Distinguishing Graphic for Permanent Accounts & Subsequent Userinfo Changes

[adudeabides]

Title

Distinguishing Graphic for Permanent Accounts & Subsequent Userinfo Changes

Short, concise description of the idea

Permanent accounts are distinctly differnet from paid accounts. Permanent accounts should have a distinguishing graphic on their userinfo page, and the link to the paid account area on the green thumbs-up sign should be changed

Comments

[gerg]

I don't like this idea at all. Permanent accounts aren't being made available any more, so there's really no reason to differentiate them on the userinfo page - if anyone is interested on seeing whether someone has a permanent account or not, they can easily look at the bottom of the page.

Further differentiating permanent accounts with a different usericon is kind of silly, IMO. We don't have a different usericon for paid accounts, why should we have one for permanent accounts? While I wouldn't be opposed to changing the green thumbs up to a blue thumbs up or something like that, I don't feel it's really necessary to do so.

[adudeabides]

1) What makes you think permanent accounts will no longer be made available. I have yet to see an official source say that.

2) There are reasons, and I gave two of them...

2a) Paid accounts are different from permanent accounts, distinctly.

2b) It's confusing to make the two different account types look so similar.

3) The different user icon was just an afterthought. Always give people two options. The blue thumb is my preferred indicator. It's subtle.

4) More importantly, the linked page needs to be changed from /paidaccount/ because that is technically innacurate; even the benefits are a little different.

[gerg]

1)
Do we plan to sell more permanent accounts? When?
There are no current plans to sell more. It's a delicate issue: we don't want to sell them too cheap, or too expensive, and finding the right number to sell isn't easy. Although selling more permanent accounts isn't entirely out of the question, we don't have any plans for another sale.
see http://www.livejournal.com/~news/75106.html... )

[hdofu]

I got one after this post was made :p

[khalidz0r]

This will only get more people to whine about "Hey why can't I have a permenant account!".

[adudeabides]

We differentiate between paid and free accounts, why not permanent and paid? Particularly since they're linking to the /paidaccounts/ page and they're not paid accounts, per se.

[khalidz0r]

There is a difference between paid and free accounts because LiveJournal wants to encourage people to have paid accounts. While it's not so for permenant accounts, LiveJournal wants people to STOP whining about it.

[adudeabides]

I would think they'd want people to stop asking...it's annoying. However, I think if they truly want it to be stopped, they would make a more definitive statement on that. Until they do that, don't be so sure about saying they'll never offer them again.

There were other points to my post, though. Mostly that they're technically innacurate. I replied to other comments, here.

No.

[jc]

The green thumb, to me, represents a user who supports the site. Paid account holders support the site primarily through a financial contribution, and those Permanent account holders have supported the site either by paying their $100 or by significantly contributing to the site and the project.

The easiest and most popular way for any user to get their own green thumb is by buying a paid account, so it makes perfect sense to have the green thumb link to /paidaccounts/ regardless of account type.

Finally, the distinction between Paid and Permanent Accounts is already made on userinfo.bml - and, notably, the words "Account Type" already link to FAQ 38 - so a change to the thumb icon for Permanent Account holders would, at most, be cosmetic and useless.

Re: No.

[lyspeth]

Complete agreement with your disagreement.

Re: No.

[freso]

I completely agree with all of the statements of your disagreement, but I also feel the need to quote what cmshaw said in this comment:
Free/paid/permanent accounts are not different journal types; a paid community is the same as a free community plus certain features, and a permanent user is the same as a free user plus certain features. Since this feature information is not useful in the context of the user icon, this sort of visual distinction based solely on paid status seems, to me, to be pointlessly divisive.

Re: No.

[rar_ara]

I completely agree.

[cmshaw]

On part one, I agree that it's inaccurate to link to the paid accounts page from permanent accounts' userinfo. A blue versus a green thumbs-up could also be an easy way to provide information, and the userinfo page is the place for this information. Sure, it's a small thing, but there's no size limit on a suggestion.

On part two, I strongly disagree that the user icon should differ for different account statuses. Free/paid/permanent accounts are not different journal types; a paid community is the same as a free community plus certain features, and a permanent user is the same as a free user plus certain features. Since this feature information is not useful in the context of the user icon, this sort of visual distinction based solely on paid status seems, to me, to be pointlessly divisive.

Disagree

[freso]

Here's why: http://suggestions.livejournal.com/435898.html?thread=4164026#t4165562