Open letter to LJ
RE: Pop-Up Video Ads
Hi,
I've been a member of LiveJournal since 2001, sometimes paid, sometimes not. I understand the need to generate revenue through advertising to support the existing and future platform of LiveJournal, however I urge you to discontinue the pop-up video advertisements.
As you're very aware, it's a great time for consumers in that we have many community-centric blogging options now like Facebook, Blogger, Xanga, Aeonity, and countless others. Consumer choice for blogging is not driven solely by popularity (in which case MySpace would be the winner here), or even features or platform stability. It's about the active community. Anything that decreases the frequency of site hits by a member or otherwise drives a member away directly impacts the community. Less content, less feedback, less buzz.
We live in a culture that seeks immediate gratification. We won't wait ten seconds for a page to load like we would earlier this decade. Intentionally delaying or otherwise impeding access to our content will simply force the issue: We will migrate to other service providers.
Unfortunately, it's a tough spot for LiveJournal, given the pull between user satisfaction and business drivers, which are equally valid concerns and the solution is certainly somewhere in the middle. I urge you to reconsider the impact of actively-intrusive advertising on your community. Don't give us a reason to leave; We like it here, but don't mistake our comfort with faineance. The Internet culture is such that we shift to the new, but never back to the old.
Let LiveJournal continue to grow by making it modular, extensible, easy, and time-efficient to use, and rid the site of advertisements and practices that delay our experience.
Thanks for your consideration,
vaxocentric
Hi,
I've been a member of LiveJournal since 2001, sometimes paid, sometimes not. I understand the need to generate revenue through advertising to support the existing and future platform of LiveJournal, however I urge you to discontinue the pop-up video advertisements.
As you're very aware, it's a great time for consumers in that we have many community-centric blogging options now like Facebook, Blogger, Xanga, Aeonity, and countless others. Consumer choice for blogging is not driven solely by popularity (in which case MySpace would be the winner here), or even features or platform stability. It's about the active community. Anything that decreases the frequency of site hits by a member or otherwise drives a member away directly impacts the community. Less content, less feedback, less buzz.
We live in a culture that seeks immediate gratification. We won't wait ten seconds for a page to load like we would earlier this decade. Intentionally delaying or otherwise impeding access to our content will simply force the issue: We will migrate to other service providers.
Unfortunately, it's a tough spot for LiveJournal, given the pull between user satisfaction and business drivers, which are equally valid concerns and the solution is certainly somewhere in the middle. I urge you to reconsider the impact of actively-intrusive advertising on your community. Don't give us a reason to leave; We like it here, but don't mistake our comfort with faineance. The Internet culture is such that we shift to the new, but never back to the old.
Let LiveJournal continue to grow by making it modular, extensible, easy, and time-efficient to use, and rid the site of advertisements and practices that delay our experience.
Thanks for your consideration,
vaxocentric