news: I have a plan.

Brad Fitzpatrick (

bradfitz) wrote in

news,
@ 2000-09-13 01:38:00

I have a plan.
For the first time in awhile, I have a little plan on what I want to do with LiveJournal. I'll start with my main goals and then list the prerequisite goals.

Main goal: become the best journaling website and blow the pathetic competition away before the competition gets a clue and gets good.
Prereq goal: keep the servers from crashing
Prereq goal: get new servers (in the meantime: optimize code to make it run better on the current server)
Prereq goal: get a lot of money (2-3 paid accounts per day would be good)
Prereq goal: provide an incentive for users to get paid accounts

So, that said --- here are the things that only paid users will be able to do soon, and their status:

Your own username@livejournal.com email alias (working as of a few hours ago... may take a few more hours for DNS propogations of the new MX records)
Make your domain be http://username.livejournal.com/ everywhere. Right now this is for everybody, and I don't like the idea of taking features away from people, and other journaling websites provide this free, so I guess I'll keep this for everybody too.
Multiple pictures! Paid users will be able to upload up to 10 pictures, give them descriptions, and choose which one to use on each journal entry. (and on comments, later on) So instead of just setting your mood to "angry", you can upload a pissed off picture of yourself and use that as well.
Text messaging -- this feature has already been working for a few weeks.
Customize comments pages --- I think this will be the one that entices a lot of people.
Statistics & Counters --- about how many unique people read your journal, divided by your friends vs. registered users vs. not logged in people (but not who exactly) by date, hour, domain name, referrers, etc... tons of fun stuff.

That's about all I can remember for now. That's what I'll be working on the next few days.

Oh yeah, I have another main goal...

Main goal: form a good team of volunteers to run different parts of LiveJournal instead of just me doing it all. in the future, get them money for their hard work once LiveJournal makes money. (another website I run makes a a ton of money per month --- it's not hard .... the trick is to do it without pissing of users. banners piss off users. if it comes down to that, we can do banners... but that's lame. let's first try and see if livejournal can sustain itself on paid accounts and other revenue sources)
Prereq goal: finish all my priviledge assignment and management tools for all the volunteers to use. no volunteer should have to come to me and say "I need you to do this for me". through the web tools and web console, any management functionality should be possible.

(Post a new comment)

	xmf42 2000-09-13 01:35 am UTC (link)
	once you have the statistics/counter stuff working, i'm signed up. (Reply to this) (Thread)

	Re: bradfitz 2000-09-15 01:57 am UTC (link)
	cool. (Reply to this) (Parent)

	prices stef2dope 2000-09-13 01:38 am UTC (link)
	Are you thinking of changing the membership prices or keeping them the same? Also shouldn't the money be sent to your new seattle residence or do you want us to keep sending it to the oregon address? (Reply to this) (Thread)

	Re: prices bradfitz 2000-09-15 01:57 am UTC (link)
	prices will remain the same. checks should still go to the oregon address. (Reply to this) (Parent)

	maltor 2000-09-13 02:23 am UTC (link)
	Why don't you make a third account level between user and paid user called 'early adoptee'. You can say, users whose ID was created before X date will continue to have access to all the non-paid-user-only features they currently do. Then, you could transition some features that are currently free, up to the paid user level and not tick off the current users. (Reply to this) (Thread)

Re:

delusionalangel
2000-09-13 07:49 pm UTC (link)

If they did that - I would say that one way to make people want to pay would be to make the clients only available to new paying users.

If I hadn't already created my account and paid - I might have decided to pay if posting with the client was only available to paying users. The web seems like such a hassle to me as much as I update.

Or one of you coding fools could maybe figure out a way to put banners ON the clients? Non paying users could only get the client with banners and maybe paying users have the choice between banners (for those who want to support LJ more) or a banner free version. I know that would probably be a pain to impliment but it's an idea anyway...

Remember I never said that I had GOOD ideas :P

(Reply to this) (Parent)(Thread)

	Re: delusionalangel 2000-09-13 07:51 pm UTC (link)
	err I re-read that and I didn't mean to make it sound like ONLY new users could get the client... Let the current users keep the client they have... But new users have to pay to get it... And to get newer versions - paid users only or the banner thing? Hmm nevermind me. (Reply to this) (Parent)(Thread)

Re:

mart
2000-09-14 08:47 am UTC (link)

Problem with that is that anyone can make a client... My mIRC client, for example, isn't considered an 'offical' LiveJournal client, having no category in the support area, and the news about it being on my own site rather than the LiveJournal site (although it is downloadable from the LJ client downloads page, which I thank Brad for...).
I'm sure I'm not the only person who has written or could write their own client, and if the LJ clients start being paid-only features there are sure to be other 'free' clients popping up, or perhaps shareware ones (*shudder*)

Of course, one way around this would be to remove the developer section and completely change the 'Client<>Server Protocol', but I have a feeling this isn't really a feasible thing.

