Bad Livejournal, Bad, Bad!

[kerravonsen]

With no announcements, no consultation, the New Management have sneaked in a despicable change: they have eliminated Basic Accounts.

ETA Despite the fact that I have a permanent account, I'm wondering if I should leave anyway. (Won't delete the journal, just leave it sitting there) So which alternative journal place is the one that everyone seems to have alternative accounts at?

Comments

[watervole.livejournal.com]

I haven't got the energy to maintain journals in more than one place, so I hope you stay on LJ>

[jhall1.livejournal.com]

Me too.

[kerravonsen]

You folks give me very strong reasons to stay. I love my flist!

But I am also furious about this. Unlike all the other cock-ups LJ has made, where I felt people were overreacting, this... I'm not sure why I'm so angry, but it really feels like a betrayal. Normally I can see two sides to the story, but... "The love of money is the root of all kinds of evil."

There is a vast difference between "making a living" and "profit at all costs". Nobody EVER has a "right" to obscene profits.

So there is absolutely and utterly no justification for their actions. Especially as they have LIED about it. Lied by omission, anyway. So they already knew that it was wrong.

I'm really angry.

[mistraltoes.livejournal.com]

I don't like it either, but on what do you base this idea of "obscene profits"? Do you know how much it costs to run the business, how much the return rate on the investment is, or how much they clear in profits annually, and among how many shareholders this is divided? Furthermore, why is LJ *obligated* to pay for anyone who wants to have free service at LJ's expense? And since the change doesn't affect your account or any other existing account in any way, and all new account holders will know about the policy before they create accounts, how do you get the idea that this is a lie by omission?

You and I and likely everybody commenting in this thread are, by world-wide standards, in the wealthiest 10% of the population. Does that mean you are corrupt because you are rich? Or is your problem only with people richer than you are? Should the destitute of Asia and Africa rail about the "obscene" amount of your take-home pay? Is their poverty a result of your being an evil oppressor? Should you therefore be obligated to provide free programming to anyone who wants it, or are you entitled to a salary for your time?

Stockholders and business owners and rich people are not automatically evil. They're just like you and me. They ARE you and me. The day you tell your employer that you'll continue to work your job for free will be the day it will make any kind of logical sense for you to complain because LJ doesn't give away free accounts.

[kerravonsen]

I think I'm angriest about the fact that they tried to conceal it. And yes, they did try to conceal it, because in the places where changes in policy are supposed to be announced, they did not mention it, not one word. That is a lie of omission.

Stockholders and business owners and rich people are not automatically evil.

Anyone who pursues profit at all costs and as the most important thing in their life IS evil. How many times does the Bible chastize the wickedness of the rich? And yet Abraham and Job, to take two examples, were very rich, and beloved of God. They did not put their wealth first.

As I said, there's a difference between "making a living" and "profit at all costs".

I know, I'm a Socialist at heart, and you're a Libertarian, so I expect we will never agree on this. And think I'd better stop, or I will say something that I regret.

[mistraltoes.livejournal.com]

As I said, there's a difference between "making a living" and "profit at all costs".

Exactly. And you're just making a knee-jerk reaction that this is the latter rather than the former; you have no real data either way. You don't know whether the people you're complaining about are the wicked rich, or Abraham making a living. That's bigotry, plain and simple.

And BTW, my being a Libertarian has *nothing* to do with it. I'm as opposed to the powerful exploiting the poor as you are. I just don't automatically assume every businessman is out to do that, or that every rise in costs is due to greed, rather than to the rising costs of providing the product. The costs of goods and services are going up drastically in the US right now; it would be remarkable if LJ didn't have to find some way to generate more revenue in order to continue existing.

[kalquessa.livejournal.com]

Me threeee!

[izhilzha.livejournal.com]

I'm with watervole; I don't have the time or energy to even think about transferring, so...if fandom (or my flist) depart, I'll just slowly vanish into the distance.

(why, yes, I am feeling overly DRAMATIC today, why do you ask? *g*)

[feliciakw.livejournal.com]

Psst. You want that we should talk tonight?

[izhilzha.livejournal.com]

Um, well....I'm having dinner with ladybrick and then going to someone's house to watch LOST, but there might be 45 minutes of free time in-between. Email me?

(sorry about the thread highjack, Kat.)

[kalquessa.livejournal.com]

Seriously, what's not to be dramatic about? *clings to LJ friends* Do not desert meee!

[temeres.livejournal.com]

FWIG, this applies only to new accounts created after March 12th, so existing basic accounts (like mine) are safe ... for the moment. Not that that makes the change any less infuriating.

[kerravonsen]

Yes, existing basic accounts are safe for the moment. I wouldn't trust them as far as I can throw them, at this point.

[temeres.livejournal.com]

If they do kill basic accounts then I'll have to disappear, since I can't see how I'd be able to pay. As well as having No Car and No Telly, I also have No Credit Card.

[kerravonsen]

You'd pay by having advertising in your journal.

[temeres.livejournal.com]

That wouldn't personally bother me overmuch. Annoying, but not to the point of driving me away.

[jomacmouse.livejournal.com]

Do you have a debit card? I know not all of them can be used in the same way as a credit card, and you may not feel like paying for an LJ account anyway...

[hawkeye7.livejournal.com]

I feel the same way.

I homesteaded GreatestJournal during the last brouhaha. However, I haven't used it. I couldn't even remember the password when I went to check it a moment ago. (But it's the same as the LJ one.)

[kerravonsen]

I gather that GreatestJournal is comatose, and the happening place to be is InsaneJournal. Though the irony of that is that InsaneJournal appears not to have the equivalent of Basic Accounts, since the free accounts there have ads. (!?)

[sinanju.livejournal.com]

True, but...

a) using Firefox and Adblocker Plus, I say, "what ads?"

b) The Powers That Be (Squeaky) behind InsaneJournal seem to be friendly, helpful, communicative and reasonably skillful at actually, you know, running the system within minimal problems. He (she? I don't know) had to upgrade to bigger servers after the massive flood of immigrants from GJ and LJ and it went remarkably well.

[vilakins.livejournal.com]

I think it stinks too. I hope I don't have to set up any more comms. :-P

However I'm staying because my friends are here. I have a GJ I've never used but I heard that they've reneged on their icon space and other things.

[wneleh.livejournal.com]

Hmm.... I'm seeing the rage, but I'm not feeling it.

But I started at plus, and went paid when I found the ads offensive (in several senses of the word.)

I don't have journaling accounts anywhere else.

[tptigger.livejournal.com]

Everyone on my FL who jumped ship thus far has jumped ship somewhere else.

I hadn't even thought of ads on comms now. Argh! (At least with a paid account I'll never see them, but it's the principal of the thing.)

[infiniteviking]

..erwhat?? *stares in consternation*