The president of Russia keeps an LJ. (Or a ЖЖ.) There's pretty much no doubt in my mind that the Russian-language market for LJ is what kept LJ from being shut down by Six Apart after acquisition -- 6A had a history of buying companies for the intellectual property and the people who worked there, using that intellectual property and the employees for other projects they had in mind, and shutting down the property once they'd sucked out everything they wanted it for. The fact that Russian-language LJ was so strong meant they could sell the whole thing to SUP, which gave them a different method of disposal.

So, people who grumble about "the Russians" taking over LJ should remember that in Russia, LiveJournal isn't just the top blogging platform, it's the blogging platform. It is Russia's free press. It is the tool being used to fight corruption and advance the cause of democracy. And, more practically to LJ users, the Russian-speaking sector of LJ is the reason LJ is still there at all.

Comments

[fridgepunk.livejournal.com]

So the long held belief that 6A is more evil than the russian mafia was correct?

[kgbooklog.livejournal.com]

AOL

[gerisullivan.livejournal.com]

Have you seen the article pnh linked to in his Sidelights over on Making Light? Russian bloggers accuse authorities of cyberwar

The article starts:

The LiveJournal blogging site, hugely popular in Russia, on Wednesday fell victim to a major cyber attack that bloggers said appeared an attempt to to silence political discussion ahead of elections.

And ends:

Most of Russia's opposition figures and social activists keep blogs on LiveJournal that they use to rally support and comment on current events.

"LiveJournal is really a zone of freedom, and the attack on it is preparation for parliamentary and presidential elections. It is pure politics," opposition figure Boris Nemtsov said on Finam FM radio this week.

"Hardly anyone could have done this other than the security services," he said after the site's problems kept him from posting an entry about his pamphlet "Putin. Corruption."

"Seems like both times LiveJournal was downed by Kremlin people as a rehearsal of some "X hour" to break communication among the active part of society," political analyst Mikhail Delyagin wrote on his blog.

I'm not familiar enough with the specifics of DDoS attacks or the Russian government, but I'm dubious of the claim that hardly anyone could have done it other than the country's security services. On the other hand, that certainly doesn't mean they didn't.

[dewline.livejournal.com]

And seeing as Medvedev has:

1) Broken publicly with Putin over Libya
2) Has a Livejournal account of his own according to an account on itpro.co.uk

We may have a further motivation here.

[thesaucernews.livejournal.com]

I'm not familiar enough with the specifics of DDoS attacks or the Russian government, but I'm dubious of the claim that hardly anyone could have done it other than the country's security services.

If you've got enough money and sufficient skill, you could rent a botnet and do it yourself.

Not that you should because that would be wrong.

[murasaki-1966.livejournal.com]

Well, that explains a lot. I won't grumble about them any more. Pity there isn't an automatic translation thingie so I could read some of this stuff.

[(Anonymous)]

That would be an education worth the time, wouldn't it?

[kip-w.livejournal.com]

What a country! In Russia, LiveJournal blogs on you! Hurr hurr hurr.

A nit picked

[(Anonymous)]

Not to take anything from the article, but the start was slightly hyperbolic. The Russian language does make use of the borrowed word blog (Блог) as well. There's a Vikipediya entry for that (as some sort of evidence for you skeptics you :): http://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D0%91%D0%BB%D0%BE%D0%B3

[roseembolism.livejournal.com]

Sir, I am a former Usenet poster, and therefore it is my inalienable right to complain about anything and everything. The fact that some furriners are using LJ to promote such dubious concepts as democracy only means we can do more complaining posts, and possibly spark threads on Tor and soc.history.what-if.