Becky ([info]beckyzoole) wrote in [info]ljspeaks,
@ 2008-03-16 13:10:00
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Entry tags:bargaining chips, no more basic accounts

El pueblo unido jamás será vencido
Here's an alternate idea, one that will have a permanent effect without damaging LJ:

ONE DAY CONTENT STRIKE


For one day, make no posts. Make no comments. Let there be NO new content added to LJ.

SUP obviously does not realize that Basic users have given something of value to them, that it is content that drives the site.

So, for one 24-hour period, from midnight GMT to midnight GMT, let's see how many people we can get to pledge to contribute NO CONTENT.

This will create a permanent downward spike in the daily-posts statistics, a permanent reminder of the power of the userbase.

Who's with me, and what date shall it be?

Edited to add: Friday, March 21, from midnight GMT to midnight GMT. No posts, no comments, in journals or communities, whether public, private or friends-locked. Spread the word!

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[info]lovepollution
2008-03-16 07:09 pm UTC (link)
This is a good idea and I'd be up for it. Maybe if you tried to get it posted to somewhere like [info]ohnotheydidnt it might help get the message to more people?

(Reply to this) (Thread)

[info]beckyzoole
2008-03-16 07:14 pm UTC (link)
Please post it wherever you think it's appropriate, to get the message out to as many people as possible.

Tell them to friend me for updates: normally I'd make a new basic journal for this bit of social activism, but as things stand I'll run it out of my own LJ. I promise to keep the personal chatter to a minimum until after the strike.

But please get permission from the mods before you post it in [info]ohnotheydidnt. They have pretty strict rules against off-topic comments and posts. I hope they agree!

Edited at 2008-03-16 07:15 pm UTC

(Reply to this) (Parent)
(no subject) - [info]beckyzoole, 2008-03-16 08:38 pm UTC

[info]serenadesha
2008-03-16 07:20 pm UTC (link)
This is something I'd be up for. I can't go several days without visiting and causing hits on LJ, but I can go a day and not add any content. I would also be willing to try to get the word out on this where possible.

As for dates - Sometime soon? ;)

(Reply to this) (Thread)

[info]beckyzoole
2008-03-16 07:23 pm UTC (link)
Thank you! Please post in your own LJ, asking your friends to post as well.

Friend me for updates about when.

(Normally I'd create a protest journal for this, but as things stand I'll have to run it out of my own.)

(Reply to this) (Parent)(Thread)
(no subject) - [info]polypragmosyne, 2008-03-16 09:25 pm UTC
(no subject) - [info]beckyzoole, 2008-03-16 08:40 pm UTC

[info]calliopepurple
2008-03-16 07:31 pm UTC (link)
I'd be game, and I can try to pass it around, though I'm not sure how big a network I have to reach.

(Reply to this) (Thread)

[info]beckyzoole
2008-03-16 07:33 pm UTC (link)
Every little bit helps. Your network may be small, but each friend has their own friends... and it spreads. That's the beauty and the power of LJ.

(Reply to this) (Parent)
(no subject) - [info]beckyzoole, 2008-03-16 08:41 pm UTC

[info]adarkheartdawns
2008-03-16 08:02 pm UTC (link)
I think we need to choose a date before spreading information around

(Reply to this) (Thread)

[info]beckyzoole
2008-03-16 08:15 pm UTC (link)
I'd like to get user input into which date will work out best. What do you think about March 21?

(Reply to this) (Parent)(Thread)
(no subject) - [info]adarkheartdawns, 2008-03-16 08:18 pm UTC
(no subject) - [info]beckyzoole, 2008-03-16 08:20 pm UTC

[info]winterthunder
2008-03-16 08:05 pm UTC (link)
Good idea. May I include you in the links of my currently-in-composition post o doom about the whole situation?

(Reply to this) (Thread)

[info]beckyzoole
2008-03-16 08:14 pm UTC (link)
May I include you in the links of my currently-in-composition post o doom about the whole situation?

Please do! Anyone who wants to join in the strike can temporarily friend me for updates.

ETA: The strike is scheduled for Friday, March 21, from midnight GMT to midnight GMT.

Edited at 2008-03-16 08:36 pm UTC

(Reply to this) (Parent)(Thread)
(no subject) - [info]winterthunder, 2008-03-17 01:15 am UTC

[info]magickaldreamer
2008-03-16 08:49 pm UTC (link)
I quite like this idea. I could even avoid going on LJ at all. I'll be adding you for further information.

