Once I got here, I got hung up reading Brad's follow up post to yesterday's big announcement about the changes at the site. For those not following the drama, the new post declares that invite codes are to be abolished altogether, rather than being retained in the sort of undead state as originally proposed. This will restore the status that existed before the invite codes were introduced as a temporary measure, ages ago (it seems.) I'm pleased, though many people aren't. Poor Brad has created a hydra-headed monster, and now, whatever decisions he makes, some of those heads are going to snap at him.
But I think the abolition of the codes is the right decision, greatly sweetened by Brad's promise to allow those of us who still have some unused invite codes to exchange them for some amount of paid time (the exact amount to be determined later) for either ourselves or someone to whom we wish to give it as a gift. I wasn't expecting to get anything for those unused codes, so that's a pleasant surprise. But those people who want LJ to be like one of those gated suburban developments from which the riff-raff are excluded are quite annoyed. Not only will people of whom they disapprove now be able to generate new journals as easily as I did this one, back in the days before the invite codes, but many of the lower class folk who have found their way into the site, despite the restrictions, might now become actual paid members for a while as a result of gifts given to them by paid users with accumulated invite codes. Horrors! The Decent Folk won't be able to tell those who are Truly Worthy from those who are mere Charity Cases! Much gnashing of teeth will undoubtedly ensue.
Ah, well. Though all this may warm the cockles of my heart, does nothing for the weather, which continues cold and damp, though the rain has ceased for the time being. The lawn, raked clean but two days ago, is once again a mass of yellow mulberry leaves. Never mind. They are almost gone. One or two more windy nights ought to denude the branches altogether. Certainly it will happen in time to expose more sky for the meteor shower which is supposed to happen in the early hours of the fourth of January. I hope that at least that one night will be clear, and warm enough that I can stand outdoors for a while without my nose and ears going numb.