Route 29: Stay or Leave?

[these_balls]

As I am sure you are all aware of, Livejournal has undergone a good handful of changes that have made roleplaying here just a little more difficult. With how the staff of Livejournal and the ones in charge of the code have responded and interacted with the members, it looks as though these changes will be permanent

Comments

[usedkunai]

Offering a contrasting opinion to the one above. While I understand it, I've been looking at it from a different perspective this entire time.

I have paid time as well, but the usability of the site has gone done vastly for me; even our makeshift custom layout gives me headaches.

I'm of firm belief that no customer, paying or otherwise should have to jump through hoops to make a website work the way they need it to. With the planned changes (overall site interface, lack of nested threads, inability to credit icons?), I don't feel as is LJ is moving in a direction that is beneficial to LJRP on the whole. I think a lot of people's reluctance lies on a fear of change (not everyone or ANYONE in particular, just an observation I've made via all the talk EVERYWHERE). All it takes is a good amount of people willing to make the plunge and we could have major beneficial changes for the community.

I don't think the transition would be that difficult; all it takes is commenting on the taken lists with something like "usedkunai is now
windamp!" (dependent on what server, if any, we move to. DW just has easy linkback coding) -- if the mods are willing to make the effort to change the usernames on the taken list, then it just leaves the rest of us.

Importing entries is incredibly easy, and even if you don't want to -- you can link back to the previous entries on LJ. It doesn't change. The content is still here, even if you choose to play new stuff elsewhere, you know? Once you get past those initial things, everything would likely be pretty smooth -- things work exactly the same otherwise, save for some minor things depending on the site.

It doesn't mean we have to abandon our fandoms or other games that remain on LJ. But I don't feel as if I'm getting my money's worth on LJ with the poor treatment we're getting from the higher ups. And as an additional note, one of DW's admins said he was actually EXCITED to support RP on DW which has been motivating him to finish the community importer. It's refreshing, in my opinion.

I don't feel like a lot of us who want to move are being rash. I've been on LJ since 2002 and I'm honestly fed up with the treatment and would much rather put my money and time into a site that will treat me better as it stands right now.

Of course, I will stay of the game stays, albeit with no paid accounts (I will miss you, icons!), but I would do so only because I love the game and the people in it. I agree that people should think about it hard, especially if they're on the fence, but I fully support a move and I have no qualms about stating it.

+1

[homofuckiens]

Yeah, pretty much this. I have already imported a journal or two.

My concern isn't about aesthetics or the like, it's about the principle that guides customer service. I do not want to pay this site anymore if their idea of good customer service is a "deal with it" philosophy.

Question about DW

[meatysoviet]

How do you import accounts? I tried but I think I failed.

[homofuckiens]

It's under your tools options! There's a que for it, so don't worry if it doesn't show up right away. I think I had to wait like an hour or two for everything to show up.

[meatysoviet]

Okay then, thanks for the tip~

[homofuckiens]

Yeah, no problem. I think you can import your icons + keywords too. The catch there is that you have to have the paid account at DW if you have like the 100 icons thing going. It will only upload your default icon if you don't have room for all the icons you're importing.

[usedkunai]

You can go back and import icons later if you buy a paid account, and it'll retain all the keywords though, at least!

Or if you manually upload 15 icons with the same keywords, those will keep.

.....ADDENDUM

[usedkunai]

Since I can't edit my comment.

I've changed my stance; as much as I love Route, I really don't think I'd stick around if the game stays on LJ. As it stands, I'm having difficulties viewing the site; even our makeshift layout hurts my eyes - since I have a large display, there's a lot of excess white space that hurts my eyes. Not to mention my inability to believe that these temporary fixes will last.

Honestly, I just disagree with having to use workarounds this extensively just to be able to play in any of my games.

Should the game not move, I will wish everyone the best -- the last thing I really want to do is leave, as this is my home game and I love everything here. But between my disagreement with LJ's business practices (which I don't support and don't want to continue to support by giving them traffic) and the aesthetics combined, I don't think I could do it. I love my friends, but I can't walk all over my own principles, either.

:(