That recent non-announcement
It seems quite likely that other people on your friends list have mentioned this (and jasonshellen's reply hidden under the news post here). If you can't see the the change in FAQ 38 that may be because it hasn't been translated into your language -- try looking at the EN_US version. The UK English version, for example, isn't up.
The short form of the news comes in three parts.
Part one: LJ accounts newly created as of today can no longer be turned into "basic" accounts -- free accounts which don't show adverts.
Part two: The businessmen in charge of LJ made this change without consulting the LJ advisory panel which they'd set up specifically to give advice on matters of this type, and then made the change without announcing it anywhere.
Part three: When it was announced, hidden in a second-level collapsed comment thread on the most recent news post, they wrapped it up in some waffle about how the reason was to make the sign-up process simpler.
This news, parts two and three in particular, seem to have made people a little cross. They seem to resent the inference that LJ management have assumed the readers of news are thick enough to be taken in by the waffle.
In other unrelated news, a couple of days ago someone on my friendslist was asking "Does anyone who knows more than I do about LJ politics have any opinions on whether or not LJ will still be the system of choice in a year?". My reply read "There are two meanings of "system of choice" -- for blogging, you want a site that stays up-and-running most of the time and already has all of your previous posts; for social networking, you want the site where all your friends hang out. For me, LJ wins on both counts".
Hence a poll...
Poll Other LJ-codebase sites
The short form of the news comes in three parts.
Part one: LJ accounts newly created as of today can no longer be turned into "basic" accounts -- free accounts which don't show adverts.
Part two: The businessmen in charge of LJ made this change without consulting the LJ advisory panel which they'd set up specifically to give advice on matters of this type, and then made the change without announcing it anywhere.
Part three: When it was announced, hidden in a second-level collapsed comment thread on the most recent news post, they wrapped it up in some waffle about how the reason was to make the sign-up process simpler.
This news, parts two and three in particular, seem to have made people a little cross. They seem to resent the inference that LJ management have assumed the readers of news are thick enough to be taken in by the waffle.
In other unrelated news, a couple of days ago someone on my friendslist was asking "Does anyone who knows more than I do about LJ politics have any opinions on whether or not LJ will still be the system of choice in a year?". My reply read "There are two meanings of "system of choice" -- for blogging, you want a site that stays up-and-running most of the time and already has all of your previous posts; for social networking, you want the site where all your friends hang out. For me, LJ wins on both counts".
Hence a poll...
Poll Other LJ-codebase sites