still unknown ([info]kimmi8) wrote in [info]news,
@ 2007-09-19 14:24:00
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Entry tags:news, pirate day

Arrr, September News in LiveJournal Land!
Ahoy, ye scurvy dogs! Cap'n K.Scudder here. Today be Talk Like A Pirate Day - raise yer hook if you're talkin' like a pirate today! YARRR! We've been busy here kickin' round the scallywags aboard th' H.M.S. LiveJournal and discovered a few grog-filled thin's t' for you. We've also been makin' notices in [info]lj_biz regarding ship cap'n changes. Avoid them only if ye be wantin' to be stuck in the brig, arrrrr.

Now, ya mateys, feast your greedy eyes upon this chest o' September updates!



HP's "What Do You Have To Say?" Contests

The HP "What Do You Have To Say?" contests are ending soon, so enter while you can!


When you respond to the Writer's Block prompt, you'll automatically be entered into the contest. We'll select the five best responses for each theme and post them to a poll in [info]lj_contests. Head to the "What Do You Have To Say?" contest landing page for contest details and a link to the Official Rules.

This week's theme is "Arts & Crafts" and the prizes are a $150 gift certificate to Art.com for the Grand prize winner and two runners-up will each receive a $25 gift certificate to Art.com.

Be sure to answer the Writer's Block prompt by September 23rd for your chance to enter the contest!


"Knocked Up" Is Coming Soon To DVD

The movie "Knocked Up" starring Katherine Heigl and Seth Rogen is coming out on DVD, September, 25th! To celebrate the DVD release, Ben of “Knocked Up” is returning to the [info]knockedupmovie Sponsored Community to discuss the next phase of relationships.

Every day leading up to the DVD release, [info]slacker_ben will invite you to answer questions about getting serious, marriage and parenthood. Like before, he’ll give away cool prizes from the movie to the best responses. He’ll also pepper in some trivia questions, favorite scenes and extras from the movie!



Preview of th' comely New Customize Journal area for me proud beauties

We know it's important to you to get the look and design of your journals and communities just right, so we've been working on making the Customize Journal area easier to use. The team has put together significant changes, including adding in screenshots and making the flow easier to understand. Here's a quick preview of some of the changes:



Since this is a big change to a popular area of the site, we'll launch the new Customize area as a beta test at the end of the month. Stay tuned to [info]news for full instructions on how to participate in the beta test.


What else ye got?!! Be that it matey..Try Ou' "Lazy SMS"

One thing about the LiveJournal engineers is that no matter how busy they are, they'll still try to find time to hack on cool projects. [info]whitaker was always frustrated when he was out and about and encountered something he wanted to look up or read more about, but he didn't have access to his computer and then later on he'd always forget. Lazy SMS is his solution to that problem.


Here's how to try it out:

1) Make sure you're set up for TXTLJ (Read more about TXTLJ)

2) Send "lazy somewordhere" to TXTLJ from your phone (Example: "lazy treasure chests" or "lazy pirate ships")

3) LJ automatically looks up "somewordhere" in Wikipedia and:

3.1) If an article is found, its contents are automatically posted as a private post to your journal

3.2) If there's no article, a placeholder is automatically posted privately to remind you to do a search.


What are you going to look up using Lazy SMS? Answer if yer brave or ye walk th' plank!



(Read 1109 comments) - (Post a new comment)


[info]ldybastet
2007-09-24 11:43 pm UTC (link)
Are you going to explain to your users how come autopayments that have been turned off (due to previous bad handling of certain issues on 6A/LJ's part) now are mysteriously turned back on?

Oh, and since comments are vanishing from this post, I'm taking a screen cap of this. I don't think you'll mind?

(Reply to this) (Thread)


[info]elfwreck
2007-09-24 11:57 pm UTC (link)
I'll second the request for a screen cap. I missed catching the name of the person who said she'd never seen a company whose business plan seemed to be "how many customers can we piss off how fast?"

Gotta remember to reply *quickly* to all controversial comments; that way, deleting them still leaves a record. (Unless they delete the thread. Which is possible, I suppose.)

