A run down on sponsored mood themes

[foxfirefey]

The Diet Pepsi Max sponsored theme has been up and running along with the the sponsored mood theme. The mood theme image is served from stat.livejournal.com, like other mood themes

Comments

[elfwreck]

I'm arguing with Feedback that if paid users are going to see sponsored content, then the FAQ needs to change to reflect that--it needs to say something other than "Paid users do not see advertisements."

[ex_uniquewo]

Ah!

http://www.livejournal.com/support/see_request.bml?id=793762

I have a Paid Account on LiveJournal. The FAQ tells me that:

"You will never see ads on LiveJournal, even when viewing a Plus account's journal, as long as you're logged in. "
http://www.livejournal.com/support/faqbrowse.bml?faqid=262

And yet I'm seeing Pepsi Max ads whenever I look at entries posted by someone who has a sponsored LJ theme. And I *am* logged in.

What's up with that?

Note that the user is not in no_lj_ads 's flist.

Support's answer

[ex_uniquewo]

You are seeing these images because your friends have elected to use the Diet Pepsi Max sponsored mood theme. From LiveJournal's perspective, this is the same as any other content that your friends have chosen to add to an entry; saying "I like Pepsi" in an entry and electing to use the mood theme are the same where LiveJournal is concerned.

If you do not wish to see mood themes that your friends have chosen to use, you can override the mood themes on your friends page by selecting the checkbox at the bottom of this page: http://www.livejournal.com/customize/style.bml

So there has been a change of policy. We went from Sponsored whatever are ads to Sponsored whatever are not ads. I don't see what's the use of denying it.

Re: Support's answer

[neurofern]

"this is the same as any other content that your friends have chosen to add to an entry; saying "I like Pepsi" in an entry"

Errr.. apart from the fact that no money changes hands and LJ doesn't benefit if a user randomly states that they like pepsi.

:/

[ide_cyan]

!!!

That was my support request!

Which LJ has now made private without warning me about it! Yikes.

(I've just applied for membership to this community. I wasn't more than peripherally aware of no_lj_ads until today.)

[elfwreck]

I'm wondering if there's a potential for a fraud lawsuit (or even criminal charges) by their claim that "Paid users don't see advertisements" followed by "oh, sponsored layouts and mood themes aren't advertisements."

They're trying to persuade people to give them money to not see ads--and then we see ads anyway.

[foxfirefey]

Nope. LJ's TOS is pretty much flying free--it doesn't hold them accountable for anything.

[tallblue]

Has anyone else seen all the sponsored themes at VOX, even Bank of America Theme. but on VOX they are in their own category called "branded". I wonder if were are goign to get all these new sponsored themes, there are lots of Showtime themes of upcoming Showtime programing.

[foxfirefey]

Hrm, we haven't heard about Showtime yet here. They are VERY buddy buddy with Vox, and have huge sponsored areas.

[evil_jim]

Thank you many times for the tip on filtering out only the "sponsored" mood themes via Adblock for Firefox. :D

[foxfirefey]

Welcome!