Subscriptions and Subscribers service

[news]

We're happy to announce Subscriptions and Subscribers service!

Sometimes you want to add somebody as a friend, but you doubt if you want to show them your friends-only entries.

Now you can read them in your friends feed, not affecting privacy.

Comments

[gonzo21]

Mmmm, let's just admire what my screencap looks like when I try and leave a comment here:

[halfshellvenus]

<9> Shame you killed the website though. My f-list has been an empty desert since the ToS debacle.

Yup. And a new feature that Dreamwidth has offered from Day 1 isn't going to bring any of those people back here. :(

[gonzo21]

Aye. A rapid apology, a conciliatory statement to the community, and a rolling back of the requirement, might have brought the people back. But, LJ yet again saw no problem, no need to engage with their users, and, apparently no recognition of there being a problem.

[beautyizdead]

This kills me because I remember when I first joined in 2001 how much they would interact and in most cases even ask lj users to set up things and work for them and help them to make it successful. It pains me so much that what we say falls on deaf ears. If you get bored take a look back at news from 2000-2005 and see how much of lj was built from users.

[gonzo21]

I can barely even remember the days when LJ tried to engage with their users. Sadly I fear it's too late to turn it around now, just, too few users left now.

[topum]

Not like they had a choice with those ToS. If they refused, Putin would have killed even sooner, they are a Russian co and have to comply with Russia's draconian laws. I wonder why so many people seem to struggle with this point.

[gonzo21]

Oh for sure, they probably had no choice. MOving the servers to Russia meant a change to Russian ToS rules. The problem was the way it was implemented, and we all just woke up one morning and got this pop up box that said 'AGREE TO THESE TERMS OR ELSE!' Without any announcement it was upcoming to give people time to think about it, without any discussion about what it actually meant. If they'd taken time to engage with the community before just delivering it as a 'click to agree or lose your journal instantly' then they could have mitigated the exodus to some degree.

Instead it was handled very badly, and they must have lost a huge chunk of their userbase.

[topum]

Firstly, I have never seen any of social media companies ever discussing what their ToS or updates "actually mean". They are extremely detailed and crafted by lawyers and the lawyers would never allow an additional communications on "what it actually means" (it is what it is it was crafted like that for a purpose).

I do not agree with your point that if they had given people time to think those draconian changes it would have made much difference. That might work with mild changes (where people might go "I don't know, may be it is OK...") but with that horrific shit (we can remove anything and no LGBTQ "propaganda"), for the overwhelming majority of those people for whom it is unacceptable time would not help at all. If you are forced to drop such a shit bomb, doing it softly and giving people time would make a really small difference and only amplify all those discussions and the logical shit storm, so might as well get it over with, book your losses and move on.

And all the ToS changes I have seen came in "...or else!" format