On LJ and ads.

[arib]

Apparently, the folks who run Livejournal have decided to do away with their "free" tier of service, leaving only "paid" and "ad-supported" levels.

This seems to have caused a kerfuffle amongst some LJ bloggers to the tune of "how dare they take away this totally free thing they've been giving me, and replace with a totally free thing with the same functionality, but some ads so they can make money! Rar!"

I have one paid LJ (this one), and one ad-supported LJ (my old reparo account.) From what I've seen, the ads are fairly benign, and are on par with the sorts of banner ads that can be seen on sites like cnn.com, or the bbc's news site outside of the UK (or on webcomics like Sluggy or SP). They're relatively inoccuous, and easily ignored.

Could someone please tell me what all the fuss is?

(Furthermore, could someone explain to me how holders of "free" accounts boycotting or leaving LJ would any sort of affect on them?)

Comments

[sundancekid.livejournal.com]

It's not as much about what they did as how they did it. They didn't announce they were getting rid of free ads -- normally that would warrant a post to the news comm, but instead an LJ staffer just mentioned it in a comment, and their explanation was that having three choices was "too complicated," so they got rid of a choice. We're not dumb. They did it because free accounts don't make them any money. (Although I would argue that free accounts are a good draw to get people to sign up, and then *become* paying members.) So it's about the fact that they did it, didn't mention they were doing it, and claimed it was because their users are too stupid to figure out how to choose among three.

[arib.livejournal.com]

That's a fairly crappy business practice, I agree.

(That said, have you met the average internet/computer user? They may not be entirely wrong... *grin*)

[guppiecat]

Actually, it WAS announced in the Russian version of the news. I attribute the problems to poor communications post-acquisition. Business-wise, I think it makes perfect sense.

[sundancekid.livejournal.com]

Also, apparently the president of SUP (our new overlords) has said in interviews that he doesn't consider himself accountable to LJ users, that he considers the proposed content strike on Friday "blackmail," positions I find troubling.

It sucks that even if things get really bad, there's nowhere else to go. JournalFen has serious problems, and IJ just doesn't have the money or servers to support the kind of traffic LJ does. *frustrated*

[arib.livejournal.com]

As much as Aliza and my sister nudge, I don't see myself moving over to facebook any time soon, either.

(I know, different sort of service, but it's a timesuck I don't need right now.)