Logged in paid users seeing sponsored ads

[pandatini]

I just changed my journal's theme and saw this for the first time, and it really pissed me off. When paid users go to edit their journal's themes, there they are, right on the very first page, sponsored themes, AKA ADS. I know someone already posted about this here, but I come bearing screen caps, which I've posted behind the cut:

Comments

[ex_uniquewo]

I don't get why these are featured when we can see them in the Sponsored category. If I want to see these, I know where to click. *shakes head*

Will SUP honor giving paid users opt outs if we remind them we should have it?

I sincerely doubt it.

[pandatini]

Right, if people *want* to see them, there's nothing stopping them. But for those of us who DONT want to see ... we're SOL.

Will SUP honor giving paid users opt outs if we remind them we should have it?

I sincerely doubt it.

Sadly I think this is the case.

[pandatini]

ugh, I didn't want to pay anymore, but then the auto payment thing caught me off guard. As soon as my paid time runs out tho, that's it.

[lisa_marli]

Featured from what I can gather are recent popular schemes. This is actually what people want to use, so there they are. They are schemes that are readily available to those who are using the Plus accounts so they get used a lot.
We, who pay for the privilege, can just go passed them to the themes we want to use. Thus Not putting the Ad-dled themes on our pages.
I think this belongs in the Big Upset over Little Problem complaint.
PS If I want to blow up, there is the fact that I Pay AT&T for a High Speed internet connection for that they give me a Web Mail system through Yahoo. They Promised it would be ad free and guess what I have now - Yep, Ads. Not just minor ads mixed in with everything, but full Flash Ads of the annoying kind on my web mail pages. Now That's Maddening.
This is just a Let's Move Along type problem.

[pandatini]

um wow, are you sure you're in the right place? this here is no_lj_ads where we DON'T WANT TO SEE ANY ADS on lj. Not "let's scroll past the ads" but "we PAID to not see ANY ads, so we'd better fucking NOT SEE ANY ADS"

An ad is an ad is an ad. I don't care if they're small, I don't care if they're popular with Plus users. If it's an ad, I shouldn't see it when I'm logged in to LJ.

Yes these ads are small and fairly unobtrusive, but given that we've had to make a BIG FUCKING DEAL out of it to get LJ to change every single time they have foisted ads on paid users I'm gonna make a deal out of it.

[unsee1ie]

*supports this opinion 100%*

i'm sick of other people minimizing something that pisses us off, and frankly even if it is just "something we notice" (minimal impact, right?) then it's still WRONG, and we shouldn't be brushed off for saying it's wrong and expecting it to be righted.

everything is just peachy when someone cuts in line? how about asks for money to pay for the order they cut in front of you to place? when they reach for your wallet? take your money? - it's about drawing lines and when we raise them, and just because things COULD be wronger doesn't make a LITTLE wrong RIGHT. rahr.

[pandatini]

thanks. looks like we're in the minority tho, sadly.

[av8rmike]

Sponsored V-gifts was different. Until the change was made, you couldn't control who sent you a gift (unless you opted out of all gifts, I guess). Changing your theme isn't involuntary like that, you don't have to use the sponsored styles. The customization area is set up so that you view themes by account level; Paid users can see all styles, so they even see the Sponsored ones. These things have been around for almost a year, and the bigger uproar seemed to be about the embedded web bugs, not the fact that they weren't hidden from Paid users.

[pandatini]

well I haven't changed my journal's theme in a long time, so I didn't know about them.

as far as I remember, the sponsored v-gift thing was about paid users not having to see them at all, even when buying v-gifts. I don't know if they're gone now or something, but when I go look at the "buy v-gifts" page, I don't see any.

as for sponsored themes, if paid users *want* to see them, they can click on the "sponsored" link in the themes list. There's no reason for them to be out on the main page where I *have* to look at them.

[av8rmike]

You asked if there was something to do about it:

How do I suggest new features or improvements for LiveJournal?

[kiya71677]

It is my understanding that paid/perm users can only opt out of receiving sponsored v-gifts, not out of seeing them altogether (such as on a friend's profile or with all of the other vgifts). I would prefer not to see sponsored content as well, but I imagine that the views for customization and the gift shop are applied sitewide regardless of account status.

[pandatini]

they do multiple versions of the home page, plus users pages etc, they have all kinds of ad free versions of pages for paid users. I don't see why it would be any different to have a sponsored free "customize" page or "v-gifts shop" page

[kiya71677]

I agree that the site should be ad-free for those who pay for use, including the customize and gift shop/v-gift pages. However, if I recall the logged-out home page contains ads for anyone to see (excluding those using Firefox with Adblock), which was once not the case as a cookie used to be available for logged-out paid users. It's a sneaky way for LJ to get around not showing ads to paid users, since the options for v-gifts is to receive any, no sponsored or none at all; same goes for the customize page with sponsored layouts being featured.

[pandatini]

it's stretching things, but paid users can log in using the nav strip on their personal journals, and that way they don't have to see the ads on the home page when they're logged out. Personally I *never* go to the home page.