eff you ell jay
Dec. 24th, 2011 03:00 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
aidenfireHi y'all -- I've been thinking about this for awhile and I am officially making the move to Dreamwidth. I will be posting over there (but cross posting to this journal) and primarily reading flist over there. I've imported rss feeds of my flist, so theoretically I should still see public posts. I'll still be skimming flist over here for a while yet, but if I'm missing something you think I should see, please don't hesitate to give me a nudge! I am aidenfire over there as well. I've friended a lot of familiar names but again, please let me know if I've missed you! Especially if you have a different user name. Suggestions for comms to follow would also be appreciated.
Now, the why. I hardly even know where to start, but it essentially boils down disrespect from Livejournal, and a lack of trust of Livejournal. LJ doesn't seem to care about its userbase, what they want, or why they want it. It is uninterested in changing or rolling back new features that no one asked for, even in the face of massive user malcontent. I feel like for the past few years, ever since Strikethrough (which was in 2007, guys, this fuckery isn't going to stop) LJ has been treating fandom as a whole as its Rochester-ian crazy wife in the attic. I feel like they are embarrassed by the presence of fandom on their servers. I'm hardly what you would call active in fandom these days, but I am still personally offended and upset by their treatment of their users, MANY of them paid users, many of those paid users on multiple accounts. I've been refusing to give them money for a while now, but it doesn't feel like enough anymore. I don't want to be part of a service whose CEOs disparage their clientele publicly again (Strikethrough was based on what they think was "appropriate for the community"; "no reason" for targeted journals to be online from the CEO of SixApart) and again (CEO of LJ Russia mocks upset users; calls their "shit" "delicious"). I'm not going to put up with it anymore, and I'm taking my content away and, more importantly, my eyes off their ads. That seems to be the only thing they're interested in anyway.
However, this isn't just relevant to fandom. Just as a reminder guys, we've had: ads after the no-ads-ever declaration, NippleGate (ie breastfeeding is too pervy to have in icons), the facebook linking fiasco, the completely ineffectual LJ Elections (complete with rumors of ballot stuffing), an LJ staffer sockpuppeting to insult users, a different LJ staffer posting creepy ass comments on a LOCKED entry, rampant reports of LJ staff abuse going back years, and that time when you could view and edit other people's LOCKED entries. This is not even mentioning the new, unwanted, site redesign that's coming, losing subject lines, and changing paid users' accounts to automatic renewal without their knowledge or consent (which, benefit of the doubt, maybe due to a glitch of some sort, but STILL.)
Isn't that enough? I'm not even going to start on the DDoS attacks and the nigh-regular downtime, errors, bugs, notifications failures, etc. -- at least some of that might not be their fault. However, the way they respond to that, and to all of the problems listed above, is undoubtedly their fault and their responsibility to fix, and over and over they have shown the same pattern. They try to do something without consider its impact on users, particularly fannish users, hope no one notices, completely fail to respond to user outcry for an extended period of time, if ever, and then if they do deign to give a reply, it often seems to ignore what the main problem really was. They don't respond to feedback from their users. They don't seem to care if hundreds or even thousands of people are saying they don't want a feature and that it in fact diminishes their ability to use the site. I understand they have millions of users, but c'mon, why do you leave the comments enabled if you just plan on ignoring everyone's main complaints?
I'm tired of putting up with a new shit storm every eight weeks, especially when Dreamwidth is making itself a more viable alternative all the time. Just for a thought exercise, read Dreamwidth's latest news post. New changes that are opt-in, rather than either opt-out or just rolled out whether you like it or not! Responses to user concerns! Acknowledgement of current bugs! Admitting they made a mistake, and what they're doing to amend it! New features that are actually useful and that people want, rather than random shit they've come up with for the hell of it or something! Donating 10% of their profits for a month to a pro-women-in-science organization, I don't even. And then, maybe more importantly, read some of the comments. Look for someone asking a question, and you'll also find their question being answered, promptly, politely, and thoroughly, by a senior staffer. A senior staffer mentioning a feature as being implemented particularly to improve a kink meme! Acknowledgement of fandom? Customer service? What is this? Amazing! Yes, it's not perfect by any means. But I don't feel like they are actively disrespecting my friends and I, or trying to fuck their users over for their own gain.
