LiveJournal News

LIVEJOURNAL RELEASE 92: NEW SITE UPDATES AND MORE

Wed, 23 May 2012 07:47:28 GMT

May 23, 2012 - The official LiveJournal Release 92 has been deployed. Here’s what you’ll find in this latest site update:

NEW

Particularly long comment threads now collapse with the alert “...and [#] more comments.” Just click on that alert to see the rest of the comments. Here’s what this looks like:

Notification emails now hide any content that was already placed inside an lj-cut instead of displaying the entire entry.

Social Capital is now displayed for all communities on the profile page.

You can now embed the Spotify player into your journal or community style.

Personal userheads are now available for purchase. A personal userhead is of your own design and is unique to you, unavailable to anyone else. Purchase as many personal userheads as you like; each costs 5,000 LJ FunBux™, and is good for five years. Learn more.

BUGS, FIXED

Scheduled entries should no longer return errors or double-post.

Domain mapping should no longer force redirection to the LiveJournal login page.

The format=light URL modifier works on entry pages again.

Comment notification emails will send even if the entry has a poll.

The "Music" section on the edit entries page will let you delete the entire text field.

The help link next to “Do not add to friends pages and RSS” on the update page now links to the correct FAQ.

The list of journals and communities added by default for new users has changed to news and lj_releases for non-Cyrillic users.

Missing navigation items in the Classic journal style have re-appeared.

Notifications about expiring add-ons will now have correct subject lines.

The bold/italic/strikethrough buttons in the site default commenting scheme should no longer cause cursor positioning problems in Chrome.

The Calendar feature will now update properly when you edit an entry and change its date.

PLANNED PARENTHOOD: HELP WITH A VGIFT!
Join us in standing up for reproductive health and education. Through the end of the month, you can send a specially designed Planned Parenthood vgift to your LiveJournal friends to help support this cause. (And if you need someone to send it to frank is always happy to receive gifts!). There are three variations for you to choose from ($1, $5 and $10), but they’d all look good on your profile. Thank you for your support! Learn more.

- The LiveJournal Team

ALL-NEW SCRAPBOOK TO LAUNCH THIS WEEK; UPDATED FAQ

Mon, 21 May 2012 16:38:55 GMT

May 21, 2012: Three weeks ago we officially announced the plan to overhaul Scrapbook, LiveJournal’s exclusive photo-hosting feature for Plus, Paid and Perm accounts. Today we’re letting you know that the new Scrapbook will release this week; in anticipation, we want to give you a bit more information on some additional changes that have been made. The newest additions to the FAQ are under the cut; the original FAQ about the new Scrapbook is in the previous news post.

Tags will be saved
We heard your input on the subject of the tag data, and we wanted to let you know your tag data will be preserved. While the new version of Scrapbook doesn't support tagging right now, it will in the near future. This means your images will not display your tag data initially, but once this functionality has been added, any tags you currently have will become usable on your migrated images, and you will be able to add/edit tags as well.

The basic “friends only” security levels will be preserved
Galleries or images that were set to the "All Groups" or "LJ:all_friends" Scrapbook security levels will be migrated to the basic Friends Only security level -- they will no longer be migrated as private images.

Custom security groups, though, will still be migrated to private security. The old Scrapbook had internal security levels that made it impossible to guarantee that no data would be exposed to unintended viewers if we attempted to migrate those, so it remains safest to migrate anything that used a custom security level to private images.

The Photobucket tab when adding an image has been removed
When adding an image to an entry through the Add Image button, there will no longer be an option for Photobucket. You will need to either use the code Photobucket provides with their images or use the direct image URL to add images from Photobucket in the new Scrapbook, as you would for images hosted on any other service.

So, when will the Scrapbook migration process begin?
Users will start to be migrated to the new Scrapbook this week (the week of May 21). It will take 1-2 weeks for all users to be migrated, since the migration will happen one user at a time. As noted in the previous announcement, when your individual Scrapbook is in the process of being migrated, it will be unavailable for you to use -- however, the migration process should only take a couple of minutes at most for any individual user. Once your Scrapbook is migrated, you will receive an email to let you know it's done and you will then be able to see and use the new interface.

Thanks!
The LiveJournal Team

ALL-NEW SCRAPBOOK COMING EARLY MAY. HERE’S WHAT TO EXPECT

Mon, 30 Apr 2012 17:29:15 GMT

April 30, 2012 - Scrapbook, LiveJournal’s exclusive photo-hosting feature for Plus, Paid and Perm accounts, is being replaced by...Scrapbook. In a continuing effort to improve site features and performance, LiveJournal is planning a complete overhaul of Scrapbook. The “new and improved” Scrapbook is expected to go live within the first half of May.

Once the switch occurs, Scrapbook users will see a totally new look, an easier-to-use interface; and in most cases, speedier performance. All images will automatically migrate to the new system, with image and gallery names preserved.

LiveJournal has developed a FAQ for the new Scrapbook; you can read it below under the cut or at lj_releases.

If you are a member of the Scrapbook beta-test community you can begin migrating your files to the new Scrapbook now. Go to lj_pics_beta for more information.

Why a new Scrapbook?
The current implementation of Scrapbook is outdated and has a number of problems, including simple usability issues such as not being able to upload multiple images at once. Much of the interface is overly complex, with many layers of pages that make it troublesome to navigate. We want to address these issues by implementing a new photo hosting service that is easier to use, has more intuitive navigation features, and provide a platform that can more easily be built & improve upon in the future. We're aiming to launch the new service in early May, and have an FAQ below explaining a bit more about the entire process.

What will happen to my Scrapbook images?
All images from Scrapbook will be automatically transferred to the new version of the service, and will preserve the image & gallery names.

There is currently no tagging system in the new photohosting service, so tags you have created in Scrapbook will not be copied to the new service.

The new version does not currently allow images to exist in multiple galleries. If you have an image which exists in multiple galleries, it will placed in the first gallery which the image is associated with.

Videos are not supported by the new version of Scrapbook. Any videos which are in your Scrapbook will temporarily remain there. Shortly after the migration occurs, you will be sent a notification which contains instructions on how to download these videos.

Will I still have the same amount of storage space for my images?
Yes, all account levels will retain the same storage space levels as before, including if you've purchased the extra storage space add-on. These levels are not being reduced.

How will the image transfer process work?
The process for transferring photos will take some time to complete, and will happen one account at a time. Each account should take anywhere from a few seconds to a few minutes to complete, depending on how many images exist in their Scrapbook. When an account's images are being transferred to the new version, Scrapbook will be temporarily unavailable for that account and images being loaded from that account's Scrapbook will not appear in entries or comments. Once the transfer has completed, all galleries and images will appear and load normally again.

What happens to my entries that use images from the old version of Scrapbook?
There is a redirection mechanism behind the scenes that will display the correct image from the new system even though the old URL is used in the entry or comment. If you delete an image from the new system, the picture no longer exists, and will not display at either the old or new URL. Non-public images will stop displaying to other users when the security level of the image changes during the conversion process.

Will my galleries and images still have the same security level as they did before?
Scrapbook currently has its own custom security levels, but the new version inherits all security options from your LiveJournal account. Because of this, it is not possible to preserve all security settings, and therefore the following security level conversions will take place during the migration:

1) Any images which are set to "Public" or "Registered Users" in Scrapbook will be set to "Public" in the new system.

2) Any other security settings you have used will be converted to "Private". Because custom groups in Scrapbook can differ from those in your LiveJournal account, this was the only way ensure that access to images is not granted to someone who isn't intended to have access.

Can I still use the old ScrapBook after the switch?
No. The old ScrapBook interface will be inaccessible once the image transfer process has completed.

I don't want to wait, can I switch now?
If you want your account converted to the new version of Scrapbook as soon as possible, you can join the community lj_pics_beta, and comment to the entry at http://lj-pics-beta.livejournal.com/862.html with "+" without the quotes, and with no other text. Please be aware that if you do this, you will not be able to reverse the change; your old Scrapbook will become permanently unavailable once your account is migrated.

What will the new Scrapbook look like?
When you first arrive, you'll see your Albums page, from which you can see your existing Albums, create new ones, and upload images:

Within each Album, you can both see and manage your images. From here, you can upload new images, add images to an entry, change image security, or delete images:

Uploading multiple images from files has become significantly easier:

After selecting which images to upload, you can make final adjustments to the image names, descriptions, security levels, and adjust which album to save them to:

Once the uploaded images have been added to the album, it looks like this:

LiveJournal Release 91 is Live: New Features, Bug Fixes and More

Fri, 13 Apr 2012 06:36:15 GMT

MODERATOR TOOLS AND STYLES TOP THE LIST OF "NEW" IN THIS LATEST LIVEJOURNAL SITE UPDATE

LiveJournal Release 91 is live! Let’s just dive right in, shall we?

WHAT'S NEW

Moderators: Edit tags BEFORE approving an entry
Any of the thousands of mods on LiveJournal communities can attest to the hassle of editing tags after they’ve approved a post. Release 91 fixes this: Moderators can now edit tags before approving a post – especially useful if your community has pre-set tags.

Community Owners and Maintainers: See at a glance who approved that post
To keep track of who approves posts to the community you own or maintain – especially large ones with more than a few moderators – the username of who approved the post now appears above the entry subject line (visible to community owners & maintainers only). Note this feature is only available if the LiveJournal default comment pages are being used.

