[info]amenosakura in [info]07refugees

mood: contemplative
I don't know if anyone has noticed, but LJ's bringing basic accounts back by the end of the summer for the Northern Hemisphere.

Thoughts? Comments?

Posted on Jul. 17th, 2008 at 10:37 am | | Leave a comment | Add to Memories | Tell a Friend

Comments


[info]davensjournal

Too little too late IMO
Posted on Jul. 17th, 2008 12:50 pm (UTC) | | Thread | Reply

[info]mercurychaos

Agreed.
Posted on Jul. 17th, 2008 02:13 pm (UTC) | | Parent | Reply

[info]elfwreck

They're bringing them back... with ads. Of some sort. They're deciding where to put the ads.

Note that they could decide to use all four options they mention; nothing makes them exclusive.

LJ Basic may become "just like Plus, only without the extra features, oh, and you don't see ads on YOUR journal when you're logged in."
Posted on Jul. 17th, 2008 12:52 pm (UTC) | | Reply

[info]lilithilien

Just another sign of their stupidity. Now that they've backtracked on all their previous mistakes, it's even more obvious that they could have avoided this entire mess (strikethrough, boldthrough, basic accounts) with just a little common sense and forethought. Instead ... well, they've lost my trust forever.
Posted on Jul. 17th, 2008 01:04 pm (UTC) | | Thread | Reply

[info]snakeling

Though to be honest, strikethrough/boldthrough wasn't them at all; it was 6Apart. At least SUP is willing to learn from their mistakes?
Posted on Jul. 17th, 2008 01:29 pm (UTC) | | Parent | Thread | Reply

[info]elfwreck

Strikethrough/Boldthrough was 6A. However, the new owners:
1) Never apologized for it,
2) Never said, "oh, we won't ever do that to you" (and let's not think about how much such a promise would be worth),
3) DID and still are blocking some interest searches,
4) Removed some interests from the "most popular" page,
5) Continued to enforce the schizoid and irrational "no erotic depictions of cartoon characters" rule, until they'd figured out how to change it.

They've also declined to allow people banned under Strikethrough or the previous Nipplegate rulings to get their accounts back. So they fully support Strikethrough, even if they've decided to use different methods in the future.
Posted on Jul. 17th, 2008 01:37 pm (UTC) | | Parent | Reply

[info]xie_xie_xie

I know that's technically correct, but I suspect that some of the more egregious acts of stupidity at LiveJournal were instigated by SUP, who was already involved in LiveJournal's operations in Russia with Six Apart. I believe this for two reasons:

One, it's not like that deal happened overnight; for some period, probably months but perhaps longer, they were discussing it and negotiating. You'd have to think if SUP had some concerns, Six Apart might have been working on addressing them so the deal could happen. It was an open secret that they wanted to dump LJ.

Two, and for me this is the most telling, NONE of SixApart's other blogging companies has rules like this, nor does idiotic things like this. If they tried to get bloggers to "flag" our TypePad blogs for "adult content"? The entire blogosphere would go up in flames.

We may never know, but I suspect SUP had far more to do with these things than SixApart.
Posted on Jul. 17th, 2008 01:57 pm (UTC) | | Parent | Thread | Reply

[info]scorpio

I completely agree. They were most likely catoring to SUP before they actually handed it over. They had to get their money's worth SOMEHOW and if implementing stupid features was the only way, then so be it. If flagging was six aparts idea, it would definitely have made it onto Vox FIRST. It's not on Vox period.
Posted on Jul. 19th, 2008 11:53 am (UTC) | | Parent | Reply

[info]haruka

I'm just waiting to see if the ads will be applied to the existing basic accounts that were created years ago. If that happens, I'll get another chance to say 'I told you so' to the people who haven't moved yet.
Posted on Jul. 17th, 2008 01:52 pm (UTC) | | Thread | Reply

[info]randomsome1

OT: Icon love! :D
Posted on Jul. 17th, 2008 05:00 pm (UTC) | | Parent | Thread | Reply

[info]haruka

I didn't make it -- if anyone does, let me know and I'll gladly credit.
Posted on Jul. 17th, 2008 06:55 pm (UTC) | | Parent | Reply

[info]nanny_ashtoreth

All basic accts will get ads. So says the mighty Marta.
Posted on Jul. 18th, 2008 12:12 pm (UTC) | | Parent | Thread | Reply

[info]haruka

Yeah, I saw that linked here and passed it to the people still wondering.

It's going to make going to see my LJ Friends just that much more aggravating.
Posted on Jul. 18th, 2008 12:17 pm (UTC) | | Parent | Thread | Reply

[info]nanny_ashtoreth

Oops, didn't read down far enough.

