Glad you're on board with this, because if you weren't, I'd be very nervous. Hope all goes well.

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Maybe they'll roll back the adult-content patch.

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Ah I feel pre-emptively guilty for even commenting here, knowing that you'll probably be snowed under very very soon. I just wanted to say that as a user, I'm glad you're involved. As someone doing social research in relation to Russian LJ users in Irkutsk, I am intrigued about how all this will develop and be received and so on.

Exciting times!

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Woo!

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Brad, with all respect to you, note that a significant portion of Russian-speaking users will now leave. Those who live inside Russia will have no guarantee that they will not be spied upon or worse (um, timing was unfortunate too). And those outside because of unwillingness to have their private lives depend on a shady business (sorta like finding out that a weird relative that freaked you out when you were small is now poking around your bedroom).

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i remember that there was some short-lived panic after SUP took over the russian advertising sector. i am sure this will be just as short-lived if SUP does what they promised, like sticking to open source and leaving the company in the US.

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If the community doesnt work itself into a foamy goo about this, I think it might be a positive thing..

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Welcome back, Brad. This will hopefully be good for LiveJournal as a whole.

This advisory board sounds like a good thing. I may have to look into that further.

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Would you like a beer whilst you watch the comedy unfold? ;)

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Please to be checking all drinks with a handheld geiger counter before imbibing.

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I back-tracked to your journal from your party post and just have to ask...where in Iowa were you born?

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Well, for the beginning you may enjoy reading this.

Below is a recent article about some Russian venture capitalist who was probably too drunk during his visit in Mountain View's Computer History museum and disclosed too much to a person who happened to be a journalist from the #1 Russian business publication Kommersant.

Briefly: Putin's KGB/FSB invented an elaborate scheme to fund a bunch of companies, then artificially lower their value and eventually steal those companies from the founders and other investors. Government-level extortion by the secret police and other weird stuff. The original interview is difficult to read, but there is a brief article (link is below).

Enjoy:

http://www.robertamsterdam.com/2007/11/russias_velvet_reprivatization.htm
http://jamestown.org/edm/article.php?article_id=2372628

A lot of people are saying that the guy is a phony and the whole thing is nonsense, but the problem is: the guy do knows some people and might be exposed to certain information. So at least something might be true.

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how does one get on the board?

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I knew I took all those Russian classes for a reason.
Я не понимаю
Okay, that an ordering a beer is all I remember . . .
пиво пожалуйста

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Glad to see you back on board.. to be honest I was not a 6A fan :P

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definately bad news for russian opposition...

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And I was just thinking of you recently!  I hope they move LJ's home servers to Russia.  Then Americans can complain about their government without being spied on too directly.  Or maybe they should host the Russian accts in the States and vice versa?  Nah, costs too much bandwidth.

Since my LJ username is Russian, I'll guess I'll have to bone up my мегабайт трансконтинентальной сети.

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to other "vendors".

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I was shocked to see that on Waxy, but it doesn't sound like it'll be that bad at least. As long as my accounts remain I'll be holed up until the end.

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just a random, creepy user who's been around for a while, but wanted to say: we missed you! glad you're back, and hope it does some good.

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It's a KGB* conspiracy. The plan is to get access to the personal diaries of millions of U.S. children then when they get to college or the military to blackmail them into working for the KGB.

More seriously, from your reactions to the SUP folks, this is probably going to make for interesting changes and certainly more dedicated focus than Six Apart had.

*Readers who like attention to detail should note that the KGB hasn't existed for several years but it still has the best brand recognition. :)

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The venture capitalists with their fingers in 6A must be pissing their thousand-dollar suits with joy right about now.

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I'm actually fairly happy about this announcement.

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Cue conspiracy theories: http://stewardess.livejournal.com/282630.html

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Пиздец. I can't believe my eyes...

The company that is notorious for its disrespect of Russian LJ users, secret advertising and general unprofessionalism (they couldn't even write the LJ home page in correct Russian) now owns LJ.

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