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See you on InsaneJournal
Mar. 19th, 2008 03:04 pmAn interview in which the CEO of SUP (which owns LiveJournal) shows massive contempt for the users of LiveJournal. (There's also an alternate translation in which he says the same offensive things in a slightly nicer way.)
LiveJournal is a company that profits from 1) selling ad spaces on the content we create and 2) taking our money directly. Their business model relies on us. Yet it never seems to sink in that maybe they should care about what we think, discuss changes in advance, or pay attention to our opinions, because we actually know the community and the experience of LJ far better than some corporate guy who's barely used it. (And some acknowledgment that they wouldn't have any ad spaces to sell if we weren't creating the content would be nice too. And that maybe it's not the best idea to insult us by implying that we're all a bunch of depressed bisexual pornwriting sickos who deserve to be hidden. [Yes, I realize that the top interests have been restored, but those censored words didn't choose themselves, and they reveal a lot about LJ's attitude towards its users.])
I don't think that the strike will cause LJ to change. I do hope it will raise awareness among LiveJournal users that LiveJournal does not want people like us using their site. (They've got some deluded obsession with becoming the new Facebook or MySpace, despite the fact that there's already a Facebook and a MySpace, and the actual users of LJ are there because they don't want to be on Facebook or MySpace). Personally, I think LJ is slowly dying and that fandom will have migrated to somewhere else in five years.
I'm taking![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
spikewriter's advice and just using this strike as another step in my process of moving to InsaneJournal. I will no longer be cross-posting all of my entries to LJ, so if you want the full rusty_halo experience (*g*), please friend me on InsaneJournal. If you don't want to sign up for an account there, you can still comment via OpenID, although you won't be able to read my friendslocked posts (unless you comment with your OpenID username and ask me to friend you). I'm still going to post some entries on LiveJournal because I want to keep up with friends here and I want to participate in certain fandoms, but a lot of my more personal or off-the-cuff entries will be InsaneJournal only. (I know, I'm terribly arrogant, no one's going to switch journals just for me, etc, etc. I still have to do what is best for me.)
(Another reason you should read me on InsaneJournal? I'm really enjoying the 300 icon spaces I got with my permanent account over there. If you sign up for a free account, you'll get 100, btw.)
Some resources for moving to InsaneJournal:
* A Beginner's Guide to InsaneJournal.
* An excellent resource post which includes how to copy over your old entries, how to copy over all your icons, how to install a thread-unfolder, and how to block ads.
* Useful tools for backing up your LJ, copying your LJ and communities to IJ, and cross-posting.
* How to use OpenID for commenting on IJ or LJ.
* If you don't like the look of InsaneJournal, go here to choose a different site scheme. I like Dramatic (Sidebar) and Worksafe (Sidebar). I understand that they are working on more.
* The InsaneJournal announcements community keeps users informed about what's happening on the site (without LJ's bullshit marketing speech). Downtime is fixed quickly and code is updated frequently (they've got notifications now, btw). If you have a concern about the site, you can comment there and the guy who runs it,squeaky, often responds directly. IJ is fandom friendly and squeaky has promised not to go after fannish content (see the intro text on IJ's home page).
* A list of LJ's greatest fuckups, in case you need more inspiration to go. Just a glance at that list shows a consistent history of making rash and offensive decisions, then back-pedaling, tossing out a half-assed apology, and repeating the exact same pattern again the next time. Frankly, I'm still offended that they think breastfeeding is obscene. :( They also have some creepy tracking issues with their advertising in addition to everything else.
I'm not trying to start arguments or tell other people what to do. I'm just explaining how I feel and linking to information that I've found useful, for the benefit of others who may feel the same as I do.
I won't be visiting LiveJournal.com at all on Friday March 21, and I expect to scale back my useage of the site in the future. I will be posting and commenting more on InsaneJournal; I'd love to see you there.
[Cross-posted to InsaneJournal]
LiveJournal is a company that profits from 1) selling ad spaces on the content we create and 2) taking our money directly. Their business model relies on us. Yet it never seems to sink in that maybe they should care about what we think, discuss changes in advance, or pay attention to our opinions, because we actually know the community and the experience of LJ far better than some corporate guy who's barely used it. (And some acknowledgment that they wouldn't have any ad spaces to sell if we weren't creating the content would be nice too. And that maybe it's not the best idea to insult us by implying that we're all a bunch of depressed bisexual pornwriting sickos who deserve to be hidden. [Yes, I realize that the top interests have been restored, but those censored words didn't choose themselves, and they reveal a lot about LJ's attitude towards its users.])
I don't think that the strike will cause LJ to change. I do hope it will raise awareness among LiveJournal users that LiveJournal does not want people like us using their site. (They've got some deluded obsession with becoming the new Facebook or MySpace, despite the fact that there's already a Facebook and a MySpace, and the actual users of LJ are there because they don't want to be on Facebook or MySpace). Personally, I think LJ is slowly dying and that fandom will have migrated to somewhere else in five years.
I'm taking
spikewriter's advice and just using this strike as another step in my process of moving to InsaneJournal. I will no longer be cross-posting all of my entries to LJ, so if you want the full rusty_halo experience (*g*), please friend me on InsaneJournal. If you don't want to sign up for an account there, you can still comment via OpenID, although you won't be able to read my friendslocked posts (unless you comment with your OpenID username and ask me to friend you). I'm still going to post some entries on LiveJournal because I want to keep up with friends here and I want to participate in certain fandoms, but a lot of my more personal or off-the-cuff entries will be InsaneJournal only. (I know, I'm terribly arrogant, no one's going to switch journals just for me, etc, etc. I still have to do what is best for me.)(Another reason you should read me on InsaneJournal? I'm really enjoying the 300 icon spaces I got with my permanent account over there. If you sign up for a free account, you'll get 100, btw.)
Some resources for moving to InsaneJournal:
* A Beginner's Guide to InsaneJournal.
* An excellent resource post which includes how to copy over your old entries, how to copy over all your icons, how to install a thread-unfolder, and how to block ads.
* Useful tools for backing up your LJ, copying your LJ and communities to IJ, and cross-posting.
* How to use OpenID for commenting on IJ or LJ.
* If you don't like the look of InsaneJournal, go here to choose a different site scheme. I like Dramatic (Sidebar) and Worksafe (Sidebar). I understand that they are working on more.
* The InsaneJournal announcements community keeps users informed about what's happening on the site (without LJ's bullshit marketing speech). Downtime is fixed quickly and code is updated frequently (they've got notifications now, btw). If you have a concern about the site, you can comment there and the guy who runs it,
squeaky, often responds directly. IJ is fandom friendly and squeaky has promised not to go after fannish content (see the intro text on IJ's home page).* A list of LJ's greatest fuckups, in case you need more inspiration to go. Just a glance at that list shows a consistent history of making rash and offensive decisions, then back-pedaling, tossing out a half-assed apology, and repeating the exact same pattern again the next time. Frankly, I'm still offended that they think breastfeeding is obscene. :( They also have some creepy tracking issues with their advertising in addition to everything else.
I'm not trying to start arguments or tell other people what to do. I'm just explaining how I feel and linking to information that I've found useful, for the benefit of others who may feel the same as I do.
I won't be visiting LiveJournal.com at all on Friday March 21, and I expect to scale back my useage of the site in the future. I will be posting and commenting more on InsaneJournal; I'd love to see you there.
[Cross-posted to InsaneJournal]
