LJ changing even further?

[ratcreature]

It seems there are even more fundamental changes on the horizon for LJ than this "improved" friends page. In this thread of the LJ release post a user links to a thread from the ru_news announcement in which apparently someone from LJ says that for spring next year they are planning to discontinue paid accounts.

If that is true it makes sense how they keep leveling the differences between free and paid accounts, like with the Scrapbook now being available for everyone, and the customization options (that were more flexible with paid accounts) being abandoned.

Comments

[elf]

So LJ has moved solidly from "userbase is our customers" to "userbase is the product."

How long before they pull the Facebook maneuver of "if you want ALL the people who've friended you to read your posts, you have to pay us?"

[ratcreature]

Who knows what they'll do. I have honestly no idea anymore what they are thinking. But my account expires in February, and I sure won't renew it if I just risk have my money vanish without getting anything anymore. One of the major paid perks I used, Scrapbook, is now free for as much space as I need, and I like having my icons and extra notifications (I wonder what will happen to the extra icons if LJ really stops paid accounts, maybe they'll sell just that as perk?), but I've been using LJ less and less anyway.

[astridv]

Good news for Dreamwidth, I guess.

[ratcreature]

Yeah. I guess theoretically it's possible that they'd just offer the extras to everyone, after they've done away with paid accounts, but somehow I doubt it. I mean, from what I gather icons at least need quite a bit of ressources, so I don't see them offering everybody hundreds, even if they increase the free numbers a little.

[mirabile-dictu.livejournal.com]

Whoa, have you tried the new version of the friends page? Now called a "feed"? Yucky. Wonder if we'll have any icons in the new set up?

I normally don't care much what LJ does or doesn't do, but I have to admit, I'm not wild about this change.

[ratcreature]

Yeah, I tried it. Not thrilled. Besides anything else, it doesn't even have the summary module anymore and that's what I use to see new entry subjects at a glance and also whether a post has gotten new comments since I'd seen it.

My account expires in February, and I'm pretty sure once it does I won't renew it (especially not if I just risk having my money vanish two months later or so when they might abandon their account types). I've been using it less and less anyway.

[ileliberte.livejournal.com]

Yeah, that does make sense. I don't honestly mind the friends page design, I never really cared about it being super customized apart from having the colors being not eye-searing or headache-inducing and i'm ok with the blue and gray thing. I just hate, hate, hate infinite scrolling. And no page summaries :(

[ratcreature]

I'm not that attached to my current look. I mean, I only picked that layout after they abandoned the old style entry pages, so I had to switch to the minimalist layout from the one I'd been using for years. And with colors and such there are always browser style sheets and scripts as a last resort. I just want the basic functionality to be there.