"Usenet is not a right"

[redbird]

To deal with server overloading, LiveJournal is going to implement limits on posts per user per day. The exact numbers are still under discussion, but it will be more for paid than for free users.

There's been a (predictable) huge amount of shouting in the news journal, which you ought to have on your friends list: http://www.livejournal.com/users/news/

(If I were running LiveJournal, I'd automatically put it on all new users' friends lists, so it was there unless people took it off on purpose.)

I got annoyed enough to type the text of the First Amendment to the US Constitution in a comment, in response to someone who seemed to think it was a violation of his rights that bradfitz isn't giving him unlimited services free. I also asked why he, personally, wasn't paying my ISP bill, and pointed out that the LJ code is open source. Yes, I can be a bitch.

Comments

[elynne.livejournal.com]

I looked at the number of comments (600+), and sighed.

The funny thing is that no doubt a huge number of people will bitch, moan, whine, and either 1. get paid accounts, which they will use to complain about LJ or 2. leave LJ for some other journal service, where they will form an "I hate LJ" club and complain about the popup ads on the other site. :P

"HEY IM BR3THING AIR AN IM AN AMURRIKAN SO LIEK I HAV ALL TEHSE RITES AN STUF SO YOU KANT TAEK AWAIE MY FR33 LJ KTHXBYE!!!!!11!!1!!!!one!!!!"

[supergee.livejournal.com]

(2) might raise the average intelligence of both groups.

[cheshyre]

Thanks for the link; I wasn't previously aware of the community. [I think there needs to be a listing somewhere of the users related to LJ-business, such as news or lj_syndication.

And brava for your post. I too get annoyed when people misunderstand what censorship means, thus belittling the concept.

[holyoutlaw.livejournal.com]

750+ comments when I looked just now. I read some of the main comments, but none of the threads. Woof.

I hope it works out.

[crazysoph.livejournal.com]

I got curious about the comment, so I went looking for it. Call me crazy... well, you do already. :) (And at my request, so I am being disingenuous...)

I trawled through 7 of 19+ pages to find redbird's comment (http://www.livejournal.com/talkread.bml?journal=news&itemid=63413&thread=3309493) - looks like the post you replied to was deleted. By the admin or the poster who couldn't take the heat? (me-yow)

The number of posts is up to 1450+ as I type. I figured I'd get an entertaining enough sample by the search for redbird's comment - long live the "find" function in this browser! :)

Crazy(the limits only make sense, although I did see someone assert the limits on paid users was bait-and-switch. Sheeesh, I've done 4 posts in a 24 hour period, and worried that it was excessive...)Soph

[redbird]

I think the person I commented to deleted it, based on the comment I saw from him a little while later--apparently it hadn't occurred to him that people would explain why he was wrong.

#1 Law Of Public Debate

[stealthpup.livejournal.com]

That one has an opinion at all in no way, shape, or form renders that opinion immune to criticism or response.

SO many folks need to learn that simple concept. It's weird, how A can write "I like Pepsi", B can respond, "I prefer Coke to Pepsi", and A will retort "HOW DARE YOU IMPUGN MY FREE SPEACH[sic]?!?!?!?!?!?" (except that they won't use the word "impugn", as they think it's a foreign dog breed).

[supergee.livejournal.com]

Thanks for telling me about this. The phrase "posts, not comments" calmed me. The change makes sense to me.

[kyra.livejournal.com]

Hell, for a couple bucks every few months, I'll take my 20 posts and run. I don't think I've ever actually posted even close to that many, and I doubt that many people who don't belong to a dozen communities do either. That doesn't strike me as an unreasonable number at all, so I don't really see what all the shouting is about.

[filkerdave.livejournal.com]

I certainly don't see any problem with LJ instituting limits. There's only so much load that the system can take, after all.

[ailsaek.livejournal.com]

Heck, I'm fine with my limit 3 (now 5) as an unpaid user. I can't see ever wanting to say that much in one day - or having the free time to say it even if I did.

[papersky.livejournal.com]

When I'm writing, I post little short updates when I'm taking a break. I haven't actually posted more than five, but having the limit there is inhibiting. It may make LJ significantly less useful to me. Or I may decide to pay, if I can figure out a sensible way to do it, but I do rather feel as if I've had the rug jerked out under me.

Yes, they totally have the right to do it, they're providing a free service, they can take it away if they feel like, I just feel they have taken something away and I'm a bit grumpy about it.

[redbird]

Your grumpiness I understand and sympathize with.

People screaming about how Brad owes them whatever they want annoy me.

You might also want to download a client: that way, if your post is the sixth within 24 hours, it'll be there until the clock rolls along.

[stealthpup.livejournal.com]

I went looking for your comment, and finally found it on page 7 of 31. (Question: is there a simple means for searching for LJ-users' comments, as opposed to their journal entries?). I read through the responses, and then decided to check out his journal. (For those interested, it's ejrobbins.)

I was flabbergasted, both with the misrepresentation of those who'd responded to him, and then with the "I was just fuckin' with y'all!" USENET Excuse #47 For Poor Debating Skills. I'm still pondering on whether I should comment on his journal, but I'm leaning more toward the it's-be-a-waste-of-time POV. Part of me wants to be snarky, but that's exactly what he wants -- I've seen that "I'll post whatever I want, whether I believe it or not, and nothing anyone else has to say will ever touch me!" pose before, and it's simply boring.

<Forrest Gump>
And that's all I have to say about that.
</Forrest Gump>

[almeda.livejournal.com]

They've deliberately failed to implement functionality to hit someone's userinfo, frex, and say 'Show me all their comments.' It's a privacy issue; just think if you commented a lot in, say, BDSM journals, and didn't want some of the people on your friends list to know.

[papersky.livejournal.com]

No, I don't want to download and install stuff, I'm using Linux and it's a pain in the neck.

I'll probably just stop using LJ very much, just using it to read my Friends list and make non-anonymous comments. I've only been using it for a few months, I can manage perfectly well without if the way I want to use it isn't the way they want me to use it.

I had been planning to get a paid account, but now I feel steamrollered into getting one whether I want to or not, which makes me reluctant to.

I just came in from going to the bank, and I was going to post "went to bank, bought lifesaving tangerines" and didn't feel I should post such trivia if there are only 5 posts allowed in 24 hours, and if I'm feeling like that, I may as well not bother.

Why is it number of posts, as opposed to bandwidth? There are people posting huge pictures.

[redbird]

I think (as in, I'm not sure) that people were deliberately hitting the servers with lots and lots of posts as a denial-of-service thing, and each post is a certain amount of load on the servers and the database. Also, the photos don't use much LiveJournal bandwidth--all that LiveJournal receives, or sends, is a URL pointing to the offsite location where the pictures actually live.

I hope you change your mind--I like reading your posts, both the long, thoughtful stuff and the trivia.