Update to Development Priorities

[theljstaff]

Back in March we provided you with our Development Priorities for 2008, and updated you on the progress we made on the original 100 day plan. We also mentioned we would continue to engage with the community on future plans, and in subsequent updates talked about the Advisory Board elections (April) and Basic Account proposals (July). Thanks to

Comments

[jewelianna]

Statistics will be opt-out, right? Or at least numbers only, not a "see who viewed my journal" thing?

[marta]

Yes. The way it works on lj.ru right now is that you can opt out of your information ever showing on anyone else's "My Guests" results - but you won't be able to see who visited you through that program if you opt out.

[jewelianna]

Since I seriously don't care who views my journal, I'm okay with that. I lock everything anyway- nothing to see here. But good, cause if my movements were being tracked I'd be out of here.

I hope you have a lot of notice before this goes live with clear instructions how to opt out. I know a LOT of people aren't going to want that feature.

Thanks for the prompt reply.

[marta]

Yes, we'll have plenty of notice before all new features - we'll announce it before it goes live, with the opt-out information.

Firestorm: Opt-out

[vakkotaur]

Haven't folks learned by now that opt-out, while better than "you're stuck with it" is not nearly as good as opt-in? Really, the less detailed information ought to be the default and anyone curious about visitors and/or willing to be tracked can make themselves more visible.

[imc]

Haven't folks learned by now that opt-out, while better than "you're stuck with it" is not nearly as good as opt-in?

No, it really is better this way. There is very little point in LiveJournal developers writing features that are opt-in - they will sink without trace and it will have been a waste of everyone's time. And that's particularly true with the proposed My Guests feature, because when you turn it on there won't be any info in it because everyone else has it off by default.

And I speak as someone who almost certainly won't like the new profile design when it's launched next month.

[vakkotaur]

That, right there, indicates that it is not a "feature" but a misfeature and that the time is wasted either way. With opt-out it will just make more people angry when they find they're being tracked or about to be, and have to turn it off - and periodically check to make sure the off setting stuck and wasn't "helpfully" reverted somehow.

[imc]

That, right there, indicates that it is not a "feature" but a misfeature and that the time is wasted either way.

Not at all. Actually, "tell me who is reading my journal" is a frequently requested feature. And I assume that the way it's being used in Russia gives LiveJournal some indication of what to expect when it is released to the rest of the world.

and periodically check to make sure the off setting stuck and wasn't "helpfully" reverted somehow.

This bit doesn't really contribute anything to the debate. Anyone that paranoid would still have to keep checking even if the setting defaulted to off, to make sure it didn't accidentally get switched on.

[rydra_wong]

Actually, "tell me who is reading my journal" is a frequently requested feature.

Yes, but I'm guessing that "tell everyone if I look at their journal" isn't ...

[turlough]

And I assume that the way it's being used in Russia gives LiveJournal some indication of what to expect when it is released to the rest of the world.

Or possibly not, since I understand that the way LJ's used in Russia is rather different from how it's used elsewhere. It's supposedly much more "public blog" focused for example so it would make sense that they would want a way to track who's reading their posts, while a lot of the fandom people in Europe and the US have a strong interest in NOT being tracked.

[wibbble]

Meh, it means nothing anyway. Using LJ Toys (http://ljtoys.org.uk/) or your own web bugs can tell you plenty of information about your visitors.

This idea that you have any sort of anonymity on the internet is entirely false. Everywhere you go you leave footprints. All this feature will do is provide the less technically-savvy with the same opportunity to gather data that others already have.

[vakkotaur]

As another has said, chances are that "tell everyone if I looked at their journal" is probably not something often requested.

And actually, it does. You see, by making the intrinsic spyware enabled by default, you lose trust. Also, when settings change without user intervention they revert to the default. In this case it will revert to the undesired default. Only unlike many things, it will be invisible to the user. So with opt-in there is little reason to check the setting, but with opt-out there is reason to watch it like a hawk.

[tiferet]

This bit doesn't really contribute anything to the debate

Maybe not, but it's ridiculous how often I've had to reset private messaging to Friends Only, and how many TIMES I've had to turn off the effing nav strip. There's a reason that people do not trust LJ staff.

[elfwreck]

It should be possible to arrange "opt-in for existing users; set as default for new accounts."

Re: Firestorm: Opt-out

[marta]

You are completely correct. With anything like this, we'll make sure that people aren't negatively affected as far as the privacy they'd like to have.

Whether this includes directly putting an option in front of everyone (active choice, not passive choice), making several announcements well before it goes live, or structuring the feature differently than planned, we intend to do things differently than before.

As pointed out below, when a lot of users have been asking for this feature, and a lot do not want at all it's tricky. But the right people - the ones who work directly on these features - are reading all of these comments.

Part of the reason to mention all of these things now is specifically to give a heads-up to those who are interested and make sure that we're on the right track.

Re: Firestorm: Opt-out

[vakkotaur]

Thank you!