The Utility of Archive.org

[heidi]

darkrosetiger has shared a translation of a recent interview of SUP's Anton Nosik (he's the Chief Blogging Officer of SUP) regarding the content strike that's on the table for Friday. You can read another translation here at furiosity's lj.

I'll leave it to each of you as to what you make of things like his statement that nobody he knows will be boycotting on Friday (oh, whatever!) or his belief that you don't walk into a store and ask for free products (er, anyone around here hang out at Lush? What about Costco? Thought so!) and about his business acumen in general.

But I do want to showcase some links to demonstrate that he's not honest speaking accurately when he says:

Then users were told, and I quote, "Even if you pay, you will receive NOTHING extra for it. Your money is a donation. Do you like the project? Donate!" Such a model was in place from 1999 to 2005.

This is what LiveJournal looked like when I started using it back in the fall of 2001. I don't see the word "donate" on there. I don't see any language saying you'd get nothing if you paid for an account. In fact, if you click here, you'll see that you actually did get extra things with your paid account, including:

* LiveJournal.com email address --- all mail to your_username@livejournal.com will be forwarded to your personal email address. You can then choose to show none, either, or both of your email addresses, depending on what you want to expose.

* Personalized domain name --- instead of having your journal at http://www.livejournal.com/users/username/, it'll also be available at http://username.livejournal.com/, much shorter and more personal.

* Fast Server Access --- paid users automatically hit a group of really fast servers when they access any part of the site, instead of the normal servers which we try to keep moderately fast, but not as insanely fast as the paid user servers.

* Customize your journal --- in addition to just being able to pick the style of your journal and the colors, you'll also be able to create your own style using whatever HTML you like. This will also let you be able to make new styles that match your website that you can then easily embed, never revealing that you're using LiveJournal.com as your journal mechanism.

* Text Messaging --- If you have a pager or cellphone, you can get text messages (or numeric messages) right from LiveJournal. You can set it to allow all users, registered users, or only your friends to page you. This is especially useful if you don't want to expose your cell number to everybody, but want to be able to get messages on it. Combined with the "friends only" option, it's just really cool.

* Multiple user pictures --- you're able to upload up to 10 pictures of yourself, and choose which one to use on each entry, in addition to your current mood/music, etc. So, say you're feeling angry: in addition to the angry mood & icon, you can also choose to use your angry picture, which will then show up on everybody's journal that lists you as a friend for that one particular angry entry.

* Automatic Poll/Survey/Booths --- You can quickly and easily make voting polls and full surveys inside your journal entries, embedded right within your text.

Me? When I set up heidi8 a few months later because I wanted to blog personally and not just at fictionalley, I soon paid for a paid account to get more invitations for friends, and for the email account and the extra user pics. I didn't have an angry picture back then, though!

Even if you go back to 1999, there's nothing about donating on the site map about donating, and it isn't on the front page either. Same thing in March of 2000.

Sometime between August and October of 2000, though, paid accounts came onto the scene. But they weren't donations - you definitely were getting something for your money - basically, the same feature-set described above from 2001. (You could pay using a 1-900 number. Awwwwwwww!)

So, Mr Nosik, I'm not seeing where the business model from 1999 through 2005 had anything to do with donations. I really recommend looking through archive.org at LiveJournal Through the Ages, because it's a nifty way to learn about the company you own!

(As an aside, awwwwwwwwwww, look at the adorable Promote LJ banners! So woobie!)

I also highly recommend reading this interview from 2001 with Mr Nosik - don't you think he sounds a little nonplussed when he says:

"I am receiving some pressure from people who would like to manipulate our articles, who are offering money to me or to my journalists to publish something."

Really, I understand that he's frustrated. I understand that he feels under siege by a segment of LJ's users. But being inaccuate in interviews and being presumptive that the site's users are engaging in something other than constructive criticism are not the ways to get out of a siege mentality. Actually talking to your users and seeing them as people who don't like to be manipulated any more than he did back in 2001 might help.

Comments

[scoreboard.livejournal.com]

Chief *Blogging* Officer?

Where do I go to get THAT gig?

[heidi8.livejournal.com]

Russia! Where livejournal blogs YOU!

[msbunburyist.livejournal.com]

Thank you so much for doing this - I just linked it from my blog, so useful!

Also, did you get my text? I totally got into MIT!

[heidi8.livejournal.com]

OMGFLAIL!