Everybody: Scissors for lj-cut
For those of you who use lj-cut or visit communities and journals that do, you’ll notice a new icon depicting a pair of scissors – ✂ – to denote where the cut is.

WHAT'S FIXED
LiveJournal Release 91 fixes the following known bugs:

Commenting Fixes

Selecting a userpic with multiple keywords will no longer cause the comment to post with your default userpic.
Userpics can now be selected without the use of a mouse. Press Shift+tab until the userpic selector is highlighted, press enter, use the arrow keys to select the desired userpic, and press enter. You can also now use the arrow keys to select your desired userpic after clicking on the userpic selector to open it.
Expanding very long comment threads in the site default commenting scheme will now properly expand the thread.
Expand links will now appear even if every comment in a thread is frozen.
Bold, italic, and underline buttons should now insert these tags in the correct places.
"Your message was blank" errors no longer appear when hitting ctrl+enter twice.

Other fixes

The Rich Text Editor will again show where you have inserted lj-cut and lj-spoiler tags.
Settings for displaying CAPTCHAs in communities use the community's setting instead of the entry-author's setting.
General display problems with image placeholders have been fixed.
Formatting errors on the Sitemap have been fixed.
"Share this" links have been fixed in styles where it was not functioning.
Journal titles should appear again for Internet Explorer 8 users in the system styles that weren't displaying them.

WHAT'S GONE

Games
LiveJournal is saying goodbye to the beta games implementation. You’ll notice “Games” has disappeared from the LiveJournal navigation bar, and all of the games have been removed from the site.

Writer's Block
For those missing Writer's Block, please know that though it was removed from the LiveJournal home page, the writersblock community remains alive and kicking. Add it to your friends list to see the day's question right on your Friends page.

We hope you find the updates, changes, and fixes in LiveJournal Release 91 useful.

The LiveJournal Team

LiveJournal Release 90 is Here

Fri, 16 Mar 2012 05:45:16 GMT

Sticky posts, spoiler tags, scheduled posts, and bug fixes included in this latest site update; plus special announcements.

Today we welcome Release 90, which includes the latest updates, changes and additions to LiveJournal. We also have a few bug fixes, and announcements to share -- so strap in, hold on tight, here we go…

First, what's new:

Sticky Posts: Easy - No work-around needed!
For those communities and journals that have wanted a post to remain permanently in place without it being pushed down by a new entry – like a ‘Welcome” post – sitcky posts make it easy. On the Update page, you’ll find the option "Make sticky post.” When you select this option, the entry you chose will now appear as the top entry to anyone who views your journal or community. You can only have one sticky entry per journal or community. Note that if you post a new entry with sticky post enabled, it will become the new top entry and the previous sticky post will revert to being a normal entry. If an entry is a sticky post, this icon will appear in the same location as the entry security level icon appears.

Scheduled Entries: Post while you’re away!
There may be times when you don’t want to post an entry right away, or you might have more than one entry that you’d like to space apart rather than all at the same time. With Release 90, you can now schedule your entries to be posted at a future date and time, rather than immediately post it. You can view and manage scheduled entries here: http://www.livejournal.com/manage/scheduled_posts.bml.

Spoiler Tags: Plots no longer ruined!
How many times have you visited your favorite TV show fan community only to find someone has carelessly posted an unknown plot detail without the courtesy of a spoiler alert? Release 90 is here to help: You can now add spoilers to an entry through use of the <lj-spoiler> tag. Though similar to an lj-cut, an lj-spoiler does not require a new page to load when clicked. Clicking the link will expand the hidden text inline. Plus, it works on both entries and comments. You can customize the text by using the format <lj-spoiler text=”Custom text goes here”>. There is also a new button for lj-spoiler in the Rich Text Editor that can be used in the same way the lj-cut button is used.

Comment Image Placeholders: Less memory drain and NSFW images
You’re at school or work, reading the comments in your favorite LiveJournal community, and suddenly an image appears that is not safe to be viewed in public. Now you can replace images in comments with a small placeholder image! This option is also useful for when there are too many large images to load. Find the new comment image placeholder option here: http://www.livejournal.com/manage/settings/?cat=display

Popular Communities: Homepage addition features Top 10 communities
LiveJournal communities are vibrant, active and interesting, and we think the more the ways to discover new communities, the better. Release 90 includes a new module on the homepage that highlights the Top 10 most popular LiveJournal communities. Communities are chosen based on special algorithms that calculate a community’s “status” through the level of its activity. Learn more here: http://www.livejournal.com/support/faqbrowse.bml?faqid=359. You can also see more than 10 of the most popular communities at http://www.livejournal.com/ratings/community/?country=noncyr.

Bugs, fixed
LiveJournal Release 90 fixes a few known bugs:

Comments left by deleted accounts will display again, instead of incorrectly showing all such comments as having been deleted.

Comment headers should no longer incorrectly be excessively large for comments with subject lines.

Bold, italic, and underline buttons in the comment form will now insert html in the correct places when used.

Userpics should display properly in your journal when the option to use the old style comment pages is enabled.

Flexible Squares styles have had their comment page navigation/pagination options restored.

Email notifications now contain the correct URL for the options to screen or delete comments.

Announcements
Within the coming weeks we will be saying goodbye to two LiveJournal features.

Games Discontinued
We resisted writing “game over for games on LiveJournal,” but yes, on April 9, the Games tab will disappear from the LiveJournal navigation bar, and games – including Sim Hospital, Airport and City Gangs – will no longer be available to play.
: Writer's Block Ending
After many successful years as a LiveJournal homepage fixture, it is time to say goodbye to Writer’s Block Question of the Day. Our thanks to all who have participated in and shared our daily often quirky queries. We expect Writer’s Block to end within the next couple weeks; in the meantime, have fun answering the remaining questions. If you’re looking to continue your addiction to answering questions, feel free to check out thequestionclub or ask_me_anything.

We hope you find Release 90 useful. As always, we welcome your comments.

LJ News: February 24th, 2012

Fri, 24 Feb 2012 21:19:53 GMT

February 24, 2012
Bits and bytes from around the site

Release 89: Top Entries, Commenting Updates, and More

The latest LiveJournal site update – Release 89 – is alive and kicking. Noteworthy changes include:

Popular Entries now on the LiveJournal homepage: This fun new feature highlights the 25 most viewed public community entries (not flagged as adult concepts or adult content) on LiveJournal. The homepage feature also links to an expanded list of popular community entries that you can sort by page views or visitors. Learn more about this feature in this FAQ.
Purging of inactive accounts: As we noted earlier, inactive accounts are being deleted from the system. Any account that hasn't been logged into for two years and has never posted an entry will be subject to removal.
Classic commenting format for Minimalism styles: A new commenting scheme that mimics the previous default commenting scheme has been developed for Minimalism styles. This option is available on the Customize journal page by enabling customized comment pages and enabling the "Use classic commenting page" option.

Check out lj_releases for complete details related to Release 89.

Announcing LJ Media; Plus: Community Leader Summit

Last week was an exciting and busy one for LiveJournal. It began with the official announcement of LJ Media, a new online publishing group created to find active and interesting LiveJournal communities that desire to grow, and then help transform them into media sites. Along with this announcement, the first LiveJournal Community Leader Summit was held in San Francisco. Joining us for a day of presentations, discussion, and good food were awesome owners and mods from six LiveJournal communities that are also the inaugural sites within LJ Media: Anything Diz, Arama They Didn’t, VaginaPagina, Craftgrrl, ONTD Political and ONTD Games. We plan 40-50 LJ Media communities by the end of 2012. Learn more.

Featured Communities

Craftgrrl presents Crafts for Charity

Crafting community craftgrrl is collecting pillowcases for Mary Bridge Children's Hospital. Check out this creative cause that's bringing comfort to hospitalized children.
more…

Photophile picture of the week

Congrats to harnessphoto, winner of last week's lj_photophile contest! This week's contest is in full swing. Vote for your favorite photo!

Free vGift for Paid and Permanent members

If you have a Paid or Permanent account, you can send six Blue Dragons now until Monday, February 27th, at midnight, PDT! You'll see both the free and the $0.99 vGifts displayed until you've sent them to your friends.

LJ Scribe announcements

Congratulations to darklotus1211, macaparket, monochrome_song, and blueskywriter, who won prompt #51 of our lj_scribe writing contest! We've selected 6 finalists in response to our 52nd prompt theme for your review.

LJ's revamped newsletter layout

This week we're bringing you the news from the comfort of our shiny newsletter layout. Let us know what you think! If you prefer a stripped-down approach to LiveJournal news then check out simplynews.

State of the Goat 2012

Thu, 02 Feb 2012 01:47:09 GMT

Bienvenue, dobro požalovat', bienvenidos, and welcome! Thank you for sharing another year with LiveJournal, home to some of the liveliest discussions on the Internet. Archived within LiveJournal are nearly 13 years of memories, memes, triumphs, and tragedies encapsulated in entries written by millions of people across the globe. LiveJournal members embody the spirit of passionate individual expression. We are continually grateful to be a part of your daily life.

LiveJournal's history and vision, as far as Internet experiences go, is extensive. While the gatekeepers and direction have varied over the years, two major elements factor into deciding how the site experience evolves. First, the core belief that LiveJournal is a safe harbor for expression, outreach, and discussion. Second, the idea that member feedback is vital. Looking ahead to 2012 and beyond, together we can create a LiveJournal experience that excels beyond anything we've ever accomplished.

