Well, I checked back tonight, just to see how things were going.
I honestly don't know what to say. The voting on all this doesn't end for several months, I think, and a lot can happen between then and now. When I discovered LiveJournal in August, I was user 11,697... it has only been about nine months, LiveJournal is at 130,000 users, and somehow everything in my life has changed. Last August, I had just left a company that was in the process of destroying everything there I cared about. It's a common experience in the Silicon Valley perhaps, but I just felt betrayed again. That's probably a large part of why I gravitated towards LiveJournal. I was sick of having to not be myself 24/7 and of making emotional sacrifices to my work, only to have everything undermined by the whole dehumanizing corporate experience. I wanted something better and I wanted to be myself, and somehow LiveJournal and I found each other.
LiveJournal really helped reawaken my voice, which had been buried in unloved labors, cynicism, and the hopelessness of escape from the rat race. I wish I had more hours in the day to fully express how I feel, or to show all of you and all of LiveJournal how much I really appreciate your support for the site. It means a lot to me personally, because I feel like my innermost thoughts, ideas, and feelings have been vindicated. It doesn't really matter whether LiveJournal wins a Webby or not, really. LiveJournal works, and our souls are not for sale. You can't buy us. We've already won.
