Krissy ([info]ljkrissy) wrote in [info]news,
@ 2006-07-25 10:30:00
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July news
Congratulations Brad!
We don’t mean to break any hearts here, but LiveJournal founder Brad Fitzpatrick is officially off the market. Big congratulations to Brad and Dina who got married in Portland this month. Now [info]frank is still single, but don’t tell that to [info]memethesheep…

Changes to our account names
You might have noticed that we changed our account names. What was called "Free" for so many years is now called "Basic" and what launched as "Sponsored+" is now just called "Plus." We made this change to simplify things and to make it clear that both the Basic and Plus accounts are free of charge.

Good news for Plus users
We’re still trying to deliver on our promise that LJ does ads differently. So we’re excited to announce that the hundreds of thousands of Plus account users can now select the placement of the ads in their journal and Friends page. Visit the Ad Settings page to choose to display horizontally at the top and bottom of the page, or vertically on the right or left side of the page.  Basic users can switch to a Plus account to get more features for free.

LJ Releases
We've gotten a lot of feedback from people asking us how they can keep up with the changes to the site. We've created the community [info]lj_releases and we'll be posting there any time we fix bugs or make changes to site features -- feel free to add it to your friends list.

Video Embedding
We're excited to announce that you can now embed videos from both YouTube and PhotoBucket and have them play directly in your posts. If you’re using the Rich Text Editor, just click the video button  or view the FAQ to see the LJ template tag for it.

Note that videos will not autoplay.  You can, of course, put videos behind an LJ-cut if you or your friends don't want to see a placeholder for the video on your Friends page.

Check out one of the LJ commercials that was posted back in 2003.


LJ at OSCON
Some of the best and brightest minds of the Open Source world (the stuff that makes LJ tick!) are gathering in Portland, OR, this week for a yearly get together. Six Apart is sending a large contingent to OSCON, including [info]crucially, [info]whitaker, [info]anildash, [info]xb95, [info]btrott, [info]bulknews, [info]markpasc, [info]byrnereese, [info]teknikill, and [info]bschoate.  They're giving several talks including LiveJournal's Secret Spinoffs, Trying to Suck Less, and Stump the Band.  Being open source means that the guts that make LiveJournal go are totally free for anybody to use, so they help power sites like Wikipedia, Craigslist, DeadJournal, Slashdot, and dozens more.

August is going to be hott
Stay tuned for some exciting news next month. We'll be launching LJ Talk, LiveJournal’s own instant messaging service, in the first part of August. You may have heard a little about it already, and there will be even more discussion during OSCON since LJ Talk is a Jabber implementation.  You can read the more technical stuff here, or just wait a few weeks until it's ready to launch with some quick and clear instructions as well as an LJ Talk client with powerful voice and chat capabilities.  We've been testing it and we're all already addicted!

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[info]ex_shattered767
2006-07-26 01:59 am UTC (link)
1. Ads everywhere. No option to disable them, no paid accounts to remove them.
2. Can't really customize the look of anything.
3. The whole site is Blogs for Dummies. If you've only been using a computer for a month, sure. But most of us don't appreciate handholding like we're three years old.

I'd like to hear your reasoning behind it being better other than "it's new".

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[info]erin
2006-07-26 03:30 am UTC (link)
Ok, then hear mine, Miss Debbie Downer.

1. Not everyone is ad-phobic
2. Some of us are more interested in content rather than design
3. So? If you are too smart to lower yourself to using it, then don't ;) But the rest of us idiots kind of like it.

But wait! There's more!

4. Neighborhoods instead of "friends"
5. Collections (books, music, videos, photos)
6. QotD
7. Explore (light years better than LJ's "Random Journal" feature)
8. The organization (specifically, tagging EVERYTHING)

It's *not* LiveJournal. It's not a replacement for LiveJournal. It's not MySpace. It's not a replacement for MySpace. I think it's awesome as hell not to mention the novelty of it being new and shiny.

(Reply to this) (Parent)(Thread)

[info]ex_shattered767
2006-07-26 03:41 am UTC (link)
1. Some of us will watch TV or give away our email address if we want to be spammed. Some of us avoid sites that use advertising. Some of us are still paying for LJ ONLY to keep the ads away.
2. I've poked around in random journals on Vox. I have yet to find content that's different from here or MySpace.
3. You bet. But the people who like it can stop telling me to try it because "it's better".
4. I don't use it and have no desire to; please explain to me how that's different from communities.
5. Huh?
6. English?
7. Every time I've tried random, I've wound up with pink text on a green background and/or background music and/or "OMG you don't comment on my crap take me off your friends list NOW". Please explain how it is better.
8. I don't enjoy tags, and I'm currently at the point of tagging some of my entries ONLY for the convenience of a few people on my flist.