A part of improving that experience begins with the site itself. “Under the hood” of every entry shared on LiveJournal is an infrastructure that holds it all together, roughly 13 years worth of infrastructure designed to allow members extensive flexibility over style layouts and content placement. That's a lot of programming code over the years and some of it has to be replaced. We're making changes behind the scenes that will improve our production and testing process, which in turn will create a better user experience for members when a feature goes live. Some might ask, "How would this make things better?" Imagine an update to the Rich Text editor that doesn't result in weeks of tweaks and fixes. By streamlining the process behind the scenes, we can create reliable features faster, which in turn allocates more time to adjust existing features and address member requests.

The changes to the site, as well as the process through which we develop and implement these changes, are a work in progress. Your feedback is an integral part our design approach and influences what and how features are implemented. Given the large scope of the work being done, our response time might be longer than expected. Rest assured, though, we are eager to keep things working effectively and in a way that best embraces the ideals of LiveJournal and its passionate members.

2011: A Look Back
Last year was filled with ups, downs, and all-arounds. New additions like LiveJournal Singapore, a revised Community Directory, improved spam prediction and prevention, free paid account trials, the introduction of community owner privileges, and enhanced privacy settings were received favorably. The redesign of the Navigation Strip, and removing the LJ pencil from the favicon were met with mixed reviews. Less welcome changes included the numerous Rich Text editor update issues following Release 80 and the comment page redesign in Release 88. As you read this year's State of the Goat, we're preparing fixes, looking over your comments, and we'll provide updates as new information is available.

And then there were the DDoS attacks. While they resulted in some service interruption, the DDoS attacks made world news again this year. LiveJournal is still an active global forum at a time when ordinary people are using social networks to exercise their freedom of expression and organize political protests. Despite the bumps in the road, LiveJournal played in a major role in voicing issues that resonate with anyone who believes that governments and politicians should be held accountable. New hardware and mitigation practices gradually minimized the impact these attacks had in the last half of the year. Many recent attacks have been successfully handled with virtually no interruption to the service, and we expect even better results in 2012.

LiveJournal continued to expand beyond the website as well. In the last two years, our drive to offer LiveJournal members greater flexibility and accessibility prompted the creation of new mobile applications. In 2010, LiveJournal released an iPhone/iPad application to meet the on-the-go lifestyle of our mobile members. As those expectations grew in 2011 and continue to grow in 2012, we've expanded our mobile app support to include many popular Android, Windows Mobile and Nokia devices.

Purging Inactive Accounts
As you may have noticed, we're currently deleting inactive and empty member accounts. Only accounts that have zero entries and have not been logged into for over two years will be affected by this process. Right now, account owners are being notified by email if their account is set to be deleted. If you receive such an email about an account you'd prefer to keep, all you need to do is login before the date listed to prevent the deletion. Even if it is deleted, you will still have 30 days to undelete the journal.

An account is not subject to inactivity purging if it has at least one entry in it but this criteria may change over time. If you have friends or family who have passed away and were LiveJournal members, the best way to protect their accounts against future inactivity purges is by requesting such journals be set as 'memorial' accounts. Please email Support to request memorial status for a journal.

2012: A Look Ahead
Expect to see big changes in the coming months. Over the last year we've decreased advertising across the site. We're excited to announce that by mid-2012, advertising will be phased out completely for virtually all of the LiveJournal service pages, journals, and communities that we know and love. Advertising will only be shown in select communities that opt in to displaying it (which you'll hear more about on February 15).

We're also taking huge strides to improve site efficiency and functionality behind the scenes. Changes like these are usually not immediately noticeable but they affect many aspects of our production and testing process. Site performance will improve in the coming months with these changes in place. We're also redesigning service pages, introducing new journal style designs, improving DDoS mitigation practices, and addressing modifications to existing features. And we may have another surprise or two for you along the way so stay tuned!

LiveJournal is a living document. We're eager to hear your feedback as we dedicate ourselves to improving the member experience. Every day invites new ideas and new opportunities. We're excited to see where 2012 takes us and we welcome you to join us!

To you, your family, and your friends, we wish you a healthy and exciting 2012!

Notes on our new comment system

Fri, 23 Dec 2011 23:37:28 GMT

Thanks to all of you for providing your feedback and voicing your concerns about LiveJournal's new comment system. Please understand that we are taking your feedback seriously, and will continue to evaluate this new feature. In the meantime, we'd like to explain the reasons behind the change and the greater impact this has for LiveJournal.

First of all, our new S1 comment system was completely rewritten from scratch. The comment system has never been updated on this scale before. In the past, code was being piled upon old code, which turned out to be messy and unstable. A complete rewrite means an updated, cleaner and faster system - which is a good thing for everyone. The default comments pages are the first step in an update to our overall site design, which is meant to improve performance and user experience. The addition of Ajax features is a major part of this update and has many benefits for users:

Pages no longer need to refresh after adding comments, which helps reduce load times
Keyboard shortcuts to ease navigation (Ctrl + enter for a new comment, Alt + left arrow/right arrow moves between pages, Ctrl + Alt + '+ / -' expands or collapses all comments on a page)
Buttons for editing, tracking, adding to memories, etc. are now accessed by hovering over a comment, removing general clutter
New comments on pages are marked as such
There's a new, more visual icon selection tool

In addition to all of these technical improvements, there are no longer advertising banners on default comment pages.

The following issues are a known priority as we work through the kinks of our brand new comment system:

General performance issues with certain browsers
Improvements for mobile devices, including user pic selection
Post subjects added to email notifications
Restoring visibility of notes in comments
Restoring 'parent' links
Adding some additional RTE features to comments
Adding spell check

We do not have a specific time frame right now, but we will keep you informed as these are ready. As always, if you have issues with the site or notice any bugs, please contact support. We continue to thank you for your patience and wish everyone a safe and happy holiday!

- The LiveJournal Team

Update on Release 88

Thu, 22 Dec 2011 22:25:54 GMT

Thank you for your continued feedback about our latest release. Today, we have some small updates to share with you:

A patch has been released that should address a few of the major bugs with expanding comments, as well as other Ajax features. This should help with some of the functionality issues some of you have been experiencing.

All users now have the ability to edit their comments. While it's not a replacement for the 'preview' button, it allows you to correct mistakes when commenting. For more information on editing comments, see our FAQ.

Again, thank you for all of your feedback. We have already compiled a list of of issues that have been reported and are currently being worked on, which you can see in this post at lj_releases. If you encounter additional bugs, please contact support. We appreciate your patience as we work to improve our new commenting system.

- The LiveJournal Team

Release 88, Paid time extension

Thu, 22 Dec 2011 02:38:13 GMT

December 21st, 2011 - Happy December Holidays and welcome to the official LiveJournal newsletter! Bringing you system updates, community events, and other newsworthy nuggets from the world of LiveJournal. Here's a look at what's news on and around LJ:

Release 88

Our final site update of the year, Release 88, is live. Here's a look at a the most notable changes around LiveJournal following Release 88:

Comment pages have been redesigned. Share your thoughts on the new comments page design here. As with any new feature, something unexpected may pop up. Please contact support with any bugs you encounter while using the new comment page layout.

Rest assured, we are paying close attention to all of your feedback. Problems with actual functionality (inability to use the new form or aspects of it, slow load times, crashes, etc) have been reported and are being worked on. We're also aggregating all your feedback about the presentation and usability of the commenting form in the general sense, including items missing from the previous version, and the appropriate project teams are reviewing this feedback to help guide what further changes will be made. Thank you for your patience as we continue to work on the new commenting system.
The LiveJournal homepage has been updated to include the LiveJournal Today feature, where you can find some of the recent entries on the site highlighted by our Editorial team.
The Update page and Edit entry pages have been changed. Most notably, the font in the HTML editor has changed, how lj-cuts appear in the Rich Text Editor (RTE) has been updated, and a few buttons/menu items are in different locations than they previously were.

Full details regarding Release 88 can be found here at lj_releases.

Paid compensation for site downtime

LiveJournal was the target of DDoS attacks a couple weeks ago that resulted in some downtime and other accessibility issues. In order to show our appreciation for your loyalty and support during our recent DDoS attacks, we're applying two weeks of free paid time to all accounts that were paid during the recent site downtime. You will receive a notification email when the time has been applied. You can view your account's new expiration date by visiting your Account Settings page while logged in.

Thanks for stopping by! Happy Holidays!

Release 88 sneak peek, Mashable Awards nomination, Holiday promotions, ONTD Games

Thu, 15 Dec 2011 01:53:15 GMT

December 14th, 2011 - Happy December Holidays and welcome to the official LiveJournal newsletter! Bringing you system updates, community events, and other newsworthy nuggets from the world of LiveJournal. Here's a look at what's news on and around LJ:

Release 88 sneak peek

Our final site update of the year, Release 88, is scheduled to go live around Tuesday, the 20th of December. We'll send out another announcement when the release goes live. In the meantime, barring any last minute changes, here's a sneak peek at a few features coming to LiveJournal with Release 88:

Comment pages have been redesigned! More information about specific changes will be announced in the next few days.
The LiveJournal homepage has been updated to include the LiveJournal Today feature, where you can find some of the recent entries on the site highlighted by our Editorial team.
The Update page and Edit entry pages have been changed. Most notably, the font in the HTML editor has changed, how lj-cuts appear in the Rich Text Editor (RTE) has been updated, and a few buttons/menu items are in different locations than they previously were.

