Girls who like Boys who like Boys – Ethnography of ... - Yuuyami.com

participation: In order to limit server traffic, LiveJournal instigated a codesystem,
allowing members to pass on codes to friends or to keep these codes
for themselves. These alphanumeric short passwords would allow that friend
or the member in question to open a free LiveJournal account. 8 As
LiveJournal acquired the financial means to expand its servers and business,
the issue of server traffic was no longer relevant, which caused the
management to abandon the code system. This abandonment of the code
system was not undebated, and some online journal domains utilizing the
LiveJournal source code still operate on it.
The way in which
LiveJournal, and other
journals based on
LiveJournal’s structure,
have moved the concept
of an online journal even
more from a semi-private
into an increasingly semi-
Figure 3: A LiveJournal post with threaded
comments
8 LiveJournal also allows the option to have a paid account. At the period that the code system
was still utilized, these paid accounts had additional benefits: they allowed for customizations
of friendslist (i.e. the individual would be able to elect certain people from her/his friendslist
and could publish certain posts viewable to only these people). Other options included certain
pre-made journal layouts as well as individual layout customizations, additional
“userpictures” and so forth. While codes were still the main vehicle to receive a free account,
another benefit for paid journals was that they would receive a certain amount of free codes.
After codes were abolished paid journals still maintained a number of benefits, though, clearly,
a “wealth” in terms of codes was no longer one of them. Neither was allowing customization
of friendslist groups.
35