The ads on the clients is a good idea, though... especially the most popular Windows client, since Windows already has several companys' ad-delivery stuff available, used by a lot of shareware software such as Go!Zilla and GetRight.
I do think, though, that having an ads and a no-ads version would be hard to keep secure... you'd probably get people sharing the no-ads version, or cracking it, or such... and storing the 'paid or not' info on the server and having the clients pick this up would also make it possible to pass the server response through a proxy which alters it to make it look like you are a paid user. It would, then, be difficult to set up, but it's still a good idea if it can be pulled off.

(Reply to this) (Parent)(Thread)

Re:

delusionalangel
2000-09-14 10:49 am UTC (link)

Yeah I thought about the passing of a program around and while a lot of people would do that - a lot of people would not but would be impossible to control so hmmm....

The thing about other people being able to create a client would also make it suck... Not everyone can do that tho and unless someone really found a way to spread the word about theirs (ex. yours being downloadable from the site) they wouldn't be that big of an issue... But still an issue.

So I suppose client wise the best option for using the clients to make money = connecting to the server to determine what users have ads and what users are paid and have the banner free client. I figured that would the easiest way to make money from the client but since I know nothing about programming I have no idea if that is really a reliable option. Oh well was just an idea ;)

(Reply to this) (Parent)(Thread)

	Re: short_ankh 2000-09-14 11:30 pm UTC (link)
	I imagine it's possible for the journals to reject updates from a means other than what the accounts' status settings allow. However, I'm not sure I like the idea of limiting updating via clients to paid users. (Reply to this) (Parent)

	mIRC client mega 2000-09-14 11:39 am UTC (link)
	I dl'd the mIRC LJ client last night during my procrastinating stage...it's quite nice, better than I had expected anyways, and small :) (Reply to this) (Parent)(Thread)

	Re: mIRC client mart 2000-09-16 04:52 am UTC (link)
	Thanks... I'm (slowly) working on a new version which doesn't have the long-entry problem, but now I'm back in education-mode it's not getting done quickly! (Reply to this) (Parent)

	YES! bradfitz 2000-09-15 01:58 am UTC (link)
	That is the best damn idea I've heard in weeks.... that solves so many of my problems. Thank you! I would've replied earlier but it took a few hours for it to fully sink in and realize what I needed to do. A new post describing it all is coming soon. (Reply to this) (Parent)

	Allready the best darksight 2000-09-13 03:35 am UTC (link)
	this LJ is all ready the best. How much are you thinking of charging? (Reply to this)

Good plans

chrisg
2000-09-13 03:50 am UTC (link)

I haven't gotten around to getting a paid account yet, I only found out about this site a couple days ago, and I love it. I haven't seen any of the competition, but they probably suck anyway. Of the new planned features, the stats/counters and comment page customization sound like they will be of the most use to me.

Good luck with things, this site should easily blow away every other site like it. :)

(Reply to this)

	ooh! duien 2000-09-13 05:40 am UTC (link)
	customize the comments page? really? i've been wanting that. expect to see my money soon :) (Reply to this)

	which would piss off a user more revjim 2000-09-13 07:29 am UTC (link)
	My question is this: If it came down to it, which would piss a user off more, banner ads or advertisment e-mailings? I would personally opt for the advertisment e-mails I get a billion of them already anyway. (Reply to this) (Thread)

	Re: which would piss off a user more grahams 2000-09-13 07:36 am UTC (link)
	As a paid-user, I don't think i would be getting banners OR e-mails, but if I had to choose between the two, it would be banners. Nothing pisses me off more than spam. Banners? I don't even notice them on webpages anymore. It doesn't even register in my mind that there is something flashing at me. (Reply to this) (Parent)(Thread)

	Re: which would piss off a user more revjim 2000-09-13 07:44 am UTC (link)
	Right. I am talking unpaid users only here. I guess you are right. Most of the web has grown accustomed to seeing banner ads on just about everything. PopUp ads, at least for me, are a different story. Sometimes I think we would be better off if webpages did not have the ability to open new web browser windows. (Reply to this) (Parent)(Thread)

	Re: which would piss off a user more grahams 2000-09-13 08:08 am UTC (link)
	Agreed. I think that a mass of people would lynch Brad if he tried Pop-ups. :P They are the absolute worst... But simple banners, I think they are mostly non-intrusive... And coming from BeNews, you can generate a fair amount of income using them. (Reply to this) (Parent)(Thread)

Re: which would piss off a user more

chrisg
2000-09-13 08:17 am UTC (link)

I agree, regular banners aren't really annoying. Most people by now tend to ignore them anyway I think. Popup things, on the other hand, are VERY annoying. I avoid any site that uses them if possible. I wish that browsers wouldn't let a new window be created on load, or when you leave the page. That just sucks. At least they can come in handy for when you click a link, like for TV listings or something.

