Rec: Synecdochic's essays on LJ, money and the like

To be scrupulously precise, LJ is a hybrid of social media site, social network, personal-publishing platform, and content management system -- but I digress.

This is a quotation from synecdochic's fascinating and immensely illuminating series of three essays on advertising and social media sites. Part One (with links to the rest) is here. I enjoyed it very much.