I blogged last time about why people might not use WP vs. LJ on technical grounds, namely that it doesn’t have some of the most important privacy features of LJ. (There is also the icon commenting versatility thing, but so far I haven’t seen anyone really talk that up as a problem, and I’m not sure how important it is to the average LJ user. Before anyone comments, yes, I know you can have as many icons you want when posting on your WP blog thanks to various plugins, but Gravatars and other similar services only allow you one icon when commenting.)

Thing is, the “push” factor (LJ’s various missteps) has obviously not been strong enough. Similarly, there is a lack of a “pull factor,” something to convince people to leave LJ. In other words, it’s the “all my friends are on LJ and so there is no reason for me to leave.” Basically then, until LJ falls down, or someone invents something that is an improvement, technically, based on the existing needs and wants of the LJ users then LJ users have a compelling reason to switch. WP is much more powerful as a blogging software, but much less powerful as a social networking software.

I think that Dreamwidth may be one such alternative, because it is a fork of LJ, which is attempting to preserve the benefits of LJ, and build on them, while fixing LJ’s defects. I’m on the discussion ML for the project, and they seem to be full of ideas of how to better improve the features and interface, both in terms of blogging and social networking.