With MSN Spaces and Blogger's assimilation into Google, SixApart had to make a move for marketshare, and this would sure be a great one. LiveJournal is a rich pool of relatively tech-naive but enthusiastic content generators ripe for the milking, and MoveableType doesn't crimp the anti-establishment cachet like Microsoft or Google might. Oohoooh, what a little V.C. can doohoooh...
Thanks to Niall Kennedy for the tip, and nice work on scoring the first trackback to Om's post. And congratulations to Ben and Mena Trott on their PC Magazine "People of the Year" award.
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On LJ itself, the rumor is being treated approximately as the impending end of the world; people with free accounts, in particular, are frantically archiving their complete LiveJournal histories under the assumption that their accounts are going to be destroyed on Thursday without warning, and many are planning to leave come what may on general principles. Lots of screaming about betrayal, Six Apart as faceless evil megacorporation, Ben and Mena Trott as the hated Cool Kids who are coming to ruin the misfits' fun, etc., etc.
I use LJ, have a paid account, and kind of enjoy the idea of putting my abstruse little comments in a world supposedly dominated by angstful 19-year-olds; but I know perfectly well that LJ's markup and user interface are pretty crappy, and kind of like the idea that it's going to turn into something more like TypePad, if that happens.
But I also know that most LJ users aren't paying for their accounts and are nervous about what's going to happen to them. A certain amount of anxiety over this is rational.
Thanks, Matt. I'm definitely an MT partisan (though I like Blogger alot, too), and I don't think LiveJournal users have that much to worry about. I doubt MT has any plans to change anything without notifying folks first, at least. At least they're not MSN.