Typeanalyzer says Linux Journal is one of The Guardians. That is,

The organizing and efficient type. They are especially attuned to setting goals and managing available resources to get the job done. Once they´ve made up their mind on something, it can be quite difficult to convince otherwise. They listen to hard facts and can have a hard time accepting new or innovative ways of doing things.

The Guardians are often happy working in highly structured work environments where everyone knows the rules of the job. They respect authority and are loyal team players.

"The Guardian" is one characterizations of the ESTJ psychological type. ESTJ stands for Extroverted, Sensing, Thinking and Judging. It's opposite would be Introverted, Intuitive, Feeling and Perceiving. Those eight characterizations combine to produce sixteen different types an ESTJ, by Myers-Briggs type characterization, of which ESTJ is one.

These are all part of the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator, or MBTI, which derives its variables from the typological theories of Carl Jung.

There are many typology tests you can take to determine your own personal profile. Here's one I just took. As usual, it shows me to be an ENFP: "The Inspirer"). I have a feeling that Linux itself is an ISTJ ("The Duty Fulfiller"), while Linus is an INTJ: ("The Scientist")

Typeanalyser also says my own blog is INTP: "The Thinker", which it describes as "The logical and analytical type. They are especialy attuned to difficult creative and intellectual challenges and always look for something more complex to dig into. They are great at finding subtle connections between things and imagine far-reaching implications."

Of course, these kinds of things are simplistic and maybe even misleading. But they can also be fun, which is one reason why I found it interesting that somebody troubled to come up with a way to characterize the psychology of websites.

That somebody would be PRfekt, out of Sweden. On its home page, Mattias Östmar says, "The PRfekt vision is to provide insights that help people, as individuals or consumers, get more out of life - without filling out disturbing questionnaires or having to give up their anonymity!"

So it appears to be safe to have fun with it.

__________________________

Doc Searls is Senior Editor of Linux Journal