(Reply to this) (Parent)(Thread)

	But it wouldn't need einstein.... paul 2000-09-13 11:31 am UTC (link)
	But it wouldn't need einstein for Brad to relise if we are all saying we ignore banners that hey might not be as succesful and need be. I'd vote for e-mails TBH... (Reply to this) (Parent)

	Re: which would piss off a user more bradfitz 2000-09-15 01:59 am UTC (link)
	both suck. banners are more politically correct. (Reply to this) (Parent)

mart
2000-09-13 08:19 am UTC (link)

What about if you allow optional ads on Journals, and those people who choose to use them (perhaps by putting %%bannerad%% in *_PAGE where they should go?) would get some of the less funky paid-user features, but not all of them. I'd happily add ads (uh.. yeah) to my Journal pages, although I don't know how feasible that'd be since people tend to read my journal via their own friends pages rather than my own LJ pages. You'd also need to watch for certain 'ad-removal' approaches such as tags which most browsers render with no display box, such as <noframes>... and the most difficult of all to watch, the amazing <div style="display: none;">... but maybe if you get paid for just loading the ad, this won't matter... I don't know.

As an aside, I'm not completely sure if I'm able to get a paid account when I live in the UK, and have no kind of credit facility available... but knowing very little about this "paying people in other countries" thing I wonder if light can be shed on this?

(Reply to this) (Thread)

	Ditto paul 2000-09-13 11:35 am UTC (link)
	Which is why i would like to do the banners, I would like to apy, and i could but since i'm 15 i have no facilities, and cos i'm 15 i have no money anyho :-) The only two features i'd like anyhow are the e-mail and the stats. However if i could i'd pay tommorow... (Reply to this) (Parent)

	help edmcbride 2000-09-13 09:44 am UTC (link)
	i'll volunteer if you need any help desk/tech support.... anything! just ask! (Reply to this) (Thread)

	Re: help gregw 2000-09-13 10:20 am UTC (link)
	You can be a help on tech support by going to change notifications and turning on various support notifications. (Reply to this) (Parent)

	Re: help delusionalangel 2000-09-13 07:28 pm UTC (link)
	Or if you don't want to be notified of help requests you could just go to http://www.livejournal.com/support/help.bml and answer ones that you can answer. The notification isn't bad tho. I think we got the few main FAQ's up that were not already there that needed to be. Any more that people know we need up that are not already? (Reply to this) (Parent)(Thread)

	Re: help edmcbride 2000-09-13 11:17 pm UTC (link)
	thanks alot! (Reply to this) (Parent)(Thread)

	Re: help delusionalangel 2000-09-14 04:42 am UTC (link)
	No prob :) (Reply to this) (Parent)

	faith 2000-09-13 09:52 am UTC (link)
	If there are any non-programming things that you need help with (simple html stuff, design, etc) I'm totally there. (Reply to this) (Thread)

	Re: bradfitz 2000-09-15 02:00 am UTC (link)
	an official "nit-picker" would be nice... to point out usability issues and inconsistencies throughout the site.... that's a fairly low stress job. if you ever see anything that's stupid, send me some mail. (Reply to this) (Parent)(Thread)

	Re: evan 2000-09-15 03:30 pm UTC (link)
	For instance, the "You can reply at the webpage, or here..." HTML form doesn't work in hotmail. (Reply to this) (Parent)(Thread)

	Re: bradfitz 2000-09-15 04:12 pm UTC (link)
	... patches accepted. :) i don't have a hotmail account, so I don't know how they all filter/mutate it. worst case scenario I could just send the plain text version to hotmail users. (Reply to this) (Parent)

katyland
2000-09-13 07:56 pm UTC (link)

hey, i wanted to volunteer the first time you organized that team of people, but i didn't have the time to devote to it. i still want to, and this time it sounds like you're looking for something a little different and maybe something i can do. i am completely willing and able to learn new things, esp. about this site i like so much, so i can go in and fix something that i notice is wrong, etc etc etc. it just can't be a full time job, yknow? i think a lot of people might like the same, to have a small amount of power to use the tools and console on the web to fix things or handle requests in some kind of queuse system, but not be expected to be on top of it at all times. kind of like the helpers' helpers...?

