LiveJournal has announced the return of Basic Accounts. Unfortunately, what they are actually going to do is

1. Introduce a new sort of account, with advertising, though with less than Sponsored Accounts have.
2. Eliminate all existing Basic Accounts, moving every user who presently has a Basic Account to this new sort of account.
3. Give the new sort of account the name Basic Account.

For example, if one now has a Basic Account, then starting in August one's LJ will probably present ads to visitors who are not logged-in. (I'll let readers know whether ads are also present to those logged-in with registered external identities.)

Most of the comments that I saw to the announcement were the usual, clueless words of thanks, and I'll wager that most holders (even most active holders) of present Basic Accounts will either have missed the announcement altogether, or simply have taken it at face value where it says

Back by popular demand, Basic Accounts will be available to all users again by the end of the (northern hemisphere) summer.

There will be anger in August, when the changes are put into effect and thus discovered, but СУП will claim that users should have voiced their objections during the two-week feed-back period.

Tags: LiveJournal

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