Yes, they laid people off.

[kyrielle]

Please, can we stop having the end-of-the-world predictions? The gossip rag got the numbers wrong, and their SF employees are not their only employees - there are also a bunch in Russia. I suppose you can't call it off-shoring since SUP is based there, but they do appear to have tipped the balance in that direction.

In any case, while I feel very bad for everyone who lost their jobs in these layoffs, I don't think it means that LJ is going away. If you're worried about that, try one of the backup options (export your journal is an option from LJ itself; LJ archive; LJ Book). Sorry, I don't have links handy. Check out http://news.livejournal.com/112309.html?page=9#comments if you want to, it should link to some of them - the news post has nothing to do with this, it was just the most recent and people are freaking out on it.

Links, for anyone who's curious or who hasn't yet heard the rumor that the sky is falling:
http://news.cnet.com/8301-13577_3-10132684-36.html
http://community.livejournal.com/no_lj_ads/83519.html
http://community.livejournal.com/permmembers/32086.html (links to the gossip article about the falling sky)

Comments

[pantswarrior]

Thank you so much for posting a sensible post about this. I'll just say that I haven't seen many today. ;)

[kyrielle]

Neither have I. I'd have posted sooner, but in part I was waiting for the muddy waters to clear a bit - didn't want to add to the mess.

[dormouse-in-tea.livejournal.com]

AMEN. *bangs head*

[lady-of-mists.livejournal.com]

It's a popular thing to do right now -- layoffs. It doesn't mean that the company itself is necessarily in trouble, just that they decided that they needed to trim down in an economic downturn.

And like you, I'm not being callous. I hate to hear about anyone losing a job right now. It's just that it happens and right now, it's happening more frequently.

(In short, right on.)

[dormouse-in-tea.livejournal.com]

yes, yes, yes. *bangs head on desk*

People are freaking OUT. I can understand being worried about the possibility of losing LJ if it's a large part of your social network -- I'm slightly concerned myself (although more of people randomly bailing for no damn reason and vanishing on me than I am of the site disappearing).

Other things to consider is that there's always the distinct possibility that they were *overstaffed*, and the fact that a reduction in personnel doesn't mean the site is going to explode, it means that new features might be released slower.

Honestly, people bitch so much about the new features that you'd think they'd be HAPPY.

Augh.

[kyrielle]

Yeah, except you expect them to trust that the right people were gotten rid of to improve the new features part. ;)

[canyoncat.livejournal.com]

Woe is me... the end is nigh!

:)

[geordie.livejournal.com]

I'll see what happens, I'd prefer that nothing much change, so fingers crossed...

[davmoo.livejournal.com]

Quite frankly, and given the current economy in the US and the fact that LJ is owned by a Russian company, I'm kinda surprised they keep anything more than a token staff in the US.