Update: Seed Account Re-sale, Free Users + Custom Styles

[mark]

Two things for you today!


Thing the first:

We have not been able to finish and fully test the new site functionality that enables people to purchase accounts without a PayPal account. Instead of finishing it up an hour before the first sale is scheduled and crossing our fingers that it works, we've decided to push the sale off another week.

The new time of the Seed Account re-sale is Thursday, May 14th, 9PM EDT and again at Friday, May 15th, 9AM EDT. In total 200 accounts will be available.


Thing the second:

People with free accounts have probably noticed that a few days ago we took away the Advanced Customization area of the site. (The pages that let you make a custom style.) We had never intended for it to be available unless you paid, and having it on was an oversight on our part. After we turned it off, we got to hear a lot of really good comments from people and we reevaluated the original decision.

We've turned it back on, but gave free users a pretty low limit on the number of styles you can create (1 custom style, up to 5 layers). Short story: you can once again go back to customizing and importing styles from other sites. Sorry for the trouble!

Comments

[naughty]

omg thank you thank you thank you.

[adachi]

thanks so much for reevaluating your decision with the free accounts and styles! i'm so glad to see you guys listening to your users like this. we appreciate it.

[ex_red_comet597]

Thank you for being nice to us users ^_^

[cubia]

Thank you for giving free accounts at least one custom style! ♥

[ex_antagonist554]

Thank you so much! :)

[geminianeyes]

Thank you for being nice. :)

[refrain]

Wow, that's really nice of you guys. :)

[sync]

You guys are awesome ♥

[torina_archelda]

What exactly is a seed account and how much are they?

[mark]

Seed Accounts are Dreamwidth's permanent account. It has the exact same functionality and features of a Premium Paid Account and will never have anything extra, and they're $200.

It's really just for supporting the site for the first year, if someone's particularly interested in doing so.

[honeyelle]

While we can create ONE custom style. If we delete that one, can we create another?

[mark]

Absolutely. It's just a limit of one-at-a-time.

[sanders]

Re: Advanced Customizations, I'm really glad to see a viable option for us free users. The only reason I ever bought a paid LJ account was being able to customize my layout, and I was super excited to be able to do so from my free account here and then sad that the option literally was gone overnight. I'm one of the few who couldn't care less about having more icons and frills, I just want my journal to look the way I want it to, so thank you, thank you, thank you.

[mark]

Yeah we had a pretty heated discussion about enabling this option for free users. It IS a popular feature, and it DOES drive paid accounts. We DO need paid accounts in order for Dreamwidth to survive, so it makes sense from a business perspective to make people pay for the pretty.

Time will tell whether or not this is a good decision for the business. It's certainly the best decision for the users, and we'll see how that plays out in the numbers over the coming months.

[tyger]

Dude. Awesome. :D
/utterly ineloquent.

[lluvia]

You guys ♥♥♥♥♥.

[adventurer]

While I never had a problem with that option being turned off, I must say that you're amazing for turning the option back on.

[kriski]

thank you for re-scheduling the sale. that's a call which (once again) confirms my confidence in you guys.

i personally don't care for css, because they break my brain, but thank you anyway for listening to user concerns.

[mad_jaks]

I think I love you. Thanks

[arobynsung]

Oh wow!
THANKS!!!

[gokudera]

I'd say that sounds fair very fair! Cheers, guys, I'm really happy that you took our concerns seriously. I'm definitely more optimistic about the site, now :)

Once again...

[cesy]

You're awesome.

[skywalker]

Thanks for the reevaluation!

[kerravonsen]

We've turned it back on
You are amazingly generous. Go you!

[relle]

Oh, wow, thanks!

I must admit that I wasn't really expecting free users to ever have Advanced Customization, so I'm kind of curious about the reasoning behind the change, other than the mix-up from a few days ago. Do you guys mind sharing when you get a chance? (Not that I don't appreciate it! Just curious.)

[denise]

We thought about it, took a look at the numbers, took a look at the latest poll in paidmembers, and decided to make the gamble that the people who'd be paying us just to create a style would likely also be the type who'd buy one month of paid time at $3 and then let it lapse. Looking at our numbers from the first week post-launch (which we'll be posting more about in dw_biz as soon as we get our better stats module committed), we decided that even if half of the people paying us $3/1 month were doing so only to customize (not to create an account without an invite), it wouldn't seriously impact our bottom line.

Basically, we're gambling that the benefit we'd gain from people being happy that they could completely customize their journal here (thus making them more likely to want to fiscally support us down the line) would outweigh the potential loss of revenue.

[lichking]

Now I can have the layout that is befitting for a King. Almost.

Once again the Lich King is proud of you. Perhaps we should look into you all joining my legion aand scourge.

[denise]

....but we have our own legion already. ;)

[scarecrow]

You guys are absolutely fantastic. Here's to a good, long run. ♥ I just wish I could afford a seed account so I could support you; $200 bucks, though worth it imho, is hard to drop with the economy as it is 8( that being said, I do plan to keep up with my paid accounts so thank you thank you thank you, you are appreciated. ♥

[denise]

It's actually better for us in the long run if people pay year-by-year! That way we get the payments spread out, not in a lump sum.

[koreans]

i have to say, this definitely pushes me one more step further in giving up livejournal completely (eventually), for you guys. one thing i've always been bugged by was livejournal not listening to us, the people who pay to keep them going. you guys just showed me with this, that you're listening.

thank you ♥

[brighid]

I was thinking the very same.