Comments | no_lj_ads: Pepsigate

foxfirefey in no_lj_ads

Pepsigate

Aug 21, 2007 11:52

Trouble from news' announcement of sponsored v-gifts have already resulted in some positive changes--users you banned won't be able to send vgifts to you anymore. Anger at ads forcing improvement to a harassment security hole? I like ( Read more... )

Comments 29

esteven August 21 2007, 19:30:40 UTC

WEll, I'll believe it when I see the post in lj_releases. Still, they seemed to have reacted slightly faster than previously.
Thanks for the info.

(The comment has been removed)

matgb August 21 2007, 20:10:12 UTC

It was incredibly annoying; I had it turned on 'when one of your friends receives a gift', and my inbox was fairly full of them, all cans of Pepsi.

Turned off now, which is a shame, while I don't want them, occasionally friends do get sent gifts with nice messages, and I'll not see them at all now.

theclamsman August 21 2007, 20:12:45 UTC

In another development, all the Diet Pepsi crap from that news post is gone. The v-gifts, the page layouts/styles, and the new bubble mood theme crap thing. Perhaps they heard peoples' cries this time.

elfwreck August 21 2007, 20:27:47 UTC

Heh. Apparently, enough people complaining about refunds got to them, and they realized that "sponsored content," especially "in the hopes that you'll want to try their new drink," was going to be considered an advertisement in any court.

And LJ doesn't want to face several thousand small claims court refund demands for permanent account payments. (They could still... because breach of contract is still a breach if you fix it a week later. But it's less likely that people will bother now.)

How much you wanna bet they won't be announcing "our lawyers told us that the sponsored stuff could get us sued, so we removed it while we frantically looked for coding options to make it opt-out for paid users?"

ex_uniquewo August 21 2007, 23:17:46 UTC

Woohoo! Best news I've had today - well that and the fact that my complaint at the BBB has been validated. I wonder if Pepsi got wind of all the fuss and decided it wasn't such a good idea after all.

Thank you!

paulownia August 21 2007, 23:39:22 UTC

yes. most likely, yes. Or they were watching the release and saw it was a negative PR situation and pulled it.

Thread 25

schnee August 21 2007, 21:34:21 UTC

Woo! :)

kunzite1 September 2 2007, 17:38:28 UTC

you would think that it should be telling people something if the users have been calling LJ/6A on every move since they started this "sponsored" stuff in general.

sounds like it's been pretty much done wrong from the start.

there are many wrong ways to introduce sponsored content. especially since one of the original ideas was that paid/perm users would never see sponsored content. your status would be known because you'd be logged in or a cookie would be left on your machine noting your account level.

some things such as these contests and mood themes and whatever would be opt-in. and for the most part they are.

trying to slip some of this sponsored stuff off as "not ads" is slimy and wrong. sponsorship is advertising, period, and should not be shown to those who aren't supposed to be seeing advertising. and those are paid/perm users.

so yeah. i momentarily came out of my hole to say that. :D

in the midst of working graveyard shifts, being really really sick, and playing World of Warcraft, there you go.