Yes, let's link to an article that blatantly states that you could give a shit about the "small but loyal" fanbase that's kept you in business for over a decade. Brilliant.

Is this some form of trolling?

Talk about taking greedy bastard to a whole new level. You should just be frank with us and say you are not interested in the American consumer.

"LiveJournal's leadership has made it clear that their future American business strategy lies in generating new traffic rather than catering to the service's current small-but-loyal membership."

This is a really disheartening quote, and as a user with a permanent account who has been using Livejournal for 7, 8 years, being told my business is less important to you than some hypothetical "new user" is pretty crappy.

So, basically you're proud of saying that the people who were loyal users for years are actually the ones you're not interested in? Whose fucked-up idea was that? And here I thought nothing could top September 2011's Delicious fuck-up. Honestly, this entire thing is so fucked up, I don't even have words for it.

Also, I predict the response to this will be going into hiding and hoping the shitstorm will be over in a few weeks. I don't think we're going to hear anything about this, as in a rollback or at least an apology. I suddenly have no idea why I even extended my paid account for another year, seeing as obviously, I'm not part of any group that's of interest to the people I just paid money to (longtime user and German...).

We already suspected as much, but it's so lovely to have confirmation that Livejournal doesn't care about their (formerly) loyal users.

So Livejournal needs to attract new traffic rather than catering to the existing clientele? Someone should explain to these folks that "retention" is every bit as important as gaining new users, only to lose them again the next time LJ institutes wildly unpopular changes. Churning your customer base is not a smart business practice. Instead, develop a reputation for dealing honestly and openly with users, listen to what your users are telling you, and watch your customer base grow. No point attracting new users if you're hemorrhaging users out the other end. I, and many like me, also have accounts at dreamwidth which treats their users 100 times better, and is growing more and more each day. The only reason I still participate at Livejournal at all is that I made the mistake of buying a permanent account.

Can you guys please get your shit together? Your website is so messed up I can't even see the pictures my friends post because this site can't even add my username to some database correctly. Yes, I have a help request up, and I've had to reopen it several times. Obviously I'm just running around telling all my friends how they need to join this site.

No, and my friends have been leaving slowly for years. If you care about community, you'll make your site look like it has professional coders on staff. You're all so behind the times it's embarrassing to tell my tech friends I have an LJ.

I think that was a really shitty thing to say. Yes LJ has a bigger voice outside of the US now but it's those long-term users that you just shit all over that keeps the site going. LJ could easily go the way of MySpace and become a graveyard that talk-show hosts use as a punchline.

You'd think that someone in a customer-oriented business would get that while you want to reach new people you want to keep those who have been loyal to you in order to show that you have a viable business in order to attract those new customers.

Public relations disaster. Thanks for thinking of your 'loyal' customers. (walks away shaking head sadly side to side).

Dumb move, LJ. All the people who use LJ for things like sharing icons and graphics they made, will find somewhere else.

Bye.

Wow, linking that on the homepage is ballsy, to say the least. I suppose it's nice to know that you really couldn't care less about your current users. However, has it occurred to anyone that that's a really, really idiotic business practice? Really, it is. If you can get new users without alienating your old ones, then you have old users + new users and that actually adds up to more than new users - old users. Math is wacky like that.

I think everyone's freaking out a little too much.

As a Permanent Account user, I want this site to BE AROUND FOR AS LONG AS IT CAN. As long as the massive changes are customizable for the user and not forced upon--I'm sure it will be fine.

Why are you linking us to an article that states flat out you don't care about us?

Wow. I am in awe over the complete, utter ineptitude of LJ managment.

Oh my god, lately I've been regretting paying for my account, but now I'm outright embarrassed.

Well, shit.

Because it's not like I want to actually WANT to use a blogging website for blogging or anything. Seriously. What are you guys thinking?

Oh, wait.

You know, I actually disagree with most of the feedback here. I've been on LJ a long time. I don't blog as much as I participate in a couple communities. I have thought for a long time that LJ just...doesn't CHANGE. It has basically looked the same since I was a new user nearly a decade ago.

I like the changes so far and find them useful. People just don't like change. Every time Facebook changes, people complain and complain, but then they suck it up and keep using the site. It's just like I hate it when my cable company changes the menu. I get used to it and can't remember what I didn't like about it a year later.

So you're going to unabashedly give a middle finger to your loyal customers? Well, fine. We'll give two giant middle fingers back at you.

Many of us actually use this website for its original purpose: BLOGGING. Telling us that we should be using it like Facebook instead is, quite frankly, ludicrous.

Good luck with your "awesome" marketing strategy, LJ. Just don't be so shocked when America drops you like a bad habit. DreamWidth, here I come!

Explain to me exactly HOW fostering a reputation as a company that doesn't care about it userbase is going to get you MORE customers? If masses of people leave and tell their friends how much LJ sucks and how they advise against getting an account because they don't listen to users, how many thousands of potential new users do you think you're turning away? I don't understand how you possibly think this is a good idea.

If I didn't have a responsibility to an unmovable community keeping me here, you could be sure I would have completely migrated to Dreamwidth by now.

I've been on LiveJournal for over 8 years. And a permanent account holder for just over 3 years. And it's sad that a place that I have used for so long, and loved for so long, and made friends on over the years, has come out and said that it doesn't value it's "small-but-loyal" pool of people. We're the pool that made it what it is today. If we hadn't stayed around, and been loyal, there wouldn't have been a company to buy. We're here because of that loyalty. Putting down those people isn't a good business practice.

Yes, change is often necessary. And can even be good. But getting feedback from your users, the ones who will be using it, is a smart thing. I heard on the radio today that while Facebook is extremely popular, it's also one of the most hated companies. People stay there because it does occasionally listen to its userbase.

I bought a permanent account in 2008 (after having had a paid account for awhile). This was after two separate sales. I still loved it enough to buy a permanent account. It's made me sad that it's gone so far downhill. To the rock bottom of saying you don't care about those of us who have stuck around, who have given the company money. The ones who have had enough faith to stick around.

And as many have said...us loyal users? We're a vocal lot. We're not just here, we're on a lot of other social networking sites. Which means, you could very well have a hard time building up a new userbase in the US, due to so many of us loyal fans being brushed off.

I may stay on FB despite the changes reluctantly but I remove more and more content all the time
I do not PAY for anything on FB
nor will I ever
I currently Pay for my LJ because I liked the added bits but it's becoming less and less worth it

as far as change being necessary, thousands of comments disliking the removing of the subject line
which is oddly present here, and then telling those of us who pay we don't matter...
do you really think those people who tolerate FB will PAY to use LJ?
you're mistaken you really are

So we old customers are replaceable? What kind of message does that send to the prospective new ones? That their interests will be ignored as well after a few years?