More information about Release 88 will be available at lj_releases when the release goes live.

LiveJournal nominated at 5th annual Mashable awards!

Congratulations LiveJournal on being named a finalist in the 2011 Mashable Awards: Best Social Network.

For more than 10 years, LJ has changed the way people communicate with each other. Our global reach spans across millions of users, journals and communities. We have been with you when you were bullied (bullying_begone), when you were obsessed with fanfiction, when you discovered the mind-numbing power of celebrity gossip (ohnotheydidnt) and when you just wanted to share what was on your mind with the rest of the world.

Thanks to our users, LJ has been able to define the core concepts of Social Media: communication, creation and content across all online channels.
Vote for us here!

(Voting ends Dec.16, 2011)

Win an iPad 2!

Spirits of the season

Tis' the season, as it is often said, to embrace our companions and reflect as another year comes to pass. To that end, we here at LiveJournal U.S. invite you to join us in our celebration of December holidays at LJ's very first B.Y.O.B. (Bring Your Own Beliefs) Gift-Away! Bring out your favorite spirit of the season as we openly embrace the customs (or lack thereof) of the final month of the year.

To get your chestnuts roasting, we're throwing special giveaways on both LJ and Facebook for U.S. residents. Check out LJ_Contests for all the details. Our apologies to non-US residents, we'll get you in the mix during our next promotion. Stay tuned!

The Great ONTD Games community owner search

Mega Stan!

ontdgames is starting from scratch and we're in the market for a gaming fanatic residing in the U.S. who can take over as owner and inspire some of that delicious ONTD fierceness! If you've got that ONTD sparkle gleaming in your eye and you love games then you might just be the community owner LJ is looking for!

If you win:

You take the reins of ontdgames and its supporting media channels (twitter, YouTube, etc.)
Choose a current-generation video game console of your choice, handheld or home system, to call your own.
One free video game a month for one year.
A brand new community theme style drafted by our design team with your guidance.

You’ll also have access to the LiveJournal editorial team for PR, marketing, social media support and other goodies.

When: Monday, December 12, 2011 until we find the right person.

Check out LJ_Contests for the particulars.

Spreading the holiday cheer, vGift style!

Close out the year by sharing something wintery and sweet with your friends on LJ. If you have a Paid or Permanent account, you can send six Snowman Cookies now until Monday, December 19th, at midnight, PDT! You'll see both the free and the $0.99 vGifts displayed until you've sent them to your friends. If you're not receiving vGifts then you may have disabled them. To enable vGifts, visit Edit profile (under Profile), scroll down to the bottom of the page, and check your settings. Make sure the box beside 'Disable sponsored only' is NOT checked! Enjoy!

For news about LJ_Scribe and LJ_Photophile and recent contest winners, we'll see you under the cut!

Photo of the week

Congrats to julz_t, winner of our 93rd lj_photophile contest!

FYI: We pick entries for the poll based on a combination of comments, +1 ratings, and staff input. The winner receives 500 LJ tokens. We thank you for sharing your talent with the global LiveJournal community.

Welcome back, dear scribes!

Congratulations to gringo_in_tj, trappified, and twhitesakura, who won prompt #42 of our lj_scribe writing contest! We've selected 4 finalists in response to our 43rd prompt theme for your review.

Thanks for stopping by! Happy Holidays!

Release 86, Earthquake relief, Halloween events, Tim Daly interview

Fri, 28 Oct 2011 00:59:38 GMT

October 27th, 2011 - Happy Halloween and welcome to the official newsletter for all things LiveJournal! Bringing you information about system updates, community events, LJ social outreach, and other newsworthy nuggets from the world of LiveJournal. A quick note before we jump in: we've posted an update at lj_maintenance outlining a service issue that sprung up a couple days ago and was quickly resolved.

Release 86

While 'Release 86' sounds like a great name for a horror film from the early 80s, it's actually our recent system update. New additions / changes are brief. Here's the rundown:

Community owners can now make use of the Google Analytics feature for their community. This feature is activated on the Extensions tab of the Settings dialog.
The contextual hover menu has been redesigned. Roll your mouse over a friend's or community's userhead/userpic to see the new hover menu in action.

Check out lj_releases for all the details regarding Release 86.

Earthquake relief in Turkey

'Help Turkey' vGift

On October 23rd, a 7.2 magnitude earthquake struck the eastern province of Van in Turkey. Hundreds have been killed and over a thousand injured as an estimated 2,000 buildings collapsed during the tremor.

LJ has created a 'Help Turkey' vGift to support the recovery efforts in the region. 100% of the proceeds from the sale of the vGift will go towards aiding the recovery efforts in Turkey.

Halloween @ LJ

A tradition unlike any other

To celebrate Halloween and show appreciation for our Facebook fans, we're hosting a LJ Token giveaway! Check out our Facebook page for more details!
LJ's Pumpkin Carvageddon! Share your creative carving tricks for a chance to win some musical treats!
ohnotheydidnt's costume contest has returned! Click away to dig up the dirty details!
lj_scribe will be hosting a special contest on LJ's Twitter next week.
lj_photophile is celebrating Halloween by hosting a themed photo contest. Submit your spookiest, funniest and most creative Halloween pics here!
Spice up your profile with Halloween-themed Custom Userheads!
Send your friends ghoulish Halloween vGifts!

Eight reasons to love Halloween

The itsy bitsy spider crawled up the water spout and onto your friend's LJ profile! If you have a Paid or Permanent account, you can send eight spiders now until Monday, October 31st, at midnight, PDT! You'll see both the free and the $0.99 vGifts displayed until you've sent them to your friends. If you're not receiving vGifts then you may have disabled them. To enable vGifts, visit Edit profile (under Profile), scroll down to the bottom of the page, and check your settings. Make sure the box beside 'Disable sponsored only' is NOT checked! Enjoy!

The LJ Interview: Tim Daly speaks about arts advocacy and bullying

During the interview, Tim Daly talks about the bullying issue, his role in The Creative Coalition, and his passion for rallying creative professionals around important social issues. Stay tuned, later in the week we'll have an interview in bullying_begone with WWE wrestler Sheamus about his career and how bullying influenced his life.

LJ news and you

We've been experimenting with various formats for presenting the news over the last couple months, In the near future, we'll be shifting news to a fixed-width (most likely 600px wide), newsletter-style entry. We realize this doesn't work for everyone. As an alternative, we've got a few ways to keep up with LiveJournal.

news: You're here! Your spot for all topics regarding LiveJournal's operations and social outreach.
simplynews: A text-only, lightly formatted simulcast of news. Worth a look if you view the news in a highly-customized journal style.
lj_today: A new community we've started for announcing site updates as well as promoting upcoming events in active communities.
lj_maintenance and lj_releases: Two communities focused on announcing new features and site performance issues.

NaNoWriMo

National Novel Writing Month 2011 is right around the corner. Rally together, brave writers, and meet up at lj_nanowrimo! Find support among your literary colleagues and we'll try to ease the writing experience with a couple surprises of our own. Good hunting, writers!

For news about LJ_Scribe and LJ_Photophile and recent contest winners, we'll see you under the cut!

Photo of the week

Congrats to snorkel_maiden, winner of our 87th lj_photophile contest!

FYI: We pick entries for the poll based on a combination of comments, +1 ratings, and staff input. The winner receives 500 LJ tokens. We thank you for sharing your talent with the global LiveJournal community.

Welcome back, dear scribes!

Congratulations to canvasedtime, darkhavens, and ellenemi, who won prompt #35 of our lj_scribe writing contest! We've selected 6 finalists in response to our 36th prompt theme for your review.

Recent contests

Congratulations to punkgrl5, winner of our Bullying Prevention Awareness giveaway contest and an Amazon Kindle / $25 Amazon gift card gift package!

Thanks for stopping by! Have a great Halloween!

Release notes, Rich Text Editor update, Contest updates, be a STAR, Bullying awareness, Halloween

Fri, 30 Sep 2011 23:58:43 GMT

September 30th, 2011 - Greetings, LJ! Welcome back to another edition of the news! It's been a few weeks so let's get you caught up on recent LJ happenings. We've run a couple contests and we've made some new friends since our last news update. More on that in just a moment. First, we address the hot topic as of late, the status of the Rich Text Editor. Let's get right into it with a list of recent site changes.

New features / Improvements

The functionality of the Rich Text Editor has significantly improved. A complete list of adjustments made to the Rich Text Editor can be found here. Please Submit a Support Request if you're still experiencing difficulties with the Rich Text Editor and we'll look into the issue.
The Edit Entries page has been redesigned. It now has calendar functionality as well as the ability to filter entries by community. The filter by community option allows you to see entries you have posted to a specific community as well as entries which have been posted to communities you maintain. There is also an option to filter the results to only show entries in the specified community posted by you.
There is now an option to have re-posted entries automatically be collapsed behind an <lj-cut> on your Friends page. This option can be found on the Manage Settings page.
An error which prevented some users from being able to load the Manage Friends page has been fixed.
Attempting to upload a userpic larger than 100x100 pixels now properly resizes and allows the image to be uploaded.
Moon and Stars and Simply Wood, two of the winning journal styles from our last custom style contest, are now available!