NO I DIDN'T GET IT!

AM SO SO SO SO BLOODY PROUD OF YOU!

[msbunburyist.livejournal.com]

thank you!!!

yeah, i am SUPER EXCITED. i talked to prof. jenkins this morning and basically was incoherent. it was so, so good. i am just thrilled - and i'm going to be working at the project new media literacy next year if all goes well - it sounds like some of what they're working on will be connected to that project we were talking about last year... :D :D :D :D :D

[heidi8.livejournal.com]

: flails yet again

Hey, any chance of getting you to portus_2008? I have space in my room...

[msbunburyist.livejournal.com]

God I hope so! actually that might work out, as i'm going to be at a taekwondo tournament in detroit from the 1 through the 4th or so, but portus isn't for a while after that... the main problem being that i'd have to fly home and then all the way out to dallas, cash flow might be an issue. but god i'd love to go, especially since you have prof. jenkins as the speaker. augh augh augh.

i'm gonna see what the finances work out to, then get back to you within the week? can you hold space in your room open? <3

[heidi8.livejournal.com]

Absolutely will do! And huh, if you want to stay on the east coast, why not go to Boston for a few days after Detroit, then come down to Dallas - you can check out the town, or something. Or come down to Miami for the days in between. No reason to go all the way west before coming back down south.

[(Anonymous)]

ooh, good idea. actually - the original plan was that i was going to actually pack all my stuff for the move and take it with me to the tkd tournament, then fly direct to boston - maybe i could take my stuff and drop it off in boston, then come down to dallas? imma look up flight prices. :p

[heidi8.livejournal.com]

That definitely makes sense - and maybe you can even fly down with Dr Jenkins and anyone else from his program who's going?

[msbunburyist.livejournal.com]

uh, that was me there.

[sundancekid.livejournal.com]

There's also this (http://cormallen.livejournal.com/92948.html) post by cormallen, about business models in Russia. We're used to "the customer is always right!" but you can look at his attitude as being very Soviet, ie, don't like it, tough, where else you gonna go. That doesn't make it any less frustrating or insulting, but I found the context she/he provides helpful.

[ashkitty.livejournal.com]

Yeah, it's the internet. There are plenty of other places we can go. :p

[kicey.livejournal.com]

I don't think they have a very good understanding of their userbase, and could end up losing a lot of Americans to alternative services if things get much worse.

[soph.livejournal.com]

Those banners are still available on the site, actually. *grins*

http://www.livejournal.com/site/banners.bml

[heidi8.livejournal.com]

Oh, how cute! Thanks for finding them!
Aw, look at the Business Ethics one! Personally, I adore the pastel one and right now I am going to DL them like they're going out of style.

Um.

[airemay.livejournal.com]

I cannot believe his ignorance!! I never ever got the impression that paid accounts were donations that garnered no extra benefits. *facepalm* Where is he getting this from?

[chickadilly.livejournal.com]

Where is he getting this from?

His ass?

Man - I remember when LJ looked like that. Ah, memories ...

[chickadilly.livejournal.com]

I'll leave it to each of you as to what you make of things like his statement that nobody he knows will be boycotting on Friday (oh, whatever!) or his belief that you don't walk into a store and ask for free products (er, anyone around here hang out at Lush? What about Costco? Thought so!) and about his business acumen in general.

I think this really is a sure sign that he does NOT understand the cultural differences in business. I mean heck - you don't even have to ask for the freebies at various places sometimes - they just give them to you in hopes you'll try them, like them, and come back for more.

[kimmyblair.livejournal.com]

New post by lj_2008

[heidi8.livejournal.com]

Thank you!

And hey, you and I both know that modding/managing/handling communities - large and small - can be complicated. I just feel like with LJ, every time there's progress to some degree, they get all weird again about something else.

[kimmyblair.livejournal.com]

Exactly! This is such a one step foward, two steps back type thing....

[sabrinanymph.livejournal.com]

Hi there, I came in here from somewhere else, but I just wanted to thank you for compiling these links!

Of all of the things in that interview, the outright lies irritated me the most, and this was one of them. When I joined in 2001 I was pretty certain that already Paid Accounts were available and had extra features. I don't know why I didn't think about looking it up on Internet Archive to verify it, that seems like such an obvious move now. Anyway, thank you, it's nice to know that I'm not off my rocker!