Post Cap Randomness

I'll be honest. I don't get it. I don't get the far-reaching outcry against bradfitz's attempt to keep things running semi-smoothly for LJ. I can see you being angry at the WAY it was delivered, out of seemingly nowhere and with no user input at all, but I have to think about things this way...
For free, you have the chance to write 3 (or MAYBE 4 or 5. Personally, I think it should be 5 so that you have an incremental step up) posts a day on a BIG Worldwide community that everyone can read. Bigger than chaoticmux, Bigger than anything most of us have, to this point, real deal with.
This, apparently, outrages people not because (at least with the people I watch), they USUALLY write more than 3 posts a day (There are some people like phinnia who probably do, but by and large, very few of us do write more than 3 posts a day. When we do, they tend to be things like surveys or just randomness to wile away the boredom)

Let me make it clear. I don't condone the way bradfitz did it. He never asked for suggestions. He never posted in news... "I think we need to make caps. What caps do YOU think are best?" It's one thing to be a part of something still, but another to throw your weight around and say "This is how it WILL BE. DOn't like it? Tough.'
On the other hand, once you get past presentation, I don't think the idea is bad.

I guess I put it in perspectives like this. NOTHING beats a real-time conversation. That's why I still hang out on places like kareila or xb95, who I just don't really SEE.
That's why, in reaction to xb95's post.. unless at least the MAJORITY of y'all came along.. I'd never leave. I've paid for my permanent account here. I'm set here. I've got my communitees, I've got my friends. Why SHOULD I leave?
Should you leave a MUX because you're unhappy about a decision that a wizard made, even though all your friends are there? In that case, I'd have left chaoticmux long ago and never looked back.

But since I don't even think ANYONE has the resources to keep a place as big as LJ up and running. (And I'm sorry, xb95... free users have their place in the grand lj scheme of things too. You may offer a small place that's faster for a select number of users.. but...If I confined my friends list to ONLY those people who were paid or permanent, it'd be a short list indeed. So I'm still losing out.)
I'll stay here, thanks.

Comment to kareila's latest post

This was going to be a comment, but... it's grown since.
And the more I think about it, the more I want to post this publicly.

This may come out of left field, but it's something that I feel strongly about and have for a while.

ChaoticMUX is not kareila's MUX.
It is no more her MUX than any of the other 60 or so people who regularly log on nowadays.
LJ is not bradfitz's toy. It is no more his than the other THOUSANDS who write posts here every day.
In both cases.. kareila and bradfitz, they provided a machine and did everything in their power to keep the site stable and secure. For that, they deserve our undying thanks.
In both cases, they own or control the machine. If they, in a fit of anger, brought the place down.. it would be down and that would be that.
But an online communittee is far more than the sum of the machines and cables that it runs on.

Let's take Chaotic. I'm very familiar with the history of Chaotic.
kareila had a role to play in the grand scheme of things. She HELPED make Chaotic what it was. She did some spectacular softcoding.
But she didn't build, she didn't code all our +commands. She didn't code the wishing well or the +bboard or acrophobia or connect four. Didn't build the Great Tree or Our House or the Tall Tower. She wasn't there to make all the decisions that needed to be made (no one can be) etc. etc. etc.
The point is... she had significant help along the way. If these things had NOT been built or coded or hardcoded, ChaoticMUX would not be what it is now.
Without kareila, ChaoticMUX may never have been. Without the rest of us, it would not be what it is now.

Back to Livejournal.. the same is absolutely true with livejournal (and if I knew how, I'd tell bradfitz this).
He runs the machines. He does his absolute best to keep the machines well maintained and secure. But, heck, let me quote the FAQ directly..
At this time, the business aspect of LiveJournal is run primarily by volunteers, with only a few official paid staff members. Most of the work is done by the contributors you can see listed here: http://www.livejournal.com/site/contributors.bml" He didn't write the Sema Client or Lochjournal. He didn't write all the nifty features we enjoy using. Didn't design all the mood icons.
And so, like above, bradfitz is PARTLY responsible for making LJ what it is and, as such, LJ is PARTLY his. But it isn't his.

In conclusion, I don't dismiss that ChaoticMUX was *cough* our game which we established because neither one of us was thrilled with the state of Social MU**s at the time, nor do I dismiss that LJ is bradfitz's baby... but once you open it up to the public and once they start making the place more than it was before they got there, it isn't just yours and you have no right to make administrative decisions without at least CONSULTING those who have worked hard to make things what they are now.
It's one thing to say "I think we need to XXXX. It will make things altogether better and make the machine more stable." It's another entierly to do it without asking anyone.
Here endeth the lesson.

Hopefully I shall not be flamed for this entry.