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No. NO.
And I'd just been thinking that LJ hadn't fucked up in a while and maybe I'd get a paid account.
From here: Basic Account is an option available to accounts which were created before March 12, 2008. No account created after this date can be turned into a Basic Account.
But do they mention it in the latest news post? Naah. That'd be sily.
ETA: in response to frecklestars here:
Okay, for serious. Ads are really annoying to some people. Do you remember the hullabaloo when plus accounts were first offered? There was a huge controversy over whether ads should be shown on livejournal AT ALL, given its roots as an ad-free site. If I was a new user who just wanted to write a blog, I would definitely choose not to use livejournal given this new policy and the current state of its advertising (if they were text ads I might consider it.) For the average person who wants to blog there are other options.
What your comment overlooks is that Livejournal is not just a blogging service. It's used extensively for social networking and communication. This is what enables them to even get people to sign up for plus accounts -- people sign up for the features, such as user icons, and I think it's safe to say that most of these features are important for social reasons.
One of the most used features of Livejournal is communities. New communities are created all the time and this makes LJ particularly rich and vibrant in my view (though also home to lots of dead comms.) Community journals also tend to be looked at more than user journals (many people just read their friendslist rather than looking at individual journals very often.) And I routinely see well-designed, ad-free comms getting more traffic and use than comms with ads on them.
So yes, this is going to inhibit my use of Livejournal. And thank you for the question, you helped me clarify my thoughts on this.
ETA2: I'm not sure if the change also goes for communities. Anyone have info on this?
ETA3: On who to complain to about this
And I'd just been thinking that LJ hadn't fucked up in a while and maybe I'd get a paid account.
From here: Basic Account is an option available to accounts which were created before March 12, 2008. No account created after this date can be turned into a Basic Account.
But do they mention it in the latest news post? Naah. That'd be sily.
ETA: in response to frecklestars here:
Okay, for serious. Ads are really annoying to some people. Do you remember the hullabaloo when plus accounts were first offered? There was a huge controversy over whether ads should be shown on livejournal AT ALL, given its roots as an ad-free site. If I was a new user who just wanted to write a blog, I would definitely choose not to use livejournal given this new policy and the current state of its advertising (if they were text ads I might consider it.) For the average person who wants to blog there are other options.
What your comment overlooks is that Livejournal is not just a blogging service. It's used extensively for social networking and communication. This is what enables them to even get people to sign up for plus accounts -- people sign up for the features, such as user icons, and I think it's safe to say that most of these features are important for social reasons.
One of the most used features of Livejournal is communities. New communities are created all the time and this makes LJ particularly rich and vibrant in my view (though also home to lots of dead comms.) Community journals also tend to be looked at more than user journals (many people just read their friendslist rather than looking at individual journals very often.) And I routinely see well-designed, ad-free comms getting more traffic and use than comms with ads on them.
So yes, this is going to inhibit my use of Livejournal. And thank you for the question, you helped me clarify my thoughts on this.
ETA2: I'm not sure if the change also goes for communities. Anyone have info on this?
ETA3: On who to complain to about this
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