Wow...did I dodge a bullet in Open Diary can suck it
- Nov. 7, 2013, 3:23 p.m.
- |
- Public
I am SO SO SO glad I never bought a "lifetime" membership to Open Diary. Clearly "lifetime" refers to the lifetime of Bruce's interest in the website - nothing more.
Every now and then I click on the link to bring OD alive so I can check on my old favs and see what's what.
I have not been able to get anywhere with it in weeks. If I can at least log on and see my favs list (which isn't often), I end up with the dreaded Page Cannot Be Displayed error message on the next click.
It's so annoying.
And so very sad.
That place was MY emotional home for so many years. And there were thousands there doing the same.
I can only imagine what the actual membership is like these days. How many people actually pay annually or every 6 months or whatnot. Oh Bruce got his windfall of money coming his way with the "lifetime" membership drive...then he bailed.
Sounds like a class action lawsuit scenario if you ask me.
But you didn't.
And I am not one of suckers that fell into that trap - although I almost was one of them. Do you recall there being a price increase once upon a time - I don't know, say 4-ish years ago? I believe the price increase went into effect at say like 10pm or something on whatever date. Well...at like 830 or something I decided I was going to bite the bullet and buy lifetime.
BUT - when I went to pay, it was the higher price already. Seems they were using ET as the basis for the timing of their increase (not the users local time) but they had not stated that in their "announcements" of the increase.
I argued the point but was basically told "tough shit"...and as a result, I vowed to NEVER pay for a lifetime subscription and in fact, not too long thereafter, stopped paying to use the site altogether.
It's not that I couldn't afford it - it was principle and their response, quite honestly. Not to mention the site was crashing and burning before my very eyes....that was IF I could even access any of my pages.
Guess there was some divine intervention of sorts :)
Still not 100% convinced this is the place to be as it doesn't feel quite "homey" (and not in the black/white sense!) but so many of my OD favs are here I'll poke around a bit to stay in touch.
Hypnotica ⋅ November 07, 2013
I bought a lifetime membership the first time around so I think over the years its worked out at something like £6 a year? I'm not going to complain about that personally!
Swirly Girl ⋅ November 07, 2013
I hope you stick around I have always enjoyed your entries
Deleted user ⋅ November 07, 2013
This could be your new home :) finding new friends.. :) Hello
km ⋅ November 07, 2013
I've had a lifetime membership at OD for many years and paid when first offered. I would have paid twice as much. It was worth every penny. I spent 12 years at OD and am sad that OD is dying, but I considered it inevitable. I can't even get in most days. Fortunately, I love this place and nearly all of my faves are here.
Silent Echo/Quiet Storm ⋅ November 07, 2013
i bought a lifetime subscription a little over 5 years ago and i've not been sorry. over the last two days til this afternoon open diary was working pretty good. now, i get timed out and can't get anywhere there. i keep hoping that open diary will come back strong. i will stay with od til it goes down in flames and isn't rebuilt. i won't leave cause i have too many friends there to give up. take care,
Deleted user ⋅ November 07, 2013
Sadly, my lifetime membership was a gift from a friend who passed away almost 2 years ago. I feel slightly guilty about bailing because of the gift but at the same time I'm almost 100% certain he would have also bailed.
SilentSignal ⋅ January 29, 2014
I never bought the lifetime membership either. I pointed out in an entry (damn, I wish I could find it now) to the DM his idea of doing that would never work. Ah well, I guess.