LJ strikeyness

[enismirdal]

I probably won't post on Friday largely because lately, I've not been posting much at all anyway and it would take far more effort on my part to specifically post (i.e. take a positive action) on one day than boycott LJ (i.e. a negative action)! I'm admittedly not totally convinced how effective a strike would be. From free users, yes, it reduces the number of hits from adverts, I suppose, assuming people actually reduce their LJ reading that day. From paid users...OK, so it's less content for the free users to read, which might be a deterrent. But LJ has their money already and is making interest from the subscription fees (albeit a drop in the lake compared to ad revenue). And I can't see LJ giving two hoots about a 4% reduced server load or similar. Still...I guess it's worth a shot if it means I don't need to do anything out of the ordinary.

I did find that interview with the SUP guy just plain rude. I don't know if he was marginally more diplomatic in the original Russian and if it was just an artefact of translation that makes him sound so discourteous, or if he really doesn't understand the concept of customer satisfaction, but he didn't come across well at all. He also seems to think he's some kind of victim in this, like most of LJ is out to get him, sabotage LJ, ruin his company.

Why doesn't LJ do a public consultation? Let people vote on what they want, send in feedback, tips and ideas the same way the BBC site and TFL have done to me in the past. I sent TFL LOADS of ideas, which initially they didn't implement, but since then have added virtually everything I suggested and ultimately I'll concede they've made the site really much better. "Talk to the people who use your product." It seems like a good idea to me.

I would have thought that a good thing for unhappy users to do would be to get Firefox if you don't already, and install Adblock and the filter updater. If you don't see adverts, you can't make the company putting up the advert any additional money - you're never going to click, and you're not even going to be subliminally influenced by their product since all you see is [ADVERTISEMENT]. Though not knowing the inner workings of Adblock, I don't know whether LJ would be able to detect that its ads are being blocked or not...if not, LJ could only find out if people actually told them, I guess.

Comments

[ewx.livejournal.com]

Most ad blocking software works by not even downloading the adverts. It's in principal possible to not serve up content if adverts aren't requested though I've only ever encountered one website that tried. If the practice became more common I imagine ad blocking software would download the ads but not display them, which could be made really quite difficult to detect.

[l-j-b.livejournal.com]

What is this LJ strike thing?

[enismirdal.livejournal.com]

There is a general level unhappiness with the fact that SUP have decided that new users can no longer get Basic (no ads) LJ accounts - either pay, or gets ads - and any users who joined after March 12th also don't get the option of downgrading from either Plus or Paid to Basic. In other words, Basic is now only available to established users. And this was packaged up originally in a "new users previously found the various account options too confusing so we've made it simpler" rather than the truth - "we are a business and we like making more money".

There is perhaps an even greater level of unhappiness with a subsequent interview with the owner of SUP (http://darkrosetiger.livejournal.com/373663.html) in which he is, perhaps, rather less than complimentary about some LJ users, their intelligence and the validity of their opinions.

Thusly it was decided by...someone...to do a content strike on Friday - no posting, no commenting, no other activity, etc. in the interests of showing their displeasure and protest at the recent decisions.

[larianelensar.livejournal.com]

Why doesn't LJ do a public consultation? Let people vote on what they want, send in feedback, tips and ideas...

You ARE an idealist, aren't you? *snicker* Really...I'm not sure too many companies the world over do that, or maybe they get opinions/ideas but do nothing with them.

But I agree, I'm not sure how much of a message this will send the powers that be at LJ.

[enismirdal.livejournal.com]

Perhaps indeed I have a slighly rosy view and have just dealt with nice companies who either listen to me or make it sound like they listen to me!

[daeomae.livejournal.com]

A public consultation would make good business sense, indeed. Though, I can't remember when LJ has shown particularly good business sense. Hmmm. ;)

*Mwah*