I’ve been thinking of this for a while (ok, for months now) … why have I not moved away from LJ to an independent blogging medium. One where I do not have to pay to make custom changes and can host on my own servers with my own choice of blogging software (Semagic is good, but only up to a point).
However, anything beyond that is a pay-only service. Some people I know can afford it, others cannot. I can, but I will not pay for blog hosting as long as there other methods out there.
LiveJournal’s greatest (initial) attraction was the community based system that easily allows for a following for myself as well as leads for me to follow. Everyone uses some sort of content aggregrators (don’t lie, that LJ friends-view is an aggregrator too!). I love the feature that I can view FriendsOfAFriend, but again, there is enough technology out there to support it, independent of LJ
So what makes LiveJournal special in that space?
I never intended to live with LJ for long, which might explain why i’ve always thrown around given out www.logic2go.com as my blog url, instead of www.livejournal.com/~vinit.
Someone help me here, any other reason I am still sticking with LJ as my blog medium?
Again, you have to explain how the free services of LJ compare against my other options …
I have free web hosting for 3 years from 1and1.com as well as now in a position to ‘own’ my own server in the office.
I can get MoveableType or scores of other software free for personal use.
I already invested in www.logic2go.com, and would continue paying to renew it, LJ or not.
The instantenous FOAF is my only reason as of today, and I know it is the one critical piece. Still, the search remains …