I feel...uh...semi-strongly...that profiting from our fanworks, even if it would be only to offset a journal fee, negates any disclaimer I could construct. In fact, I would feel dishonest trying to claim not-for-profit in such circumstances. I fervently hope there would be an option to opt out.
While I agree with you regarding the small sliver of LJ that is fandom, there is a particular factor which I often feel no one who's tied to LJ marketing/business planning has considered.
Fandom is a large part of what brings YOUNG users to LJ. Of all of the tweeners I know, NONE of them are on LJ. They have Twitter, and MySpace, and FaceBook. And almost all of them have ALL of those. But they don't LJ, and, as it happens, none of them are particularly fannish either.
I don't think LJ has a lot to offer the 18-24 year old set that they can't get faster, brighter, and with more bells and whistles at FaceBook or MySpace. What it does have is fandom and fanworks, so if you're a twenty-year old in fandom, and want to read HP fic or see Metallicar vids, share Yaoi artwork or view Ronon manips, LJ is (currently) the best place to do that it. Especially if you want to do MORE THAN ONE of those things all in one place, instead of belonging to a Yaoi discussion board here, and checking out SG-1 webrings there.
I agree that if all of the 35,000 fandom journals left LJ tomorrow it would probably blink a few times and soldier on. But I also feel that an LJ without fandom would suffer from a drastic reduction in the new, younger membership sign-ups that it needs to remain a viable business in the future.
And nothing I've read convinces me that anyone who has the ability to make policy has considered that possibility.
Disclaimer: All opinions based on personal, organic theorizing, and not on any actual empirical evidence whatsoever.
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carisma_sensei
no subject
Date: 2008-03-20 04:11 pm (UTC)While I agree with you regarding the small sliver of LJ that is fandom, there is a particular factor which I often feel no one who's tied to LJ marketing/business planning has considered.
Fandom is a large part of what brings YOUNG users to LJ. Of all of the tweeners I know, NONE of them are on LJ. They have Twitter, and MySpace, and FaceBook. And almost all of them have ALL of those. But they don't LJ, and, as it happens, none of them are particularly fannish either.
I don't think LJ has a lot to offer the 18-24 year old set that they can't get faster, brighter, and with more bells and whistles at FaceBook or MySpace. What it does have is fandom and fanworks, so if you're a twenty-year old in fandom, and want to read HP fic or see Metallicar vids, share Yaoi artwork or view Ronon manips, LJ is (currently) the best place to do that it. Especially if you want to do MORE THAN ONE of those things all in one place, instead of belonging to a Yaoi discussion board here, and checking out SG-1 webrings there.
I agree that if all of the 35,000 fandom journals left LJ tomorrow it would probably blink a few times and soldier on. But I also feel that an LJ without fandom would suffer from a drastic reduction in the new, younger membership sign-ups that it needs to remain a viable business in the future.
And nothing I've read convinces me that anyone who has the ability to make policy has considered that possibility.
Disclaimer: All opinions based on personal, organic theorizing, and not on any actual empirical evidence whatsoever.