(Reply to this) (Parent)(Thread)


[info]ldybastet
2007-09-25 12:09 am UTC (link)
I missed taking note of that too. I sort of didn't expect them to still be deleting comments, otherwise I might have thought of taking a screen cap of it before I hit refresh.

(Reply to this) (Parent)


[info]saralogan
2007-09-25 03:50 pm UTC (link)
They've deleted entire threads so far.

(Reply to this) (Parent)(Thread)


[info]drakyn
2007-09-25 08:53 pm UTC (link)
Do you think that is why there are so few comments on this post and the lj_biz post?

(Reply to this) (Parent)(Thread)(Expand)

(no subject) - [info]saralogan, 2007-09-25 09:07 pm UTC (Expand)
(no subject) - [info]drakyn, 2007-09-25 09:19 pm UTC (Expand)
(no subject) - [info]saralogan, 2007-09-25 09:34 pm UTC (Expand)

[info]mllesatine
2007-09-25 12:00 am UTC (link)
Are you going to explain to your users how come autopayments that have been turned off (due to previous bad handling of certain issues on 6A/LJ's part) now are mysteriously turned back on?

I'd like to have an answer to this question, too.

(Reply to this) (Parent)(Thread)


[info]elfwreck
2007-09-25 12:15 am UTC (link)
Open a support request. In part 'cos that's the official way, and in part because then you've got a record of their answer.

(Reply to this) (Parent)(Thread)


[info]onyx_noir
2007-09-26 03:16 am UTC (link)
I already opened a support request on this issue, because it's the second time they've done it to me. They turned on auto-payment in April with no advance warning. I cancelled it. And lo and behold, it was back on again when I checked it this morning.


The response I got from LJ is posted in my journal. Basically they told me that they couldn't possibly have turned on auto payment because they don't have the necessary account info, and that I must have done it myself.

LOLFAIL. That helpful response from support just lost them another paying customer. :(

(Reply to this) (Parent)


[info]rainsingingwolf
2007-09-25 12:37 am UTC (link)
Are you serious?!

(Reply to this) (Parent)


[info]sin_and_repent
2007-09-25 01:39 am UTC (link)
*twilight theme*

(Reply to this) (Parent)


[info]ardath_rekha
2007-09-25 02:25 am UTC (link)
Oh man, that's scary! I just went and checked mine and they're still turned off, but... whoa. I'm warning all of my friends to check theirs!

(Reply to this) (Parent)


[info]biogeekgrrl
2007-09-25 06:50 pm UTC (link)
I'd like to know why automatic payments had been turned on for my account, when I had never previously enabled them.

(Reply to this) (Parent)(Thread)


[info]thevelvetsun
2007-09-25 07:18 pm UTC (link)
Now that's REALLY fishy.

Christ, 6A, what the hell is wrong with you guys?

(Reply to this) (Parent)


[info]saralogan
2007-09-25 09:50 pm UTC (link)
Was there a credit card listed on there for your auto payments? If there was, even if it wasn't yours -- especially if it wasn't yours -- then LJ has a REALLY BIG PROBLEM.

(Reply to this) (Parent)


[info]skullovitch
2007-09-26 12:50 am UTC (link)
now i'm worried. do you know where i can check to see where autopayments are? with this kind of service and treatment i would never renew :/.

(Reply to this) (Parent)(Thread)


[info]skuf
2007-09-26 12:47 pm UTC (link)
http://www.livejournal.com/manage/payments/modify.bml

(Reply to this) (Parent)


[info]prism_pink
2007-09-26 02:14 am UTC (link)
If you don't mind, I'd like to know where to find out if autopayments are enabled on my accounts--I've had people purchase paid time for me before and I would hate it if they were automatically renewing that without meaning to.

(Reply to this) (Parent)(Thread)(Expand)

(no subject) - [info]skuf, 2007-09-26 08:00 am UTC (Expand)
(no subject) - [info]karcy, 2007-09-27 02:40 am UTC (Expand)

[info]onyx_noir
2007-09-26 03:33 am UTC (link)
They did that to me as well. And when I emailed support they claimed that I must have turned them on, because they don't have the account information to enable auto-payments.

Right.

