Yeah, that boycott

[bryant]

Have you seen Insanejournal's home page? They don't actually provide ad-free accounts either.

Also, what he said. Which you can't read, because it's locked. Well, patchworkkid said "With all the crap that's going on in the world, people are getting het up about Livejournal? Spend some time watching the news." But better, since he's a writer of some skill.

Comments

[telepresence.livejournal.com]

Enh, maybe in the original form it's better, but I generally take a dim view of "why get upset about such and such a thing when there's starving children/war/etc." line of argument.

And the boycott isn't particularly about LJ not providing basic accounts or companies needing revenue.

[bryant]

It doesn't speak to how worthy the strike is. But it does speak to how seriously I'm gonna take people who get upset about it.

[death-by-monkey.livejournal.com]

There's a boycott against LJ? Guess I'm not plugged in enough. How sad for me...

[rfrancis]

Bearing in mind that I think the boycott is ridiculous:

Yeah, IJ runs some ads. I think it's okay that LJ runs some ads (although LJ's history of ads is somewhat less than delightful.) I think it's okay that LJ transitions away from ad-free accounts, even, although it's a shame. But seriously, not announcing a major policy change while patting yourself on the back unduly in public at the same time?

Unseemly.

I'm afraid I have to reject, like the earlier commenter, the "you shouldn't get upset about this while CHILDREN ARE STARVING" argument. That road leads to places none of us would actually care to go.

Personally, I just embrace the opportunity to be a Livejournal Scab. Strike, hee hee.

[gentlyepigrams]

I can't figure out why people are doing it, other than "we're mad as hell and we're not going to take it any more". I can't figure out what they expect to have happen.

Yes, the communications suck. Yes, it's suboptimal that new ad-free unpaid accounts are going away. But how does this lead to a so-called strike and what does the strike hope to accomplish?

I don't think the strikers know the answers to these questions.

[head58.livejournal.com]

It was a business move handled poorly. Perhaps even the latest in a series of such moves. At the end of the day, no puppies or kittens were killed by SUP. And none of the people with their undergarments in a twist have guns to their heads requiring they use Livejournal, nor is it essential for their basic survival or employment. End of story.

[indigo.livejournal.com]

You're the second person today to talk about a strike, and I don't really have any context - I read the LJ news post that said "Over the past 24 hours many of you have asked whether the changes to the account structure (removing the option of creating new basic accounts) is a business decision," but that's all the context I have. Do you have to pay for new accounts now, or merely put up with ads? Is there a link from which my friends list is getting info about complaints/striking?

I don't really care because I don't need to create a new account and I'm not part of a serious community on LJ, but I'm just curious about the opinions flying around. I've noticed the gradual corporatization (is that a word?) and commercialization of LJ as it's grown, and especially once I decided I wasn't making sufficient use of the service to pay for it and let my account revert to the free version, I never really let it bother me.

[bryant]

For a free account, you just have to put up with ads now. I don't know how obtrusive they are.

There was also some concern that various interests were removed from the top interests list -- depression, bisexuality, a few other things like that. They have since been returned to the list.

I think beckyzoole is one of the organizers?