Yeah, I was a little disappointed when I saw that this evening. Maybe they're getting so many people lately that the extra paid accounts would help them out?

Uh, I was planning on buying a paid account before this but I'm not so sure anymore. I don't want to have to pay for every fucking account I want to be able to customize even remotely.

I realize this is an independently-run site, but you would think they'd be able to market themselves on their accessibility to the userbase. If this were livejournal people would be up in arms over a privilege being taken away like that - ESPECIALLY given that the alternatives are uh really damn ugly.

I guess... I'm not really mad at DW but I wish we could have gotten a heads-up.

And maybe the alternatives will get better! DW is still really new, so maybe in the future we'll have more layout choices! And at least the fact that we can't edit our layers now doesn't mean we can't use them at all, since your layout still looks very pretty, right? :)

So, I'm still kind of upset, but it's not enough to make me dislike DW. I'm still having fun here~ =3=

I seriously hope somebody makes a Stylish sheet for the website/main layout because it is ugly as fuck. I'm not saying "go for the LJ colors" but I just guessed young networking people knew where to look for web design references.

Aww, they should at least wait til they have more options with layouts before doing that. :|

Yeah, seriously though. Like in case you failed to notice, there is one css override available for your little core 2 pet project, and I need to see another gossymer layout like I need another hole in the head.

Yeah there's so much hype about how ~awesome~ Dreamwidth is compared to LJ but it's hard to ignore how they took away a basic freedom of expression via layouts from the basic accounts. You'd think people would start making a billion dreamwidth layouts for users from the hype too.

Seriously though. It's just not working out. And the sheer number of people sucking dreamwidth cock is just ridiculous, given that so far it has yet to prove itself superior to the site it's trying to draw a userbase away from.

Newsflash, guys, they are not your ~*fwends*~ they are here to make a profit. And if they're not providing any incentive to contribute then I'm 99.99% likely not going to!

The one positive thing that I can say about Dreamwidth over LJ is their support service. They're fairly quick and efficient about getting things done. BUT it's not like you require support service on the usual stuff like layouts and posting. It'd be nice if Dreamwidth had a claim-to-fame feature that's better than a separation of friends between subscribing and accessing.

amazing how gossymer's current layout looks like something for a fail mobile browser.

it was an error that free accounts had access to advanced customization in the first place.

So they just take that access away without warning? In case they hadn't noticed, their selection of layouts is kind of slim pickings.

they should have announced it, i agree. but maybe if having a customized journal here is really important to you, you should consider a paid account.

I was planning on it for the icon space, but now I definitely don't see why I should. I have a couple of communities on here already, and another account for my icons and writing, and I don't want to have to buy paid accounts for all of them JUST to have the privilege of escaping the concentrated fuckugly of core 2.

Yeah, livejournal is a big soviet cash-cow milking machine, but at least they allow their free users some degree of aesthetic variety. I'm not going to cut them slack because they have yet to go public. They sold 200 accounts - maybe MORE - at $200 a pop, and they can't let free users have a little variety until they implement some more styles? That's BS.

so you were already going to get a paid account, and now you're not because... you want to have the privileges of a paid account? i don't really understand.

I don't want to have to buy paid accounts for all of them

i'm pretty sure it'll work the same as on lj, where if you have a paid account you have the same privileges for any community you maintain.

i think that if they'd allowed it for an extended period of time and then took it away, people would be a lot more upset. also, the seed accounts are probably going much further towards covering the costs for setting up the site that they've been paying out of pocket until now. & every one of those seed accounts is going to mean less money for the site in the future. so they're not exactly rolling in it, and i fail to see how they should be expected to give free users paid features and continue to make less money than they could. (and here we're talking about denominations that simply will keep the site up & running, with a pipe dream that maybe someday denise and mark can make a living off of it. not, you know, cash-cow milking.)

I'm not going to cut them slack because they have yet to go public.

really? cos i'd say that slack is exactly what being in early beta gets them (including have limited aesthetic selections). they've been open for paid accounts for what, three days? there are going to be kinks. it was a coding error.

Say you're waiting on a bank account transfer to your paypal account, and it can either go to livejournal or dreamwidth. You get the same functionality with either site, only livejournal is going to give you more options for customization and content. The server is more reliable, the system is tighter, the options you are looking for are there. It is also less expensive. Which, are a consumer, are you going to choose?

The quality of their product is inferior. I am not going to waste my hard-earned money on something that has yet to prove it can stack up against the competition because it offers an "ideal". If they made a mistake, gee that sucks, they should at least keep it consistent or ANNOUNCE that they're taking an option away from their free userbase that made using the service seem more attractive than the competition. I know a lot of people here are waiting it out to see if the team delivers on their promises before committing to buy. If there's nothing to keep them here then dw is already behind the 8-ball from its inception.

