Their actions are a little bizarre; I know that I would grumble but pay up if they got rid of free accounts entirely and the fee was reasonable. LJ's worth a certain amount of money to me, if I can't get it for free, but I haven't been paying because I don't need bells and whistles. I assume there are a number of other people in a similar position, but the powers that be seem not to have even tried that before resorting to layoffs.