I really encourage you to think strongly about moving. You can import your whole LJ with just a couple simple clicks -- including, as I said in the beginning, RSS feeds of many of your friends' journals. Hope to see you on the other side. :)
Sorry for the length... < / strong feelings!>
Now, the why. I hardly even know where to start, but it essentially boils down disrespect from Livejournal, and a lack of trust of Livejournal. LJ doesn't seem to care about its userbase, what they want, or why they want it. It is uninterested in changing or rolling back new features that no one asked for, even in the face of massive user malcontent. I feel like for the past few years, ever since Strikethrough (which was in 2007, guys, this fuckery isn't going to stop) LJ has been treating fandom as a whole as its Rochester-ian crazy wife in the attic. I feel like they are embarrassed by the presence of fandom on their servers. I'm hardly what you would call active in fandom these days, but I am still personally offended and upset by their treatment of their users, MANY of them paid users, many of those paid users on multiple accounts. I've been refusing to give them money for a while now, but it doesn't feel like enough anymore. I don't want to be part of a service whose CEOs disparage their clientele publicly again (Strikethrough was based on what they think was "appropriate for the community"; "no reason" for targeted journals to be online from the CEO of SixApart) and again (CEO of LJ Russia mocks upset users; calls their "shit" "delicious"). I'm not going to put up with it anymore, and I'm taking my content away and, more importantly, my eyes off their ads. That seems to be the only thing they're interested in anyway.
However, this isn't just relevant to fandom. Just as a reminder guys, we've had: ads after the no-ads-ever declaration, NippleGate (ie breastfeeding is too pervy to have in icons), the facebook linking fiasco, the completely ineffectual LJ Elections (complete with rumors of ballot stuffing), an LJ staffer sockpuppeting to insult users, a different LJ staffer posting creepy ass comments on a LOCKED entry, rampant reports of LJ staff abuse going back years, and that time when you could view and edit other people's LOCKED entries. This is not even mentioning the new, unwanted, site redesign that's coming, losing subject lines, and changing paid users' accounts to automatic renewal without their knowledge or consent (which, benefit of the doubt, maybe due to a glitch of some sort, but STILL.)
Isn't that enough? I'm not even going to start on the DDoS attacks and the nigh-regular downtime, errors, bugs, notifications failures, etc. -- at least some of that might not be their fault. However, the way they respond to that, and to all of the problems listed above, is undoubtedly their fault and their responsibility to fix, and over and over they have shown the same pattern. They try to do something without consider its impact on users, particularly fannish users, hope no one notices, completely fail to respond to user outcry for an extended period of time, if ever, and then if they do deign to give a reply, it often seems to ignore what the main problem really was. They don't respond to feedback from their users. They don't seem to care if hundreds or even thousands of people are saying they don't want a feature and that it in fact diminishes their ability to use the site. I understand they have millions of users, but c'mon, why do you leave the comments enabled if you just plan on ignoring everyone's main complaints?
I'm tired of putting up with a new shit storm every eight weeks, especially when Dreamwidth is making itself a more viable alternative all the time. Just for a thought exercise, read Dreamwidth's latest news post. New changes that are opt-in, rather than either opt-out or just rolled out whether you like it or not! Responses to user concerns! Acknowledgement of current bugs! Admitting they made a mistake, and what they're doing to amend it! New features that are actually useful and that people want, rather than random shit they've come up with for the hell of it or something! Donating 10% of their profits for a month to a pro-women-in-science organization, I don't even. And then, maybe more importantly, read some of the comments. Look for someone asking a question, and you'll also find their question being answered, promptly, politely, and thoroughly, by a senior staffer. A senior staffer mentioning a feature as being implemented particularly to improve a kink meme! Acknowledgement of fandom? Customer service? What is this? Amazing! Yes, it's not perfect by any means. But I don't feel like they are actively disrespecting my friends and I, or trying to fuck their users over for their own gain.
I really encourage you to think strongly about moving. You can import your whole LJ with just a couple simple clicks -- including, as I said in the beginning, RSS feeds of many of your friends' journals. Hope to see you on the other side. :)
Sorry for the length... < / strong feelings!>
