Oh, *now* I remember

[hummingwolf]

One of the things that kept me busy on Saturday and a small part of Sunday was watching lj_biz, specifically this post about sponsored content on LJ followed by Brad's valiant attempt at damage control, both posts of course followed by umpteen zillion comments about how much people hate the idea of sponsored content. As bad as LJ's introduction of the change may have been, Making Light points out (link via supergee) that the real problem is what the publicists for The Science of Sleep did with the sponsored "community" they got for their money.

Unlike a lot of people, I don't hate advertising. In fact, I think it provides a valuable service (along with much entertainment) as long as it's informative (or at least entertaining) and not deceptive. The problem here is the erosion of trust created by a bunch of sock puppets pretending to be a community of genuine fans. I'm a big fan of real community. Fake "sponsored community" just makes me want to claw somebody's eyes out.

Comments

[flewellyn.livejournal.com]

Every time LJ makes a change of any kind, people who could give a rat's ass about the loss of civil liberties in the US crawl out of the woodwork to scream about how awful it is that LJ is lying and selling them out and the HORROR!

If people gave even a tenth this much attention and outrage to last Thursday's assault on habeas corpus, I would not fear for this country's future as I do.

[hummingwolf.livejournal.com]

Believe me, I get your point. But frankly, most people don't believe the abolition of habeas corpus would really affect them (if they think about it at all), while it doesn't take much doing for people to think of a bunch of ways that changes to LJ annoy them. LiveJournal is something many people check daily (or hourly, half-hourly, etc.). We all make our own choices about who we trust, what we want to see here, what we're willing to put up with. Most people think that anything to do with the Warren Terra only affects some nebulous "Them," but changes to our blog community are personal, man.

[flewellyn.livejournal.com]

Yes. Also, see my latest LJ post for some of my thoughts on it.