LiveJournal Major Notes: Security, Mobile, Facebook, Writer's Block, and Notes

Tweaks and enhancements

1. In order to improve site security, we've temporarily suspended the ability to change passwords for old email addresses that haven't been used for over six months. For further information and support, please visit our customer care page.
2. We've launched a new mobile site with an enhanced UI at m.livejournal.com. View spotlights, post to your journal, read and post to friends pages, and more, no matter where you roam! Please let us know what you think, since this will eventually replace our existing mobile interface. You can update your mobile preferences on your account page.
3. We've upgraded from Beacon to Facebook Connect to improve dual posting. If you've already signed up for Facebook Beacon, you're good to go. If you wish to update your Facebook Connect setting, visit Account Privacy settings and scroll down to the option labeled: "Send information about my updates to Facebook." You can choose Always or Ask each time. Remember to save (on the bottom left corner of the page). To learn more, check out FAQ 249. While we're on the subject, if you happen to be visiting that side of town, please join our Facebook fan page for a touch of home away from home.
4. You'll now receive the Writer's Block Question of the Day in the body of email notifications. To sign up for Writer's Block notifications, visit writersblock and choose the Watch Community option. Next, update your Writer's Block notification settings by checking the box to the right of "Someone posts a new entry to writersblock."
5. Paid and permanent users can now view, add, and edit Notes of commenters. Notes will appear beside the username of comment posters (instead of stars) on S1-themed comment pages.

Send some lovin' thanks to your friends with our holiday vgifts!

Photos of the week

We're so delighted with the immense talent of our growing, global lj_photophile community that we've decided to introduce a poll. Each week, we'll choose a half-dozen photos (based on user comments and staff feedback) and ask you to select a photo of the week. The winning photo will be announced in the next newsletter. If possible, please limit photo size to 350x350 to ensure that images display properly on friends pages. We want to thank you again (and again!) for sharing your passion.

Check out this week's photo poll and more fantastic user content after the jump!

Poll #1490414 LJ_Photohpile: Photo of the Week
Open to: All, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 1787

Tell us your picks in pics!

CSI Deadly Intent contests heat up!

The heat is on! There's still time to play CSI: Deadly Intent online and compete to win awesome prizes, including a brand new Wii! If you're a CSI fan, check out csi_ny and meet other LiveJournal users who share your addiction! Check out the rules here.

Spotlight community of the week

Batter up for baking bliss with kitchenfaq! If you're hungry to get cooking for the holidays, you'll find eclectic recipes, tips, and kindly support with no (apron-) strings attached!

Conquer Writer's Block

Here are some excerpts from this week's most popular question of the day:

What (if any) books would you ban from a high school library? Are there certain subjects that you feel are inappropriate for teenagers regardless of literary merit?

1. Hrmph.Does the world need highschoolers reading Last Exit to Brooklyn, Delta of Venus, Requiem for a Dream or Tropic of Cancer? The answer is yes, but. Yes, but only under the suggestion and guidance of a wise (and fully fully tenured) professor who can explain context, answer embarrassing questions, and sit there poker faced through a parent-teacher conference ...
2. Romeo and Juliet. I am sorry for the rude words I'll say in advance. Romeo and Juliet is - as my teacher put it - a PORN BOOK. An EROTIC NOVEL created by Shakespeare himself.The contents inside feature ONE SEX SCENE and many innuendos that relate to sexualism. It is truly a bad book to put in a high school library, no matter what the literary merit they'd gain.
3. I would ban all the books...also, the internet. Make these kids learn THE HARD WAY!
4. Twilight. All of them. Ban them: Some of us like our books to have literary merit and not bloody well glorify pedophilia, stalking,emotional abuse, and misogyny, all under the guise of a crappy romance. Also, Vampires should never sparkle. That is all.
5. I don't have time to do this justice, so the short answer will have to do. No, and no.Absolutely, completely, and totally against censorship.
6. ... Rather than descend into giving lists of "approved" books for teens, perhaps we should first agree on what subject matter teens SHOULDN'T get their hands on, what teens may read with adult supervision, and on what teens can read at their own discretion. If there's one area in teen and preteen education that American society really fails at, it's in providing a proper amount of adult contact and supervision for all teens...Interaction and dialog with adults is what teens most need when they encounter new, strange, and sometimes distressing ideas and concepts.
7. Translated from Cyrillic: I wouldn't forbid any of them. One should learn to think with one's own head. But if the person only uses it to eat, then he/she wouldn't read any books anyway. Any books at all. [Original: Ни одной не запретила бы. Человек должен учиться думать своей головой. А если он туда просто ест, то книги все равно читать не станет. Любые.]
8. ... On the matter of banning books, no one has the right to deny anyone the beauty of art, creativity, imagination and symbolism. Totalitarians ban books, and too many people have died in the defence of free-expression for even the notion of banning books to be a valid argument.
9. Since I have a fucking clue, I wouldn't ban any books. I'd set up polling stations, and have anyone who voted to ban books summarily shot.
10. By all means, ban whatever book you want. It will result in at least double the amount of people reading it. I find it saddening so many people thought "Twilight" was a witty answer to this.

Curtains

Thanks for joining us. To our American friends, have a fantastic Thanksgiving. To all of our international neighbors, we'll eat a little extra for you!