revjim.net

LiveJournal has added "Sponsored Communities":http://community.livejournal.com/lj_biz/237534.html, and "some people aren't happy about it":http://insomnia.livejournal.com/706986.html. So let's get this straight…

*Some* communities, created by advertisers in the first place, will now be *Sponsored*. By being Sponsored, the usericon for the community will be something different making it easy to detect, there will be advertisements on the page for the community, and some special features, funded by the sponsors, might be added to LiveJournal for their use. Additionally, some of these communities will be featured on the LiveJournal front page. Without Sponsored Communities, these advertisers could still create communities and customize them to their hearts content with ads and product propaganda. However, Sponsored Communities will make it easier to do so and offer special features to make it and even better advertising tool in exchange for cash in LiveJournal's pocket, something most of its users are not willing to offer.

So, in other words, there may be lots of new communities created and, outside of those communities, nothing is changing except the LiveJournal front page, which I, personally, never see anyway. And, in exchange for this LiveJournal gets money from these sponsors which the majority of its users are unwilling to give them anyway. And this is bad, how?

Of course these is one more change. LiveJournal will be getting MORE features that its users want. And those pages with those features will indicate that the feature was sponsored and will indicate which company sponsored it with a link. Of course, if you're adverse to the advertising then just don't use the feature.

Some people say this will make LiveJournal more like MySpace. *GOOD*!! I, for one, think MySpace is a good *idea* that has been very very very very very very poorly implemented. I'd love to see more competent developers (like those that originally wrote LiveJournal) tackle the same set of issues and features making a more usable, featureful product that doesn't leave me with a headache and a sick stomach every time I visit.

Am I missing something here?