LJ Content Strike Friday March 21

[mizarchivist]

This is a content boosting thing, as I've only seen one mention of it (via kgola)

The short version is, there is a planned content strike (no comments, posts, feeds) from 12a-12p GMT- I believe that'd be ETA: 6-6 8-8 Eastern. (thanks, weegee and Supercheesegirl)
The whys--
Many in our community are disturbed by high-handed measures being done by LJ admin.
-discontinuing free accounts for new users (nfc re: old free accts)
    -making decisions with not much regard to their advisory board
-not enough information sharing with users
ETA: -censoring user interests This bit is called into question

For a more complete write up, visit beckyzoole's posts on the logistics and reasons.

Like I said- signal boosting. I'm not interested in philosophical debates on if this is going to make any difference. You are welcome to debate it on your own page, obvy.
ETA: I'm undecided if I'll actually participate.
ETA: liamstliam has wote a post about this which talks about what's going on and has a level of snark that made me smile a lot
ETA: And darkrosetiger's side.

Comments

[weegoddess.livejournal.com]

Actually, GMT is only 4 hours ahead of EST right now. We'll have our DST on March 30 and then be back to 5 hours ahead.

::scritch::

FYI

[library-sexy.livejournal.com]

I understand you may still choose to strike, but you might want to check into some of your information. Since this has been talked about the issue of interests (http://www.livejournal.com/interests.bml?view=popular&mode=text) is not currently an issue. All the "missing" items are on the list.

Re: FYI

[mizarchivist]

I've altered my post a bit to reflect this shaky bit, and added a bit that I should have before that I'm undecided if I actually want to do this myself.

Re: FYI

[library-sexy.livejournal.com]

I am with you on the undecided.

Re: FYI

[qwrrty.livejournal.com]

I was suspicious about this for the same reason. However, I found a LiveJournal changelog entry that confirms that a keyword filter on popular interests was removed on March 17: http://community.livejournal.com/changelog/6283445.html

Some more context in the LJ Herald, which I gather is an unofficial community on LJ policy: http://community.livejournal.com/the_lj_herald/80784.html

Re: FYI

[library-sexy.livejournal.com]

Yes I knew that it was a re-edit after there where rumblings on folks journals the last few days.

It would not surprise me if the filer was there to try to keep the "public view" of LJ away from the folks who are after the other networking sites. I do believe LJ is very different from facebook and Myspace and I have no interest in LJ being watched like a hawk as the other sites are these days.

This is an interesting line to walk.

Re: FYI

[cos]

LiveJournal removed the filter two days ago, probably in response to protest.

[fraterrisus]

discontinuing free accounts for new users

i believe that they have discontinued "Free" accounts, but you can still get a "Plus" account (i.e. one that is supported by displaying advertising in your journal).

so it is still possible to get a new LJ account without paying anything – you just have to live with advertising. which, frankly, pulls Livejournal into the same realm as Facebook, Myspace, and basically every other website in existance.

[philosophical debate skipped by request :) ]

i can't argue with the heavy-handed decision making, and i have no opinion on the advisory board's role except to say that it's brand-new. but these things don't bother me enough to participate in a protest.

[mizarchivist]

yeaaaah. Pretty much. Doesn't help I'm Apathy Girl today. So my jaded sensibilities are winning out here.

[cos]

Two issues:

1. Basic accounts (free, ad-free) have been very important to getting critical mass in LiveJournal, though they may be less important now that LJ has that critical mass. However, they're still the lowest barrier to entry, so removing them adds friction into the process of new account creation, which means fewer new accounts. Because LJ has had Basic accounts for so long, there are a lot of people here who are here because they wanted an ad-free place, and now they won't want to bring new friends on, and won't want to create new accounts.

2. Making such a fundamental change without telling anyone about it, and waiting for it to be discovered and explode in comment threads for a few days before saying anything about it, shows... extraordinary cluelessness, plus probably contempt for the userbase, and bodes very poorly for the future. SUP are latecomers to a big thing that millions of people built over about 8 years; people are suspicious, and if SUP doesn't show that they understand this thing they bought, it'll unravel as people look for somewhere else. Bad for SUP because their business won't grow the way they hope it will, and bad for us because the community will fragment and what LJ offers will be partly lost.

[lifecollage.livejournal.com]

If you (or anyone else reading this) has an interest, there's another discussion of this over in Liam's journal. (http://liamstliam.livejournal.com/396057.html) I'm also firmly in the undecided camp, since expecting a business to behave like anything other than a business is just silly. That they may be acting more like an Real World Business than a Web 2.0 Business is a matter for the elided debate.

[mizarchivist]

since expecting a business to behave like anything other than a business is just silly</quote? I think you've nailed why I've been feeling "eh" about it all.

[lifecollage.livejournal.com]

Though, for completeness' sake (and because it was at the tail end of the flist I hadn't read yet), here's Darkrosetiger's take, (http://darkrosetiger.livejournal.com/373663.html) coming down on the Why You Should side.

[cutieperson]

HA! had i not already firmly been on the side of why you shouldn't, i would be now.

[cos]

That's... so missing the point, I'm almost speechless. Really. Well, for a minute.

A) What is "behaving like a business"? It's content-free. They made a bad decision. Businesses make good decision and bad decisions all the time while still "behaving like businesses".

B) "Expecting" is irrelevant. From what I know, lots of people had bad expectations of SUP before this, anyway. I guess we "expect" them to tell us when they're making a big change, but the matter of expectations isn't really what this is about.

I'm missing a lot. That statement strikes me as so completely missing the point in so many ways I can't pin them all down yet.

[supercheesegirl.livejournal.com]

No, you've still got the time conversion wrong--we're four hours off, so that means it's 8-8 for EST on daylight savings time. See here (http://beckyzoole.livejournal.com/395125.html). Also, according to beckyzoole's posts, it's a 24 hour thing.

[mizarchivist]

stoopid time zones. Thanks.

[drwex]

Fascinating to see peoples' takes on this. Mine is that I'm participating, and I'm doing so because I don't think SUP understands its users. Considering what I do for a living I regard that as a cardinal sin.

I don't expect a one-day strike to change anything; I'm doing it because I'm personally peeved.

[lizzielizzie.livejournal.com]

Yeah, this is how I feel about it as well.

Although I think for it to have any effect that you need to stay completely and totally away from LJ for that 24-hour period, so they can see a serious traffic hit.

[drwex]

That's my plan. No read, no write, no comment. I'm not even asking other people to join me (except possibly for lunch since I have that day off of work) - it's just me doing what I feel I want to do.