Update

[cleolinda]

LJ/SUP apologizes. But not in news.

The announcement last Wednesday was a mistake in regards to Basic accounts, as the change was not clearly stated, it did not allow for you to provide feedback, and went into effect immediately. Many of you have pointed out that the decision worried you less than the way it was communicated. You should have been given a voice, and you were not; we didn’t follow our own rules, and we apologize.

At this point we are working on a solution to enable existing LiveJournal users to create new Basic accounts as so many of you have requested. Nothing has been decided yet, but we are considering options which would allow existing users to continue to create new Basic accounts.

This post was originally planned to mark the end of the first 100 days and to set out our top development priorities for 2008. We will carefully consider your comments and together with Advisory Board post the final plan after the user elections in May.

Wait, what's this about user elections?

Comments

[spectralbovine.livejournal.com]

For a position on the Advisory Board that they don't listen to.

[greenwitch.livejournal.com]

That would be EPIC FAIL, I believe.

[eofs.livejournal.com]

To add to this - they are electing two users to join this board - one to represent the 20% of the LJ community writing in the Cyrillic alphabet and one to represent the 80% writing in everything else.

Whether or not being able to speak English, Malay, Filipino, German, Finnish, Japanese, Dutch, Hebrew and Portuguese will be a requirement to take that second seat we don't yet know.

too much Shirley Jackson

[shusu.livejournal.com]

Maybe it's like the lottery. Who will be sacrificed for the good of the community...

Bad Shu. Bad, bad. Saying the first thing that comes to mind. Bad!

Re: too much Shirley Jackson

[foresthouse.livejournal.com]

Aiieeeee! Now THAT is scary. Just...don't take the slip of paper. Don'ttakeit!

[sigma7.livejournal.com]

Ah, news is for news they want people to see. If they want to say it where they can get credit for it and still make it relatively invisible, they post it to an ancillary "news"ish group, like so.

This is their way of being forthcoming.

[sneaky-minx.livejournal.com]

Wait, what's this about user elections?

I don't know, but I'm voting for Harvey Dent regardless.

[stokerbramwell.livejournal.com]

^ I'm afraid my vote is spoken for as well.

[discogravy.livejournal.com]

sure, just throw your vote away!

http://www.walken2008.com/

[msilverstar]

They have talked about user representative before, but until they get a clue about listening to their 'thought leaders' (industry-speak for important and respected thinky-thikers), it won't make a damn bit of difference.

[cleolinda.livejournal.com]

Well, if they won't even listen to Brad...

[foresthouse.livejournal.com]

Then we are all doomed. Doooooomed.

Well, I hope not. But I couldn't resist.

[jonnorthwood.livejournal.com]

I'd feel a lot more sanguine about LJ's "apologies" if they didn't have an asshat like Nosik speaking for them (http://darkrosetiger.livejournal.com/373663.html).

"Over the last 2 years base account registrations cover about 10 percent of new users. And a good portion of those are virtual, created by already existing users for spamming, increasing search engine ratings, leaving comments that would get their account banned. So there is no real demand for base accounts, it's not a viable product. So we took it off the shelf. Users of existing accounts are still not forbidden to make their accounts base accounts (if they want to switch from driving a Mercedes to a Zaporozets)."

And as was noted, the elections are for inclusion in a select group of people whose opinions on LiveJournal they're planning on ignoring.

[wendyzski.livejournal.com]

Pretty much all the comments say "and for the love of Zombie Jezus will someone put a muzzle on Nosik?"

[cmdr-zoom.livejournal.com]

Asshat or not, he's right (IMO). He's blunt (typical for a Russian, from what I gather) and he's not saying what people want to hear, but he's right.

The party, it is over.

[soleta-nf.livejournal.com]

Well, you gotta give them props for apologizing.

Edited to add: And I bet this is at least in part (if not wholly) due to the publicity surrounding the content strike. I haven't been paying close attention to the recent LJ hoopla, but I think the content strike is a good idea simply to illustrate that it's the (active) users who make the majority of LJ content. No other reason than that. For me, it has nothing to do with the cessation of basic accounts, and a lot more to do with the fact that another LJ owner seems to not be listening to us or caring what we think and need. So this apology is great, but the strike is still important.

[t4-flirt.livejournal.com]

So this apology is great, but the strike is still important.

My. Thoughts. Exactly.

I'm still avoiding LJ like the plague tomorrow...as hard as it will be.

[elenbarathi.livejournal.com]

Me too. The thing they're not *getting* is that it's not just a user's strike - it's also a writer's strike.

No print publication surviving on the unpaid writing of amateur contributors would be so stupid as to call those writers "freeloaders". One that did would not survive long, because those writers would take their unappreciated contributions to another venue.

SUP apparently figures that by Saturday we'll have all gotten over our meaningless little drama-queen gesture and that'll be the end of it. It won't be, though. When the boycott fails to effect any real change, more and more people will quietly move elsewhere, which means their friends have less and less reason to stay.

OT

[loafing-oaf.livejournal.com]

Just wondering - is the click a day banner you use shareable? I'm just looking for something to put in my userinfo, and that's a lot more streamlined than adding each site individually. I'd host it myself of course. Thanks.

Re: OT

[cleolinda.livejournal.com]

Hey, go for it. : )

Re: OT

[loafing-oaf.livejournal.com]

Done. Thank you 8)

[pinstripe-bindi.livejournal.com]

Same old bullshit: LJ makes a change without informing anyone, drama war commences, LJ makes feeble half-assed insincere apology that pisses everyone off more, then offers some kind of compromise. Lather, rinse, repeat.

6A/SUP are brain-dead retards who are utterly incapable of learning from their mistakes. At least that's the only logical conclusion that can be reached since they keep making the same one OVER AND OVER AND OVER AGAIN.

[cmdr-zoom.livejournal.com]

And most LiveJournal users complain about the soup of the day, yet still eat it. Why should the staff stop serving it?

[pinstripe-bindi.livejournal.com]

I generally don't care about the actual changes LJ makes--my journal is entirely FO and they don't really affect me. I just find it amusing how they go through the exact same two-step every time they fuck up.