I think that's exactly why LJ was replaced by the latter titans of social media. When they say "we never had the clear mental model of what the site was", I hea

I think that's exactly why LJ was replaced by the latter titans of social media. When they say "we never had the clear mental model of what the site was", I hear "we never had a clear plan for how to turn our users into a commodity" What made the early web the early web was all the surplus value left on the table. A modern LiveJournal would never make the mistake of just building a platform that's useful, with no regard to whether it's sticky, high-engagement, or compatible with microtargeted content marketing. It was better, yes, but less economically efficient. Weep for all those eyeballs, all that content, just sitting there with no clear mental model of how to use them to provide great brand experiences.