| fire-retarded |
[16 Mar 2008|05:00pm] |
Pay attention, all you paid account holders (you know, those who think the recent decision to pull the basic account structure doesn't affect you). During the many years I've been on LJ, I've gone from Early Adopter (my first account ~ remember when you needed an 'invite code'?) to Basic, to Paid, then watched LJ bounce from  brad to Six Apart, and now to SUP. In that time, we heard several things from the powers that be, first that LJ would never have ads. Then, it turns out that wasn't quite true, and the Plus account structure was born... but, it was ok, they said, because you would never be forced to have them. The option to have a very limited, ad-free account would always be there... right? Nope. They've now done away with that (something that was predicted a year earlier by seasoned LJ users, hence the  no_lj_ads community). According to stewardess and other sources, SUP has been manipulating LJ's 'most popular interests' to exclude things like fanfiction, sex, faeries, gay/lesbian relations and depression. Can we say 'WTF'?? Apparently, SUP is ashamed of the bulk of its userbase. Nice. There has been no official response, as of yet.
Further, there are new predictions, namely that SUP eventually (within the next year) plans to also do away with paid accounts. Their stance on this seems to be that, if (and when) advertising revenue exceeds the cost of paid accounts, they may consider it, but not until then. It's all about the almighty dollar, folks.
Now, don't get me wrong... I recognize that LJ is a business, and they have to make money because everything costs money. However, I don't feel that ignoring the advice of their so-called 'Advisory Board' and making a substantial change to the account structure without even telling anyone is more than a load of bullshit. I would further make a few more predictions..
1) Eventually, all content marked 'Adult' will no longer be public. You will need to have an account to see it, thereby allowing them to make a bit more money on advertising.
2) Basic accounts will disappear completely. They've already taken away the option of creating more.. will it really be such a blow later on to take them away for good?
I am saddened to see such a valuable contributor to the blogging phenomenon go swiftly down into the flames. As of today, my main journal has been moved to another site. I may still post here (while my paid account is active) but 2009 will mark the end of LJ for me, forever, unless they do some serious backtracking and ass-kissing. I don't have a crystal ball, but I don't predict that happening... do you?
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