Boycott the ole ELJay?
I don't know if I should. On the one hand, I think the whole 'no basic accounts' thing is the beginning of the end for LJ. I think it's just a matter of time before even older users are forced on plus. And once that happens, I'm out of here. So I'm wondering if I should jump ship early? On the other hand, I started on LJ and it's been my home for a long time. I can make my own layouts there, and use the LJ tools I'm so fond of, as well as all my friends still being on there.
Vox is a lot prettier. Although it's owned by Six Apart anyway and has ads on site, so maybe I'm just substituting one 'the man' for another. D=
What LJ should have done is kept basic accounts and upgraded 'plus' accounts to be so IRRESISTIBLY AWESOME that it would tempt even the most vehement ad-hater (me) into considering switching to plus-- As it was, it's never seemed worth it to me... albeit I was considering getting a paid account. But as it happens, thanks to the recent underhandedness of the bosses over at ELJAY, I really don't want to give them a dime. =\
What to do... what to do...
For the time being, I've just enabled cross posting and I might just use my Vox more. *shrug*
Comments
I agree killing the free, ad-less accounts probably is not the best course of action. However, I haven't seen the ads, so I don't know how offensive that account might be. So, I wonder how bad they really are?
What they have done is taken a shitty business model and made it into a shittier business model, upset a ton of their users and curbed the number of people who might have newly signed up. The fact of the matter is that some people are going to be turned off with the ad-only account option and creation, so yes, they are losing users. However way you want to look at it, that's a stupid business decision, and the short term benefits are not outweighed by the backlash of their decision.
Theres a reason why sites like flickr work and LJ doesn't.