the Goat's been sold!

Doomsday is coming soon!  For those who haven't heard, LJ's founder brad has finally admitted that he did sell out LJ to the MovableType people.  He did this for a very understandable reason—he would rather write computer programs than run a business.  Still, there are some worrisome elements in his announcement.  Let me prime the rumor mill with these between-the-lines implications that I see in his text:

• The most immediate noticable effect is expected to be that LJ will "get prettier".  This suggests that we will never get the USENET-style interface that many have wanted, as it would divert people from seeing the new glitz and the spamvertisements that Brad says will never come.
• Paidmember prices are not changing in order not to "anger people unnecessarily".  I predict that the price will go up after six months.
• The new Terms of Service will be less user-friendly and more lawyer-friendly and you will be prohibited from posting until you agree to them.  This may imply a general clean-up of LJ to be more lawyer-friendly.  Perhaps everyone's favorite communities, like show_your_cock and show_your_pussy, will be banned by the lawyers as too legally risky to allow.
• LJ will be mass-suspending the journals of people who seem to have been lying about their age.  Be sure to back up your journal in case this random scourge gets you!
• "We feel that there's a lot of synergy between our two companies and we both benefit from this relationship by bringing a lot of value-add to the table.  By focusing on our core competencies we can continue to provide robust, turn-key, industry-leading solutions while also lowering Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) to our valued clients."  Brad claims that this text is "gibberish" but he said it anyway.  What it seems to mean to me is that LJ will be following SixApart's lead in rachetting up prices on their products.
• New additions to LJ will no longer be open-source.  Future enhancements to LJ will be closed-source.  No one will be able to see all the hacks the FBI will insist that they add in order to track the journals of suspicious persons.  Brad will be insisting (at least for awhile) that the "infrastructure guts" remain open-source, but the new "pretty" software will be hoarded.

So what can you do about this catastrophe?  There are some things you really should do:

1. Back up your journal!
2. Back up the comments on your journal!
3. Back up your user-icons and pictures!
4. (Paidmembers only) Enable the option that sends you emailed copies of any comments you make on other people's journal.

This has been a public-service announcement.