Six Apart

I’ve had my LiveJournal nearly five years and I *heart* it bunches!
Ever since I was young, I’ve kept journals and diaries. Sadly most of them are lost now with the exception of a diary from 1990, which chronicles the year I turned 21. I love to occasionally read that one just to see how much my life has changed since then.
When I found out about blogging and LJ in particular from a friend, I was a bit intriigued. I could keep a diary online? Cool! So I started my LiveJournal in September of 2004 and I now have the memories of my life saved away online :).
I also like that LJ allows you to use your own user icons and has different themes available to make your journal look spiffy. Unfortunately you gotta pay for the good stuff, which I was spoiled by when I had a paid account for a year that another of my LJ pals gave to me for a Xmas gift.
I have made some great friends through LiveJournal as it is not just a blogging site, it is also a social networking site where you have a friends list that you can allow to see your private entries as well as post comments to each other’s journal. I know that Facebook and MySpace are popular right now, but I will always go back to my LiveJournal :).
*Visit Countess Gregula aka Linda here at
.com*

Typepad is somewhat militant in regards to keeping a box around creativity, but the rigidity in the structure is what keeps the results clean, defined and orderly. Good for the true blogger who wants to disclose and direct.
I actually favor Vox a bit more, due to my being more of a creative. Plus, I’m a sucker for pitch black backgrounds… makes for a better setting for images.

Little known fact, the name Six Apart originates from the fact that the founders’ (Ben and Mena Trott’s) birthdays are six days apart. The Trotts are fairly well known in the web community and make an enviously cute couple. A friend of mine works there and he loves the culture.
I like Six Apart and all of their web services: TypePad, Vox, MT, LJ. I’ve used all of these products except for TypePad at some point. LJ has a dedicated niche following and many people were worried how that community would be affected by the acquisition. As far as I can tell, it has had some negative impact to the LJ community but the overall crux of LJ remains relatively intact.
Their offerings are fairly wide, from a completely self-​contained user-​friendly community like LJ or Vox to the more technical TypePad and MT, with a lot of potential customization on the MT side. In my opinion, Vox and LJ succeeded (mostly) where Blogger failed, but competitor WordPress succeeded where Type and MT failed.
Vox was a pivotal release for SA, and I jumped on the bandwagon early on but for me the site is unfortunately not sticky, despite the fairly cool social network functions. Albeit not the best service out there overall, Vox did achieve a level of success in the social networking world of bloggers that hadn’t really been achieved before LJ, which is probably why they were acquired.

Vox… my favorite blog platform. I and my secret society of 2.0ers got a permanent table there for when we want to lay low, revealing only as much as we choose. No parties, no talk threads, but it’s chill and easy on the eyes.

I actually like Six Apart for lots of reasons, but I’m not going to lie, there’s plenty to be desired. As a Yahoo! webservices account holder MT comes free with the whole package, so it makes it tons easier to blog and keep everything neat and keen. I’ve had some issues with plug-​ins that I need to get over (which is why it gets –1 stars for me as the language is often a little too esoteric for me)…but I tell you this: it’s better than blogger.

I am a die-​hard Typepad user and have been very impressed with their service and product. Yes, you pay, but TOTALLY worth it over blogger if you are serious personal blogger. i have also attended one of their trainings and it was top-​notch!

six apart. blogging software. typepad, vox, movable type, livejournal.
i like wordpress better than typepad or movable type, so no points for that. vox is kind of exciting, and pretty, so one star for that. they’ve made livejournal worse than before they acquired it, so no stars for that. however, they’ve allowed it to retain a scant few of its principles, so one point for trying.