As we noted in our last News post, as of today users will be able to downgrade their account to Basic through the Manage Account page. In addition, visitors who are not logged in to LiveJournal will now be seeing ads on Basic accounts and communities; the experience of logged-in users will not change.Consequently, all Basic and Early Adopters ( Read more... )

So, they've announced that Basic accounts will return but the flip side is that they want to monetise them in some way. At least they're being honest and open about it, but given our no-opt-in statement, I'm really not keen on some of the proposals, especially both 3s. I think prop 2 looks the least worse, although it means no opt out at all. 1 ( Read more... )

I'm a permanent user, and though my homepage is set to my userinfo, occasionally I'll be directed to the main page when I'm logged out for one reason or another, and I see ads. For more on why this is messed up, see "permanent user ( Read more... )

Anyone previewing their comment while anonymous will see ads even if the journal they are commenting on does not have them; the talkpost_do.bml page has ads on it for logged out users. This has probably be the case for a while, but I just noticed it now. At least it's a good warning sign of anonymous commenting for Basic/Paid?

"Adding ads to site pages and notification emails for Plus and logged-out users ( Read more... )

Follow up from foxfirefey's last post about how the navstrip had the login box removed, we have another reason why her good point from that post really is a good point. daveman692 has written a Greasemonkey script to bring it back: I think this is my first real Greasemonkey script so comments/suggestions are definitely welcomed.
Welcome back Dave.

Today's news post introduces the Diet Pepsi MAX sponsored v-gifts. Good news: "You can't send the sponsored v-gifts anonymously, but all account levels are welcome to send them (Paid users won't see the sponsored copy attached to the gifts ( Read more... )

Here is the current logged out page. There is a box ad, a sponsored community being promoted, a box for Peanut Labs, and a box with Amp'd Mobile branding.

Note how the URL contains my username, and so the system should be able to extrapolate that I'm a Basic user and know that it shouldn't be showing me the box ad, since it's an application page. ( Read more... )

This changelog details more pages that will display ads to logged out users in addition to the front page, in accordance with the originally announced policy chart. The include:

allpics.bml -- Probably the most contentious. This means that logged out users will see ads on the icon pages of even Paid users now, just like Plus users have been ( Read more... )

Some people on the recent news post have been noting the ads on the front page before they log in. This is a list of ways to log in besides using the front page:

1. Go to http://www.livejournal.com/login.bml or (https://www.livejournal.com/login.bml for a more secure login) ( Read more... )