I know what you mean. I'm seriously at the point of considering how much of the hassle is actually worth it.
Posted on Jul. 18th, 2008 12:30 pm (UTC) | | Parent | Thread | Reply

[info]haruka

Ditto. I bought my three best LJ Friends permanent accounts here to try and entice them but after a week or so they stopped dual-posting here and everything is over at LJ still. It's like beating my head against a wall. :(
Posted on Jul. 18th, 2008 12:37 pm (UTC) | | Parent | Thread | Reply

[info]scorpio

wow are you kidding? if someone bought me a permanent account I'd use it FOREVER XD I have an early contributor account on Inksome and I will NEVER stop using that.
Posted on Jul. 19th, 2008 11:54 am (UTC) | | Parent | Thread | Reply

[info]haruka

No, I'm not kidding. I thought it was only fair that if I was going to bring them over here I should fix it so they wouldn't have to deal with ads. It was worth a try, I guess.

I'd not heard of Inksome, but it looks neat. Too bad you need codes to sign up.
Posted on Jul. 19th, 2008 03:15 pm (UTC) | | Parent | Thread | Reply

[info]scorpio

yeah, fortunately it's open to paid users right now though :) actually the only reason it was open to the public to begin with was because the owner needed to pay for hosting without ads, otherwise it would still be in beta testing :/ fortunately everything works smoothly over there.
Posted on Jul. 19th, 2008 08:41 pm (UTC) | | Parent | Thread | Reply

[info]haruka

I actually bought two paid accounts there today after following some links in your userinfo but I haven't heard back on whether my payment was accepted yet.
Posted on Jul. 19th, 2008 08:43 pm (UTC) | | Parent | Thread | Reply

[info]scorpio

oh, that's cool. well i hope it got worked out :) feel free to add me if you like over there too. my account name is "Bulma".
Posted on Jul. 21st, 2008 03:20 am (UTC) | | Parent | Thread | Reply

[info]haruka

It's all set now. :)

I'll let you look at my userinfo and decide if you want to Friend me, just in case anything is a turn-off: http://www.inksome.com/users/haruka/profile
Posted on Jul. 21st, 2008 08:11 am (UTC) | | Parent | Reply

[info]blktauna

couldn't care less what they do now. I'm gone from their madness and happy for it.
Posted on Jul. 17th, 2008 02:10 pm (UTC) | | Reply

[info]wolfsilveroak

I got the email about it. I laughed, hard.
Posted on Jul. 17th, 2008 02:52 pm (UTC) | | Reply

[info]twistedchick

In the announcement about 'bringing back basic accounts' they also spent even more time talking about how to put advertising on those basic accounts. So, not so basic.
Posted on Jul. 17th, 2008 03:58 pm (UTC) | | Reply

[info]continua

I was all 'eh' about this until I read this thread.

This new ad policy will apply to ALL basic accounts, no matter how old, not just the new ones.

So, essentially, all basic accounts will become Plus accounts. Great.
Posted on Jul. 17th, 2008 06:07 pm (UTC) | | Thread | Reply

[info]nekocat

Didn't a bunch of people pretty much predict this back when basic accounts got eliminated?
Posted on Jul. 17th, 2008 06:42 pm (UTC) | | Parent | Thread | Reply

[info]continua

They did. I always assumed it would happen, I just didn't think it would happen quite this soon. :rolls eyes at own stupidity:
Posted on Jul. 17th, 2008 07:03 pm (UTC) | | Parent | Reply

[info]apotheosis

I don't know if I did publicly, though I remember mentioning to a friend that this is exactly what was going to happen eventually.

Needless to say, this is one of those times I wish I wasn't right.
Posted on Jul. 17th, 2008 07:15 pm (UTC) | | Parent | Thread | Reply

[info]scorpio

yep, it's kinda like gas prices. jack it up really high within the course of a week, then bring it down a few pennies over a few weeks so that people will go "ooo that's so cheap!" when it really isn't. same thing with basic accounts. take them away so people will get mad, then when you bring them back shittier they will go "ooo i'm so happy!" unfortunately for them, we're not all that stupid.
Posted on Jul. 19th, 2008 11:57 am (UTC) | | Parent | Reply

[info]mythicdove

I am so glad I left LJ last June for good.

Posted on Jul. 17th, 2008 09:36 pm (UTC) | | Reply

[info]heiko

Basically, if it means ads on my basic account for lack of anything, it's still a crap 'çompromise'
Posted on Jul. 20th, 2008 10:29 pm (UTC) | | Thread | Reply

[info]scorpio

it's a crapromise XD
Posted on Jul. 21st, 2008 03:21 am (UTC) | | Parent | Reply