One of the appeals of LJ is that it is not full of bells and whistles converting everyone into Pavlovian vampires or pirates. It is also a more community orientated and thesauric in nature.

Ah, but that's just a different way of doing memes and quizzes, one that suits Fb better; some I like, some I dislike, but it's not so different from the people who perpetually post "what thingy am I" here.

You're right though, and the way you've explained the Fb problem is better than the way I have, and yes, the lack of marketing acumen does at times astound me, especially when they launched Vox, a service which essentially exists to compete with LJ and takes attention from it.