For more information on the changes in this release, please visit lj_releases.

National Bullying Prevention Awareness month

be a STAR is an anti-bullying alliance co-founded by The Creative Coalition and WWE

LiveJournal has joined the be a STAR alliance, a group of organizations united to raise awareness of bullying and to create avenues of discourse in communities on the ground as well as in cyberspace. bullying_begone, a LiveJournal community created by a victim of bullying, is a place for people to share their stories, seek advice, and support each other in a open and friendly environment.

October is National Bullying Prevention Awareness month. Throughout the month, we'll be addressing bullying topics in various features and communities on the site. To get the conversation started, LiveJournal and bullying_begone are sponsoring a giveaway in Writer's Block this Monday, October 3rd. Here's the details:

When: Monday, October 3rd, 2011
Where: Writer's Block, on the LiveJournal homepage
One winner, chosen at random, will receive an Amazon Kindle e-reader and a $25 Amazon gift card
To enter, answer the Writer's Block question on Monday, October 3rd
The winner will be chosen on Tuesday, October 4th, and announced at lj_contests

While bullies aren’t going to vanish overnight, we can turn the tide by reaching out to friends, victims, and bullies alike to learn more about the roles people play in this cycle and what can be done to improve relationships. By working to better recognize bullying and the tactics employed by bullies, we can engage both the victims and their aggressors in an effort to minimize the effects of bullying. If you've been affected by bullying directly or you know someone who has, we invite you to share your experiences over at bullying_begone.

Halloween @ LJ

Costume shops are popping up in cities all across the U.S. Each one resonates with an eerily similar message: Let's scare up some Halloween fun! In October, we're conjuring a little Halloween fun of our own with a couple contest giveaways and the Halloween-themed header image selected by the LJ community.

Pumpkin carving contest - Nothing says community like enjoying the cool artistic pumpkins on display around the neighborhood during Halloween. As LJ's way of celebrating community and Halloween, we're offering prizes to five random pumpkin carvers and a grand prize to our favorite submission. Entering this contest is easy. On Halloween we'll post a question on the LJ homepage in Writer's Block asking for pictures of your carved creations. The picture should include your pumpkin and your username written on a piece of paper to prove you're the crafty pumpkin carver. Along with this, feel free to include any moody pictures of the pumpkin that you find frighteningly festive! Winners will be chosen and announced on November 1st.

ONTD costume contest - Before heading out for a big night of Tricks n' Treats on Halloween, share your clever costume designs in a special Halloween entry we'll post over at ohnotheydidnt on October 31st. Much like the pumpkin carving contest, prizes go to five random costume submissions and a grand prize to our favorite submission. Winners will be chosen and announced on November 1st.

Halloween-themed header contest - LiveJournal service pages across the site will feature a Halloween-themed header during the last week of October. Choose your favorite of the five finalist submissions today at lj_contests. The Halloween header poll is open until Monday, October 3rd. The winning submission and the finalists will receive 2,500 and 1,000 tokens respectively. Good luck, finalists! Prizes for the costume and pumpkin carving contests will be announced in the next couple weeks. Keep an eye on news and lj_contests for further details regarding these upcoming Halloween events!

For news about LJ_Scribe and LJ_Photophile and recent contest winners, we'll see you under the cut!

Photo of the week

Congrats to b_d_v, winner of our 84th lj_photophile contest!

FYI: We pick entries for the poll based on a combination of comments, +1 ratings, and staff input. The winner receives 500 LJ tokens. We thank you for sharing your talent with the global LiveJournal community.

Welcome back, dear scribes!

Congratulations to darklotus1211, gwendolynd, and portraitofafool, who won prompt #31 of our lj_scribe writing contest! We've selected 5 finalists in response to our 32nd prompt theme for your review. In addition to the joy of sharing your well-turned phrases, the top three finalists will each win 1,000 LJ Tokens. The remaining finalists will receive 500 LJ Tokens.

Recent contest winners

Two recent events were celebrated by LiveJournal in the form of giveaway contests in Writer's Block on the homepage. One giveaway celebrated the much anticipated arrival of Star Wars on Blu-ray and the other allowed all of us to embrace our inner pirate.

Congrats to ansketil_rose, winner of our Star Wars saga Blu-ray giveaway promoted in Writer's Block! Check out their winning entry for the question: If you could write the next Star Wars movie, what story would you tell?

Also, congrats to all the winners of our recent Talk Like a Pirate Day contest. There are too many winners to mention here, so check out the winning jokes and random winners when yer done swabbin' the decks, matey.

Thanks for stopping by! See you next time!

Release notes, iPad/iPhone version update, Contest updates, Free vgift for paid users

Tue, 23 Aug 2011 00:11:58 GMT

August 22nd, 2011 - Greetings all! Welcome back to another edition of the news! We hope you're keeping cool as we pass through the last few weeks of summer. Hot topics this edition include mobile app and site updates as well as new contest info. Also, a special thank you for your patience as we resolve issues with the Rich Text editor on our Update Journal and entry editing pages.
We kick things off with a rundown of recent feature additions and updates.

Important things to know

Features and Changes

Spam protection is now available for your Inbox in addition to post comments! If you have enabled the Spam Protection setting, messages sent to your Inbox which are suspected as being spam will be automatically moved to a Suspicious Messages folder. Once in the Suspicious Messages folder, your messages can be reviewed and moved back to your Inbox at your discretion.
The Filter and Calendar items on the navigation strip no longer pop up when you mouse over them; you need to click these items to access their respective dialogs.
We've updated the Rich Text Editor on our Update Journal and entry editing pages. The interface update includes new icons for existing features and there is now a button for the LJ-Like feature.

Old icons:

New icons:

For more information on the changes in this release, please visit lj_releases.

iPad/iPhone app version updates

We've recently updated our iPad/iPhone app to version 1.1.1. Updated features in the new version include:

The ability to read any journal from the app
Journal viewing history
YouTube and Vimeo video support
Addition of 'lj-like' tag to entries via toolbar
Links to LiveJournal entries and comments now open within the LiveJournal app interface
Improved support for Hebrew, Arabic, and Japanese languages
Various application bugs fixed

Journal style contest winners update

The wait for the winning journal theme styles from our last contest is almost over. The Spring Daze theme (pictured below on the far right) is currently available on the journal style selection page. The other two themes will be available in our next release.

Halloween header design contest

The next header design contest theme is Halloween. The winning header will appear on LiveJournal throughout the second half of October. We'll be accepting submissions for the Halloween header design contest from Monday, August 22nd, through Monday, September 19th over at remixed. Five finalists will be selected by LiveJournal staff members for your review. The winning submission and the finalists will receive 2500 and 1000 tokens respectively. We look forward to seeing your original works! Good luck, artists!

Let the sun shine in!

If you have a Paid or Permanent account, you can send five free Sunflowers now until Friday, August 26th, at 4pm, PDT! You'll see both the free and the $0.99 gifts displayed until you've sent them to your friends. If you're not receiving vgifts (from friends and/or Frank), you may have disabled them. To enable vgifts, visit Edit profile (under Profile), scroll down to the bottom of the page, and check your settings. Make sure the box beside 'Disable sponsored only' is NOT checked! Enjoy!

For news about LJ_Scribe and LJ_Photophile, we'll see you under the cut!

Photo of the week

Congrats to ryanachronism, winner of our 79th lj_photophile contest!

FYI: We pick entries for the poll based on a combination of comments, +1 ratings, and staff input. The winner receives 500 LJ tokens. We thank you for sharing your talent with the global LiveJournal community.

Welcome back, dear scribes!

Congratulations to caliecat, joanneswift, and silverbot_twice, who won prompt #25 of our lj_scribe writing contest! In addition to the joy of sharing your well-turned phrases, the top three finalists will each win 1,000 LJ Tokens. The remaining finalists will receive 500 LJ Tokens.

Thanks for stopping by! See you next time!

Paid compensation for site downtime

Mon, 01 Aug 2011 23:26:17 GMT

As many of you are aware, LiveJournal underwent an attack last week which resulted in some downtime and caused other accessibility issues during this time. While the attack is over, some intermittent issues remain which we are in the process of fixing.

We want to take this time to let paid members know that we will be extending your paid time by 2 weeks if you had a paid account at any time between July 25th and July 31st. This time will be added to your account a few days from now. Thank you for your continued patience while we get the site back to normal.

Release notes, AIDS Walk fundraiser, Contest updates, Free vgift for paid users,

Fri, 01 Jul 2011 17:22:15 GMT

Greetings, users!

July 1st, 2011 - Welcome back to another edition of the news. We've got a few pieces of information to pass along before everyone stateside disappears for the Fourth of July weekend. We start with a brief description of new features added during our release update on Wednesday.

Important stuff to know

Features and changes

Sort community posts by user - We've added navigation options which allow you to more easily sort community entries by poster! The 'Sort by poster' option now appears in the Navigation Strip when you're viewing a community. Roll your mouse over or click 'Filter' on the navigation strip, type in a username, press 'Enter', and voila! You can now view all the posts created by the specified user in the community. Additionally, when you're viewing a community, the menu which appears when you hover over a person's userpic will also include an option to view entries in that community by that poster.
Improved post sharing/promotion functionality - We've incorporated a variety of buttons which can be used by to easily share or promote entries on FaceBook, Google, Twitter, and vKontakte. Additionally, we've included a button which allows other users to donate LiveJournal Tokens to you. Please note, these buttons are not displayed by default. Instead, you can opt to add them to any entry by including the <lj-like> tag.

