Advertising on LiveJournal

[queerbychoice]

The LiveJournal social contract said, "We promise to never offer advertising space in our service or on our pages." So much for that.

Yes, it's opt-in. Except that if you're a free user who has opted out and you click to the journal of someone who has opted in, then you see their ads. So it's not really fully opt-out after all, unless you pay them money.

More to the point, however, as I commented at the link above:

I have a permanent account so I'll never have to see the ads, but I still hate this idea. Merely being able to avoid seeing the ads does not address my objection to ads. Allowing ads puts LiveJournal in a position of striving to keep advertisers happy. Allowing ads grants certain companies an implicit endorsement from LiveJournal. Allowing ads says something about what LiveJournal is, that merely collecting money from individual users who do not exist solely for the purpose of selling products does not do. Allowing ads dirties LiveJournal's image, and I don't approve of that one bit.

Also, LiveJournal is now asking people what specific kinds of ads they would most object to seeing on LiveJournal. Most people's responses seem to pertain to the layout of the ads - how big they are, whether they're animated, and so on. Mine pertains to the products being advertised. Like, if LiveJournal were plastered with ads for crafts handmade by its users? I would really not mind. But if LiveJournal is plastered with ads for weight-loss programs and those stupid personal-ad websites of which there's evidently not a single one in existence that permits one to express an interest in more than one gender without any interest in (or tolerance for wading through) the heterosexual members of either gender?

I have a permanent account. But I see major potential here for LiveJournal to become an embarrassment for me to feel associated with. NOT HAPPY. Please, follow the links and urge them at least to avoid any type of ads you can think of that could be potentially offensive, exploitative, and so on.

Comments

[kejlina.livejournal.com]

This is unrelated to the content of your post, but I saw a movie today that made me think of you...not because you share any qualities with the characters of the movie, but because you don't watch a whole lot of movies either and you're pickier than i am so I wondered how you'd review it.

It's All Gone, Pete Tong.

My guess, though, is that you'll either:
A. Hate the movie entirely
B. Hate the first half of the movie but begin to find it somewhat endearing about halfway through.

I guess those options wouldn't entice you to watch it :P
but if it helps, I fell into the latter category...the character started out as thoroughly unlikeable, but by the end of the movie I couldn't help but like him in spite of himself.

and there's a funny scene where he's fighting with a coke-induced hallucination of a giant badger wearing a pink fairy costume.

[queerbychoice.livejournal.com]

You're right, I am extremely unlikely to watch that. :p

[wanderingrogue.livejournal.com]

I just want to know how much good the LJ people expect this new level to do in creating revenue. The lack of ads is a major draw to the people who use LJ. How many people do they think will opt for that level?

[queerbychoice.livejournal.com]

The only paid feature that I ever felt any particular desire for when I was a free user was the poll feature. Presuming this to be the case for a significant number of other people, the really clever thing to do - if LiveJournal allows it, which I am inclined to guess they won't - would be to turn on the ads immediately before creating a poll, and then turn off the ads five minutes later, as soon as you're done creating the poll.

[keryx.livejournal.com]

I chimed in with my own thoughts - I agree, the content is more what would frustrate me. I would not use the site if I started being accosted (really, even just once) by weightloss adverts or something similar. That would turn LJ on its head, image-wise.

Though, if they managed do ads in a way that offered things with real use to most LJ peeps, and used them not as a "read this ad or die" thing but as a service... that could change the meaning & image of internet advertisting.

[queerbychoice.livejournal.com]

What if LiveJournal offered the option to choose which type of ads to be subjected to (as I saw someone saying they were likely to do) so you would never have to be subjected to weight-loss ads, but the pro-anorexia straving girls who don't know enough to realize they should opt out do get subjected to them every time they use LiveJournal?

My suspicion is that things are more likely to go that way . . . where LJ's answer to ever complaint about offensive ads will be, "But you will never have to see them!" As though that somehow fixes everything. It really disturbs me to realize how many people are likely to buy that kind of "solution."

[keryx.livejournal.com]

I am still part of a site that appears to promote those things, whether I actually see them or not. Either the ads are good enough for everyone to see, or good for no one. Of course, you know that, but I suspect a lot of people won't.

And people are so conditioned to think that they "don't pay attention to" ads that they're mostly thinking about which formats would be irritating - but I know now how much that stuff filters into your head.