LJ boycott of Friday

[clevermanka]

I don't know what a boycott will do, really, but...

I picked this up from rougewench, who snagged it from middnightclear:

(As copied from the fluidic_icons Community)

Read more about the Live Journal Strike This Friday...

For those of you who don't already know, there has been a strike scheduled for Friday, March 21st, 2008, during which we hope to have many members of LiveJournal provide LJ with absolutely no content for twenty-four hours. This means no posting and no commenting. If you post elsewhere and have it set up to be posted through a feed on LiveJournal, don't do it. Stay away from LiveJournal for twenty-four hours. That can't be too hard, can it? I know some of you are probably quite active on LiveJournal and will find it hard to stay away for an entire day, just as I will, but this is something that needs to be done, to show the people running LiveJournal that we're watching the changes they are making, that we're paying attention, that we're discontent, and that we want to be heard and taken in to consideration. We are not simply users who can be tossed to the side and ignored. We are the people who make up LiveJournal. Without us, without the content we create, without our words, our voices, our creativity, our participation, there would be no LiveJournal. This is a fact, and it needs to be realized and understood and then taken in to consideration when making decisions regarding the way that LiveJournal is run. The strike is only a few days away, so there isn't all too much time to prepare. While this is unfortunate, it isn't enough to keep this strike from taking place. It will take place, the second it is meant to, and it would be best to have as many people take part as possible. Please, spread the word. Spread it fast. There are only a few days to organize this. If you find that you care about LiveJournal or care about the people you interact with on LiveJournal or simply want it to remain a place where you can entertain yourself without constant censorship and money-hungry practices being thrown in without the consideration of those who use the service, act now. If you don't wish to spread the word, that is fine, but please: refrain from using LiveJournal on Friday, March 21st. Do something else for a change. It's for a good cause. (:

For background on this strike and why it is being held, please read the following posts:
http://beckyzoole.livejournal.com/394838.html
http://beckyzoole.livejournal.com/395310.html

To find out exactly when the strike begins and ends, depending on where you are located, please see this:
http://beckyzoole.livejournal.com/395125.html

What's this about?

* It's about free and ad-free LiveJournal accounts being abolished for new members, ignoring the advice from the newly-formed Advisory Board.

* It's about LJ staff trying to sneak this decision in under the radar, and when people found out, telling the users it was done 'to make the signup process less confusing'.

* It's about LJ staff failing to apologize for trying to hide the facts from view and for lying about the actual reasons for their actions.

* And finally, it's about the latest decision to hide certain user interests from the list of Most Popular Interests, some of them being fanfiction, bisexuality, fairies, sex and depression. This decision was not announced or explained in any way. Users found out for themselves.

Comments

[http://users.livejournal.com/_mac_/]

I received the strangest email from LJ last week, it was saying something like apologizing for any confusion about why some changes would take place soon, but it didn't say what the changes were, it was all very confusing. Anyway, yeah, not allowing new free accounts would be the suck. I chose LJ as a convenient forum to communicate with my online friends, but any new friends would have to pay to use it. Suck!

[clevermanka.livejournal.com]

It does suck. I'm also pretty irritated at the level of censorship they're employing. However minimal it seems at the moment, that sort of thing rarely gets less intrusive as time goes on.

[c3fyn.livejournal.com]

I suppose that, having been absent for about a year from the LJ, it might not matter as much, but I'll not post on that day, either. My timing is, as always, impeccable, having decided that using LJ might get me writing again. Wankers.

[clevermanka.livejournal.com]

Sorry, but that just made me grin.

Poor guy!

Welcome back, though. How ya doing?

[c3fyn.livejournal.com]

Doing all right, generally speaking. Actually, compared to 3/4 of the world's population, I'm stellar and swimming in it. Just need to find a j.o.b. so that I can get back and finish off s.c.h.o.o.l.

How's folks in Larryville?

[clevermanka.livejournal.com]

I can't speak for everyone, but this particular Larryville-ite is doing pretty good. Best of luck with the job hunt--I really do mean that. It's a tough time to be looking.

jobs...sigh

[c3fyn.livejournal.com]

Danke. As before, my timing is fab. Best job I ever had, got during SW Bell's (er, "SBC"...*whatever*) boom, and the company tanks within a trice. I'm starting to think that I should intentionally get jobs at large corporations that are doing extremely well, so that they will founder and collapse within four or five years. Might as well use my karma to take some bastards down with me.

[chronovore.livejournal.com]

I've been wondering where the heck you went.

You can always try a different venue for your writing; you can keep it private, publicize it, or collaborate with it on Google Docs. I've been loving that service lately.

[c3fyn.livejournal.com]

I went into the trackless wastes of Dep Ression, entered through the City of the Qlippoth, aka Graduate School, aka What The Heck Am I Doing With My Life?

I'll check out the Google venues, danke.

[chronovore.livejournal.com]

Hm. I've found that just dawdling in the fine town of Span K'nit is relaxing and enjoyable, if not utterly fulfilling.

[c3fyn.livejournal.com]

Heh. Perhaps I need to find a sherpa who can take me to this fabled place.

[chronovore.livejournal.com]

Not sure how I feel about the monetization. I'm accepting of a need to make money to pay for something that costs money to run, but at the same time the implementation of Plus Accounts, and their non-contextual banner ads reminds me a lot of the first big misstep made on Tribe.net, where ads were placed not only in sidebars, but integrated into conversations, breaking up the flow and sometimes causing readers to think they'd finished a thread, when it had only been b'gapped.

I'd been thinking about upgrading to a Paid account here, but if that mean that I'd lose my Basic account if I ever chose to stop paying... well, "no thank you."

[sifukatara.livejournal.com]

I'm sorry, but I'm not participating in this silly thing. I don't get why this is going on. And after reading some explainations, I'm still not sure what's going on. It just seems pointless to me. LJ has been working fine for me, so I will be posting on Friday.

[clevermanka.livejournal.com]

Um, hooray for you? Do I even know you? We don't have any friends, interests, or communities in common. Do you work for LJ or something? I'm not sure why you're bothering to comment in my journal.

[chronovore.livejournal.com]

DOUBLE PUNCHED!

http://www.nbc.com/Saturday_Night_Live/video/play.shtml?mea=166786

[starstraf.livejournal.com]

this is what I get for being behind - I think I posted