The default <lj-like> tag will display all available buttons. You may also customize which buttons are displayed in the post. For example, <lj-like buttons="fb,go"> will only include buttons for FaceBook and Google. The two-letter code for each available service is as follows:

Facebook fb

Google go

Twitter tw

vKontakte vk

LJ Give lj

In action, using the <lj-like> tag will look like this, depending on the buttons you've selected to show:

AIDS Walk San Francisco

It's sometimes hard to comprehend how much HIV/AIDS has affected the lives of people around the world. Today, there are over 30 million people from all walks of life who are coping with HIV/AIDS related conditions. There's no cure yet but united we can take action against this formidable pandemic. This year, July 17th to be exact, LiveJournal staff members in San Francisco will be participating in AIDS Walk San Francisco. We invite you to join the cause! There are a couple ways to contribute:

We're currently offering an AIDS Walk SF charitable vgift in the 'Charity' section of the vgift store. There are three denominations available: $2, $5, and $10. 100% of your charitable vgift purchase will go to AIDS Walk SF.
We've setup up a donation page and a team signup page at the AIDS Walk San Francisco website if you prefer contributing in a more direct manner.

If you live in the San Francisco area and you're already signed-up for the event, we invite you to join us on July 17th as we take to the street to promote a worthy cause! Message mike if you'd like to meet up to walk together.

Header design contest

Congratulations to jussy_baby, winner of this month's header design contest. You'll be seeing this lovely design displayed atop LiveJournal during the month of July. Speaking of header design contests, we previously mentioned that the contests will no longer be held on a monthly basis. Instead, the contests will be held a few times a year. Sit back, relax, and rest up because you'll need to scare up all your creative energies for our next header design contest. Oh wait, did we just give away the next contest theme? Well, the black cat's out of the candy bag so we may as well come clean.

The next header design contest theme is Halloween. The winning header will appear on LiveJournal throughout the month of October. We'll be accepting submissions for the Halloween header design contest from Monday, August 22nd, through Monday, September 19th. Don't worry about missing anything, we'll remind you a few more times in news before the contest starts.

Journal theme contest update

The three winning themes from our last design contest are scheduled to go live with our next update, which should be approximately three weeks from now. We'll keep you updated should any changes arise. Thanks again to the winners. The new journal themes will be a wonderful addition!

Life, liberty, and the pursuit of pic-a-nic baskets!

If you have a Paid or Permanent account, you can send five free picnic baskets now until Monday, July 4th, at 4pm, PDT! You'll see both the free and the $0.99 gifts displayed until you've sent them to your friends. If you're not receiving vgifts (from friends and/or Frank), you may have disabled them. To enable vgifts, visit Edit profile (under Profile), scroll down to the bottom of the page, and check your settings. Make sure the box beside 'Disable sponsored only' is NOT checked! Enjoy!

For news about LJ_Scribe and LJ_Photophile, we'll see you under the cut!

Photo of the week

Congrats to hep, winner of our 72nd lj_photophile contest!

Click here to help choose the next photo of the week. FYI: We pick entries for the poll based on a combination of comments, +1 ratings, and staff input. The winner receives 500 LJ tokens. We thank you for sharing your talent with the global LiveJournal community.

Welcome back, dear scribes!

Congratulations to kitterific, majorjune, and sapphire_3! who won prompt #18 of our LJ_Scribe contest! We've selected 6 finalists in response to our 19th prompt for your review. In addition to the joy of sharing your well-turned phrases, the top three finalists will each win 1,000 LJ Tokens. The remaining finalists will receive 500 LJ Tokens.

For our next contest, please respond to the following in any form you choose (no more than 250 words, excluding the prompt): "Sorry to bother you in the middle of dinner." You do not need to include the prompt in your writing. Be sure to post your submissions as entries, rather than comments, to lj_scribe up through Tuesday, July 5th, at 4PM, PDT. You'll find the +1 rating link under each post, so remember to check back and vote for your favorites!

Have a safe and sane (or your preferred equivalent) holiday weekend! See you next time!

News community changes, Release notes, Free vgift for paid users, Contest updates

Fri, 10 Jun 2011 18:52:57 GMT

Greetings, users!

Welcome back to another edition of the news. Before we get into recent news, we've got a quick update regarding the schedule of news posts. We'll be moving away from weekly updates from here on out. Expect to see news posts about twice a month, as system updates are implemented or vital information comes to light. With that being said, let's dig into some news!

Important stuff to know

Features and changes

Follow entry tag-specific content from journals and communities - You can now have your friends page display content from journals and communities based on tags! You can set options to either show only entries with specified tags, or to exclude only entries with specified tags. You'll be presented with these options when you add a friend or begin watching a community. Also, you can modify your settings for any journal or community you follow from the Edit Friends page under the "selected Tags" column.

Google Identity accounts - You can now use your Google account to identify yourself on LiveJournal. Google Identity accounts will appear with this custom userhead: and will behave in the same way as other identity accounts.

Addition to the LiveJournal mobile Devices page - There is now an Android tab on our mobile Devices page.

'Share' button improvements - The 'Share' button in the navigation strip now only appears on public entries.

Comment thread expander - Earlier issues with the comment thread expander have been fixed.

LiveJournal iPad/iPhone app updates

We're pleased to announce version updates for our iPad and iPhone apps! In this update, we've improved the application by by improving existing functionality and adding a couple new features. Changes in the new version include:

Full commenting support
An improved entry loading interface
Russian localization
Japanese and Russian language support

Feedback and suggestions are always welcome. Let us know how you like the app.

What's the scoop?

If you have a Paid or Permanent account you can send five free servings of ice cream now until Monday, June 13th, at 4pm, PDT! You'll see both the free and the $0.99 gifts displayed until you've sent them to your friends. If you're not receiving vgifts (from friends and/or Frank), you may have disabled them. To enable vgifts, visit Edit profile (under Profile), scroll down to the bottom of the page, and check your settings. Make sure the box beside 'Disable sponsored only' is NOT checked! Happy snacking!

Header design contest

Submissions for July's header contest will be accepted through Monday, June 20th. The finalist poll will go live the following day, Tuesday, June 21st. Another important item to note: after July, the header contests will no longer be a monthly occurrence but will instead run a few times a year. Stay tuned to the news for updates on the next header theme contest!

For more fun with Photophile and LJ_Scribe, we'll catch you under the cut!

Photo of the week

Congrats to julz_t, who won our 69th lj_photophile contest!
Click here to help choose the next photo of the week. FYI: We pick entries for the poll based on a combination of comments, +1 ratings, and staff input. The winner receives 500 LJ tokens. We thank you for sharing your talent with the global LiveJournal community.

Welcome back, dear scribes!

Congratulations to keiko_artemis, myou, and zhenger_inc who won prompt #15 of our LJ_Scribe contest! We've selected seven finalists in response to our twelfth prompt for your review. In addition to the joy of sharing your well-turned phrases, the authors with the most votes will each win 1,000 LJ Tokens. Finalists will receive 500 LJ Tokens (a limit of one award per user). For our next contest, please respond to the following in any form you choose (no more than 250 words, excluding the prompt): "...can do this all day..." You do not need to include the prompt in your writing. Be sure to post your submissions as entries, rather than comments, to lj_scribe up through Monday, June 16th, at 4PM, PDT. You'll find the +1 rating link under each post, so remember to check back and vote for your favorites!

Thanks for stopping by. See you next time!

Header design contest, Weekly vgift, Weekly contests, Did you know?

Fri, 27 May 2011 21:33:16 GMT

This week we've got contests galore! We start things off with our recovering gamer, Frank. Two weeks of intensive board gaming (and platter after platter of denim tamales) was just what the doctor ordered. Now that he's had his fun, he's ready to take on scholarly pursuits. Suggest a really fun summer class for Frank to join (a matching userpic is a wonderful addition) and he'll send you his favorite study aid, a hypnotoad (up through the first 10 pages of comments)!

Header design contest

The last days of May bring with them the finalist poll for our June header contest. Fifteen finalists have emerged from our rigorous review process. We invite you to vote for the design you'd like to see on the top of LiveJournal during the month of June. We'll begin accepting entries for the next header design contest next week. All submissions that came in after the deadline will be automatically entered into the next contest. We thank you, again, for making LiveJournal your canvas!

Did you know?

We all dance to the beat of our own drummer. Sometimes that beat has an irresistible rhythm and infectious grooves. Whether you like to 'Rock the Casbah' or peer out from behind your 'Poker Face,' music is a fun and creative way to add your personal touch to a LiveJournal post. When posting, add your current music by typing it into the Music: text box provided below the body of your post. If you signed up for a Last.fm account and installed the Last.fm widget for your music application, you can also autofill that field from Last.fm scrobbler information. You'll need to enter your Last.fm username under Contact Info on your Edit Profile page for the name of the currently played song on your computer to autofill the Music text box.

For more fun with photos, LJ_Scribe, and Frank & Meme, we'll catch you under the cut!

