LJ Advisory Board: Q&A time

[rm]

Thanks for putting me on the ballot so quickly. Below the cut is the statement I made asking for support of my nomination. It is reflective of things I am strongly committed to on LJ, but does not encompass my full platform, which I'll be developing over the next couple of weeks and posting before the voting begins.

This post is for open questions from anyone about who I am, where I stand on stuff, etc., both so that people who don't know me can learn more, and so I can keep this stuff relatively contained in order to allow me to keep doing LJ the way I've always done LJ.

I will also be editing my original nomination declaration to link to this post.

Merci!

I'm throwing my hat into the ring.

I've been an active LJ user since June 2000, when I joined as reive; I migrated to rm in 2003; and it seems silly to say LJ means a lot to me. I've met many incredible people here, including my partner.

I have been active in speaking out on LJ policy throughout the strikethrough, boldthrough and other controversies and am proud to consider myself a member of many of the constituencies affected by much of the recent upheaval. These include, but aren't limited to, fandom, academia, and creative professionals.

I feel that I am in a unique position to have LJ listen to my perspective on behalf of the user base because of the diversity of my background. On one hand, I write fanfiction, but on the other, the publisher of my professional work advertises with LiveJournal on my behalf. This may give my voice a unique legitimacy with the powers that be, and I feel I've already been effective in establishing ties with some staff members who have come to me seeking opinions and clarifications on user perceptions of both the strikethrough situation and the edited interests list concern.

I've been an active Internet user since 1990, worked for an early, high-profile BBS and have experience with both policy issues and the weird nature of being both part of the community and connected to the authority of the site. My professional background includes journalism, marketing and public relations (again, allowing me to hear LJ's concerns effectively and argue for user rights in terms they can understand and see the corporate benefits of), although these days I work as an actor and a writer.

I'm committed to LJ continuing to offer a free accounts and allowing, encouraging and celebrating free expression to the fullest legal extent available.

LJ shouldn't be a parent, but a forum.

Policy needs to be clear, easy to understand and enforced with an equal hand.

At the end of the day, LJ users provide the content which brings the page views which generates the revenues. We deserve to be accorded the respect that should come with being the bedrock on which the LJ business model is based.

Comments

[rm.livejournal.com]

Thank you!

The free account issue is also critical to the longevity of LJ.

LJ is shrinking.

People join LJ because their friends are here and the content they want to read is here. When they become committed to the community, they buy paid accounts, vgifts, add-ons and sometimes _choose_ to becoming eyeballs for advertisers. Without the lure of the free accounts, LJ isn't producing content and building the community that brings revenue. So the issue is both about LJ honoring its original commitments to the users and exercising better business sense than I feel they have been in the various administration changes of late.

[moem]

Is that true? ...is it actually shrinking?

I haven't been here all that long, but during the first weeks, as I was getting to know the site, I became enthusiastic and started recommending it to friends. I'd say: go on and try it, you can simply try it without paying a thing and without being bombarded with ads, so go ahead and see how you like it!
Now I feel like I cannot recommend it anymore. I wouldn't recommend joining a site that's so full of ads unless you cough up.
Personally, I'd go paid if that meant I could give free basic accounts to friends (= having the invite system back).

You're right: people want to try before they buy. If they like what they see, a lot of them will start spending money. Especially if they have grown used to a site without ads...
If they get in at the Plus level and grow used to the ads, why would they ever go Paid, when it brings you almost the same features? I think Basic is useful as a stepping stone to Paid.

The other argument holds water, too: Basic members deliver the content that others pay to see.

[thedeli.livejournal.com]

Thanks for more thoroughly elaborating that point. I will gladly vote for you, though I'm leaving LJ over the very same matters that would drive me to support your candidacy in the first place.

Unrealistic as it is, only a return to the days of yesteryear (http://web.archive.org/web/20040401175244/http://www.livejournal.com/site/contract.bml) (or some close approximation) would be enough to lure me back now.