I Had Nothing to Do With It, I Swear
Posted on March 9, 2009 Posted by John Scalzi 32 Comments
LiveJournal seems to be down at the moment. I found out about it, naturally enough, by people on Twitter accusing me of killing it with my rage. Which, while amusing, vastly overstates my influence and/or telekinetic powers. Sorry.
No, wait. Actually, it’s true. So don’t piss me off. Yes, that’s it.
Update, 7:40pm: See? Back safe and sound. And if you ask it, it’ll say I was nowhere near it the entire time. If it knows what’s good for it.
(walks off, whistling innocently)
Apparently, we wouldn’t like you when you are angry…
i’d comment, but then you’d ban me…
Katie:
I’m mostly harmless. But don’t tell anyone. It’ll ruin my reputation as an asshole.
WOAH. uhhhh……..
Did We tell you how much we love you and your work?
That’s one thing we like about you. You don’t take any crap from anyone. Keep up the good work.
I promise, I’ll spread the word that you are boiling pot of asshattery.
If we piss you off enough, will you destroy MySpace?
That’s the spirit, Katie!
ARBK:
Why bother? Does anyone actually go to MySpace anymore?
Oh noes! This blog has acquired a new superpower: the LJ-freezing rant!
I could have sworn that in that ‘innocent’ whistle I heard the voices of a thousand LJers crying out as their computers fried before their eyes.
Brandon:
There is no truth to the rumor that I whistle at the same frequency at which silicon oscillates.
You know John, my computer doesn;t work with spit. Would you like ot vent some spleen on it, and then use your awesomeness to bring it back to life, better than before?
Sorry – that mis-typed pile of drivel above was me, not my wife (who actually has mad typing skills and mych mroe sense than me).
“The opinions expressed above do not necessarily express those of the spousal unit to whom they were attributed.”
Scalzi: sadly, myspace is still the tool of choice for musicians without the time or inclination to run their own websites. Facebook, Orkut and the like all make it stupidly hard to distribute music files, whereas myspace bends over backwards to help you do it.
As a result, many of my absolute favorite artists in the world (Aesop Rock and Amanda Palmer come to mind instantly) have balls-ugly myspace pages. Sigh.
I didn’t notice you killing and bringing LJ back to life as your puppet. I was apparently too busy getting myself killed in Star Ocean IV at the time. So maybe the deaths mingled and showed up as just one necrotic karma pulse.
I’m glad you let it live. I like Beneficent Scalzi more than Wrathful Reaper God Scalzi. ;)
at least you spoke up, otherwise someone might take that as empirical evidence that you hate LiveJournal and its coding
*hopes no one frowns at her for her LJ site – she likes the Abandoned Places photography site*
@Katie: And don’t forget the crack-fueled cat buggery! That’s what gives his rep its special je ne sais quoi.
Scalzi:
I really have no idea. Just figured you might be taking requests?
So… classmates.com?
Also, there is value in destroying the walking, annoying dead. These brain-eating zombies must die!
Jeff Hentsoz: Ah, cat-buggery. That takes me back to the good old days, it does.
I hate to bring this up and all, but seriously John. Killing LJ with your mind? That’s like more powerful than Chuck Norris!
Well, see. What’s even cooler is that I brought it back.
He is scOZi, the great and powerful! Pay no attention to the cringing little man behind the curtain at the keyboard.
Once is chance,
Twice is coincidence, but
Three is definitely something.
Want to go for three?
:)
Regards,
Jack Tingle
@Jeff I would never forget the cat-buggery! I just assumed that it was a widely know fact. I’ll make sure I find a place for it in the rant. So far it goes “Asshat, steriod induced rage-a-holic, (inserting wanton cat-buggery), random remark concerning his sexual prowess.” Let me know what you think!
DAYUM, John! Remind me to stay on your GOOD side!
1.) Thanks for the signed copy of Zoe’s Tale. I got it way back in December, just now got to reading it after re-reading all the other novels.
2.) LJ’s down time might have something to do with the fact that they’re operating on a skeleton crew, with practically no coders or programmers left to fix shit when it gets fubr’d.
http://valleywag.gawker.com/5124184/the-russian-bear-slashes-a-social-network for info on their imminent demise
Katie: Very nice. You know, you might as well slander his dancing skills too, while you’re at it. That’ll drive him crazy.
Why are you so dismissive of Livejournal, and of people who use it? I know that sounds snarky, but I’m being sincere – I really want to know why you dislike Livejournal so much. And yes, I have a Livejournal, but I’m a horror writer, so people already think I’m a worthless piece of shit, lol. But I would love to hear your most brutally honest response. Failing that, feel free to ignore me. (Most do.)
I took some time out of the book I was reading to try to post on LiveJournal…it went down when I was writing the post, so it didn’t totally survive (don’t worry, I’m paranoid about these things and managed to save it in TextEdit, so I”m not mad). But the book I was reading? _Broken Angels_, by Richard K. Morgan. Where things can be killed and brought back to life as long as their stack is preserved.
I’m kind of scared to think that you killed LiveJournal and brought it back just because you were pissed about something, but that’s totally something Takeishi Kovacs would do.
So I won’t even bother to ask what it was LiveJournal could have done to you to deserve it. I’m sure it had it coming.
Scalzi @ 8:
http://mashable.com/2009/03/09/social-networking-more-popular-than-email/
New stats from Nielsen Online show that by the end of 2008, social networking had overtaken email in terms of worldwide reach. According to the study, 66.8% of Internet users across the globe accessed “member communities” last year, compared to 65.1% for email. The most popular online activities remain search and Web portals (with around 85% reach) and the websites of software manufacturers.
The far-reaching study also explored a number of other trends within the social networking space. In 2008, users spent 63% more time on member communities than they did in the previous year. However, within member communities, Facebook saw growth of 566% in time spent on it by users worldwide. As has been reported elsewhere, Facebook’s fastest growth demographic is older users – the social network tacked on 12.4 million people between ages 35-49 in 2008 according to Nielsen.
Some other key findings from the report:
– Globally, Facebook reaches 29.9% of global Internet users, versus 22.4% for MySpace.
– MySpace remains the most profitable social network, generating an estimated $1 billion in revenue versus $300 million for Facebook in 2008.
– Facebook is the top social network in all countries except Germany, Brazil, and Japan (Nielsen still has MySpace as tops in US in the report, but as of January ’09, that had changed).
– On Twitter, CNN, The New York Times, and BBC have the greatest reach among mainstream media companies as of late February.
Overall, most of these trends aren’t surprising if you’ve been following the space, but nonetheless, tie some numbers to them. Most impressive is the rise of Facebook, who is outpacing the growth of the social networking space on the whole by nearly tenfold.
{JVP: If you’re on FaceBook, take a look at my Profile, please}
The next time Scalzi gets angry – he will take our Moon! (sometime in July)
Let’s see if I understand this correctly: first there is a LJ, then there is no LJ, then there is. Has Donovan been notified?
That’s some awesome rage-power….