Meta / LJ: fare thee well, oh LJ basic account, and Godspeed!
There is "thinking your customers are not the brightest candles on the Christmas tree" and then there's "thinking your customers are complete eejits."
Let me introduce you to jasonshellen, who is LJ's Vice President of Product Development. He's of the latter school of thoughts, as you will soon learn.
Recently, LJ made a news post in which, beside a lot of patting on their own shoulders, The Powers That Are mentioned the long overdue draft of the new LJ policy.
"Yay! Policy! Finally!" - alas, the euphoria only lasted until a user pointed out the following bit of information:
Basic Account is an option available to accounts which were created before March 12, 2008. No account created after this date can be turned into a Basic Account. Basic Accounts will not have any advertising displayed on their accounts, but will have fewer benefits and features.
Please let this sink in, my dears:
There are no more basic accounts (unless you already have one).
Basic accounts are no more.
They have gone to heaven. To hell. Passed on to the afterlife.
They have been buried at night by candlelight in the backyard of LJ's offices.
There are no more basic accounts, with exception of the ones which already exist. If you create a new LJ, you have the choice between "plus" (basic account plus bloody annoying ads) and "paid" (which is - paid. Without ads. Unless you're not logged in and want to log in. Then you still see them. So - not really without ads. Yes, I know, it's complicated.)
This is a big change. A huge change. A massive, giant, enormous change for LJ, so one should think it would have been mentioned in news.
Hehe. Hey, we're talking about LJ here.
Anyway, enter jasonshellen stage right. A highly-skilled specialist who knows how to talk to the LJ crowd:
(...) From a product perspective it was more about creating a new registration process that was easier for new users to understand. I'm sure it's been ages since many of you signed up for an account, but it was quite confusing and included a table of options that was not very inviting to new users. (...)"
Eh? You think we're too daft to create a friggin' basic LJ?! As Jason doesn't speak LJese, I'll translate his words for him:
"We've got fresh Crapiola de Luxe for you, still steaming and served on a paper plate snatched from a McDonald's birthday party!"
Good grief, man. Just have the balls to say "we want to make more money", and don't treat us like idiots. And as we're already talking about it: remember who creates the content of this place. A hint: it's not you.
"(...) I sincerely hope you will continue to give us a chance to respond to concerns and that we do hear what you have to say about LiveJournal. (...)"
That's the part where I usually fall asleep during business meetings.
Then again, maybe this isn't about making money in the first place. What SUP, doc? Who will be the next Savva Terentyev? Paying users have to give up their anonymity...
And just in case you wondered: LJ founder Brad doesn't like it, either.
Let me introduce you to jasonshellen, who is LJ's Vice President of Product Development. He's of the latter school of thoughts, as you will soon learn.
Recently, LJ made a news post in which, beside a lot of patting on their own shoulders, The Powers That Are mentioned the long overdue draft of the new LJ policy.
"Yay! Policy! Finally!" - alas, the euphoria only lasted until a user pointed out the following bit of information:
Basic Account is an option available to accounts which were created before March 12, 2008. No account created after this date can be turned into a Basic Account. Basic Accounts will not have any advertising displayed on their accounts, but will have fewer benefits and features.
Please let this sink in, my dears:
There are no more basic accounts (unless you already have one).
Basic accounts are no more.
They have gone to heaven. To hell. Passed on to the afterlife.
They have been buried at night by candlelight in the backyard of LJ's offices.
There are no more basic accounts, with exception of the ones which already exist. If you create a new LJ, you have the choice between "plus" (basic account plus bloody annoying ads) and "paid" (which is - paid. Without ads. Unless you're not logged in and want to log in. Then you still see them. So - not really without ads. Yes, I know, it's complicated.)
This is a big change. A huge change. A massive, giant, enormous change for LJ, so one should think it would have been mentioned in news.
Hehe. Hey, we're talking about LJ here.
Anyway, enter jasonshellen stage right. A highly-skilled specialist who knows how to talk to the LJ crowd:
(...) From a product perspective it was more about creating a new registration process that was easier for new users to understand. I'm sure it's been ages since many of you signed up for an account, but it was quite confusing and included a table of options that was not very inviting to new users. (...)"
Eh? You think we're too daft to create a friggin' basic LJ?! As Jason doesn't speak LJese, I'll translate his words for him:
"We've got fresh Crapiola de Luxe for you, still steaming and served on a paper plate snatched from a McDonald's birthday party!"
Good grief, man. Just have the balls to say "we want to make more money", and don't treat us like idiots. And as we're already talking about it: remember who creates the content of this place. A hint: it's not you.
"(...) I sincerely hope you will continue to give us a chance to respond to concerns and that we do hear what you have to say about LiveJournal. (...)"
That's the part where I usually fall asleep during business meetings.
Then again, maybe this isn't about making money in the first place. What SUP, doc? Who will be the next Savva Terentyev? Paying users have to give up their anonymity...
And just in case you wondered: LJ founder Brad doesn't like it, either.