I've still got a couple of spare DreamWidth invites.
I'm *tired* of this constant monetising creep on LJ, of feeling that I now need to subscribe to http://community.livejournal.com/no_lj_ads to keep up with the latest attempt to sneak ads into paid accounts. I pay for my account for one simple reason -- I don't want to see ads on other people's accounts, and I don't want other people to see ads on my account. I have no use for most of the paid features, and I can live without the ones I do use. LJ has repeatedly demonstrated this year that their definition of ad-free for paid accounts is "no ads other than the ones we think you won't notice us slipping in".
I don't have a problem with LJ offering ad-supported accounts. They need revenue to run the service, and it's a commercial operation so they need to turn a profit. But I do have a problem with them making money by using seriously dodgy software from a third party to covertly re-direct links for their commercial benefit. That's a big security and privacy breach.
And even without that aspect, I have a big problem with them doing this to paid accounts, with no real opt-out. I know that moving lock stock and barrel to DreamWidth and simply leaving a forwarding address as the only post in my LJ account is going to inconvenience a lot of my friends, but I don't see any other good reason to keep giving LJ money if they don't back down on this. Be aware that from now on, if you comment on the LJ account, the content will be exported at some point to my DW account.
Some useful links
How to Move from LJ to Dreamwidth in Six Easy Steps
Suggestion on breaking (for now) the rewriting for other people's view of your posts. It won't stop them seeing that people are following a link, but it should stop them making money from it. The tool used has its own security/privacy implications, but at least you get to decide which evil you prefer.
Oh and as one of the few paid features I do use is creating syndicated accounts... I've set up a feed to LJ of my DW account, in case of need. http://syndicated.livejournal.com/julesjonesondw/
I'm *tired* of this constant monetising creep on LJ, of feeling that I now need to subscribe to http://community.livejournal.com/no_lj_ads to keep up with the latest attempt to sneak ads into paid accounts. I pay for my account for one simple reason -- I don't want to see ads on other people's accounts, and I don't want other people to see ads on my account. I have no use for most of the paid features, and I can live without the ones I do use. LJ has repeatedly demonstrated this year that their definition of ad-free for paid accounts is "no ads other than the ones we think you won't notice us slipping in".
I don't have a problem with LJ offering ad-supported accounts. They need revenue to run the service, and it's a commercial operation so they need to turn a profit. But I do have a problem with them making money by using seriously dodgy software from a third party to covertly re-direct links for their commercial benefit. That's a big security and privacy breach.
And even without that aspect, I have a big problem with them doing this to paid accounts, with no real opt-out. I know that moving lock stock and barrel to DreamWidth and simply leaving a forwarding address as the only post in my LJ account is going to inconvenience a lot of my friends, but I don't see any other good reason to keep giving LJ money if they don't back down on this. Be aware that from now on, if you comment on the LJ account, the content will be exported at some point to my DW account.
Some useful links
How to Move from LJ to Dreamwidth in Six Easy Steps
Suggestion on breaking (for now) the rewriting for other people's view of your posts. It won't stop them seeing that people are following a link, but it should stop them making money from it. The tool used has its own security/privacy implications, but at least you get to decide which evil you prefer.
Oh and as one of the few paid features I do use is creating syndicated accounts... I've set up a feed to LJ of my DW account, in case of need. http://syndicated.livejournal.com/julesjonesondw/