ROLL IT BACK. (Poll report)
This is what I'm sharing with LJ after evaluating this poll once it hit 2000+ votes. PLEASE KEEP VOTING. The more data, the better.
Dear LiveJournal Staff,
For eloquent, well-thought out and excellently explained reasons why Release 88 isn't working for your core userbase, all you have to do is check your own posts.
I'm not here to give you those impassioned responses, LJ. I'm here to give you pure stats.
In less than half a day, well over two thousand LJ users responded to this poll. Feel free to take a look at the numbers yourself. What I'm going to report to you is the percentages based on the poll as it stood with just over 2,000 responses.
SPECIFICS.
Let's start off with the key problem. From everything that staff has told us so far, you are NOT considering restoring subject lines by default. You will be providing an S2 style to mimic what we all have been used to and have depended upon for years, requiring everyone who uses subject lines to set up additional settings to make it work.
Guess what, LJ: 98% of voters want the subject lines back. This speaks for itself. Ignore this at the peril of your bottom line.
Those parent/thread links so critical to navigation? Maybe igrick cares about them as much as subject lines, but 95% of us want the parent/thread links back.
You could fix these massive problems for your users if you would simply roll back 88.
Preview: It seems like you're sort of giving up on it, and offering Edit by itself as the alternative. Well, 81% of us want preview back. And 56% want spell check back too. Simple solution: Roll back 88.
Icons you seem to be more willing to work on. You say you're aware of the problem that icon keywords are gone, which sucks for 81% of us.. You're working on the icon browser that takes forever, affecting 56% of us who can't find icons anymore. You might be surprised to know that 61% of us also want the icon rollovers back.
What's the best way to fix all these problems? Just roll back 88.
Add to all of this:
It's good to see that you're discussing the problem of your general ADA fail, bothering 44% of us, and that the color scheme is giving 47% of us a migraine. That represents half your core users. How about you... just roll back 88?
And there's still more specific problems people are having - they can't edit screened comments, their automatic payments have been turned back on, deactivated icons show up - check out the details. Altogether, 19% of us had other specific issues from this release.
OVERALL.
So why, exactly, do you want to keep a release that has slowed down load time for 70% of us? That 83% of us think is a visual setback?
If you're trying to be more like Facebook or Twitter, well, 88% of us want you to know that we don't want LJ to be like that. So how about you... roll back 88?
The two weeks paid time was nice, thanks, but 70% of us don't feel that was much of a response to our thousands of angry comments. See, 80% of us feel that other comms show more care for their users. In fact, for 55% of us, we've stuck with LJ through thick and thin and this is the last straw.
If you don't roll it back, 51% would like a refund.
But above it all, we're unhappy that you didn't consult us before launching this mess (93%). Why did you try to fix what wasn't broken to begin with (92%)?
And really, igrick? On top of ignoring us, you have to demean and insult us? 90% of us are angry at how he has treated his userbase. And 71% of us want to note it's not just us; our fellow Russian users are upset too.
Again, here, 15% of us had other major reasons why they're not happy with 88. Just look at the state of things with your users, LJ.
Best thing to do: Roll back 88.
We are not afraid of change. But when change destroys function, that's not change worth keeping.
38% of us like some of the new features you threw in there - but that's conditional on you rolling back the other changes. 33% of us don't care about the new features. 3% just straight up like them. But 26% didn't even notice them because the new changes have them so frustrated and angry.
You know what I'm gonna recommend here.
$$$$$$$
But before you brush this all aside and say, "Pffft, this doesn't make a cent of difference," let me just provide you with some stats on how much bank you're making off your core users.
41% of voters have paid for LJ for 2-5 years. Another 30% have paid for longer or are even permanent users. That's 71% who are committed long-term paid members. Add on another 11% paying for a year, and that's 82% giving you money. Plus the rest have Plus accounts or otherwise view your ads.
So how many of these people have given you even MORE money for extra services, like icons and gifts? 82% have paid you extra - with 52% paying regularly for more. Those 18% that haven't won't be considering paying you extra if they can't even use their journals functionally to begin with.
I've given you all this data, and now here's the cherry on top: 66% of us have multiple accounts that we have paid money to maintain in some way.
That's two-thirds of us who have not only financially invested in LJ, but who use LJ for such multi-purpose reasons that we have paid for numerous accounts here. Close to a third of us have actually paid for six or more accounts - some of us can't even keep track of how many!
WHO ARE WE?
Mostly your committed, long-term, paying users, but we've established that already. We're also your non-paying users who are not about to convert to revenue sources if you won't hear what we have to say.
Here's how we use LJ:
We've identified to you how important subject lines and easy comment navigation are to all of these kinds of communities and journal activity. Here's what we want: Roll back 88.
These numbers give you a snapshot of why you have a nearly maxed-out post of almost universally negative feedback on 88.
Your core, paying, committed users do not want this release.
Your potential paying users who contribute to your ad revenue do not want this release.
NO ONE WANTS THIS RELEASE except perhaps igrick.
Wake up and smell the stats, LJ. This release stinks. We don't want an update to it; we don't want issues to be discussed; we want it gone.
Roll.
Back.
88.
Sincerely,
rollback88 on behalf of...
2000+ LJ users in this poll, 10,000+ commenters on the posts involved, and counting.
Dear LiveJournal Staff,
For eloquent, well-thought out and excellently explained reasons why Release 88 isn't working for your core userbase, all you have to do is check your own posts.
I'm not here to give you those impassioned responses, LJ. I'm here to give you pure stats.