(Reply to this) (Parent)(Thread)(Expand)

(no subject) - [info]denajane, 2007-09-26 05:17 am UTC (Expand)
(no subject) - [info]onyx_noir, 2007-09-26 05:27 am UTC (Expand)
(no subject) - [info]phaetonschariot, 2007-09-26 07:38 pm UTC (Expand)

[info]phaetonschariot
2007-09-26 07:39 pm UTC (link)
I asked burr86 about the people who turned off autopayments and HAVE NOT made manual payments since then - as he is saying that they are accidentally turning autopayments on instead of making single manual payments.

http://grrliz.livejournal.com/772277.html?thread=18188213#t18188213

He says,

Ask them to file a request with our Account Payments team (at http://www.livejournal.com/support/submit.bml?cat=accounts). I can't really give you an answer in general, because there is a different reason for everyone, and the Accounts team can help those people figure out what happened.

If you're in this situation make it very clear that you have not made manual payments and it's still been somehow turned on, so we can see how they respond to it.

(Reply to this) (Parent)

LJ Staffer
[info]ex_rachel42
2007-09-26 06:41 am UTC (link)
Hi.

I've read the comments and I hear you loud and clear.

I'm personally following up on this and will have a response for you as soon as I've had a chance to track everything down (hopefully tomorrow morning).

Either way it sounds like the copy about autopay is confusing..? Agree?

(Reply to this) (Parent)(Thread)

Re: LJ Staffer
[info]ldybastet
2007-09-26 08:07 am UTC (link)
Hi, that is excellent news, thank you! :-)

Yes, it does seem if the payment page is set up so that people have no idea they have unintentionally signed up for automatic payments when they intended to only do a manual one. It's not logical that 'buy a paid account' sends you to automatic payments with no option to choose manual after that point. To have manual payments only available through the gift shop is really not so... intuitive. I think herein lies a big part of the problem. And that system would need to be changed so it's easier and clearer to use.

(Reply to this) (Parent)(Thread)(Expand)

Re: LJ Staffer - [info]thefamiliar, 2007-09-26 05:51 pm UTC (Expand)
Re: LJ Staffer
[info]ex_rachel42
2007-09-27 06:19 am UTC (link)
Hi all.
I'm here.
I'll respond tomorrow with my plan of action!

Rachel~

(Reply to this) (Parent)(Thread)(Expand)

Re: LJ Staffer - [info]ldybastet, 2007-09-27 10:41 am UTC (Expand)
Re: LJ Staffer - [info]ldybastet, 2007-10-01 06:50 pm UTC (Expand)
Re: LJ Staffer - [info]ldybastet, 2007-10-05 08:50 pm UTC (Expand)

[info]thefamiliar
2007-09-26 05:50 pm UTC (link)
Now, when I paid back in March, I used a credit card. I don't remember actively choosing auto-payment, but it appears to be on now. :/ They wouldn't just switch you to that because you paid via credit card? Whichever, I had to turn them off as well.

(Reply to this) (Parent)(Thread)


[info]ldybastet
2007-09-26 06:09 pm UTC (link)
I'm figuring that there's something confusing or odd happening when people click to pay for their accounts and they somehow (even though it shouldn't happen) end up in the automatic payments even if they clicked on manual. At least several ppl I have seen saying that they intentionally clicked on the button saying manual payments and they were still enrolled in automatic. I hope they'll fix this quickly, because it looks bad, and is annoying for users.

(Reply to this) (Parent)


[info]phaetonschariot
2007-09-26 07:38 pm UTC (link)
I asked burr86 about the people who turned off autopayments and HAVE NOT made manual payments since then - as he is saying that they are accidentally turning autopayments on instead of making single manual payments.

http://grrliz.livejournal.com/772277.html?thread=18188213#t18188213

He says,

Ask them to file a request with our Account Payments team (at http://www.livejournal.com/support/submit.bml?cat=accounts). I can't really give you an answer in general, because there is a different reason for everyone, and the Accounts team can help those people figure out what happened.

If you're in this situation make it very clear that you have not made manual payments and it's still been somehow turned on, so we can see how they respond to it.

(Reply to this) (Parent)


(Read 1109 comments) - (Post a new comment)

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