Club Jade

To be honestly I thought Strikethrough and all the related panic-filled hubris about naked Harry Potters were much ado about nothing… But Livejournal has finally done something to make me worry about the future of the site: They’ve laid off their product managers and engineers, according to Valleywag. Is the end nigh? Or will LJ’s large user base find some sort of salvation? Back up, and stay tuned…

UPDATE: There’s another report on LJ itself. It has a smaller number of layoffs, and lots of links, and I’d trust it more than Valleywag. Though I’d still do a backup.

So, the Twitter is pretty smoking, in that there are 300+ postings in the space of about a month and a half. And while most of the stuff over there does make it over here eventually as promised, not all of it does. Consider that a bonus for Twitter users. I am looking into a way to get it on the sidebar of the blog here (it takes a bit of research: there are about a million plugins to do it) but nothing annoyingly Loudtwitter-esque, I promise.

And since so many of you are on Facebook, well, there’s something for you, too: The Networked Blogs app, which lets you ID yourself as a reader of Club Jade, or any other blog you might fancy. Livejournalers, which came #2 in the poll, have long had to friend. All the LJ feeds have been a bit sluggish lately, but they get the job done.

• Sci-Fi Wire readers picked Star Wars: A New Hope as the top science fiction movie of all time. It won by 7.8%, with Blade Runner coming in second with 7.5%. No doubt that percentage would have been bigger if any of us fansites had heard of it beforehand…

• Our latest sidebar poll is about Legacy of the Force: Revelation, and so far 32% of you have no plans to read it. Thankfully I have a whole week to figure out how I’m going to make a chart out of that one.
• Those of you that have read it (and have Livejournal accounts) can surf over to the Expanded Universe community and take (Warning: Spoilers!) a slightly more detailed survey.

Imadra Blue is polling for Star Wars fandom preferences on the Livejournal. It’s mainly a saga (mostly prequel) oriented poll, both because that’s Jax’s corner of fandom and because there isn’t really a huge contingent of active EU fans there. (Obligatory pimping of starwars_eu and marafics. And yes, there will be a giant EU poll sooner rather than later. As usual, I have more ideas than time to type them.)

And don’t forget to vote in our first sidebar poll! Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull has been holding a steady lead in what you want the most for 2008. Looks like I’ll have to buy JawaJames a whip!

Crack Van on Livejournal needs fans to rec Star Wars fanfic by January 1st – or else the category will be retired from the community. (They spotlighted Stuff once, so they can’t be that bad.)

Yesterday, we learned that SixApart had jettisoned problem child Livejournal, selling the site to SUP, an ‘an international media company’ that’s been managing Livejournal in Russia for a little over a year. The new owners have grand plans, but what does this mean for the ongoing controversy with LJ’s fandom elements?

Though Livejournal Inc. will continue to operate out of California (with LJ founder Brad Fitzpatrick on the advisory board, a hopeful sign) many worry about the implications of a Russian company pulling the strings. Those of us jaded beyond belief are just going to watch and see where it all goes.

Attention all fanfic readers: Hie yourselves over to Snacky’s Best Fic Ever poll to recommend your all-time favorites (any and all fandoms accepted) and read what others consider the best of the best. Guidelines are pretty simple:

Occasionally, I see discussions about how this is the best damn fic ever, and you’d give it to people who weren’t even in fandom to read!

Tell me about the greatest fic, the one you’d give to people who aren’t in fandom (although, I’d think they’d need to have at least a familiarity with the source material, but that’s up to you) and say, “OH MY GOD, YOU HAVE TO READ THIS, IT’S SO GOOD!” It doesn’t have to be anything recent – it can be the first or last fic you read, however many years or months or days ago. If you can’t narrow it down, pick two. And please, feel free to discuss the fic in the comments.

Livejournal’s Star Wars Crafts community looks to be a hit – it’s been featured as one of LJ’s homepage spotlights. As a result, plenty of new crafts are showing up daily.

Star Wars Crafts is a brand-new Livejournal community for fandom crafty types. Go forth and share your craftiness!

While I don’t find the banning of a couple of Harry Potter porn artists all that personally troubling, Six Apart’s bumbling reaction to fandom’s usual over-the-top flailing is not particularly heartening. (Though there are some hilarious responses.) Nor is the possibility that LJ founder Brad leaving is 6A a good sign. My advice? Watch LJ, watch 6A, but keep your head. And stay away from porn based on children’s books.

On the plus side, it did prompt a silly little quiz. And isn’t that what LJ is really about?

UPDATE; And it’s official.