It's not a replacement, we know. Have you missed the people who claim it as such? Heck, I've seen staff implying it.

(Reply to this) (Parent)(Thread)

[info]erin
2006-07-26 03:52 am UTC (link)
2. I have a very unattended to MySpace -- so I can't be sure here. Can you have a "Books" picture directory on MySpace? The only way Vox IS like MySpace is that it has a blog and you can upload pictures to it. Which would make LiveJournal just like MySpace as well under those qualifications.

4 Communites are like journals where everyone posts to? Neighborhood is more like your friends list. Which is why I said it was better than "Friends". When you add someone to your neighborhood on Vox, you can decide if you want to add them to a "Friends" group, a "family" group, both, or just to your neighborhood. You've been around long enough to know that the "Friends" title is incorrect -- a lot of people would prefer it be more like "reading" or "watch list." Vox, in a way, solves that.

5 & 6 -- if you aren't familiar with the product, then maybe making a blanket statement about all the things you don't like should be disclaimer with "I really haven't explored the product enough to know much about it."

7. If every time you've tried "Random" it has ended up with something that you seem to find hideous, then how can it NOT be better? ;) Explore allows you to view entries and pictures by tag. Kind of like what flickr does. So it's not commpletely random and you don't end up at flashy pink on green, you end up reading things that you wanted to read.

And show me where staff is implying it. If you can't do that, then stop making blanket untrue statements unless you can back them up.

(Reply to this) (Parent)(Thread)

[info]ex_shattered767
2006-07-26 03:59 am UTC (link)
5 and 6. True. But maybe you shouldn't assume that people will know what you're talking about when you're using words that look like something you'd see in an AIM chat room. I mean, you can't even expect people to understand what ESN is, and it's a feature here.

I'll stop making "blanket untrue statements" when the word of LJ staff is worth more than a moldy Twinkie.

(Reply to this) (Parent)(Thread)

[info]erin
2006-07-26 04:06 am UTC (link)
I'll take that as you were mistaken about staff implying Vox was a replacement for LJ. It's ok. We all make mistakes :) I assumed that if you were trashing Vox you had at least explored it a bit. Mea culpa.

If you want to explore, the Team Vox blog is a good place to start. Vox's [info]news :) I think Vox is still in beta? Either way, it's not *done* yet. Perhaps if you were using it you could submit feedback to help improve it. The one feedback I submitted was implemented, so I have faith that they are actually listening. Please don't take that as an invitation to make a snide comment about LJ's listening skills :) Take it as an invitation to try out Vox. You never know! You might actually like it.

(Reply to this) (Parent)(Thread)

[info]ex_shattered767
2006-07-26 04:13 am UTC (link)
I've explored it a little, but not as a user. As for staff saying things, I do believe that one particular post I am thinking of has since been edited due to the massive outcry of users, so there's a good chance that I'm fuzzy on the details.

I thought about trying it, and then people on my flist posted about it. That mostly turned me off, and in all honesty, being stuck with a Rich Text updater is enough to deter me from trying it (is it at least not perpetually broken like LJ's versions are?).

(Reply to this) (Parent)(Thread)

[info]christine
2006-07-26 04:19 am UTC (link)
If you'd like an invite, I'd be happy to supply you with one. Let me know :)

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[info]ex_shattered767
2006-07-26 04:33 am UTC (link)
Thank you for the offer. However, it would be much better off going to someone who would continue to use and explore the service.

(Reply to this) (Parent)
(no subject) - [info]autographs2005, 2006-07-28 07:35 pm UTC (Expand)

[info]erin
2006-07-26 04:19 am UTC (link)
I use Mozilla (not firefox, old clunky Mozilla) and I've never had a problem with the updater on Vox. I don't use it on LJ, I mostly post with Semagic (in the HTML version -- not the RTE version of Semagic). I know people have had problems with RT on LJ, but again - using a client I never really see any of those for myself. Not a great answer, but as far as I know the RT updater on Vox is not broken. ;)





(Reply to this) (Parent)(Thread)(Expand)
(no subject) - [info]ex_shattered767, 2006-07-26 04:31 am UTC (Expand)
(no subject) - [info]erin, 2006-07-26 04:43 am UTC (Expand)
(no subject) - [info]ex_shattered767, 2006-07-26 05:04 am UTC (Expand)
(no subject) - [info]__justlikeyou, 2006-07-26 04:58 am UTC (Expand)

[info]rainnxonxme
2006-07-26 02:58 pm UTC (link)
I actually think VOX may still be in alpha. :-)

(Reply to this) (Parent)(Thread)

[info]0405
2006-07-26 03:23 pm UTC (link)
It is!

