naanima | LJ - Once More With Feeling?

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lj:why

LJ - Once More With Feeling?

Livejournal no longer offers Basic Accounts.

Fair enough, it is a good commercial move.

Idiotic, because once more LJ did not notify their users, then again they didn’t lose that much business over the last SNAFU so I don’t see why they have to worry this time around.

I have nothing to worry about (yet) since I have a permanent account but I wonder what will become of annual fic-remixes and other fic competitions. This ought to make the fandom geography more interesting.

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Holy fuck why.

WHAT ARE YOU DOING, LJ. WHAT ARE YOU DOING

I think they are attempting to become a fully commercial beast and is not afraid to lose a section of their market, since I'm not well informed in the area could mean they will make more money.

Either way the move on a PR and ethical level is rather, um, stupid, even if they haven't done anything illegal.

I'm sticking with LJ until they pry my cold dead fingers from it.

At least they're not taking away the Basic Account option for those who already have it.

Yet? Feh. *sigh*

It is the nature of a money making beast. I don't actually have anything against the shift but I'm against the way they went about doing it.

I think, Basic accounts will be completely removed in all its forms at some point in the future. I mean that's what I would do if I owned LJ, but unlike them I would actually explain all the reasons of why I'm doing it and actually ley my clients know.

*Sigh*

*mutters darkly, sighs, agrees with you*

and RP journals :( :(

they should at least give paid and permanent users the option to create more basic journals, what. even if it's only a limited number per year.

Oh man, I completely forgot about the RP journals.

give paid and permanent users the option to create more basic journals,

That is an awesome idea, and it is actually a great way to generate more paid users.

i seem to recall they made a move like this a while back - only people with paid journals could create new ones. it was a temporary setup though, back before LJ was 6A. i don't think people liked it much.

Really?

I think it was either before my time or it was during my period of RL-insanity. I don't personally see anything wrong with it, I mean if I get free tokens I would just end up giving them away to people who need them.

Like I said in my post, it doesn't bother me that they're discontinuing it as an option. But, I think they're incredibly dumb for not announcing it, and for only putting it in a FAQ.

Me too. It may sound harsh but the truth of the matter is that it doesn't effect me one bit.

But agreement on the dumb decision not to announce it. But I doubt it will effect them much since the last SNAFU didn't really effect them much in the grand scheme of things.

Yeah, because they're perm. I put more links up. Someone wrote a post saying that basically "yeah, people are going to scream and go on, but in the end, most people aren't going to care enough to actually leave."

Sad but true, I think one of the reasons I can't get much of reaction is because LJ has become less of an interaction sport on my part. I read and I comment but I don't really offer much. RL doesn't really allow me the time to be as involved in LJ as I use to. Yes, I would miss it if I no longer have an account, but there are other matters that are taking up my time, and fandom will always survive, it is just a matter of finding a different platform.

Yeah.... Fandom will always survive, even if LJ falls into the sea. XD Which the English part might end up doing.

I wonder if fandom will go back to yahoo groups? Or maybe we will mass migrate to forums. Lately I have been missing author websites; places where I can find all the fics in one place without additional comments. Clean background and text, that's all I want.

Evolution of fandom; I am REALLY curious ^__^V

I doubt it, really. Personally, I think it will be some kind of blog-form again. Maybe it'll go to something MySpacelike or facebook like. (but hopefully decentralized.)

I'm thinking something completely different. MySpace is too garish to really attract fandom at large, and facebook doesn't allow for the building of relationships nor the sense of community. There is nothing meaningful in facebook. The only thing I can think of is something like Wordpress, and rather than one large server people will be everywhere.

A question - why is it that you don't like the idea of a centralised fandom? I'm very curious. I like a centralised area for the simple reason that I'm lazy, and it is much easier if to find fics and other items of consumption if it is all centralised in one area.

Really? Facebook must be good for something though, so why do so many people use it?

See, but having people be on one large server, as I see it, is fundamentally not a good thing, because this is exactly what is causing the present angst.

Facebook, um, Facebook is a way to connect with people; it is more of a networking tool, a way for people to keep in contact without effort. Someone wants to be your friend, you click yes, and then you really don't have to interact with them again. There isn't a function for you to make a post, just your profile and MILLIONS of applications in the form of games or questionnaires. I have an account because of work but I don't use it.

See, but having people be on one large server, as I see it, is fundamentally not a good thing, because this is exactly what is causing the present angst.

