Ch-ch-changes

[shann]

K well I've got a real update coming soon but

Comments

[hawuna]

I am never, ever leaving Livejournal.

[shann]

Yay!

[baka_tenshi]

i can see why they'd want to leave (piss poor excuse for customer service and the design could really be infinitely better than it is) - but honestly?

no one could make me leave LJ.

[shann]

I suppose I've never experienced the customer service because I've never had to seek it, but that is a good reason. I just tend to notice that whenever a social networking or blogging/journaling website adds a new feature or changes something about its layout, people go batshit for a little while, then adjust and move on. This time I'm seeing people actually leave though, some that I've been friends with since 2004-05, and it is worrying. Nothing about the new features/layout this time is really all that bad this time and improves the look of the site so I just don't get it. I'm glad you are staying though.

[baka_tenshi]

no joke. although they are planning to change the entire site to look like this in the future and there are reports of people having their automatic payments being turned on against their will and the manager of LJ support going "NO NO, THAT' A LIE!"

[shann]

I've seen images of the new layout and nothing about it bothers me. It just looks a bit more "web 2.0" and such. As long as my own journal's layout isn't messed with, I don't care too much about what they do with the main site or profiles, I don't even really look at those.

The auto-pay thing is shit, though. I can see why someone would get pissed off enough to leave because of that. Though honestly that wouldn't be a good enough reason for me, I've just been here too long :/

[bleed_peroxide]

I have a DW specifically if LJ goes down in flames, and so I don't lose hundreds of entries like I did with GreatestJournal years back.

I couldn't leave LJ unless I had no choice :(

[shann]

Is there evidence that it will go down in flames? D: I've heard users talking about it for years and I'm not sure where it's coming from. It seems like there's a huge push to migrate to another journaling site and/or to use a program to back up one's journal every year because there's some imminent shut down coming up in the near future that for some reason the LJ staff is going to keep under wraps and just assholishly let years of people's lives disappear w/o warning, but it never happens. So I'm not sure what to believe...

[bleed_peroxide]

I'm just speaking from experience, because I migrated to LJ from a sister site called GreatestJournal. I think part of the problem was they offered insane amounts of things - you could get over 2,000 userpics if you paid, verses maybe 250-ish, for example. (Depends on how long you've been on the site.) The site was wonky for a while, but now it literally no longer exists, and I lost years' worth of work.

I don't see LJ crashing down around us unless a LOT of the paid userbase leaves. Still, I remain cautious.

[shann]

I had an account on GreatestJournal I used for ranting, guess that's gone too lol. Didn't use it very long but wow, that is sucky. If I had kept a normal journal there and lost it I would be devastated. I'm sorry you had to go through that :x

[haeralis]

The primary reason I'm leaving (though not entirely, I'm just spending more time on DW than LJ nowadays) is due to RP--for the games I'm in on LJ, due to the way we thread and keep track of comments, it's actually become impossible to continue functioning on LJ. The new layout is also shit for people with light sensitivity issues, and I know of several cases where it has made people physically ill. Turns out you can't change the color scheme on the new layout. I'm also not pleased by removing comment subjects because it makes it a lot more difficult to navigate big comms without trigger warnings.

Piss-poor customer service and insulting the userbase is just the icing on the cake, though.

[shann]

Yeah, I guess I can see why RPers would leave if it makes things impossible to keep track of. Light sensitivity and triggering I know next to nothing about, so I won't comment much on that. I guess I just don't notice a huge difference between changes made here and changes made to other social networking sites, which are usually much more drastic? And LJ is the only place I ever hear of complaints as specific as light sensitivity and such. Is it currently a haven on the internet or something for people who have issues like those? I really am curious, can you tell me more?

[haeralis]

DreamWidth has in general been so much better in terms of useability (LJ goes down all the damn time and DW rarely does), customer service (Mark and Denise, the co-owners of DW, are extremely prompt about answering queries and not ignoring their userbase), and being open about their business practices and goals. For my part, I've found their site way more intuitive and easier to use than LJ, and I appreciate their willingness to communicate openly

[shann]

Thanks, that is good to know. It's great that DW is working with its users like that and I can see why roleplayers would embrace a community that is willing to be so accommodating. I haven't ever run into an issue with LJ because my focus is on my own (and my friends') journal(s) rather than communities and roleplay, so I didn't see that perspective. As a site to keep an online journal and keep up with friends' journals, LJ meets my needs well, and I've just been here so long and found it so useful and gotten to know so many wonderful people that I feel, as of now, that I couldn't leave unless the site were to shut down.

This was the straw that broke the camel's back, it looks like.

That's what it seems like, as from what I remember things like strikethrough didn't even drive very many people away, at least not permanently. I'm glad that you'll be sticking around anyhow, despite preferring DW now.

[trf_chan]

I...also don't get the big deal? D: Did something else happen besides livejournal just deciding to change things up a bit?

I could never blog anywhere else but here, honestly.

[shann]

According to a couple people who commented above you, it has to do with the new layout changes seriously affecting roleplay and users with light sensitivity and triggering issues, and some users also had their auto-pay turned on without their knowledge. So, I can see why some people left if they are big in to RP or suffer from certain issues. Most of that stuff doesn't affect me, though, and even the auto-pay thing isn't enough to chase me away from a seven-year archive of my life and growth as a person, or the friends I have remaining here. I just hate to see so many of them leave over what seemed to me like a pretty minor tweak to LJ's look.

I'm glad you're staying, though!