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

[nlfrederick]

I can see where you could use that reasoning for not having it, even though the same reasoning could be applied to the custom style sheets that they're allowing free users limited access to. It's true for both that most people only use one at a time.

However, speaking from the point of view of a LJ user who has had a paid account virtually without interruption since Christmas of 2003, which puts me at about 5 and a half years of paid time at LJ. In that time, I have set up five different custom mood themes both through the use of the admin console and the Custom Mood Theme editor.

My reasoning here is that just because we use one at a time doesn't mean that allowing limited use (i.e., one custom mood theme) to a free account would detract from the paid accounts incentives, simply because over time, the paid accounts are likely to have more than that because of various reasons, such as changing interests, or changing the mood theme to fit the look and feel of their journal.

At the very least, though, I would like to see a more varied set of options of mood themes for free users, perhaps with a chance for the free users to create mood themes and submit them for consideration to then be voted upon by all, maybe with some sort of incentive like 1 or 2 months of regular paid time or a Dreamwidth t-shirt or something like that.

[elfgirl]

At the very least, though, I would like to see a more varied set of options of mood themes for free users, perhaps with a chance for the free users to create mood themes and submit them for consideration to then be voted upon by all

I imagine there will be more mood themes available for free users at some point. The site's still in beta so there's only a minimum amount of customization available at the moment. However, they're actively working on rolling out more layout options and I'd be surprised if the same wasn't true for mood themes.

I quite like the idea of design opportunities for users, as well.

[triadruid]

I absolutely agree that more mood themes should be (and likely will be) available in the future.

I think the difference here is that the free single style is a direct response to the error of giving it away for free initially. As mark said, it's a strong incentive for paid accounts, but not so strong as to be worth the sense of screwing over your users.