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Well, LJ once again enters the Ocean of Fail. They've now removed the option for new users to create a Basic (i.e., free, no-strings-attached) account - now your only options are Sponsored (i.e., you have to view ads) or Paid.
What's worse, of course, is that they did it without saying they were doing it, and their only official acknowledgment of it was a news post that basically had a throwaway comment about how "we've made it easier and more streamlined to create accounts! :D" Well, yes, it is generally more streamlined to have only two kinds of account to pick from rather than three, but I have a feeling it's going to result in fewer accounts being created, period. Similarly, this facade of "we reduced this DIFFICULT-TO-READ three-column table into an easy-as-pie two column table! we did it all for the new users!" is blatantly stupid. No one who's able to read a two-column table is going to find themselves utterly stymied by a three-column one, and they just seem to be trying to mask the fact that they're doing it JUST for the money.
Which MIGHT have been fine - I think a lot of LJ members realize that LJ is a business - but only if they'd mentioned it in advance and hadn't tried to slip it under the radar, like a guy who tries to use the "I'm so drunk...oops, wrong hole, teehee!" excuse to try to get his girlfriend to give it up in the pooper.
However, they're also failing to realize that a lot of their members have Basic accounts, and a lot of the stuff paid members come to LJ for is made via Basic accounts, and that a lot of people just won't join if those are the two options. (If, when I'd joined, my two options were "be bombarded with ads" or "pay for this service sight-unseen," I probably never would have come to LJ.) And honestly, I think this has the potential to be a much bigger blow to LJ membership than the infamous Strikethrough. After all, it's a pretty small minority of LJ members who are running around posting underage Harry Potter pornfic, but it's a pretty large majority of LJ accounts that are Basic. And while at this point they're grandfathering in the current Basic accounts, lord only knows whether that will remain the case.
I'm certainly not going to be leaving LJ right now, or any time in the foreseeable future (unless LJ makes everyone ELSE leave, though that's looking increasingly likely), but my Paid account is coming up for renewal in a few days and honestly I'm leery of renewing it now. I probably will end up doing so, but after all, this is the sort of thing that can potentially break a service. And since probably over half my flist are on Basic accounts, if they do extend this to already-extant Basic users - and SUP has made it pretty clear that it wouldn't be beyond them if they think it would be a good business practice - then I can't imagine all that many of y'all would stay, or you'd use the service a lot less. Which would then give me no reason to stay here, since I mostly use LJ to keep in touch with folks.
...I did make an InsaneJournal, just in case. (I'm "yosituna" over there, as some evil person has stolen my "yoshitsune" username, glargh.)
Edit: Oh yeah, I forgot to mention it made Fandom Wank.
What's worse, of course, is that they did it without saying they were doing it, and their only official acknowledgment of it was a news post that basically had a throwaway comment about how "we've made it easier and more streamlined to create accounts! :D" Well, yes, it is generally more streamlined to have only two kinds of account to pick from rather than three, but I have a feeling it's going to result in fewer accounts being created, period. Similarly, this facade of "we reduced this DIFFICULT-TO-READ three-column table into an easy-as-pie two column table! we did it all for the new users!" is blatantly stupid. No one who's able to read a two-column table is going to find themselves utterly stymied by a three-column one, and they just seem to be trying to mask the fact that they're doing it JUST for the money.
Which MIGHT have been fine - I think a lot of LJ members realize that LJ is a business - but only if they'd mentioned it in advance and hadn't tried to slip it under the radar, like a guy who tries to use the "I'm so drunk...oops, wrong hole, teehee!" excuse to try to get his girlfriend to give it up in the pooper.
However, they're also failing to realize that a lot of their members have Basic accounts, and a lot of the stuff paid members come to LJ for is made via Basic accounts, and that a lot of people just won't join if those are the two options. (If, when I'd joined, my two options were "be bombarded with ads" or "pay for this service sight-unseen," I probably never would have come to LJ.) And honestly, I think this has the potential to be a much bigger blow to LJ membership than the infamous Strikethrough. After all, it's a pretty small minority of LJ members who are running around posting underage Harry Potter pornfic, but it's a pretty large majority of LJ accounts that are Basic. And while at this point they're grandfathering in the current Basic accounts, lord only knows whether that will remain the case.
I'm certainly not going to be leaving LJ right now, or any time in the foreseeable future (unless LJ makes everyone ELSE leave, though that's looking increasingly likely), but my Paid account is coming up for renewal in a few days and honestly I'm leery of renewing it now. I probably will end up doing so, but after all, this is the sort of thing that can potentially break a service. And since probably over half my flist are on Basic accounts, if they do extend this to already-extant Basic users - and SUP has made it pretty clear that it wouldn't be beyond them if they think it would be a good business practice - then I can't imagine all that many of y'all would stay, or you'd use the service a lot less. Which would then give me no reason to stay here, since I mostly use LJ to keep in touch with folks.
...I did make an InsaneJournal, just in case. (I'm "yosituna" over there, as some evil person has stolen my "yoshitsune" username, glargh.)
Edit: Oh yeah, I forgot to mention it made Fandom Wank.
