Meta / LJ: fare thee well, oh LJ basic account, and Godspeed!

[erestor]

There is "thinking your customers are not the brightest candles on the Christmas tree" and then there's "thinking your customers are complete eejits."

Let me introduce you to jasonshellen, who is LJ's Vice President of Product Development. He's of the latter school of thoughts, as you will soon learn.

Recently, LJ made a news post in which, beside a lot of

Comments

[enismirdal]

I seem to remember once upon a time - possibly in a galaxy far, far away - LJ management used to say that there would never be ads on the site, that they just didn't like the look of them, etc. etc.

And now unless you give them $$, there's nothing but ads.

Funny how things change...

[votebob]

I'm less offended by the change than I am by the way they presented it. I don't find internet ads too obnoxious unless they make sounds or pop down in front of your page and you can't get rid of them. They're just noise in the machine. Like powerlines, you get used to them and ignore them.

I don't really appreciate the fact that they 1) didn't think we were smart enough to see through their thinly veiled money making scheme, or 2) think we (who have obviously already successfully managed to secure an account) aren't smart enough to figure out how to set up a basic LJ. It's insulting and condescending. They'd probably have a lot less outrage if they would just call a spade a spade.

Thanks for posting this

[honilee]

Firstly, I'm happy I created a basic account just a couple of weeks ago for messing around with my friends. Secondly, I'm insulted they think we're so stupid that we can't figure out how to navigate LJ! Obviously newbies have been figuring out how to create accounts for quite some time. Way to go, Jason!

[keiliss]

Such a compliment --- I mean, look at us. We all managed to create an account despite the challenge of THREE options. We must be exceptional or something :) :)

I detest the underhand manner they bring in changes they suspect (rightly) will upset many users. What I do not understand is why they are messing with this. ?When I joined lj, I had a free account. Kept it for months. Then someone gave me two months' paid time and I was hooked on all the extra layouts, more user pics, the sense of having something that was really my own. I don't think I'm unusual and - guess what? They're going to lose those people now because, to put it bluntly, those adverts are UGLY and why not just stick with Facebook, etc?

I knew they had been too quiet for too long. This is the result.

[dharma_slut]

My solution:
Use Firefox.

Use Firefox, with the Adblock Plus add-on. Voila, an add-free lj experience, not to mention so many other sites...