(Reply to this) (Parent)

[info]__justlikeyou
2006-07-26 04:51 am UTC (link)
QotD ftw!

(Reply to this) (Parent)

[info]foxfirefey
2006-07-26 07:00 am UTC (link)
There's nooooo way it could be a replacement for LJ.

* No threaded comments. !?!? And that must've been a conscious design implementation, too, so I don't put much stock in that changing.
* No ability to style tweak. A million glittery style whores weep rocks of pure blinkies.
* No ability to do plain HTML posts, like mentioned elsewhere. This means no posting pictures that aren't on Vox or Photobucket. Sorry, my webhosting! You lose!
* No fine tuned filtering of security levels or posts.
* No communities.
* Can't use it with Lynx, sniffcry.

(Reply to this) (Parent)(Thread)

[info]stickykeys633
2006-07-29 07:12 am UTC (link)
Also, even if you have a photobucket, it only seems to show pics from the main page. I haven't been able to access the folders yet. The same with my flickr account. You can do flickr photos, but not from your personal account.

(Reply to this) (Parent)

[info]0405
2006-07-26 03:24 pm UTC (link)
It cracks me up how much people are getting defensive about a journal. Seriously.

(Reply to this) (Parent)

[info]jette
2006-07-27 01:22 am UTC (link)
Yays.

(Reply to this) (Parent)

[info]0405
2006-07-26 03:22 pm UTC (link)
LOL that's my opinion get over it!

i have no ads on mine so its all good.

(Reply to this) (Parent)(Thread)

[info]foxfirefey
2006-07-26 04:40 pm UTC (link)
Uh, yes you do. I mean, they're not in the way or anything, but look at the very bottom of your Vox. See the Google text ads? Your proper response is more along the lines of "Yeah, but I never notice them."

(Reply to this) (Parent)(Thread)

[info]0405
2006-07-26 04:50 pm UTC (link)
I have NO ADS on mine. NONE. ZIP. ZERO. My blockers catch everything. Have a nice day!

(Reply to this) (Parent)(Thread)

[info]foxfirefey
2006-07-26 04:52 pm UTC (link)
That doesn't mean you have no ads on yours, that means you don't see the ads. There's a difference.

(Reply to this) (Parent)(Thread)

[info]0405
2006-07-26 04:56 pm UTC (link)
Okay so what? I don't see them so in my mind I don't have them! LOL

(Reply to this) (Parent)(Thread)

[info]foxfirefey
2006-07-26 04:58 pm UTC (link)
Well, it's true that you don't see them and you don't have to deal with them, and that's all well and good and okay. If it works for you, it works for you. But saying that your page doesn't have ads isn't quite exactly a correct statement--other people going to that page who aren't blocking the ads will see them. (And if you ever use your Vox at maybe a lab computer that doesn't have blockers, you might too at that point. Although like I said before, they are very out of the way and hard to notice.) So you do have ads on your page, they're just removed before you ever see them.

(Reply to this) (Parent)(Thread)

[info]0405
2006-07-26 05:01 pm UTC (link)
LOL that's.... nice? But I don't see them on my computers so I'm not worried. And if I have to use a public computer once, big deal. I can get over it!

(Reply to this) (Parent)(Thread)(Expand)
(no subject) - [info]ex_shattered767, 2006-07-26 11:49 pm UTC (Expand)
(no subject) - [info]0405, 2006-07-27 02:27 am UTC (Expand)
(no subject) - [info]ex_shattered767, 2006-07-27 02:32 am UTC (Expand)
(no subject) - [info]0405, 2006-07-27 02:34 am UTC (Expand)
(no subject) - [info]ex_shattered767, 2006-07-27 02:37 am UTC (Expand)
(no subject) - [info]0405, 2006-07-27 02:50 am UTC (Expand)

[info]ex_shattered767
2006-07-26 11:48 pm UTC (link)
And that was my opinion.

Also, I have yet to see a Vox journal with no ads. Show me yours and I'll show you where the ads are.

(Reply to this) (Parent)

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