On that whole upcoming LJ strike thingy...

[dangermousie]

There supposed to be an LJ strike for March 21, 2008 (a.k.a. this Friday).

Apparently people are pissed off LJ got rid of Basic Accounts (few features, free) accounts for any users who will join from now on, and thus, for prospective users, only either has the option of Plus Accounts (free for you, more features, with ads) or Paid Accounts (you pay, lots of features, no ads).

I guess as a sort of boycott it makes sense as a market measure if you are disgruntled.

Only I am not.

LJ is a business. There is nothing weird or evil in wanting to maximize your profits.

They aren't taking a Basic Account away from anyone who already has it. They are not obligated to provide a service to a user for free, i.e. expend resources on something that brings them indirect benefits (other paid/plus users liking LJ because of reading someone else's basic journal) at best. Offering a choice between either a paid membership or free membership during which you have to look at some ads makes sense to me and is hardly the evil dictatorship apocalypse.

In interests of disclosure, I have a Permanent Account, had a Paid Account for ages before that, and I think most of people whose LJs I read are either Permanent, Paid, or Plus. Though even if it was Basic, they'd be able to keep it, so it makes no difference to my flist at all. And as for prospective future flisters, seriously, is anyone who I am likely to want to friend for their insightful and witty takes on hot guys going to be deferred by switch from Basic to Plus? You've got to be kidding me.

This is a long-winded way to say that, no, I won't be participating in the LJ strike.

Expect blab as usual.

Comments

[kathputli-girl.livejournal.com]

You know, I totally agree with you. I don't get what the big deal is. Whenever I recommend LJ to anybody I always suggest they get the plus account anyway (you get more icons!). Who cares if there are ads - it's not like you have to pay any attention to them. I'm not going to participate either (but that's more on the side of because I am addicted to LJ and can't stay away from the thing! haah).

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

Heee! I am addicted too!

Btw, I watched all the Filfare hosting bits and they are hilarious. Have you seen them?

[meganbmoore.livejournal.com]

Yeah...I don't quite get it myself. There are so, so, so many better things to be outraged over...

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

Exactly.

[shewhohashope.livejournal.com]

Well, I don't really have a problem with it, but they didn't go the best way about telling people, and it seems to be the straw that broke the camel's back for a lot of people.

And Friday? Good Friday? How many people are going to be posting anyway?

If you're going to strike, do it when they'll notice.

[wasabi-girl1.livejournal.com]

I'll probably inadvertedly end up not posting, mostly because it will be Good Friday and I will be busy doing other stuff...But I really don't think it's necessary.

[janlake83.livejournal.com]

i would agree with you, most new users i know would go for the plus not the basic since it has more features, yeah there are adds but like so does everything unless you pay for it.... and i have a paid account and i love it.....

[thelana.livejournal.com]

You know me. I care about every little ruckus in fandom and mull and post about it. This one? Went there. Read the posts. Still don't care.

I think the wisest thing was said right at the beginning, that there is no way that they are going to persuade people to move unless the next place is actually an upgrade/next step in the technical progression whatever it might be.

[ancarett]

Even if I agreed with the strike idea, it will be pointless. It will not have a big impact on the company's numbers. (I worked for a dotcom. I ran numbers for them on community use broke down by all sorts of things. Even when we had catastrophes like the day that our log-in system went down or one of our message board systems went belly-up? Didn't have an impact on the overall numbers. Maybe if they were striking for a week or a month? Maybe.)

I have had my problems with LJ but I've yet to see anyone of the alternatives that really strikes me as robust and worth sinking my money into all over again.

[gingifere.livejournal.com]

Whilst I'm not going to take part in the strike I think a lot of people are irritated and angry at the interview with SUP representative Anton Nosik. However as you pointed out, it's unlikely to affect me.

[autumn-yaar.livejournal.com]

I don't really care about the free account stuff, I'm more pissed off about the censoring.

[kathputli-girl.livejournal.com]

I've only watched a few bits here and there, but what I was waas hysterical! 8D

[artic-fox.livejournal.com]

LOL, I read the strike stuff in someone's community, and was like WTF, I'm not dissatisfied with LJ! Sure there are minor issues sometimes (notifications!) but that is technical rather than any decisions they have made that affect me or my flist. If I had a problem they would know about it, and I'm not unrealistic enough to expect that these sorts of huge communities can be run perfectly 100% of the time.

Le sigh.

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

Also, how many people will even be striking? And what is the number among them who don't post daily anyway? The percentage is tiny!

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

I think they fixed the interests thing.

