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This interview with Anton Nosik has been making the rounds, so I read it: http://www.izbrannoe.ru/30184.html
And yes, it seems that there is some incendiary language in how he speaks about the situation. He is saying that he won't put up with "blackmail" (shantazh) or attempts to destroy (unichtozhit') his business.
I think it is foolish to describe a boycott in such terms, and these phrases certainly aren't going to endear him to the LJ communities that I run with. Perhaps this interview betrays SUP's attitude that LJ users, especially free users, aren't really customers and don't need to be pandered to.
However, the interview makes sense to me in terms of Russian culture after the fall of the Soviet Union. It speaks to the "wild capitalism" that has been sweeping Russia and the former Soviet Union since the Glasnost era. Everything has a price in the culture of "wild capitalism" and as I understand it, Russian business models are somewhat more fierce and unforgiving than the model that LJ had when it started.
In the interview, Nosik essentially says that basic accounts are like giving away free merchandise at a shop, and that it's not good business. I think that's a bit of a clunky metaphor, since free samples are a staple at farmers markets, Costco, and other places. Free samples are giving away goods (tovar) in a way that is GOOD for business.
In the end, I'm not sure what I'm going to do about tomorrow's boycott. The interview doesn't represent the new owners of LJ in a very good light, at least from in my liberal, idealistic, creative-commons-oriented perspective.
Honestly this issue really needs to be understood within the larger debate of how humanity is affected when it is in a state of being perpetually advertised to. I have a plus account - banners and pervasive advertising are a reality in modern life. I like that basic accounts exist, since I do think it's nice to be able to opt out of being advertised to, but I'm fairly comfortable with it personally. I also use gmail and am subject to constant advertisement there, and in all the odd places that marketing now pops up in daily life - on cocktail napkins that the airline uses, on the doors of bathroom stalls, before the previews at movies, at the check-out stand in supermarkets, etc.
In summary - the interview doesn't cast Nosik and SUP in a feel-good, internet-as-creative-commons light. They are capitalists and profit driven. But is there a blogging alternative that isn't profit driven at this point? I know that I was attracted to LJ and stayed with it because of it's homegrown, non-Microsoft/myspace feel. It's been losing that steadily since it was first sold off. The issue for me is whether or not it has gotten bad enough to leave (for a day or for good) and whether there is truly an alternative in the current market that feels like LJ did in 2002 when I joined.
And yes, it seems that there is some incendiary language in how he speaks about the situation. He is saying that he won't put up with "blackmail" (shantazh) or attempts to destroy (unichtozhit') his business.
I think it is foolish to describe a boycott in such terms, and these phrases certainly aren't going to endear him to the LJ communities that I run with. Perhaps this interview betrays SUP's attitude that LJ users, especially free users, aren't really customers and don't need to be pandered to.
However, the interview makes sense to me in terms of Russian culture after the fall of the Soviet Union. It speaks to the "wild capitalism" that has been sweeping Russia and the former Soviet Union since the Glasnost era. Everything has a price in the culture of "wild capitalism" and as I understand it, Russian business models are somewhat more fierce and unforgiving than the model that LJ had when it started.
In the interview, Nosik essentially says that basic accounts are like giving away free merchandise at a shop, and that it's not good business. I think that's a bit of a clunky metaphor, since free samples are a staple at farmers markets, Costco, and other places. Free samples are giving away goods (tovar) in a way that is GOOD for business.
In the end, I'm not sure what I'm going to do about tomorrow's boycott. The interview doesn't represent the new owners of LJ in a very good light, at least from in my liberal, idealistic, creative-commons-oriented perspective.
Honestly this issue really needs to be understood within the larger debate of how humanity is affected when it is in a state of being perpetually advertised to. I have a plus account - banners and pervasive advertising are a reality in modern life. I like that basic accounts exist, since I do think it's nice to be able to opt out of being advertised to, but I'm fairly comfortable with it personally. I also use gmail and am subject to constant advertisement there, and in all the odd places that marketing now pops up in daily life - on cocktail napkins that the airline uses, on the doors of bathroom stalls, before the previews at movies, at the check-out stand in supermarkets, etc.
In summary - the interview doesn't cast Nosik and SUP in a feel-good, internet-as-creative-commons light. They are capitalists and profit driven. But is there a blogging alternative that isn't profit driven at this point? I know that I was attracted to LJ and stayed with it because of it's homegrown, non-Microsoft/myspace feel. It's been losing that steadily since it was first sold off. The issue for me is whether or not it has gotten bad enough to leave (for a day or for good) and whether there is truly an alternative in the current market that feels like LJ did in 2002 when I joined.
