Don't post On LJ 3/21
Mar. 16th, 2008 03:23 pmNot sure how many of you keep up in communities such as
no_lj_ads,
ljspeaks, or even
news, but LJ's (new) parent company SUP has done away with Basic accounts. No more Basic accounts are available to be created, and those with Plus accounts can no longer downgrade. Supposedly, this doesn't affect those accounts which have already been created and are Basic, but who knows if SUP won't get rid of those "legacy" accounts under the Basic status and replace them with ad-filled Plus accounts.
SUP did this against the advice of their Advisory Board members, including LJ founder
brad, and without properly announcing it in
news. They claimed that removing the Basic account was to "streamline" the account creation process, and that few new users picked the Basic option in the first place (because Plus is the default!). The truth is, they think Basic accounts and their holders just "leech" off LJ's servers and money, and don't generate any revenue for them.
WRONG! I don't know about all of you, but I started out as a Basic user, back in the day of invite-codes. It was LJ promising things like "no ads" that had me willing to give them money to further extend my account. All of my communities and my single RP journal are Basic, and I want them to stay that way. And considering I've made a HUGE investment in LJ by getting a Permanent Account (which technically pays for itself in 4-5 years, and I believe we're getting close to that point), I expect to have the ability to create more Basic accounts as I see fit. I've already given them so much of my time, energy, and money- it's unfair to expect me to invest in the cost of another paid account when I'd much rather give them more money over time for smaller investments, like the features I actually WANT and USE, like Scrapbook space, extra Userpics, etc.
That said, myself and hopefully thousands to millions of other users are participating in this: ONE DAY CONTENT STRIKE
For one day, make no posts. Make no comments. Let there be NO new content added to LJ.
SUP obviously does not realize that Basic users have given something of value to them, that it is content that drives the site.
So, for one 24-hour period, from midnight GMT to midnight GMT, let's see how many people we can get to pledge to contribute NO CONTENT.
This will create a permanent downward spike in the daily-posts statistics, a permanent reminder of the power of the userbase.
The date is this Friday, March 21. Spread the word!
SUP did this against the advice of their Advisory Board members, including LJ founder
WRONG! I don't know about all of you, but I started out as a Basic user, back in the day of invite-codes. It was LJ promising things like "no ads" that had me willing to give them money to further extend my account. All of my communities and my single RP journal are Basic, and I want them to stay that way. And considering I've made a HUGE investment in LJ by getting a Permanent Account (which technically pays for itself in 4-5 years, and I believe we're getting close to that point), I expect to have the ability to create more Basic accounts as I see fit. I've already given them so much of my time, energy, and money- it's unfair to expect me to invest in the cost of another paid account when I'd much rather give them more money over time for smaller investments, like the features I actually WANT and USE, like Scrapbook space, extra Userpics, etc.
That said, myself and hopefully thousands to millions of other users are participating in this: ONE DAY CONTENT STRIKE
For one day, make no posts. Make no comments. Let there be NO new content added to LJ.
SUP obviously does not realize that Basic users have given something of value to them, that it is content that drives the site.
So, for one 24-hour period, from midnight GMT to midnight GMT, let's see how many people we can get to pledge to contribute NO CONTENT.
This will create a permanent downward spike in the daily-posts statistics, a permanent reminder of the power of the userbase.
The date is this Friday, March 21. Spread the word!