(Reply to this)

	gorgonous 2000-09-13 09:01 pm UTC (link)
	I volunteer my services as well. Although I don't know what it is I'd do.. Perhaps I could become the Livejournal Bikini Boy? (Reply to this) (Thread)

	Re: delusionalangel 2000-09-14 10:52 am UTC (link)
	Ohhh yeah we can take pics of that and have you autograph them and then auction them off grin (Reply to this) (Parent)

my turn

roshi
2000-09-14 05:15 am UTC (link)

well because i was lucky enough to win a paid user account in that style contest a while back, i feel kinda stupid saying that i can't afford a paid account [how fortunate for me!]

anyway...

1. banners should be on the page, not pop-ups because everyone hates pop-ups. and also, some really old browsers sort of don't support them too good, sometimes.

2. i'm a bit of a klutz when it comes to programming but i can be your image genie if you wish. i'm not a professional, but i'm not terrible either.

3. livejournal is the bestest in the wurld.

(Reply to this)

mega
2000-09-14 11:29 am UTC (link)

As stated a fair bit above banner ads aren't so bad. Popups on the otherhand are annoying. If there was a defined team put together based in different areas within the journal itself there are plenty of ways to simplify things. An example of what I mean would be to have certain people responding to areas within the support area which they are more specialised in. I have noticed and i'm sure others have as well that anything up to 10 responses to one query within 5 minutes all stating the same thing can be a bit much. Perhaps this will change if the plan goes to a select team rather than a free for all.

I'd pay you Brad if I had faith in Internet banking. This will be hard for overseas users like myself who need to consider currency conversion. I do not have cheques and I don't know if money orders work overseas or not...

As an idea...what about (for the "free" users) have a choice of what they want to deal with..

-Advertising on their LJ
-Advertise LJ on their homepage (Personally I'd block the one's who use the main free sites)
-Refer friends
-30 day full version of their journal then random delting of their entries? Or limit their entries...(something like that)...I mean Adobe won't let you save on it's freeware, others have time limits...LJ is top shit why be any different...imagine all the crack sites advertising their LJ cracks (more free advertising there too *giggle*)

I might make a LJ t-shirt and wear that around :P

(forgive my blathering tiredness :P~~)

(Reply to this)

	Payment short_ankh 2000-09-14 11:32 pm UTC (link)
	My payment leaves for you tomorrow. It's a check (I know you say you don't like them, but it's the only way I can pay for anything right now) and I don't mind my account being listed as paid to be held until the check clears. (Reply to this) (Thread)

	Re: Payment bradfitz 2000-09-15 04:36 am UTC (link)
	no problem.... (Reply to this) (Parent)

I would be willing to volunteer my services.

scottfreeman
2000-09-19 07:37 am UTC (link)

Should you need someone to do either tech or non-techie stuff please let me know. I don't know much about the systems you are running LJ on but I am very eager to learn (and a fast learner at that). I am online usually 10 to 14 hours a day either at work or at home and more then happy to help in any way possible.

I have a whole range of skills from support, nitpicking and error detecting to system analysis and other stuff. I could even filter through emails you get, do administrative tasks or whatever you want. Maybe you should write a list of things you want people to do and let folk apply that way?

Let me know if I can be of any help. Contact details are on my info page.

(Reply to this)

	Helping? silverwind 2000-10-23 10:35 pm UTC (link)
	Not sure what you need. I'd like to be able to help out, though. Wide range of low to mid-level skill on this end. Send a mail, if you like, or else I'll see a reply here. (Reply to this)

(Reply from suspended user)

How about video?

samael09
2007-02-12 11:24 pm UTC (link)

A GOOD plan and one that’s easy to implement in the near future so long as you get the support and the moolah you need to keep LJ running and “blow the pathetic competition” out of the water so to speak or at least until they get smart and start cracking.

Obviously LJ has a considerable audience and one could only hope to offer more features in order to accommodate both paid and free users. But what would really pull in more users paid or not is video and audio of their own which is similar to that being offered in YouTube.

I don’t know whether you have the logistics and the technology to do this but that would certainly set you farther apart from the competition. Maybe it’s not feasible now but it can be once you get rid of the miscellaneous concerns out of the way.

Samael09

http://www.findmypaydayloan.com

(Reply to this)

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