In less than half a day, well over two thousand LJ users responded to this poll. Feel free to take a look at the numbers yourself. What I'm going to report to you is the percentages based on the poll as it stood with just over 2,000 responses.
SPECIFICS.
Let's start off with the key problem. From everything that staff has told us so far, you are NOT considering restoring subject lines by default. You will be providing an S2 style to mimic what we all have been used to and have depended upon for years, requiring everyone who uses subject lines to set up additional settings to make it work.
Guess what, LJ: 98% of voters want the subject lines back. This speaks for itself. Ignore this at the peril of your bottom line.
Those parent/thread links so critical to navigation? Maybe igrick cares about them as much as subject lines, but 95% of us want the parent/thread links back.
You could fix these massive problems for your users if you would simply roll back 88.
Preview: It seems like you're sort of giving up on it, and offering Edit by itself as the alternative. Well, 81% of us want preview back. And 56% want spell check back too. Simple solution: Roll back 88.
Icons you seem to be more willing to work on. You say you're aware of the problem that icon keywords are gone, which sucks for 81% of us.. You're working on the icon browser that takes forever, affecting 56% of us who can't find icons anymore. You might be surprised to know that 61% of us also want the icon rollovers back.
What's the best way to fix all these problems? Just roll back 88.
Add to all of this:
- 86% say that the overall navigation of comments is worse now,
- 39% can't edit,
- The new scheme doesn't work for 36% of us using a cell, netbook, iPad, etc,
- and 18% can't comment in their browser of choice.
It's good to see that you're discussing the problem of your general ADA fail, bothering 44% of us, and that the color scheme is giving 47% of us a migraine. That represents half your core users. How about you... just roll back 88?
And there's still more specific problems people are having - they can't edit screened comments, their automatic payments have been turned back on, deactivated icons show up - check out the details. Altogether, 19% of us had other specific issues from this release.
OVERALL.
So why, exactly, do you want to keep a release that has slowed down load time for 70% of us? That 83% of us think is a visual setback?
If you're trying to be more like Facebook or Twitter, well, 88% of us want you to know that we don't want LJ to be like that. So how about you... roll back 88?
The two weeks paid time was nice, thanks, but 70% of us don't feel that was much of a response to our thousands of angry comments. See, 80% of us feel that other comms show more care for their users. In fact, for 55% of us, we've stuck with LJ through thick and thin and this is the last straw.
If you don't roll it back, 51% would like a refund.
But above it all, we're unhappy that you didn't consult us before launching this mess (93%). Why did you try to fix what wasn't broken to begin with (92%)?
And really, igrick? On top of ignoring us, you have to demean and insult us? 90% of us are angry at how he has treated his userbase. And 71% of us want to note it's not just us; our fellow Russian users are upset too.
Again, here, 15% of us had other major reasons why they're not happy with 88. Just look at the state of things with your users, LJ.
Best thing to do: Roll back 88.
We are not afraid of change. But when change destroys function, that's not change worth keeping.
38% of us like some of the new features you threw in there - but that's conditional on you rolling back the other changes. 33% of us don't care about the new features. 3% just straight up like them. But 26% didn't even notice them because the new changes have them so frustrated and angry.
You know what I'm gonna recommend here.
$$$$$$$
But before you brush this all aside and say, "Pffft, this doesn't make a cent of difference," let me just provide you with some stats on how much bank you're making off your core users.
41% of voters have paid for LJ for 2-5 years. Another 30% have paid for longer or are even permanent users. That's 71% who are committed long-term paid members. Add on another 11% paying for a year, and that's 82% giving you money. Plus the rest have Plus accounts or otherwise view your ads.
So how many of these people have given you even MORE money for extra services, like icons and gifts? 82% have paid you extra - with 52% paying regularly for more. Those 18% that haven't won't be considering paying you extra if they can't even use their journals functionally to begin with.
I've given you all this data, and now here's the cherry on top: 66% of us have multiple accounts that we have paid money to maintain in some way.
That's two-thirds of us who have not only financially invested in LJ, but who use LJ for such multi-purpose reasons that we have paid for numerous accounts here. Close to a third of us have actually paid for six or more accounts - some of us can't even keep track of how many!
WHO ARE WE?
Mostly your committed, long-term, paying users, but we've established that already. We're also your non-paying users who are not about to convert to revenue sources if you won't hear what we have to say.
Here's how we use LJ:
- Most - 74% - are in fandoms here, doing non-writing things.
- And we're also writing: 68% of us are in a fic comm or a writing meme.
- Plus 63% participate in roleplay.
- There's 54% of us on an anonymous and/or secrets community.
- For 45% of us, we need trigger warnings - commonly placed in subject lines.
- Fundraising, charity, auctions, and sales are primary activities for 13% of us.
- And over half - 51% - also partake of some other kind of comment-heavy community or journal activity.
We've identified to you how important subject lines and easy comment navigation are to all of these kinds of communities and journal activity. Here's what we want: Roll back 88.
These numbers give you a snapshot of why you have a nearly maxed-out post of almost universally negative feedback on 88.
Your core, paying, committed users do not want this release.
Your potential paying users who contribute to your ad revenue do not want this release.
NO ONE WANTS THIS RELEASE except perhaps igrick.
Wake up and smell the stats, LJ. This release stinks. We don't want an update to it; we don't want issues to be discussed; we want it gone.
Roll.
Back.
88.
Sincerely,
rollback88 on behalf of...
2000+ LJ users in this poll, 10,000+ commenters on the posts involved, and counting.