And may I suggest, for those adventurous ones, stretching this 'strike' further than the one day, possibly encompassing the whole weekend (of March 21)? I believe that this might be an even greater show of the effect it could have.

(Reply to this)


[info]eruditeviking
2008-03-16 09:12 pm UTC (link)
I'm sorry but from a business standpoint single day strikes never work. First of all they are too difficult to co-ordinate on the scale necessary to even achieve notice. Secondly the general response from corporations is that "Ho hum, they'll be back tomorrow". This is why those one day gas strikes that run around every couple of months don't work.

Another thing to point out is that you're deliberately picking Good Friday and Easter weekend. Many people are on Spring Break. Most Christian families are spending the time together as well. It isn't exactly a boom time in terms of postings and a drop off would normally be expected during this time frame.

Now, if you're insisting on getting this through, despite it's high probability of failure, then you need more than a week to disseminate the information. Even on the internet it takes time to move and be seen. Unless you've got people in the top 50 friended on your side, the time it would take to get to everyone is probably in the order of nearly a month to get to the 2 to 3 million active and passive users. Hell, my wife on checks her journal infrequently, posting rarely at best and that's not uncommon with a lot of users.

(Reply to this) (Thread)

[info]beckyzoole
2008-03-16 09:20 pm UTC (link)
Gas strikes don't work because people are going to buy that gas anyway, either the day before or the day after the "strike". A content strike, though, will create a negative blip on the daily-posting stats that might make more of an impression than yet another comment on the [info]news post.

I hadn't thought about it being Good Friday -- I'm Jewish, myself, with a lot of Pagan friends, so I'd realized it was both Purim and Ostara, but Good Friday is of course much more widely celebrated. I'd think that it would normally be a high-posting day, wouldn't it? People posting their weekend travel plans, their spiritual musings, the family-togetherness dramas and the cute things the kids said?

I think that we need to catch the momentum of the current wave of outrage. I've got a couple of the top 50 involved. This just might work.

Would you give it a try?

(Reply to this) (Parent)(Thread)
(no subject) - [info]eruditeviking, 2008-03-16 09:33 pm UTC
(no subject) - [info]beckyzoole, 2008-03-16 09:38 pm UTC
(no subject) - [info]eruditeviking, 2008-03-16 09:46 pm UTC
(no subject) - [info]beckyzoole, 2008-03-16 09:48 pm UTC
(no subject) - [info]admiralmemo, 2008-03-17 05:22 am UTC
(no subject) - [info]anildash, 2008-03-17 03:16 pm UTC
(no subject) - [info]beckyzoole, 2008-03-17 04:05 pm UTC
(no subject) - [info]admiralmemo, 2008-03-17 10:24 pm UTC
(no subject) - [info]eruditeviking, 2008-03-18 01:03 am UTC
(no subject) - [info]admiralmemo, 2008-03-18 02:04 am UTC
(no subject) - [info]connie_chung, 2008-03-17 11:20 pm UTC

[info]lavendertook
2008-03-16 09:30 pm UTC (link)
I'm with you. What are our terms though, and shouldn't we be stating those terms beforehand?

I could see three, keeping it simple.

1. Restore basic accounts for new account creation.

2. Inform users before any change to the site that affects how we use the site or demands on our resources.

3. Run change proposals by the Advisory Board and take their advice into account before implementation of any change.

(Reply to this) (Thread)

[info]beckyzoole
2008-03-16 10:20 pm UTC (link)
There might be room for one more, related to the removal of interests concerning fanfiction, depression, and homosexuality from the daily popular interests report. Something about treating users as the adults we are, not the teenagers they hoped for.

But you're probably right to keep it simple.

Edited at 2008-03-16 10:20 pm UTC

(Reply to this) (Parent)(Thread)
(no subject) - [info]lavendertook, 2008-03-17 12:59 am UTC
(no subject) - [info]beckyzoole, 2008-03-17 01:03 pm UTC
(no subject) - [info]lavendertook, 2008-03-17 05:22 pm UTC

[info]greyyguy
2008-03-16 10:09 pm UTC (link)
Hate to be a nay sayer, but I don't think this will have much effect. Similar one day boycotts (gas, phone, whatever) don't have any effect because the thing being boycotted is bought either before or after. Likewise, people here will just post the day before or the next day. Sure- there is a one day dip (maybe), but it will average out over the weekend.

At best, even if the one day boycott does cause a noticeable dip, what will it prove? People don't HAVE to have LJ? Will that be news to anyone? Or on a worse case situation, if there isn't an effect then it will show that people DO have to have LJ.