I'm not sure I agree with you because it seems to be the content that is under attack and not that most of the text-based fandom is on LJ. Sixpart (or whatever it is now) wants to go public or become more attractive to advertisers who would not want to be related, say, fanfiction, fanart of gay porn. So, to me, it doesn't matter where fandom moves; either congregate on one server or splintering off into a million servers, if the political climates calls for witch hunt than everyone is in trouble.

Ah, I guess. It just seems really useless for really conversing with people.

Other places are allowing the content, really. If you own the server or are with a more lenient host, the content may be hosted. If you are paying for your own stuff, you don't have to care what advertisers think. In any case, if the political climate is what it is (and you're right that the government is leaning heavily on social networking sites), it's even more useless to try to convince LJ of anything.

It just seems really useless for really conversing with people.

EXACTLY! It is completely useless, there is no avenue for communication and while it is fun for the first hour (all the applications) as far as I'm concerned it is completely redundant for anything deeper than having a list of names.

See, at the end of the day I think LJ is doing the right, they are just doing it in a really retarded way. I'm actually kind of confused why people are so angry about the end of basic accounts. I mean it is afterall still a free service. Not so much problem with the cahnges, HUGE issues with the way the changes were introduced.

Indeed! I just don't understand it! I tried to blog with the notes function, but everyone ignored me. :P

I am too. Sabina (she studies business) was saying that you shouldn't revoke a level of service, but I think that it's simply to be expected when a new group takes over. /shrug. However, like you, I just think that was seriously so stupid. And just recently with the new spokesperson they hired, they were improving their customer relations...

but everyone ignored me. :P

That's what happened to me! And if one more person poke me I'm going to kick them.

Sabina is right, you don't ever revoke a service you once offered, and you try to RETAIN your LOYAL client base with tooth and nail. New customers are always more difficult to retain. The thing with business is that it is all COMMON SENSE. The customer relations person was an awesome addition and I honestly thought they were going to get smarter about their PR but they fail miserably.

I don't think LJ want to get rid of fandom, they just want to hide it from potential business interests, which is actually a smart decision, but WHY THE STUPID WAY OF ACCOMPLISHING IT?!

So I don't understand... I can't even communicate with people well. (Or maybe native poor communication skillz? XD)

Yes... since LJ works on a social networking thing, you can't antagonize the existing customers. The thing is, I just don't understand why their communication is so poor.

Yeah... But how do you tell fandom that they're not acceptable for company without pissing them off? That would be a rare feat.

(Who need communication skillz when there are obsessions to write essays on?! :D)

I don't know, I keep on thinking that there has to be someone with a PR degree on their board but I'm obviously mistaken. Also, while they are making good commercial decisions I'm slightly concerned about future fallouts. All they need is one unethical act (lying about the interest statistics) to make it onto the 6 o’clock news and it is all over for them. The fallout from that can be potentially their business.

Oh gods, don't get me started on how reactive fandom is. I've been biting my tongue (or would be that finger) for awhile now to not comment on certain fandom-stupidity. I find fandom's negative reaction to money-making ventures (business sense) to be highly insane.

I have no idea. I'm sure if they asked the people in support or somewhere they actually communicate with users, they would have told them that sneaking it in like that was a bad idea. :P It speaks miles that some confused upper management dude wandered in and started giving clearly BS explanations.

Yeaaah. I think someone SHOULD start talking to fandom though, on that. At least fandom will listen. I think LJ is rather a lost cause. They don't listen to people inside of their house: employees, the ADVISORY board is ignored. Soo.... what's the chances that they will listen to random users?

clearly BS explanations. That made me roll eyes, it was just so horribly thought out, and really you could tell they screwed up their communication right then and there.

I think fandom, or at least the semi-reasonable ones understand why LJ need to make money, but is highly concerned with the way LJ seem to be ignoring other alternatives for source of income, and instead is taking the easy way out (removing Basic accounts). I mean LJ can monitories components; userpics, edit capability, mobile posts and so forth, and people would pay for those single components. But alas they didn't even think about other alternatives and just removed the Basic accounts with no announcements and ignored their Advisory board completely (BTW: I see that Brad is really pissed, as he should).

Either way LJ/SUP has screwed up way too many times, and I'm really not that attached to their service so much as the people, and if they leave I leave.

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LJ - Once More With Feeling?

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