Not that I post very often anyway, but still...

[daylyn]

For those of you who don't already know, there has been a strike scheduled for Friday, March 21st, 2008, during which we hope to have many members of LiveJournal provide LJ with absolutely no content for twenty-four hours. This means no posting and no commenting.

What's this about?

* It's about free and ad-free LiveJournal accounts being abolished for new members, ignoring the advice from the newly-formed Advisory Board.
* It's about LJ staff trying to sneak this decision in under the radar, and when people found out, telling the users it was done 'to make the signup process less confusing'.
* It's about LJ staff failing to apologize for trying to hide the facts from view and for lying about the actual reasons for their actions.
* And finally, it's about the latest decision to hide certain user interests from the list of Most Popular Interests, some of them being fanfiction, bisexuality, homosexuality, sex and depression. This decision was not announced or explained in any way. Users found out for themselves.

For background on this strike and why it is being held, please read the following posts:
http://beckyzoole.livejournal.com/394838.html
http://beckyzoole.livejournal.com/395310.html

To find out exactly when the strike begins and ends, depending on where you are located, please see this:
http://beckyzoole.livejournal.com/395125.html

-Taken and edited from the journal of m03m

Furthermore, in case you missed it:

What the person in charge of SUP blogging has to say (showing a complete contempt toward his user base):
http://darkrosetiger.livejournal.com/373663.html

Comments

[sherlock2040.livejournal.com]

But it's all WRONG!!! Free accounts are not being abolished, just the ability to have an ad free account for new users! It makes business sense since LJ is a business.

[daylyn.livejournal.com]

I completely agree that LJ/SUP has the right to change to sponsored ad accounts and to delete ad free accounts. That's not what bothers me. I just found the method they used to convey this change to their user base to be problematic. Furthermore, their reasoning that that they made the change to make it "simplier" to create an account is rather ridiculous -- most people can decide between three choices as opposed to two.

If LJ/SUP had just come out and said, "We're changing our business model -- deal with it," I would have had a lot more respect for them.

Also, I find it unfortunate that LJ/SUP has decided to censor their Most Popular Interests categories to exclude fanfiction and references to homosexuality and bisexuality.

On a personal note, their decision doesn't affect me at all. I just find their actions and (lack of) reasoning to be annoying.

Cheers!

[sherlock2040.livejournal.com]

They backed down on the Most Popular Interest category, if it was indeed ever true.