| 'Basic'ally screwed... |
[13 Mar 2008|02:33pm] |
Wow... I haven't read my friends page yet, but I'm sure there are posts on there about this. Apparently, SUP (the company that now runs LiveJournal) has decided to do away with Basic Accounts. That's right, folks.. if you haven't heard, all new accounts will either be Plus (ad-supported) or Paid (ie., not free). The option to create a basic account disappeared yesterday.
Now, you may be thinking 'Surely not! I would have heard about it in the news post they just made!', but my friends, you would be wrong.. they thought they could sneak this by us because (and I am quoting the VP of Product Development,  jasonshellen "it's been ages since any of [us] signed up for a new account" and, apparently, the registration process was "quite confusing and included a table of options that was not very inviting to new users" (http://news.livejournal.com/106731.html?thread=68484587#t68484587). Hmm... correct me if I'm wrong here, but we all did manage to graduate from kindergarten, right? We can all count to three, as in, three account choices. In addition, current users create new accounts all the time... they're called communities.
Now, like many longtime LJ users, you may also be thinking, 'There must be some misunderstanding, because they repeatedly promised us they would never do that', and again, my friends, you would be wrong. They did promise us that, but apparently, it was bullshit. Free users are no longer welcome on LiveJournal, because they don't bring in any revenue, erm, I mean, because SUP is working hard to add even more features and are currently revisiting our ad-supported strategy to find ways to deliver more user value.
As for me, I valued basic, ad-free accounts but then no one asked me... or anyone else.
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