Shark jumped? Livejournal finally gets the ads working

[matgb]

OK, the news post went live a few hours back, I've been reading and messing around. matbowles exists, currently, just so I can mess around with different advert settings. I may also use it just to see how ugly I can get a default layout, but that'll be a side project.

They haven't announced it, but there are new Terms of Service and a new Privacy Policy. (both via no_lj_ads). daweaver has written up an analysis of the changes in LJ's Social Contract, but my principle concern is the impact on the business model.

LJ used to be a Public Commons; free to all, and those that wished to support it financially did so and got extra perks, but we were mostly paying to support the site overall. Now, the site has adverts (and boy are they annoying; log out and trawl around the main site to see them), so I'm not paying to support the site and the services it provides to all, I'm just getting my perks.

So, from now on, I am merely buying a service from them, not supporting a site. So, I switch into annoyed consumer mode rather than site supporter. They've taken away the model that made LJ a great community, and turned it into just another revenue stream. Still, at least free users only see the ads on "sponsored+" journals and not the main site. Paid users (while logged in), never see them anywhere. So at least there is a reason to keep paying that I can see the point of.

/geekery - everyone have a good weekend?

Comments

[matgb]

Cool, that's not bad to be able to block them, as you're using firefox, is it a plug in?

Have deleted image displaying screenshot, it'll kill my dial up at home, but very much appreciate seeing it. I use LJ to syndicate a lot of feeds &c, I'm not happy with the changes to the business model because the old one just appealed to me, ah well.

http://www.life-bytes.co.uk/pics/ljnew.gif

[dudeulike.livejournal.com]

I use adblock which is a firefox extention, which is very cool, and the block sites function on my router.

fair enough, i keep forgetting your internet connection is in the stone age!

[paulatpingu.livejournal.com]

Hang on; you're using Firefox *without* Adblock and Filterset G? It's one of the main reasons for using Fx!

Anyway, it's well recommended, and as it totally nerfs LJ ads, that's another good reason to use it.