Photo of the week

Congrats to vidtinku_sirogo, who won our 67th lj_photophile contest!
Click here to help choose the next photo of the week. FYI: We pick entries for the poll based on a combination of comments, +1 ratings, and staff input. The winner receives 500 LJ tokens. We thank you for sharing your talent with the global LiveJournal community.

Welcome back, dear scribes!

Congratulations to bombardiette, ada_hoffmann, and jim_lonsdale! who won prompt #13 of our LJ_Scribe contest! We've selected 10 finalists in response to our 14th prompt for your review. In addition to the joy of sharing your well-turned phrases, the authors with the most votes will each win 1,000 LJ Tokens. Finalists will receive 500 LJ Tokens (a limit of one award per user). For our next contest, please respond to the following in any form you choose (no more than 250 words, excluding the prompt): transportation. Your submission should include a vehicle of any type. You do not need to include the prompt in your writing. Be sure to post your submissions as entries, rather than comments, to lj_scribe up through Tuesday, May 31st, at 4PM, PDT. You'll find the +1 rating link under each post, so remember to check back and vote for your favorites!

The continuing adventures of Frank and Meme

Congratulations to descocoparadox, whose entry -- #14 -- was voted the next official chapter in the Frank and Meme saga. You may now start posting entries for the next contest in frankandmeme. The winning author will be awarded 1,000 LJ Tokens. Other participating writers will receive 500 LJ Tokens. On behalf of our quarreling darlings, we thank you for keeping the drama alive!

Thanks for stopping by. See you next week!

Navigation strip update, Favicons, Identity account improvements, Free vgift for Paid users

Thu, 12 May 2011 01:29:31 GMT

UPDATE: We've fixed the issue where the by-journal-type filter options went missing from the navigation strip -- you can again sort by 'view journals only', 'view communities only', and 'view feeds only'. We've also fixed the problem with comment subject line icons.

This week we've got new systems features to pass along, our weekly contest winners, and vgifts. We kick things off with our main goat, Frank. He really took advantage of the great weather we've had here over the last couple weeks and he's exhausted. Right now Frank just wants to relax indoors and play a game. Tell him your favorite board game (a matching userpic is always welcome), and Frank'll throw a pair of dice your way (up through the first 10 pages of comments).

Navigation strip update

The Navigation strip has been expanded and divided into two sections, allowing you easy access to commonly used functions. For those who don't know, the Navigation strip is the menu interface accessible along the top of the page when you're viewing journals and communities. The section on the left will always display links to the same features:

Message inbox with message counter

LJ Tokens with remaining token indicator

Home

Post to journal

Friends page

Account settings

FAQs

The right side of the Navigation strip will change to display links often associated with the page you're viewing. The strip changes when viewing pages like: your own journal, someone else's journal, a community you moderate or maintain, a community you're in, and a community you have not joined. You may also customize (or activate/deactivate) the Navigation strip to suit your browsing style.

Important stuff to know

Favicons: A favicon, or favorites icon, is the little image associated with a particular web page that you see to the left of the URL on the web browser bar. Starting today, the favicon used for your personal journal will be your currently selected userhead (including custom userheads). On supported web browsers, the favicon will appear in all or some of the following places: the address bar, next to the name of web page in your bookmarks, and next to a page's title if your browser supports tabbed-browsing.

Identity account improvements: Identity accounts (OpenID, Twitter connect, Facebook connect, etc) can now post entries in communities.

Thread expander feature: The thread expander feature, which allows comment threads to be expanded without reloading the entire web page, is now available in all S2 journal styles.

It's raining jelly beans!

If you have a Paid or Permanent account (or if you've signed up for our free Paid Account trial), you can send five free handfuls of jelly beans now until Monday, May 16th, at 4pm, PDT! You'll see both the free and the $0.99 gifts displayed until you've sent them to your friends. If you're not receiving vgifts (from friends and/or Frank), you may have disabled them. To enable vgifts, visit Edit profile (under Profile), scroll down to the bottom of the page, and check your settings. Make sure the box beside 'Disable sponsored only' is NOT checked! Happy snacking!

For more fun with photos and LJ_Scribe, we'll catch you under the cut!

Photo of the week

Congrats to libra_dragon, who won our 65th lj_photophile contest! Click here to help choose the next photo of the week. FYI: We pick entries for the poll based on a combination of comments, +1 ratings, and staff input. The winner receives 500 LJ tokens. We thank you for sharing your talent with the global LiveJournal community.

Welcome back, dear scribes!

Congratulations to bluespire, and glama_llama who won prompt #11 of our LJ_Scribe contest! We've selected nine finalists in response to our twelfth prompt for your review. In addition to the joy of sharing your well-turned phrases, the authors with the most votes will each win 1,000 LJ Tokens. Finalists will receive 500 LJ Tokens (a limit of one award per user). For our next contest, we've got the larger word count still going strong and the form is free as a bird. Please respond to the following prompt in any form you choose (no more than 250 words, excluding the prompt): "Hells no!" You do not need to include the prompt in your writing. Be sure to post your submissions as entries, rather than comments, to lj_scribe up through Monday, May 16th, at 4PM, PDT. You'll find the +1 rating link under each post, so remember to check back and vote for your favorites!

Thanks for stopping by. See you next week!

Tornado relief, ONTD newsletter, Header design winner, Journal theme winners

Fri, 06 May 2011 19:20:33 GMT

This week we're focused on creative contests and helping those afflicted by the recent natural disasters in the United States. But first, Frank is celebrating May birthdays. If you were born this fine month, please tell Frank your fondest birthday wish (a coordinating userpic is always a treat), and he'll send you a delicious dessert waffle (up through the first ten pages of comments)!

Tornado relief

In April, natural events pummeled the midwest and southern regions of the United States, breaking the national record for most tornado outbreaks in a given month. In response to these catastrophic occurrences, we're offering a charitable vgift to aid the recovery efforts. LiveJournal will donate proceeds from the sale of our 'Charity:Tornado Relief' vgift (we'll cover all processing fees) to Heart to Heart International, a volunteer-driven program assisting people in the area.

We'd also like to give a shout out to helpthesouth, a charity fandom auction created to assist those affected by the recent storms. LiveJournal donated two annual paid accounts to support their efforts.

ONTD newsletter

Hot off the digital press, the new bi-monthly ONTD newsletter is the great way to catch up on all the best entertainment gossip and commentary dished out by the ONTD community! Track down the latest scandal with 'Top Stories of the Week,' check out what the ONTD community is saying about celebs in 'Overheard on ONTD,' or test the limits of your own witticism by entering the 'Caption Contest.' Sign up for the ONTD newsletter today (on the right side, halfway down the page)!

Header design winner

Congratulations to chocolate_coke, who won this month's header design contest with a beautiful floral arrangement! You'll be seeing this lovely design on the top of LiveJournal during the month of May. We'll accept entries for our next contest up through Monday, May 23rd at 4PM, PDT. If you submitted a header after the last deadline, it will be entered into the next contest. Just a reminder: The winner gets 2,500 LJ Tokens. Finalists receive 1,000 LJ Tokens. All other participants get 500 LJ Tokens (a limit of one award per user). We thank you, again, for making LiveJournal your canvas!

Journal theme contest

Congratulations to ina_ami, 70, and fuzps, who won our journal theme contest! We'll be making these awesome themes available to all of our users! Thank you to the all the winners and participants for lending their artistry to our theme contest.

Did You Know?

Want to make the most of those mood swings? Current Mood themes are a great way to share how you feel when you post on LiveJournal. There are many different families of themes to choose from, ranging from Brucie's Pengies and Juicy's CuteAliens to Neko's Kao Kitties. To switch your current mood theme, visit the Customize Journal Style page and scroll down to the Mood Themes section. In addition to the standard Current Mood themes, Plus, Paid, and Permanent users can also create custom mood themes. Once you select a Mood theme, you can pick a keyword (and associated mood icon) to let the LiveJournal world know whether you're feeling jubilant, nauseated, or morose!

For more fun with photos, lj_scribe, and Frank & Meme, we'll catch you under the cut!

Photo of the week

Congrats to jufin, who won our 64th lj_photophile contest! Click here to help choose the next photo of the week. FYI: We pick entries for the poll based on a combination of comments, +1 ratings, and staff input. The winner receives 500 LJ tokens. We thank you for sharing your talent with the global LiveJournal community.

Scribes, scribes, everywhere a scribe

Congratulations to darklotus1211, bluespire, glama_llama, and coldagain who won our LJ_Scribe contest! We've selected six finalists in response to our eleventh prompt for your review. In addition to the joy of sharing your well-turned phrases, the authors with the most votes will each win 1,000 LJ Tokens. Finalists will receive 500 LJ Tokens (a limit of one award per user). For our next contest, we'll ask you to respond to the following prompt in any form you choose (no more than 250 words, excluding the prompt): "…nestled in the sand amidst the rocks…" You do not need to include the prompt in your writing. Be sure to post your submissions as entries, rather than comments, to lj_scribe up through Monday, May 9th, at 4PM, PDT. You'll find the +1 rating link under each post, so remember to check back and vote for your favorites!

The continuing adventures of Frank and Meme

Congratulations to rainbow1907, whose chapter -- Leaving Las Vegas -- was voted the next official chapter in the Frank and Meme saga. You can now begin posting your submissions for the next contest to frankandmeme.

Thanks for stopping by. See you next week!

