(no subject)

[rm]

Apparently LJ has decided not to communicae with LJ users because that would reward bad behavior.

I think that's the "no, really, fuck off and stop using our site" message we were waiting for.

http://news.livejournal.com/106909.html?thread=70316701#t70316701

Aside from outraged, I'm really quite unutterably sad.

Comments

[heron61.livejournal.com]

I completely agree that SUP's response to the proposed boycott is utterly idiotic, but I remain equally dubious about the original reasons for the boycott and didn't support it. Getting rid of free, ad-free accounts is not an unreasonable business decision, I don't like it, but unlike almost everything SixApart did, I don't think it's wrong, stupid, or vile - it's merely annoying in the way that various business practices are sometimes annoying.

As for the interest-blocking, to my knowledge no one has had their interests deleting, and given the range of interests that seem to no longer show up on searches, I'm far from convinced that this is anything other than a bug. I'm annoyed that if it is a bug, SUP hasn't just said so & or fixed it. However, in the scheme of things, they're doing vastly better than SixApart and their randomly deleting journals and communities.

I was on the verge of giving up my paid account with SixApart, and was saved from that choice by the sale to SUP. At this point, I see absolutely no reason to stop having a paid account. If I see anything like proof that the interests-search bug is an actual decision, I might change my mind, but for now, SUP are at most a mildly annoying and somewhat clueless corporation, and not (as SixApart was) a corporation that bows to fundy scare tactics and abuses its users.

[darkrosetiger.livejournal.com]

or now, SUP are at most a mildly annoying and somewhat clueless corporation

...which is run by a gentleman who doesn't bother to hide his contempt for his users. Is this really someone you want to give your money to?

[heron61.livejournal.com]

I don't care what they think about us, I care about what they do, and from my PoV they're doing a whole lot better than SixApart.

[miep.livejournal.com]

do you think so? tell me more.

[heron61.livejournal.com]

To my knowledge, no individual accounts have been deleted, nor have any communities. From my PoV at least, doing that (especially as SixApart did, w/o any warning) is far worse than anything SUP has done.

[ithinkitisayit.livejournal.com]

Not for me, no. If I'm buying a service from someone, I want them to be nice to me.

The only way I would ever support a company being a doucebag to their customers is if the customer is looking for a free ride.

Now, I have to agree with heron61, they haven't done anything bad enough to make me purposely boycott (more on that in a bit), but they certainly aren't doing anything that makes me want to give them my money (once I get my first paycheck).

To be honest, I'm not sure what I'll deem worthy enough to invest money in for a subscription (besides sneakemail (http://sneakemail.com)). There are different bloggers I want to donate money to, simply because I feel they deserve the money (either that, or I'll buy them something off their Amazon wishlist), but at this moment, I have yet to figure out if I can afford to subscribe anywhere, and if I can, where I want to subscribe to.

Sneakemail is easy and nice, because it's only $2 a month, and I can choose to pay every 6 months. To be honest, I want a subscription with flickr and am thinking about the practicalities with Remember the Milk, but I may not sign on for those, since I can't pay in 6 month increments, and I'm not so willing to pay $25 or so upfront for a whole year (not to mention, I'm not sure if I'll be working full time or part time :/).

I'm mostly willing to pay for those 3 services because I use them and I want to support them. If I decide it's not worth it to me to have a pro account at Remember the Milk (and it might not be, depending on how often I use RtM and how well I keep up with it and that sort of thing), I'll still be willing to donate money to them. It might not be as much money as they'd get if I had a pro account, but it would be money for them all the same.

I haven't paid for LJ since '06 (when I bought a permanent account on a different account from this one). Mostly this was because I didn't have the money. Since August of '07, it's not only been that I don't have the money, but that I don't want to give LJ any money. I wanted a new name for my old account (the name I'm currently using for this one), but am rather unwilling to hand over any money for the name change. I'm equally unwilling to ask/beg/allow anyone I know to hand over the money to LJ for the name change.

I'll soon be getting my first paycheck from [CENSORED], and then I'll finally have the money to pay for LJ (assuming gas, groceries, car insurance, toiletries, books, etc. don't eat all the money), but I still have no desire to give it to LJ. LJ hasn't earned the money. Or any of my money, for that matter.

As long as LJ continues to treat it's customers like shit, I refuse to pay.

[marcmagus]

"If I see anything like proof that the interests-search bug is an actual decision..."

Well, the filtering of interests into the "most popular interests" was clearly an intentional feature. See http://community.livejournal.com/changelog/6283445.html (the changelog for removing the filter after complaints, linked to by rm earlier. It's very obvious from the code that it was intentional.

I think you might be talking about something different which I haven't seen anything on yet, though. I'd guess that they were using the same filter in two places, if so, but I can't prove it. Yet.

[heron61.livejournal.com]

Well, the filtering of interests into the "most popular interests" was clearly an intentional feature

Hmm, I hadn't known that. Given that everything the names of various religions, and topics like depression were also filtered, that sounded more like a bug than a deliberate decision to me. I'm still puzzled as to what their possible logic might have been.

However, I'm equally pleased that this has been removed. It looks to me that they may sound like authoritarian morons, but they are acting considerably better than SixApart. I also don't know how much of the language of their response has to do with significant cultural differences between Russia and the nations inhabited by most of us who are annoyed at their various policies.