For someone who has pretty much constantly belittled Dreamwidth you're spending a lot of time on it. I mean, no-one's forcing you to have an account here. If you don't like their services and don't want to do anything constructive about it, then... stick to LJ?

While I appreciate the subtlety of your icon, I've never once belittled dreamwidth outside of the obvious scepticism over people treating it like the messiah of the blogosphere. Am I sick and tired of the soviets being shifty bitches? Hell yeah! But they offer an incentive for me to spend my money. Yes, dreamwidth is still in beta, but they are expecting people to pay full price for something that's still "in the works" (they said it, not me). Excuse me if I'm not biting.

"If you don't like it you can leave" is a great policy, by the way. You should take it to marketing!

I just really don't think they're "expecting" anything. Maybe I'm being naive, but they've made it clear multiple times; if you want to stay on LJ, stay on LJ and they will try and make it easy for you to remain in contact with your friends; if you don't want to buy a paid account, please don't feel you have to; and they were especially adamant about people not purchasing Seed accounts if they were having doubts. They've accepted the fact that they're a small business. I'm not even here to defend the Customization choice or "market" DW, I am just genuinely baffled why, if you're not enjoying the site, you'd stick around.

If they want to stay afloat, they're going to have to make some businesslike decisions - which, yes, entails selling out to the man. I don't know what kind of ideals you're attaching to this project, but if it's going to succeed at all it's going to require more than a small business mindset/loyal fanbase.

I'm here because I wanted to try something new, and find a viable alternative to livejournal. But I am confused as to why they are charging livejournal prices for something that's not even up to livejournal functionality. I want to see dreamwidth do well, in a business sense, but they are going to have to pace themselves financially or this whole project will go bust.

i can understand this argument much better than the ones you were making previously, though i still don't agree. personally, i've already weighed those things, and, as a customer, i will never give lj my money again, while dw will get my money for the foreseeable future. this is due in part to an ideal, which i don't think you can discount as minor; livejournal has betrayed my own code for how a service should behave morally & ethically. but it's also about what it offers me apart from that, as simply a journaling service. i'm not just paying for the site as it stands, i'm investing in its future, which has a lot more potential than lj's (lj's potential is only downhill, as far as the eye can see). they already offer improvements that make me a very happy user, and will be implementing even more.

by the way, it's not like free users on lj have access to advanced customization either. so i don't think lj can claim to be superior to dw in that regard.

Nothing to say about the "paying for an ideal" argument that I haven't already said a hundred times before and am not terribly impressed with, but then again lj has never personally wronged me aside from being a complete tool from time to time.

No, but there is the added bonus that there is available css editing for their existing stylesheets, which are varied even at the free account level. It just seems kind of silly that they expect people to pay money so they can code stylesheets they imported from livejournal.... by themselves.... like at least livejournal offers access to more styles for paid accounts? But this is essentially charging the user money for something they do themselves, and which they have no intellectual property rights over.

Yeah... I thought that was kind of weird when I heard they stopped allowing that. From what I heard is they're working on stuff to allow more customization?

Which, if that's the case, they probably should have ironed those wrinkles before going public.

Yeah, or given free users the accessibility until the customization went live. They don't even have css editing documentation out for core 2, what the fuck.

I hate that people are being soft on them because they're not livejournal. Sure this is an independent group, but what the hell was livejournal before they went public? There should be like six pages of people crying "BULLSHIT" by now.

I agree. But, I guess it's because most that are here already have paid accounts and/or just want to be on the DW side of things since LJ is now this terrible Soviet pet.

I just now registered that your name is "zoidberg" upside down. hell yes we're observant!!

Ugh, seriously. Everybody is like "give it time, they're new, they need the money", etc. etc.

If you're going to charge money for something, you should at least be up to a professional standard. I'm sorry but if you're going to be hypocritical and crack down on livejournal and go soft on dreamwidth because they're made of hippies or something, I have no time for you.

HAHA. XD;;

fjldfj AHAHAHAHAHA oh dear that made me laugh. I don't know... who's to say they're not fixing stuff up to be made available again for non-paying customers or whatever. There's two sides to everything and while I agree on the shady part of them not really saying anything (not to mention pages still aren't finished yet) and that if this WAS Livejournal everyone would be bitching and screaming to someone there.

From what I see, it's that already there are hardcore DW followers who will think that DW does no wrong and will be superior above LJ. Which is fine. DW has potential, but I don't think it will ever be LJ.

I think I diverged from the point a few sentences ago XD;;; Oops.

Luckily it makes no difference to me since I'm retarded. :(

I love that "reverting to a free account".

Yes. Where you get six icons.

i cry bulllllllshit. don't they understand that it's all about looks? XD