LJ and free accounts

[johnridley]

dek9 said that free accounts were being "abused." I was going to post this in a reply but there was so much posting going on during the "boycott" yesterday that her entry is already pretty far down.


I'm not sure about the free accounts being "abused." They offer a free service and people use it per the rules set out. If SUP doesn't like how the free accounts are being used then they should change the rules.

They're set up so that free accounts get limited features, pay accounts get more. That seems to present a pretty clear choice to me; if you are OK with the limited feature set, you stay with a free account. If you want more, you pay.

I've been perfectly happy with what I get for free. I looked at the pay features and I'm not sure I'd use them if I had them.

It seems to me that their problem is not that they have free accounts, it's that they gave away too much with them. If they had a limitation of one post per day on free accounts, or only one or two userpics, or only being able to friend 10 people, more free users would probably up to pay users.

Really you give free accounts for two reasons; to build a user base fast, and to give people a chance to kick the tires. A social networking site clearly needs to have a big enough user base that anyone joining is likely to have someone they know already there, so a large user base is critical. I think they give away too much with their free accounts though.

They still need free accounts to get people in the door, if they want any level of continued growth. People are unlikely to just pay up front before using the service for a while. Even putting a time limit on it would be OK, but I think it needs to be a bit extended; 90 days perhaps. If you saw people rolling accounts to keep using a free account, then that would certainly count as abuse of the free accounts. I don't think you would though, since you'd have to refriend people and they'd have to refriend you, and most people wouldn't put up with that for long.

Of course sometimes a service is so loved that people give them money just as a thank-you. I do that for a half dozen websites or so regularly, probably a total of a bit more than a hundred bucks a year. I'm considering adding LJ to the list; it's the one that's not just a service but connects me to my friends, so it's probably worth more to me than it was when I first poked at it. It takes longer for people to decide "LJ is worth money to me just by its merits" than "I'm going to pay to get more LJ features."

Anyone, myself included, using a free account, if they get terminated, has nothing to complain about. I'd be saying "OK, well, thanks for the free ride" not "HEY, you owe me stuff for free, I'm going to boycott you! Waah waah waah!" In reality I'd probably start paying. Which I should probably do at this point anyway. So I suppose the boycott had some effect; it made me rethink, and probably, give SUP money.

Comments

[johnridley.livejournal.com]

I just went to the page where they show all the addons that you get, and I still can't see a single one I'd use or care about. I'll probably give them money but it's going to be completely on the basis of "LJ keeps me in contact with friends" not "I'm buying features".

I'm not sure whether they're giving too much away or not. I think it's possible that I just don't want that much out of the service. I don't HAVE a "mobile device," I just want the text and don't care that much about the theme, the photos section of LJ is blocked by most business URL blocking services, in reality they just started blocking ALL of LJ where I work, etc.

I'm probably just an old geezer who's content with his old hand-wound, steam-powered web.

[kevinnickerson.livejournal.com]

I pay, but only as a 'yes, I get $25/year enjoyment out of this' kind of thing. The pay account doesn't give me a single feature I care about.

BTW, IIUC, they only eliminated the free no ads accounts. ISTU that there's still a free, but we put ads up option for new users.

[bloggingchick.livejournal.com]

I might be more confused than I was before. I assumed that by there being no more basic account, that new users now automatically get a plus account, meaning it's free for as long as you want. I really have no use for much more. The thing I am not happy about is that with the ads come IP tracking. A lot of the time I sign into LJ, read my friend's page, maybe browse around. Then I don't sign out but I go browse other stuff not on LJ. Unfortunately, from what I read, something behind those ads continues to track all the websites I am visiting. If I don't want to be tracked, I have to sign out of LJ then sign back in everytime I want to come back, or use a different web browser (use Firefox for LJ and Safari or Opera for everything else). IMHO there should be a notice on the "what the different package options are" page indicating that if you don't automatically sign up for a paid account you will be tracked as long as you are signed into LJ.

[johnridley.livejournal.com]

If you really don't want IP tracking, go to LJ with Tor. www.torproject.org.