NO Ads on my User information Page!

[alobar]

Title
NO Ads on my User information Page!

Short, concise description of the ideaLJ has added a "feature" which users are not able to disable. There is now a little add on everyone's user information page linking to some virtual gifts which LJ is selling. I asked LJ support how to zap the ad. Suppor tepolied that there was no way to do so and

Comments

[kutsuwamushi]

I admit I rolled my eyes at how seriously you're taking the "send alobar a virtual gift" link, but I do agree on principle. I also would rather not have that link on my profile.

But I don't think that being able to get rid of that link is worth the cost in mental energy of yet another option on the edit profile page. It's about as benign an ad as you can get while still being an ad.

[anotherdream]

The vgift link is no more on advertisement than the "Upgrade Your Account" and "LJ Gift Shop" links that are a part of site navigation and visible on all profiles. LiveJournal is, IMO, quite within their rights to link to their own features on LJ pages.

[alobar]

We disagree on this. No ads are supposed to be visible for paid accounts. If LJ gets away with this bulklshit, what comes next?

[matgb]

But the point made was it's not an external advert. It is in fact a different way of getting paid time; I dislike gifts, and my friends know to donate money elsewhere if they want to make me happy, but paid users don't see paid for adverts from elsewhere; this isn't a paid for advert, it's a promotional link to an LJ service that your friends may choose to like; it's part of the site navigation scheme.

I dislike gifts, but your argument as to why they shouldn't be shown is invalid, as they're not adverts of the type we were promised we wouldn't see.

[foxfirefey]

Sponsored vgifts upcoming, baby!

[neitherday]

I don't foresee people "leaving LJ in droves" over a small, somewhat hard to find link at the bottom of the full-view mode of profile pages (which already requires an extra click to get to).

[pauamma]

Are you referring to the "Send (username) a virtual gift" link that's near the bottom of the profile? And if you are, are you objecting to seeing it on your own profile, to seeing it on others', to others seeing it on yours, or to some/all of the above?

[alobar]

I object to anyone with a paid account having the ad on his or her profile, unless he/she agrees to having it there.

[pauamma]

Good thing I don't have a paid account, then. :-)

[desh]

I think there's a fundamental difference between LJ selling its own services (when those services don't have a non-LJ brand name associated with them) and LJ advertising someone else's services. And I don't think paid users have, or should have, any right under any LJ social contract to opt out of the former.

[alobar]

I strongly disagree with that. Six Apart is out to destroy LJ, while milking it for every penny. If they aren't stopped, I predict LJ will go down the tubes.

[fweebles]

Well Six Apart is generally who ends up implementing these suggestions, so I'm not sure that making a suggestion is going to help all that much. :)

[azurelunatic]

I actually find the link very handy. I found myself using it today!