Several days ago I received an e-mail informing me that my paid subscription is about to expire (on the 17th, I think). My reply follows. I'll post here again when I've set up my Insane Journal account, and I'll still come here to read everyone else's entries, but... I think my reply sums up my mixed emotions about LJ right now. :( If any of you are confused about what Six Apart has been doing these past six months or so, I strongly recommend joining and browsing the archives of two communities, innocence_jihad and the_lj_herald. Anyway, here's what I wrote:
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I say the following without malice, and with regret: I cannot, in good conscience, renew my LJ subscription this year; Insane Journal will get my subscription dollars this time. LJ is no longer the welcoming, hands-off site that it was when I joined, the very formula which made the old LJ successful and desirable enough to garner Six Apart's acquisitive attention in the first place. I realize that the loss of my subscription is a miniscule speck on Six Apart's account books and that this message will most likely be greeted with apathy, but multiply me, an ex-paid-member, by untold and silent thousands of people also choosing not to renew their subscriptions, and it's obvious that that may become a problem for *any* corporation. Constructive eviction of your oldest, strongest core customer base is no way to run a business.

As I said, I truly regret the loss of my paid benefits, especially all of my icons. I would love nothing more than to become a paid LJ member again at some point in the future, but I cannot support the ever-expanding trend of censorship, from the original Strikethrough to all subsequent and compounding customer-relation fiascoes; nor am I yet comfortable in supporting LJ's new owner, SUP, which I understand to be a Russian company (my apologies if I'm mistaken about that) and therefore apt to impose the intimidating and well-known array of Russian communist censorship laws, either instead of or in addition to Six Apart's existing censorship. Honestly, even though I'm basically an old-fashioned, moral person, and have never come anywhere close to violating LJ's official Terms of Service, I'd be afraid to make another journal entry on my LJ, lest my entire LJ be banned, deleted and purged with no warning, no reason, no chance of appeal, and no refund had I renewed my subscription.

If you TRULY meant what you said in your e-mail closure, "If you have any questions or requests, please contact us by replying to this email. We want to keep you happy. :)," then please, and I cannot emphasize it enough, PLEASE undo all the damage you've done to LJ since the first Strikethrough '07. Please allow me to become once again, with pride and loyalty, a paid member of a repaired, restored, freedom-loving and healthy LJ worthy of financial support.

If a live person has actually read this message and, better still, actually given my comments some common-courtesy consideration, then I thank you kindly. Happy holidays to you!

Google's blog search engine has forced me to do this. *sigh* Many thanks to sunshine611 for the banner!

PS. Fear not, I'm keeping everyone who is already on my Friends List! :)