But what I found more worrisome, and strike-worthy, was the fact that they were back to editing the list of user interests to interests they approved of. They eliminated interests like “bisexuality,” “sex” and “fanfiction” off the list of most popular interests. Once a blog company starts fiddling with user-created content like that, I get nervous.

I don’t believe the strike will have any economic impact; I don’t think that’s the point. I think of it more as a showing that, yes, your customers *can* get pissed at you. And if they do, they will leave.

1) They bought, they own it, they can change it if they want to do so. But as is the case in any business that depends on its customers for its continuing success, not consulting with your customers before making significant changes to the services you provide to them may be hazardous to your bottom line.

2) So far, they have eliminated the Basic account as an option for people establishing new accounts. If/when they unilaterally convert all existing Basic accounts to Plus (advertising supported) accounts, that’ll be a different ballgame (and my bet is that they will do this at some point).

3) They must think it is in their business interest to eliminate Basic accounts. That may or may not be true. If the effect is to eliminate a significant proportion of content producers and consumers that use LJ, they are not going to come out ahead. There is something to be said for the argument that Basic accounts add value to the system as a whole.

4) I think what this really comes down to (from the business point of view) is a calculation of what proportion of Basic account holders would balk at using LJ at all if they only had the Plus option to use. The total number of Basic vs. Plus accounts in existence would tell that story as well as anything … I wonder what the numbers are.