LJ Stats.

[swestrup]

I was a paying member of LJ for 1 whole year (364 days or 31,449,600 seconds). In that time, according to LJ's own stats (which may or may not be accurate -- but for now we'll assume they are) I bumped ahead of 52255 non-paying members to save 702 seconds total. The record was jumping 825 positions in line to save myself 13 seconds, although 40% of the time there were no non-payers in line to jump over.

Now, the registration for a year costs $19.95 (at least that's what it costs now -- I think I paid less). This is a cost of 2.84¢ for every second of gained priority. That doesn't sound like much, but then again it works out to a cost of roughly $100 an hour. Of course, I never got an hour. More like 11 minutes.

I might pay a lawyer that, but I don't see how LJ is worth it. After all, saving 702 out of 31,449,600 seconds ain't much. A simple ratio gives us .0022% improvement. (although I suspect a simple ratio is not the right stat, my brain refuses to give me a better formula right now). The best savings might have been 13 seconds, but my average was only something like 2 seconds saved per day. Seeing as I usually read at least a dozen pages of LJ a day (perhaps much more), that's less than 1/6 of a second saved per page view.  No wonder it isn't noticable.

Now, LJ gives other features for a paid subscription. Icons, for example, which I almost never use. They also let you change your layout. I never bothered. The only feature I miss is being able to create new syndication links, but that is something that folks are usually willing to do for me.

Hmm. So, is it any surprise that I didn't renew when my subscription ran out a month or so ago?

Comments

[terheyt.livejournal.com]

The only features that have me considering a paid account are the creation of polls, and the abilitiy to search users on more than one criteria (i.e. location and specific interest at the same time). Not nearly enough for me to pony up money for it. And those are the two features that adding google ads WON'T improve for me.

Meh. I'm cheap, and simple in my online tastes.

[tjernobyl.livejournal.com]

I was a paid user for 3 years, but failed to renew when they were bought by Six Apart. I felt beforehand that I was supporting a valid community organization, but post-buyout it fell into the category of commercial purchase, and the cost/benefit no longer worked out.