Dreamwidth, Signal Boosting, Etc.
Recently, I've noticed more and more LJ friends creating journals at Dreamwidth. I hadn't thought much of it, but after reading an article about LiveJournal's proposed changes for 2012 -- courtesy of a link on juniperus's entry of today -- I'm not taking any chances. I've created a Dreamwidth journal under the name clairvoyant12. It needs some tweaking (modifying circles and granting access, messing with journal style, bla, bla, bla), but I've imported all my LJ entries, tags, friends, communities, etc.
I'm just not confident LJ will remain the be-all and end-all of 'anonymous' blogging. If I wanted a social media site with real name restrictions, I would be on Facebook, MySpace, etc. But I don't want that -- at this moment, anyway! You might have noticed I'm dragging my feet on joining Google +. Rest in peace, Google Buzz. *sniff, sniff*
I'm also disturbed about the campaign to recruit new members while they institute changes which annoy their current, loyal (and paying, in some cases) members. I realize change is inevitable, but not every change is for the better. For instance, remember Verizon Wireless's recently proposed charge for payments initiated by phone and internet? There was so much customer venom generated over that announcement that it never made it to the realization stage; Verizon kiboshed that, much to their chagrin, I'm sure. Bank of America performed some similar backtracking last year with the retraction of their proposed $5 fee for debit card purchases.
In those examples, it's more about big companies making an even bigger profit than providing better customer service. That probably applies to LJ as well. Let's face it: in attracting more members, they hope to convert those new accounts into paid accounts. In the end, that almighty buck speaks volumes, but vocal consumers have power, too. /rant
I'm just not confident LJ will remain the be-all and end-all of 'anonymous' blogging. If I wanted a social media site with real name restrictions, I would be on Facebook, MySpace, etc. But I don't want that -- at this moment, anyway! You might have noticed I'm dragging my feet on joining Google +. Rest in peace, Google Buzz. *sniff, sniff*
I'm also disturbed about the campaign to recruit new members while they institute changes which annoy their current, loyal (and paying, in some cases) members. I realize change is inevitable, but not every change is for the better. For instance, remember Verizon Wireless's recently proposed charge for payments initiated by phone and internet? There was so much customer venom generated over that announcement that it never made it to the realization stage; Verizon kiboshed that, much to their chagrin, I'm sure. Bank of America performed some similar backtracking last year with the retraction of their proposed $5 fee for debit card purchases.
In those examples, it's more about big companies making an even bigger profit than providing better customer service. That probably applies to LJ as well. Let's face it: in attracting more members, they hope to convert those new accounts into paid accounts. In the end, that almighty buck speaks volumes, but vocal consumers have power, too. /rant