Danah Boyd on the change to account levels // New dw_news post

[pne]

As you may know, Danah Boyd is also on the Advisory Board.

She's also posting an entry on her take on the recent changes. Executive summary: she wasn't consulted (or rather, she was asked what she thought a while back and said why she thought it was a bad idea and thought that was the end of it).

She also made the point that without a lot of readers, she wouldn't be motivated to produce content, in which case why bother keeping up her paid account. So even if Basic Account users only read but rarely write, they can still indirectly affect the choice of Paid Account holders to stay and to keep renewing their accounts. It's all an ecology, and you can't look at people as individuals, because their decisions depend on many other people and not just what's in it for them.

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There's also a new entry in news in reaction to the whole thing.

I've read over it twice, but I still can't find the bit where they say, "We're sorry for not telling you in advance". Perhaps someone can point it out to me. The closest I could find was, Overnight you also raised legitimate concerns about how this change was unveiled - message received, loud and clear. We're still working out how to strike just the right tone when communicating with such a diverse and complex collection of communities.

I also can't find the bit where they say, "We were less than direct [or: we're sorry we lied to you] when we told your our motives for this change, when we said it was about reducing confusion for users signing up for the site". What they say is, Over the past 24 hours many of you have asked whether the changes to the account structure (removing the option of creating new basic accounts) is a business decision. It is, emphatically.

And finally, they talk a lot about how they'll be building on LiveJournal's heritage and asking for the support of their users without going into details such as what influence the Advisory Board's input will have on their decisions (or whether they'll even be consulted). Go read leora's comment on the entry.

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And see also this comment on the recent news entry for someone else's take. Funny reading, though it'd be funnier if it didn't sound so true.

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An interesting entry from rho comparing the SUP approach with a cartoon villain's. Go read that one, too.

Comments

[sarah-cb.livejournal.com]

SUP is screwing up LiveJournal more than SixApart ever could have hoped. SUP is going to end up being the end of LiveJournal, you can quote me on it, unless the users rise up, raise enough money, and take LJ back as a community-run service, like it was when brad created it. Honestly, I think maybe basic accounts could be used again. Maybe with referral codes or something, like they had 6 years ago. I think that way would work. Something, anything to not completely screw up current and future users.

[pne.livejournal.com]

Honestly, I think maybe basic accounts could be used again. Maybe with referral codes or something, like they had 6 years ago.

Was it really that long ago?

But yes, I've also seen a couple of people mention bringing back invite codes. And why not? They weren't there from the beginning but were introduced to slow down the growth of non-paying accounts.

So if their worry is that the service is growing faster than their income, requiring invite codes for Basic Accounts would seem like a thing to consider.

[sarah-cb.livejournal.com]

Yeah, it was that long ago, because that's when I started as midnightfantasy, XD. I remember, because it was soon after Josh and I moved in together.

I honestly think it would be a great idea, and workable. I'm supremely pissed that they took away the basic accounts, and from what I've been reading, against all advice about it. I was planning on setting up my mom and/or sister with accounts with LJ, so that they could read my blogs, and we could have communication easier. Now that's not possible, because, honestly, that would kill their internet connection (ATT f'ing sucks where they're at, even with updated lines in the house).

[pne.livejournal.com]

Yeah, it was that long ago, because that's when I started as midnightfantasy, XD.

Wow.

I know I needed an invite code, too, and apparently pne came into being on 2002-10-02.

I don't remember when they got rid of them, though; I thought they were around for a fair while after that.

Hm, according to entries in my favourite invide code sharing community, they were phased out in mid-December 2003 -- so just over four years ago, not six.

(Well, they had them six years ago, but they also still had them more recently than that.)

[sarah-cb.livejournal.com]

After I got my account, I didn't pay attention to the codes, XD. I just know I loved the privacy, XD.

[pne.livejournal.com]

I just know I loved the privacy, XD.

Yeah, the whole "friends-locked entries" and "custom security" and stuff system is one cool thing about LiveJournal, and something you can't replicate if you run your own blog on your own domain somewhere.

[sarah-cb.livejournal.com]

You can password protect entries with WP, and have private entries (never got that to work :() :) I used to use them often.

[pne.livejournal.com]

Ah, I see.

Though it's more of a pain if you have to keep entering your password on three dozen blogs just to read the protected entries there -- no single-sign-on like with LiveJournal where you log into your account once and can read all your friends' FO entries immediately.

Perhaps if OpenID or something similar takes off more in the future.

[ghewgill.livejournal.com]

If LJ all goes to pot, then my backup plan is to host my blog on my own server, and then build some OpenID infrastructure so I can write entries that only my friends can read. It remains to be seen how well that integrates with RSS, though.

[pne.livejournal.com]

I was planning on setting up my mom and/or sister with accounts with LJ, so that they could read my blogs, and we could have communication easier. Now that's not possible

Well, unless you get hold of an existing Basic Account.

I expect that there'll be a fair bit of traficking in "pre-owned" Basic Accounts, the way there used to be with Early Adopter accounts. (Though as with those, such "pre-owned" accounts will never be secure because whoever owns the first email address associated with the account can always take it back.)

[sarah-cb.livejournal.com]

I definitely won't be doing that. Not worth it, to risk their accounts getting ripped out from under them.

[pne.livejournal.com]

Yeah.

In which case the options are (a) ads or (b) Paid. Meh.

[sarah-cb.livejournal.com]

Or none, and just find another way to keep in contact without using WhineSpace.