If you want to LJ to notice, what about a "try a new social network" day? Have a mass signup on Insane journal and do all the blogging there for a day. Or a week. LJ should know that will create a far greater risk of people leaving. To remind them not of the power of their user base, but that they are a company dependent on the content they are freely provided. If they insist on pissing off the content providers, the providers can and will go elsewhere.

With this protest, there is no risk of that to LJ. And that is the only thing that will affect them.

(Reply to this) (Thread)

[info]beckyzoole
2008-03-16 10:17 pm UTC (link)
I hope that people will take their blogging elsewhere for the day, to discuss the strike and to support each other.

I hope that everyone will return to LJ, though. Without the content provided by all the other users, I certainly wouldn't pay to be here.

(Reply to this) (Parent)(Thread)
(no subject) - [info]greyyguy, 2008-03-16 10:42 pm UTC
(no subject) - [info]lavendertook, 2008-03-17 01:01 am UTC
(no subject) - [info]d33ann, 2008-03-18 12:56 am UTC

[info]angeldove
2008-03-16 10:43 pm UTC (link)
I'm with you 100%.

I actually DELETED all of my posts on my LJ after I migrated all my posts on InsaneJournal. I only have 3 posts left there on my LJ and that's to talk back to the administration or the whole SUP people there. Who knows, they're so against the people who are against SUP, they might suspend me or delete me altogether and I don't really care. I am here for one reason -- and that is to keep abreast with my friends. Sometimes I don't surf my FList page, I go direct to my best friends LJ. I just bookmarked each. And oh, I stopped posting Livejournal since January 17, 2008. Kaput. Zipped. Nada. I'm only here for READING my friends.

(Reply to this) (Thread)

[info]crackpig
2008-03-17 06:52 am UTC (link)
Congratulations. You win funniest post of the hour award.

(Reply to this) (Parent)

[info]worldserpent
2008-03-16 11:08 pm UTC (link)
I don't think this is a very effective idea. Everyone involved is just going to come back, so what is the point? Also, I think that the most people don't post every day anyhow, so it's not like this will be very noticed anyway.

In some ways, though, I kind of feel like there isn't any point in "speaking" to LJ anymore. For most users, this isn't a deal-breaker. I was talking to a friend who likened it to finding out that the free-ware she was using had gone to an adware or thirty-days free shareware deal. For most people, LJ is a product, and when you don't like what the company is doing, you throw it away and then go to another company. I think people will truly stop using LJ when LJ messes up on a core function. When it becomes routine for there to be problems with payment, when LJ loses data on a vast scale, if there are pervasive security problems, if LJ is down for hours and hours. I think honestly that's what it's going to take for people to stop using LJ for a meaningful amount of time.

(Reply to this) (Thread)

[info]lavendertook
2008-03-17 04:24 am UTC (link)
I feel the way you do--that it's a lost cause. But I'm willing to support the people doing the strike and participate. I'm tying to ween myself toward my IJ anyway, so it fits in with my plans, so what the hey--I'll join it.

(Reply to this) (Parent)(Thread)
(no subject) - [info]worldserpent, 2008-03-17 07:51 am UTC
(no subject) - [info]Mercury Chaos [insanejournal.com], 2008-03-17 05:02 pm UTC
(no subject) - [info]worldserpent, 2008-03-17 05:32 pm UTC
(no subject) - [info]Mercury Chaos [insanejournal.com], 2008-03-17 05:36 pm UTC

[info]normaltrouble
2008-03-16 11:56 pm UTC (link)
I'll be doing this.

I believe Pacific Daylight Time is 7 hours behind, correct?

(Reply to this) (Thread)

[info]starwatcher307
2008-03-17 12:49 am UTC (link)
.
I think Pacific is 8 because, at Mountain, I'm 7 behind.
.

(Reply to this) (Parent)(Thread)
(no subject) - [info]beckyzoole, 2008-03-17 05:47 am UTC
(no subject) - [info]soruk, 2008-03-17 06:48 am UTC
(no subject) - [info]beckyzoole, 2008-03-17 12:57 pm UTC
(no subject) - [info]lavendertook, 2008-03-18 01:20 am UTC
(no subject) - [info]beckyzoole, 2008-03-17 05:45 am UTC

[info]yellowitchgrl
2008-03-17 01:18 am UTC (link)
I can do that but only bc I'll be gone anyway. Otherwise I'm sure I'd forget. :-D

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[info]wiser_9
2008-03-17 02:08 am UTC (link)
I'll be participating and spreading the word.

