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

[rodo]

This makes me want to buy a paid account even more. Unfortunately I really don't have the money :(

[(Anonymous)]

Enjoy your paid account!

[corinthian]

Thank you for giving free users (and communities!) back a custom style!

[red_sunflower]

I just got a premium account, can I get a seed account instead? What happens to the premium paid time?

[sofiaviolet]

You can transfer it to another user.

[orchidfire]

Wow, that's fabulous! Thanks so much; you guys are great.

[unseelie]

i think their whining was over the top, too entitled and spoiled; "you made a mistake and now you owe us" was all i was hearing.

careful about setting precedents like this.

[foxfirefey]

I think a lot of factors went in to the analysis. Ones I can think of considering, though I don't know which ones were all factors:

* Advanced customization wasn't well documented as a paid only user feature, even though we never intended for it to be for free users.
* Additionally, the wrong config gave people the impression they could. Then there wasn't even any notice or warning when it removed (ie, we found this mistake and so in 48 hours it gets fixed, finish up). This left a lot of people in the lurch in the middle of importing a layout without even knowing about it, and that's not good either, especially when everyone's so new to the service that something like that can sour them.
* There's a paucity of good DW layouts for the moment, so for now a lot of people are importing them, which requires the advanced customization area. If we had more styles available, it probably wouldn't matter as much.
* Advanced styles does drive some paid account sales, but really only the sporadic $3 monthly ones, since you set up a style once and get to keep it when your account reverts. It's better to have paid features that are useful only when you actually have a paid account for periods of time, like comment expansion and editing, extra icons, polls, and Google Analytics.
* Additionally, it's not a feature that costs all that much to provide.
* The limits mean there's still an advantage to having a paid account for people who are serious about styles.
* So much work has been done on styles with the aim of making it not necessary that the advantage gap of having it and not having it is going to shrink, and so it's going to be a less important factor for paid accounts anyway.
* Paid accounts still get custom comment pages while free users don't, so people really into their style and wanting it on all pages need to go paid.
* We're in the process of figuring out more paid features.
* Being able to customize their journal might lead people to invest and love their DW more, and that's good for the site, especially at this stage.

[teaplease]

I've loving the all the updates. :)

And thank you for allowing the free users to have some layers. ♥

[nlfrederick]

I can see where that impression could be gotten, but the same thing could be said for the custom styles as well, as most people only use one at a time. However, just because someone is only using one at a time does not mean that it's the only one they have ever used.

Over the 5 and a half years that I've had a paid account at LJ (the first 2 and a half of which were gifted to me, the rest of which I have paid for myself), I've never deleted a mood theme that I've created as a custom one for my own use. Yes, I only use one at a time, because that's the only way it's supported. But I've created 5 mood themes while I've been a paid user at LJ, and would not be hesitant to create another if I ever get tired of the one I'm using. (Note: I've literally created one of them from scratch all on my own, but the others were initially made by other people for the use by the general populace.)

At the very least I think it would be awesome to have more mood theme options for free users if we can't create at least one for ourselves that fits our personalities and who we are.

[saoirse]

Thank you very much for this. :)

I got help to fix myself up wonderfully from users afuna and antagonist.

You guys are the greatest!

[jandy]

That's awesome! Thanks so much for the layerability. :D

And YAY for Seed account sales! :D

[ieune]

Just as soon as my paid account at LJ lapses, I'm buying one here. I'd far rather support people who listen and make considered decisions than knee-jerk reaction, which is all LJ seems capable of the last couple of years.

Custom layers and so on might as well be Gobbledeguk for all the sense it makes to me ;) so I'm not too fussed that you allowed free users some advanced customisation but I'm aware I'm in the minority there, so good for you. I *am* glad to hear there are some new styles coming in the next couple of months. :D Denise must make some great sad faces! ;) (If I remember correctly that's what she answered when someone asked about new styles; that she'd have to make sad faces at the Styles team again.)

[denise]

It's amazing how motivating my sad faces are!

Seriously, though, the dw_styles team has been doing an incredible job. I know it looks like there aren't a lot of options to you guys, because all you see is the frontend, but the reason there's such a scarcity of frontend choices is because they've totally rewritten the backend (to the point where LJ styles aren't compatable with our new version, which is part of what's taking so long -- every style has to be rewritten more or less from scratch). There's going to be a lot more choices coming out in the next few weeks, and as designers start to see the advantages of all the changes we've made, we're going to start seeing a really kickass repository of styles.

[syderia]

Short story: you can once again go back to customizing and importing styles from other sites.
Thanks ! That's really nice of you !

[arabesque]

Thanks for re-evaluating!

[mordyn4]

Well, I know what I'll be doing today. :)

Thank you so so so so much.

[eunhyuk]

Thank you. And how I wish I now had a credit card to support you guys for your great work.

[pig]

Yay, thank you!

[spaceboy]

Aw, I would've liked to set up a mood theme. ;__;

[leslie]

Although the issue didn't bother me in the least, I'm glad we free users get some advanced customization! Thank you, that's very generous!

[rianeva]

CSS confuses me, but I'm happy to see the customization changes! When I have the money, I'll buy a paid account (that'll probably be awhile, though =p). Thank you!

[winterfish]

You guys rock! I'm planning on buying paid time for myself and a friend once you've got the credit card thing working, but in the meantime, thank you so much for enabling the core1 layers again. I have my layout back! :D

[aoibhe]

Again, thank you guys! I myself have a paid account, and will continue to have a paid account, but the ability to create a custom theme for a community is a wonderful thing.

Time and again I'm impressed by Dreamwidth. ♥

[vicissitudes]

Thank you so much for again allowing free account the use of custom layers! This is absolutely fantastic!

[lillbet]

Thank you! This kind of response is why, despite being a bit strapped for cash and having only just renewed my paid LJ account a few weeks ago, I'm seriously considering a paid account here. And trying to bring friends over.

Great customer service model. Keep it up!

[glitch]

Shiny stuff, man, shiny stuff! Not that any of it effects me (I'll probably get a paid account once I can find a freaking job, but there're too many reasons against seed accounting on both ends of the deal), but it's still nice to see happy decisions.

Here's hoping the layer privileges won't negatively effect sales, but we'll see. ♥

[pocketmouse]

I think I know the answer, since I don't see any mention of it on the shop page, but are you guys eventually planning to do things like add-ons? Literally the only reason I'd get a paid account is for more icons. I don't give a flying monkey about other features. I'm shallow like that. :)

[elfgirl]

This came up in one of the previous news threads (I believe) and the answer was that additional icon spaces would only be available as part of paid account levels, not add-ons.

[theletterfour]

I just want to thank you for being so transparent and communicative and considering the users' opinions. I love reading the news posts, and I'll definitely be purchasing an account here.