Mat Bowles

I got my renewal notice from LJ a few days back, and managed to actually compose my reply-the below has just been sent to Accounts @ LJ:

FAO Livejournal/Six Apart senior management,

( I've turned off automatic payments, here's why )

Renwal date 22nd August. I'm torn. I still hate that LJ has an ad supported level, ir destroys the effective business model and removes part of my impetus to actually pay them money. In addition, the presence of these very adverts was a specific cause for 6A to overreact and mess up in the initial strikethrough debacle.

But now, the main reason to continue paying is to not see the damn things (I don't use adblocking software--the web does need to be paid for). Secondary reasons include access to userpics (I've sort of got used to having 110 of the things), easy syndication of other blogs, post pages in my style (which while it's not finished I'm still uite happy with), etc.

But can I, in all conscience, continue to give money to an organisaton that is as incompetent as this one blatantly is? Is it possible to continue to support the site (which I love) without supporting the current management style (which is crap)?

I may go for a monthly renewal or similar, or I might just suck it up and pay the tenner it'll take. But I did feel I had to express my opinion to them, so thought I'd share the letter openly.