(no subject)

[camwyn]

Dear LJ:

I like you. I pay for your service. I pay for extra user pictures. It's good to be able to write and have people see it, and it's good to be able to keep up with my friends. It's really good to be able to say 'hi, I'm in $INCREDIBLY_FAR_OR_DANGEROUS_LOCALE, this is what's going on' and have all my friends know at the same time that I'm okay.

Please stop spontaneously adding ugly features that I didn't ask for and don't like. I'm very glad you backed off on the MySpace-looking info page layout, but the navigation bar is not something I wanted, and it's sure not something I ever asked for. It's not even particularly useful once I start scrolling down the page. It's ugly and clumsy and if I wanted it, I would have set it. God knows you've been yammering at me about it on the login page since I don't know when.

Otherwise, you're good. Now please stop trying to alienate me.

Thank you.

Comments

[mhw.livejournal.com]

If you're NOT using Internet Explorer, and you're using S2 styles, this (http://community.livejournal.com/s2flexisquares/276545.html) tells you how to do useful things via CSS configuration: particularly how to make it stick to the top of the window while scrolling.

[camwyn]

Hm. Useful trick. If I ever change my mind and decide I want the navbar back, I'll remember that. Thanks.

[sdelmonte]

I hadn't even noticed the navbar till you mentioned it. But then I promptly turned it off.

They are out to ruin LJ, aren't they?

[camwyn]

Something like that. Yeebus, people. WTF.

[mephron]

I like the navbar, especially since work uses IE and I can change accounts easily without having LJLogin.

[camwyn]

And, see, that's cool. My objection is to having something that I personally perceive as ugly and/or redundant-in-a-bad-way thrust upon me without asking.

[milkshake-b.livejournal.com]

The biggest problem with the navbar is that there's that option there to make everyone who views your journal HAVE to see it. And it's the default.

[ex_amurderofcrows752]

ZOMG! But you're over twenty and paying for LJ!

That's not their demographic!

Go get VOX! :O

[camwyn]

I'm not anybody's target demographic. Le sigh.

[batyatoon]

I want a t-shirt that says I AM NOT YOUR TARGET DEMOGRAPHIC.

[drharper.livejournal.com]

*snickers*

I'd love one, too! Maybe we should drop a line to the boys at ThinkGeek.com.

[kyrielle]

Yeah. Somewhere, I saw a warning post and an apology; they decided it should be on by default, because too many people actually WERE missing it. And they had no way to tell who had decided to not have it, versus who had never noticed the option.

Hate the navbar.

[camwyn]

"EAT YOUR LJ SPINACH! YOU'LL LIKE YOUR LJ SPINACH!"

Clearly the demographic is people under the age of majority. Otherwise, why would they feel free to force stuff down our throats and tell us it's good for us? (And maybe it is, but that doesn't give them the right to play mommy about it.)

[milkshake-b.livejournal.com]

"PEOPLE WANT THIS OPTION! WE KNOW BECAUSE WE KNOW! WE HAVE STATISTICS WE EVEN SAY ARE MADE UP! WE KNOW YOU WANT IT! WE WILL SHOVE IT ON YOU UNTIL YOU ADMIT YOU WANT IT!"

You know, I've spoken to Support people and former Support people, and it's really remarkable how much more fondly they speak of Brad now that Six Apart is calling the shots than they used to.

[juliansinger.livejournal.com]

Well, the obvious option there is a thing where, when you log on, it says, "Do you want the nav bar, y/n?"

But, no, instead it Gives It To You. Meh.

[camwyn]

Like I said. EAT YOUR LOVELY INTERNET SPINACH.

[drharper.livejournal.com]

*spits Internet Spinach in LJ's eye*

[hangingfire.livejournal.com]

I wouldn't mind the navbar so much if it weren't so, you know, hideous. I was trying to help my husband (who is a design geek) get an LJ account set up last night, and he was appalled by the staggeringly awful design of basically every aspect of LJ. Every few minutes, the conversation would be punctuated by a cry of "Ajax, people!"

[lots42.livejournal.com]

'Generator' is the only setup that makes my Friend's page readable

[lots42.livejournal.com]

The LogIn page has yammering? Since when?

[camwyn]

"Hi! We see you've logged in! Nine out of ten users prefer the nav bar! LOVE THE NAV BAR! USE THE NAV BAR! THE MUTANT SEMI CYCLOPEAN GOAT COMMANDS IT!"

.... okay, a bit of overreaction there, but still. Every time I log in and it tells me 'you logged in successfully!', there's that 'Hey! Fake statistic! TRY IT NOW!' thing and it annoys me.

[slarti.livejournal.com]

People still use the login page? :-P

[jezrana.livejournal.com]

I don't even find the nav bar particularly ugly or unhelpful or anything. It's just...yeah, if I'd wanted it, I would have turned it on. I turned it off just to hopefully help send a message of "...ah, no".

[sarekofvulcan.livejournal.com]

Oh, well, at least they have the option to turn it off easily accessible - and the option to see it yourself, while not forcing it on everyone else.

[feonixrift.livejournal.com]

Semi-duplicate functionality. Overly complicated codebase. Lack of rational architecture. Frog-eating mutant goats.