Thoughts on LJ: random teal deer

[maygra]

In the post here:

http://community.livejournal.com/lj_2008/3846.html

among all the rest of the news and commentary are three items that have people talking and caught my attention (and that takes some serious doing these days -- I promise you.)

Open questions:

Revenue sharing - Should users

Comments

[onelittlesleep]

Hi Maygra, I saw this through my flist o'flist, sort of.

Anyway, I do think you're right, that the statistics seem to imply that fandom is only a very small minority of the 13 million or so user journals that exist, though I wonder at how many of those 13 million journals are even active...

I also think that fandom has definitely adopted LJ as one of its premiere meeting grounds and we're all loathe to leave it. So fandom doesn't just represent $26,000 dollars a month, it represents a possible LIFETIME of organized, supported use and subscription, which I doubt non-fannish users can promise. And fandom is an ever-growing group of people with funds set out for fannish enterprises and interests, willing (like you) to pay for services to better fandom experience. I just think they'd be massively old-fashioned and foolish to not recognize the economic potential in fandom. Alienating us now not only shows arrogance in business ("who CARES if we lose those 13 thousand crazies!") but real ignorance.

[ethrosdemon]

I have the same inclination that of all the existent ljs a large portion than seems to be the zeitgeist were created by fans--I mean think about sockpuppets and joke journals and coms and just randomosity that fans create and forget about. Over the years, I don't know how many journals I've made, 30? 40? And I'm just one person, and not even a rpger or someone who actively sockpuppets. Idk, this is just a feeling I have about those supposed 13 million journals. Who knows, maybe everyone in Moscow is an active ljer!

[onelittlesleep]

I thought there was a way to see which journals out of the 13 mil. were active. Do you know?

(and yes! There are kids with handfuls of RP journals. ALSO. 30, Kassie? THAT IS ALOT)

[ethrosdemon]

idk, that might be high, but I think it might not be.

[maygra]

Well, I quartered it down and that 13 million was posted last year sometime. The breakdown is this. A paid account costs $19.95 a year (Or $25 if not auto renew) That's between 5-6 cents a day per paid user. Say that it really is only a fraction of that 13 mil -- 20% outside of fannish journals, that's still $1,420,000 per day of non-fannish revenue. 10% is $71,305.00 per day.

Versus $837.00 a day? Yeah, they might notice, but at worst they'd have to fire somebody or three.

i.e. the proposed economic models have potential to actually increase LJ's bottom line, and at the same time, possibly wreak some real havoc within fandom, the same way FanLib could. It's the same case of fans taking all the risks and reaping little profit except as a token.

I'm not saying it will happen or that LJ doesn't massively overstate their actual active user base (paying or not) -- and in this, I'm only talking about subscription fees for paid journals -- ad revenue is a whole other animal and if they were going to offer profit sharing back to the

[maygra]

I don't disagree that it's a foolish move to alienate even a fraction of their user base. And even if again, only a quarter of that 13 million that isn't fannish are active and paying, they've still got the number on us

[onelittlesleep]

I'm more worried about what holding out this kind of reward system might be more damaging to fandom as a whole than pretending we don't exist.

Yes, true. Honestly, I've been so frustrated with the possible 'censorship' issues to even think about this until reading your post. But you're right. That is definitely a massive issue. I think it's only fair that their company benefits from 'disposable fannish income', which I know others do (conventions, etc), but for FANDOM itself to take advantage of fandom is really reprehensible.

[1trackmind]

I also think that fandom has definitely adopted LJ as one of its premiere meeting grounds and we're all loathe to leave it. So fandom doesn't just represent $26,000 dollars a month, it represents a possible LIFETIME of organized, supported use and subscription, which I doubt non-fannish users can promise.

I disagree. I think LJ is a stepping stone to something else. Just like usenet, Bulletin Boards, and e-mail groups were stepping stones to LJ. I think it's become increasingly clear that we're all just waiting for the next big thing. We're here because our friends are here, not because LJ itself is inherently better than IJ, GJ, etc.