Punching the monkey...

[bradfitz]

Hi, LiveJournal founder here. I haven't posted here in awhile, but I figured it was time I made an appearance. If you don't remember any of my previous rants over the past seven years or so, the summary is that I hate advertising. Especially punching animated monkeys that slow down my computer and distract me from what I'm reading.

Ever since

Comments

[onsafari]

How will RSS feeds be treated? Will they stay at the "free" level?

[matgb]

I think they'll need to, RSS terms of service and stuff are possibly in context as well. Not something I've looked into, but ads on them shouldn't happen.

[fyre]

Speaking from the standpoint of someone who blogs for a living:

Ads on RSS feeds are notoriously poor producers. Even with cpm ads (that would be, paid per view), the ads are notoriously poor performers, and tracking is a bitch. On CPC ads (paid per click), RSS ads are pretty much pointless.

In one trial where an ad appeared in every other post on the RSS feed (about two ads, per day), on a feed with around 300 subscribers, there were a total of five clicks (meriting around fifty cents) in a week. That was on a very popular blog, where the ads were targetted to the content.

In other words: I seriously doubt RSS feeds will be affected in any way... It's just not a cost effective method of advertising, historically speaking.

[bandicoot]

The camel's nose is under the tent ;p But it's all ok - it doesn't soil my burqua. You gotta pay for the service some way or it won't keep existing. This seems as thoughful a way as any I could think of.

[tpau]

where do permanent accounts fit in this?

[burr86]

Treated as Paid accounts -- will never ever see ads.

[dawna]

yay

[xevinx]

unless you go to someone else's journal who has ads enabled, right

[phatphatkitty]

Seems fairly well thought out and reasonable. Opting in-or-out is a great idea; no one can really complain if they're choosing to display ads on their journal. Also, being able to not see ads if we don't want to is.. kind and thoughtful. Thanks. :)

[jamesd]

You don't think that friends who dislike ads will ask their friends to stop putting ads in their face?

[phatphatkitty]

You only see the ads if you go to their journal pages (which I rarely do, if ever). You don't see ads if you read from your own friends page (even for free users). So the option does exist, if you completely want to avoid ads.

[foxfirefey]

You don't see the ads reading their entries from your friends page, but if you're a free users and go to the actual entry in any way, including to read under LJ-Cuts and make comments, you'll see ads in the Sponsored+ level.

So the option to completely avoid ads means never commenting on the journals of your Sponsored+ level friends.

[contestant]

I like it. I trust you guys.