(Reply to this)


[info]dieteeniescum
2008-03-17 02:34 am UTC (link)
I'll participate -- ever since Strikethrough I've been trying to make the move to a Wordpress blog on my own website, so I'm up for the "blog elsewhere for the day" idea, too. I also posted about this to my own LJ to spread the word a little more.

(Reply to this)


[info]akinarei
2008-03-17 05:42 am UTC (link)
May I post this in my journal, as well?

(Reply to this) (Thread)

[info]beckyzoole
2008-03-17 05:44 am UTC (link)
Please do!

Feel free to friend me for updates, and defriend after the strike.

(Reply to this) (Parent)

(Anonymous)
2008-03-17 11:19 am UTC (link)
Not only is this just generally too late, but now, allowing less than five days to spread the word and make the case, you are ensuring that your boycott will be a pitiful little blip. And note that after the blip down, LJ will have a roughly equal blip up (because people will just be delaying their entries and comments), so that the average traffic for the week won't even have a discernible blip of any sort.

(Reply to this) (Thread)

[info]beckyzoole
2008-03-17 01:04 pm UTC (link)
I think that sooner is better than later. But I certainly may be wrong.

If anyone wants to repeat the strike, please do so! We may need to show SUP the Clue Stick several times, after all.

(Reply to this) (Parent)(Thread)
(no subject) - [info]arsenicgraffiti, 2008-03-17 04:22 pm UTC
(no subject) - [info]willo, 2008-03-19 05:38 pm UTC
(no subject) - [info]beckyzoole, 2008-03-19 05:59 pm UTC

[info]snugs50
2008-03-17 02:09 pm UTC (link)
GREAT idea! I'd like to add something to that: Do not read any journals on LJ either. Totally avoid the site.

Simmie

(Reply to this) (Thread)

[info]keith_m043
2008-03-17 04:03 pm UTC (link)
I agree with this statement. Not *looking* at LJ for a day, rather than not *posting* to it is more likely to catch their attention. From a commercial standpoint, the internet is all about 'eyeballs' after all.

(Reply to this) (Parent)

[info]Mercury Chaos [insanejournal.com]
2008-03-17 05:10 pm UTC (link)
I agree with [info]worldserpent; this isn't going to convince them of anything. Frankly, I think they're beyond convincing; they've made it pretty obvious that they don't actually care what their userbase thinks. They didn't learn from SixApart's mistakes and I doubt they'll learn from their own.

Nevertheless... a more effective way would be if everyone made their primary journaling spaces elsewhere, for an extended period of time. Protesting for one day is not going to convince anyone that you are serious, and it certainly won't convince them. But if you stop producing content here altogether, if you show them that you can and will leave, that might make them think a bit.

(Reply to this)


[info]jaiden_s
2008-03-17 05:44 pm UTC (link)
It's my birthday, so sorry. No.

(Reply to this) (Thread)

[info]beckyzoole
2008-03-17 05:55 pm UTC (link)
Ah, I'm sorry about that.

Have a happy birthday!

(Reply to this) (Parent)(Thread)
(no subject) - [info]jaiden_s, 2008-03-18 03:55 am UTC

[info]stalinglim
2008-03-17 09:19 pm UTC (link)
Will do.

(Reply to this)


[info]corpuscula
2008-03-18 12:32 am UTC (link)
I posted your message in my LJ.
Russian users will participate.

(Reply to this) (Thread)

[info]beckyzoole
2008-03-18 03:04 am UTC (link)
Спасибо!

(Reply to this) (Parent)(Thread)
(no subject) - [info]dzigoro, 2008-03-18 07:19 am UTC
(no subject) - [info]riegel, 2008-03-19 02:28 pm UTC

[info]mementomei
2008-03-18 02:25 am UTC (link)
Just freakin' leave, people. Go to Insane Journal. It's getting better every day. No BS. I love it there. I'm just keeping this account to read friends' entries. I refuse to create content for these bastards.

(Reply to this)


[info]melian
2008-03-18 03:04 am UTC (link)
I just joined this comm...


Do you mind if I add this to my lj?

(Reply to this) (Thread)

[info]beckyzoole
2008-03-18 03:36 am UTC (link)
Please do!

Feel free to friend me for updates. I've posted more about this in my own journal. (I'll expect most people to defriend when the strike is over, no problems.)

(Reply to this) (Parent)(Thread)
(no subject) - [info]melian, 2008-03-18 03:43 am UTC

[info]luckystar37
2008-03-18 04:35 am UTC (link)
Spreading the word!

(Reply to this)

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