Countdown to destruction...

[sarahbellem]

I'm kind of checking in and out of the news thread and a handful of people have brought up the question as to whether or not LJ made some kind of contractual deal with FB & Twitter to push users towards these other services. And now LJ is in a tight spot, legally speaking, because their customers are clearly screaming DO NOT WANT and packing up in

Comments

[florentinescot]

There's every indication that they've drunk the koolaid, so to speak -- that it IS a contractual deal ...

http://news.livejournal.com/129190.html?thread=87841446#t87841446

[sarahbellem]

If it's integration, fine. I will accept the 8,000lb gorrilla in the room IF and only IF, they grant users the right to opt out.

[florentinescot]

nods. Exactly. For the folks that want it ok. But make it opt-IN -- or at the very least opt-out at the journal level.

Sure, there's the hack that keeps the boxes from showing up as long as your journal is viewed In YOUR style; but if I view it in my style, unless I have them turned off, they're right back there again. :-(

[trystbat]

That doesn't mean it's "contractual" -- it simply means that this is how LJ has designed it. Please remember that what LJ announces is exactly what it considers to be it's best features.

Press releases are not contracts. They are promotions.

[florentinescot]

nods -- and it was released in Russian only .....

ETA: I'd think that if it were a contractual relationship, FB would be touting it too -- and they're not.

Point is, they've designed it the way it is for a purpose -- the issue is that it's not optional.

[trystbat]

They've been doing a lot of Russian-only media in the past few years. I suspect they just never bothered to start a U.S. corporate communications team (& considering how so many U.S.-based companies put communications as such a low priority, it's not hugely surprising; can you tell I've written & edited some insanely crappy press releases in my day?).

Edited: Yep, & Facebook doesn't give a crap. More content on their site, whatevs, howevs. Facebook is like a giant vacuum cleaner trying to suck everybody's content into it's feed.

[sarahbellem]

Also, someone mentioned elsenet that the Russian users don't use Facebook as much as some other Russian equivalent, so they're less concerned about the breach of privacy issues because they're already using a competitor's networking site. Perhaps, because LJ is Russia's preimenet blogging service, FB sees this as a chance to draw users from the rival Russian site via LJ.

For all we know, this could have been entirely handed down from the Russian side of the company, without much consideration to the US customer base.

Hmm. Could also explain the slow response, if they're trying to hash this out between the two sides of the company on opposite sides of the planet and a language barrier in between...

[trystbat]

this could have been entirely handed down from the Russian side of the company, without much consideration to the US customer base.

That is very likely! And LJ's communication to U.S. users has been abysmal all along.