Δαφνη Ευτυχια Αρθουρος

The good news: LJ is planning to bring back something called 'Basic' accounts.

The bad news: they're not the same as what we're used to calling 'basic accounts'; they'll have at least some advertising on them. (So they're really just bringing back the name, 'basic'.)

The somewhat encouraging detail: they're asking for feedback on four different proposals for how to incorporate the advertising.

The terribly discouraging detail: the change will affect existing basic accounts, not just ones created under the new setup. So those of us who thought existing basic accounts were being grandfathered in when they took away the ability to create new basic accounts ... will (according to the current plan) wind up with ad-supported accounts eventually regardless.

Several folks have suggested using a name other than 'basic' for this new account type, such as 'Plus Lite'.

Some of the proposals for how to add ads are much, much worse than others. But which is worst and which is least objectionable will depend on how you prioritise different aspects of using a blogging site like this.

For the folks reading this somewhere other than LiveJournal, yeah, I'm still using LJ (... so far). Because that's where most of the conversation on my entries takes place so far. This entry won't be especially interesting to the folks who've already left LJ entirely or never signed up there to begin with, but I'm mirroring it like I do all my recent entries -- it's less headache than keeping track of having posted different things to different sites.

And for the folks who are reading this on LiveJournal, a few just-in-case links: BL, CL, SC, JF, GJ, DJ, CJ, IJ.

Watching to see how this plays out. Hoping for something better than what looks likely.