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

I know nothing about Nosik (in Russian, his last name means 'little nose' LOL) but as long as I get my icons and space to blab about dramas, I won't complain too much :)

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

It will not have a big impact on the company's numbers.

Exactly. Amount of people striking will be tiny and it's not as if most people post daily anyway.

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

Yup. Is there a better alternative so far? Nope.

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

Exactly.

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

The fact that they picked Good friday is seriously bad timing for them...

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

LOL at icon

[artic-fox.livejournal.com]

No, it seems a rather pointless action to me. Especially considering they are telling us the DAY BEFORE. (Well, it is already the 20th here, so it is the day before for me)

[endlessdeep.livejournal.com]

I thought I was the only one who didn't care. I tried to be outraged, but I just couldn't get there. My account is permanent and I already have all the free accounts I need, so I have nothing to be mad about. And what you said about LJ being a business is so true.

[main-hoon-emily.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I don't get it either. If they were getting rid of all free accounts or something I could see being upset about it, but what's the big deal?

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

Exactly.

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

Seriously, you get some ads. Such is life...

[saturnhime.livejournal.com]

I switched from a Basic to a plus account a long while ago, and I don't even pay attention to the ads... so I really don't see what the big deal is. *shrugs*

[grace-om.livejournal.com]

Well, this is the first I've heard of a "strike", so I guess it's not *that* widely known. LOL!

I am pretty ad aversive though. I have a free account (for fan fun), which I gather is grandfathered, and a permanent account (about my pro-writing efforts). So, I'm not going anywhere unless I'm forced to have and look at ads. But if I was looking to start a new blog, I'd be looking for someplace with free accounts and no ads for subscribers. Hence, I wonder if it will reduce the numbers of new people wanting to come to LJ--people I might want to friend if they were here. Sure, LJ has every right to do it, but it could have a negative effect on the overall ambiance of the place.

[fire-snake.livejournal.com]

I have a plus account. So, I have to skip a few ads now and then, so what? It's not like I have never been exposed to them before and haven't learned how to tune them out completely. On top of which, some of them are at least amusing:) If I can happily delete all the spams in my e-mail without going insane, this is small potatoes.

[beardoggx.livejournal.com]

I agreed with everything you said.

[lazypadawan.livejournal.com]

Me neither. I fail to see what it would accomplish and well, LJ has a right to make money. That's what it is in business for. If LJ bugs you that much, then cancel your account and go on your merry way.

[wasabi-girl1.livejournal.com]

Also, I have a Plus Account, and I get the most AWESOME/HILARIOUS Bollywood ads of all time. I actually look FORWARD to them! O_o

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

Heeee.

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

Yeah.

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

But why would a site really have a lot of no ads/free stuff? Not very profitable.

Basically, if there was a better alternative to lj, I'd migrate, but for now, I haven't found one.

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

Word

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

Seems like such a pointless thing to protest over.

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

Exactly. Fandom amazes me sometimes.

[village.livejournal.com]

I have a free (read: basic) account actually. I would get a plus (because I never see plus account ads anyway) but I don't want any people that read my journal who use IE to suffer through the ads (one day I might bite though for the 15 icons). Honestly, I think if I signed up to LJ today, I'd have no problem getting the plus account - there are so few places on the internet that are ad-less that it would make no difference to me (besides Firefox gets rid of most of them anyway). *shrug*

Honestly though, and this will probably come across as overly harsh, but I can't bring myself to be concerned about the LJ-less masses who may or may not sign up because this new change. And as someone who has had her LJ for years upon years upon years, I'm glad to see LJ cares enough not to screw the longtime users.

So, in conclusion, I would like to suggest that all new users get Firefox. ;)

[grace-om.livejournal.com]

But why would a site really have a lot of no ads/free stuff? Not very profitable.

Blogger manages somehow. Of course they belong to Google now, so maybe they run Blogger as a loss leader. Though, as blogger doesn't facilitate "social networking," it really isn't a substitute for LJ. Vox also seems to manage somehow, but Vox (at least so far) just doesn't have the content LJ still has.

As for LJ, I bet they could (and think they do, to some extent) inflict ads on non-registered readers, but not on logged-in members. What TPTB keep forgetting is that LJ users are not *just* consumers of a product or eyeballs to sell to the highest bidder (though we are those things too), users provide the content that draws other users. Without that content, LJ would just be empty servers. So, imo, the relationship is (or should be) a bit more symbiotic than the typical customer vs. service provider relationship -- like, say, a webhost service or isp. I think this is why people get so outraged on both sides.

Basically, if there was a better alternative to lj, I'd migrate, but for now, I haven't found one.

Yes. Me too. I don't do "flouncing." I'll stick around as long as there is content I want to read.