Renewal time coming

[mondhasen]

I'm starting to get renewal hints from LJ for my paid account, but am not sure if I want to pay for a service that has been as buggy as it has been for me lately. Pages load slowly, if at all, and sometimes I just can't connect without several resends. I've checked my internet connection and Speakeasy reports fast upload/download speeds even during LJ's problem times. I don't have problems with other sites like I do with LiveJournal. The only benefits I think I'm getting with a paid account are more user pics and an advertisement-free screen. I know it's relatively inexpensive to have a paid account, but I wish the site 'worked' better.



*sigh* if my credit card numbers were still loaded into my account I'd just let it renew automatically. Since changing my numbers early this year, though, I'll have to make a decision.

Comments

[whitetail.livejournal.com]

As long as I keep posting, I'll keep my paid account. I want to keep all my icons, and the emails I get for comments I post. The site really does suck in a major way, though, I totally agree.

[mondhasen.livejournal.com]

It's a toss-up. Bunny-plush works well enough unpaid, and maybe I'd switch to make that the paid account instead. Or I could drop some icons and lose some of the features I never explore. There's no incentive or discount to re-up, nor a penalty to drop (other than icon loss).

[schnee.livejournal.com]

Wow, you're getting some nice speeds there.

Personally, I'd find it hard to decide, too. Well, I actually use LJ enough that I'd probably keep a paid account, but I agree, all the disruptions (which aren't necessarily their fault), as well as all the changes for the worse (which are!)... those'd make it more difficult for me to say "yes", too.

[mondhasen.livejournal.com]

I know it's not intentional by them to have all these disruptions, but they are a pain. I'll have to think hard on this one.

Those speeds are from my home to a server test point in New York. They drop to half that in a California test. On the iPad I'm lucky to see 10/10, and usually it's 8/6. But we have multiple devices always sucking bandwidth: game systems, laptops, Netflix, etc. So far it's good, though, and beats my old dial-up speeds on the 33K modem ;o)

[schnee.livejournal.com]

I know it's not intentional by them to have all these disruptions, but they are a pain.

Oh yeah, they aren't intentional. But I also think they're not even LJ's fault, insofar as that it's likely just continuing DDoS attacks that they're subjected to and can't really do much about. Of course, you can't be sure, and their tendency to be tight-lipped and not provide any real information, much less to public post-mortems on a tech ops journal etc., doesn't help.

[mondhasen.livejournal.com]

Interesting discovery tonight: when I reload a page that isn't responding fast enough (blue bar stops) I found that each reload showed up in history as "untitled" and if clicked that page it went to ads (dot) pubmatic (dot) com. This is where my page loads are slowing down, and it is LJ that has the problem, not any of the other sites I visited tonight. Strange.

[schnee.livejournal.com]

Strange. I'd probably block that site, whatever it is.

[mondhasen.livejournal.com]

I can't see how to block it on the iPad, but today things are running faster. I've asked LJ to investigate.

[schnee.livejournal.com]

Ah, not sure about that, either; there might well not be a facility for doing that there.

[moxie_man]

I'm a cheapskate. I have never had a paid account except for a 2 month gift from a friend soon after I signed on. Not to long after I finally got around to joining, many of those I was following left LJ. I don't see any reason to pay for this service, which I'm not impressed enough with to do so.

[mondhasen.livejournal.com]

My favorite expression was "I expect more from my free services!" I expected more from my paid, albeit inexpensive, one :D

Not to long after I finally got around to joining, many of those I was following left LJ.

Yeah, I'm not using this as much as I envisioned. But who knows what will happen in the future? I've got thinking to do.