Comments | no_lj_ads: Some Press from PCMag

foxfirefey in no_lj_ads

Some Press from PCMag

Jan 24, 2007 15:01

PC Magazine reviews both LiveJournal and Vox.

Notes the ad controversy, although it does (probably unintentionally, due to space and comprehension issues) underplay the amount of advertising that's been introduced to the service:Community is where LiveJournal truly shines, and though Vox has done an impressive job incorporating and improving upon ( Read more... )

vox, sixapart, the press

Comments 16

schnee January 24 2007, 23:23:31 UTC

I completely agree. I don't really care at all what happens to sponsored users - they could get tracking cookies, seizure-inducing Flash ads playing annoying music at full volume and other nasty things, and I wouldn't care at all, simply because they voluntarily upgraded to sponsored accounts and because they can downgrade again at any time.

What really bugs me is when basic or anonymous users see things like ads. Brad *did* promise that LJ would never have ads; if people have to opt in to see them in exchange for features, I don't think that promise has been broken, but if people who did not get them (and that includes anonymous users), it has. That's the real shame.

foxfirefey January 24 2007, 23:42:31 UTC

I don't mind anonymous users so much, as long as it doesn't include things like the front page that users use to log in or other site pages. I feel like that's a reasonable compromise, since if an anonymous user doesn't have an account, they are probably not very attached to LJ as a community.

There's other little mistakes they've made, too:

In addition to text, you can post all sorts of media (up to 2GB worth)

Vox users get 2GB a month. Except that one could be easily corrected with two words: up to 2GB a month worth.

The ad situation, however, is hard to summarize in the space of a sentence, so it's understandable it comes off the way it does. I'm glad they saw fit to mention it, however, along with how it did get negative reactions from parts of the userbase.

schnee January 25 2007, 00:30:43 UTC

Yeah, that's definitely a good thing already.

As for anonymous users... I don't know. Generally speaking, they probably aren't really part of the community, but that's not always true; outside of the fact that many people will be logged out at times that *do* have accounts, there's also those who do allow anonymous comments, for example, so arguably, some anon users will be part of the community.

And of course, there's still Brad's promise, which was flat out broken when 6A added ads for anyone except sponsored users...

a_muse_d January 25 2007, 02:48:45 UTC

i wrote a feedback complaint about the ad on the homepage. it's exactly what shouldn't be there.

Thread 7

ex_shattered767 January 25 2007, 05:21:39 UTC

"In fact, according to LJ representatives, the reason that the site has not undergone a major overhaul, despite Six Apart's launching of what is, in essence, a shiny new version of the program, is mostly LiveJournal's commitment to, and understanding of, this user base."

....

No comment.

halfawake January 25 2007, 05:49:58 UTC

I love the part in the Vox review where they say that

Naturally, you designate who friends and family are. But when others pay your blog a visit, they needn't key in a username and password for your particular page. They simply have to log into their main Vox accounts, and Vox controls everything under the covers. Yes, that means your friends and family have to become Vox members to view your private content.

as if this is such a new way of doing things in the blogging world. I'd be surprised if there are any blog services out there that don't work this way.

donutgirl January 25 2007, 11:39:47 UTC

For those who want the full Web 2.0 experience and decide to make the jump to Vox, Six Apart makes the transition easy, allowing users with VOX accounts to "cross-post" onto their LiveJournal account, essentially posting entries on both sites. This gives VOX adopters the ability to maintain their LiveJournal friends/readership.

I'm not sure about this, either. Someone on my friends list is currently doing this (cross-posting from VOX), but LJ doesn't display her whole post, just the first few lines. They then provide a link, and I can read the rest over on Vox. Fair enough, but once I'm on Vox, I can't comment on her posts without making a Vox account.

I don't know if this is Vox-wide or just my friend's settings, but in any case it's not quite as convenient as the article makes it seem.

matgb January 25 2007, 11:53:47 UTC

The plan is, I think, that Vox will support OpenID login, so LJers will be able to comment over there the same way Voxers can comment over here. They are working on integration of the two, some stuff has been put in changelog already but not gone live yet.

The articles are right about Vox's userfriendliness though, if they do integrate it seemlessly it would be a good one for non-tech aware family.

Think of the exerpt thing as a bit like a cut; it's how I tend to cross post my stuff when I do write elsewhere.

sterlingnorth January 25 2007, 23:49:33 UTC

They just added the ability for crossposting to be of full posts between Vox and LJ. Actually, I believe the feature went live today, January 25, 2007.

sterlingnorth January 25 2007, 23:51:11 UTC

D'oh! I forgot the link to the post from Vox mentioning this.

Stupid forgetfulness...

Thread 7