Android App, Header design contest, Journal theme contest, Free vgift for Paid users

Thu, 28 Apr 2011 20:05:51 GMT

We've had a great week here at LiveJournal. After a long and dreary rainy season, Spring is finally playing peekaboo. The balmier days have left Frank clamoring for the great outdoors. He's itching for suggestions on recreational activities that don't require a whole lot of coordination or endurance. Give him some fresh ideas (a matching userpic is always welcome), and Frank'll send you a pair of anti-gravity boots to keep you walking on air (up through the first 10 pages of comments).

Introducing the Android App!

We're delighted to announce the new Android App for LiveJournal! We know a lot of you have been asking for this, and we're so thrilled to help you enjoy LiveJournal on the go! Once you download the app, you can:

Post entries to your journal and communities
Upload photos
Create and post polls
Edit your last journal entry
Compose and edit drafts
 Manage your settings for mobile posting

Just a heads up: We'll be adding access to your Friends page in the next version. Have any comments or suggestions? We'd love to get your input. You can post your feedback to this post. And be sure to join ljmobile for regular updates.

Header design contest

It's that time of the month again! After agonizing review, we narrowed the selection down to 15 finalists. We invite you to vote for the design you'd like to see on the top of LiveJournal during the month of May. We'll begin accepting entries for the next header design contest next week. All submissions that came in after the deadline will be automatically entered into the next contest. We thank you, again, for making LiveJournal your canvas!

Journal theme contest

We're pleased to present ten journal theme finalists for your voting pleasure. The three themes that earn the most votes will be made available to all users for free! Thanks to all who participated, from the talented users who created these fabulous themes to the discerning aesthetes (i.e., YOU!) who will help us determine winners.

Nothing says party like a tinfoil helmet!

If you have a Paid or Permanent account (or if you've signed up for our free Paid Account trial), you can send five free tinfoil helmet now until Monday, May 2nd, at 4pm, PDT! You'll see both the free and the $0.99 gifts displayed until you've sent them to your friends. If you're not receiving vgifts (from friends and/or Frank), you may have disabled them. To enable vgifts, visit Edit profile (under Profile), scroll down to the bottom of the page, and check your settings. Make sure the box beside 'Disable sponsored only' is NOT checked! Now, go forth and shimmer!

Did you know ...?

If you're the lucky owner of a Paid or Permanent account, you can choose from hundreds of premium journal styles. We just added a premium theme page to make it even easier to dress up your journal, so you can change your theme as often as you change your ... underpinnings. To check out our premium themes, choose the 'Journal Style' link in the 'Journal' drop-down menu, then click the 'Premium' link on the left column under 'Select a New Theme.' If you're participating in our free Paid account trial, you can slip on any of our premium themes (don't worry, we'll save your old settings). If you haven't signed up for a free two-week Paid account trial, we invite you to sign up now, so you can start enjoying an ad-free environment, extra userpics, LiveJournal and Google stats, and more!

For more fun with photos, Frank and Meme, and LJ_Scribe, we'll catch you under the cut!

Photo of the week

Congrats to natalie_fed, who won our 63rd lj_photophile contest! Click here to help choose the next photo of the week. FYI: We pick entries for the poll based on a combination of comments, +1 ratings, and staff input. The winner receives 500 LJ tokens. We thank you for sharing your talent with the global LiveJournal community.

Welcome back, dear scribes

Congratulations to coldagain, dashingmare, and melodyl0ve who won our LJ_Scribe contest! After aching deliberation, we've selected ten finalists in response to our tenth prompt for your review. In addition to the joy of sharing your well-turned phrases, the authors with the most votes will each win 1,000 LJ Tokens. Finalists will receive 500 LJ Tokens (a limit of one award per user). For our next contest, we'll ask you to respond to the following prompt in the form of prose or poetry (no more than 100 words, excluding the prompt): "She could have sworn she made her bed this morning." You do not need to include the prompt in your writing. Be sure to post your submissions as entries, rather than comments, to lj_scribe up through Monday, May 2nd, at 4PM, PDT. You'll find the +1 rating link under each post, so remember to check back and vote for your favorites!

Frank and Meme's excellent adventure

We received four terrific entries in our frankandmeme contest. Please vote here to choose the next official chapter in the Frank and Meme saga. Comment on the post and Frank'll send you a little something to brighten your day. On behalf of our quarreling darlings, we thank you for keeping the drama alive!

Thanks, again, for joining us. We'll see you next week!

Paid time extension, Spam comments page, Community URL, DDoS, Privacy

Tue, 19 Apr 2011 20:07:21 GMT

We're pleased to report that LiveJournal weathered the recent DDoS attacks without significant downtime last week. We implemented new systems and processes to cope with heavy traffic loads, and these new systems have been working very well. In order to show our appreciation for your loyalty and support, we'll be automatically extending two weeks of Paid Account time to all users holding a Paid account for any amount of time during the period from March 30th to April 12th, GMT. Once again, we wish to thank you for standing by us during these difficult times.

DDoS Update

While LiveJournal has largely recovered from the DDoS attacks, when we're experiencing high levels of malicious incoming traffic, we have no choice but to place temporary blocks on the IP addresses responsible for that volume. While it's frustrating to be blocked, it's necessary to keep the site up and running for everyone. If you receive an error page stating that your IP address has been blocked, we suggest you perform a malware and virus scan of your computer to ensure that your computer is not being used to help propagate these attacks.

Suspicious spam comments page

As part of our ongoing efforts to reduce spam on LiveJournal, we've introduced a new feature to help you identify and ban spam comments. When you visit a comments page in your journal or in a community you maintain, you'll now see a link indicating the number of suspected spam comments. These comments are screened and will not display on the entry. Click on the link to review suspicious comments. You can then delete and ban spam comments or click the 'Not Spam' icon----to unscreen the comment and move it to the entry page.

In creating this new spam-fighting tool, we updated the Account Settings Privacy page. You can screen comments from anonymous users (the default setting), non-friends, and all users. Immediately below this setting, you'll see a checkbox labeled 'Spam Protection' that activates this feature, which reads: 'Comments containing a link to a non-whitelisted domain will be marked as spam and moved to a special section.' This option will be selected by default.

Important stuff to know

Community URL formatting: In the service of improved usability, the URL for community pages has been shortened to '[community name].livejournal.com' instead of 'community.livejournal.com/[community name]'; URLs in the old format will automatically redirect to the new format.
Profile page text message link restored: The option to receive text messages from other LiveJournal users has been restored for Permanent, Paid, and Plus users. If you activate this feature, a 'Text message' link will appear in the Contact section of your Profile page. You can update where you receive text messages on your Edit Profile page. While LiveJournal does not charge for sending or receiving messages, your mobile carrier may. Please check your service plan for further details.
Enhanced Privacy Settings: We've added new settings to the Account Settings Privacy page that gives community maintainers more control over inclusion of community's entries in external search engines. Community maintainers now have the same options available as journal owners to control whether posts and/or comments are available or minimized in search engine results. Note: If you maintain multiple communities, be sure to 'Switch to' the appropriate community before making any changes.
Spam: In an effort to reduce spam on LiveJournal, the text string 'rel=nofollow' will be added to URLs for entries and comments posted from Plus and Basic accounts. This will help reduce visibility in search engines and make spam commenting less attractive to spammers.

Frank's weekly giveaway

This week, Frank has been down with a cold. He's been stuck in the house for what seems like forever, and he's dying to get some movie suggestions. Needless to say, he's particularly fond of films featuring animals. Give him some suggestions (a coordinating userpic always delights him), and Frank will send you sugary bunny to make your day (up through the first ten pages of comments).

Did You Know ...?

We recently relaunched our Community Directory to help you find entries and communities based on your particular interests, ranging from Advice & Support to Television. If you're a community maintainer and you'd like to submit your community for inclusion, you can use this submission tool to add your community to up to two Interest pages. You can also delete your community by visiting the Interest page where it appears, choosing the community from the drop-down next to 'Work as Community,' scrolling down to the bottom of the page, and clicking 'Remove.'

For more fun with photos, Frank and Meme, and LJ_Scribe, we'll catch you under the cut!

Photo of the week

Congrats to voyager_a, who won our 62nd lj_photophile contest! Click here to help choose the next photo of the week. FYI: We pick entries for the poll based on a combination of comments, +1 ratings, and staff input. The winner receives 500 LJ tokens. We thank you for sharing your talent with the global LiveJournal community.

Welcome back, dear scribes

Congratulations to bridals, dashingmare, katiefoolery, and levi_averi, who won our LJ_Scribe contest! After aching deliberation, we've selected ten finalists in response to our ninth prompt for your review. In addition to the joy of sharing your well-turned phrases, the authors with the most votes will each win 1,000 LJ Tokens. Finalists will receive 500 LJ Tokens (a limit of one award per user). For our next contest, we'll ask you to respond to the following prompt in the form of prose or poetry (no more than 100 words, excluding the prompt): "She had moved, but the shadow stayed behind." You do not need to include the prompt in your writing. Be sure to post your submissions as entries, rather than comments, to lj_scribe up through Monday, April 25th, at 4PM, PDT. You'll find the +1 rating link under each post, so remember to check back and vote for your favorites!

Frank and Meme's excellent adventure

Congratulations to ladyofavalon77, whose entry -- The Greatest Show On Earth -- was voted the next official chapter in the Frank and Meme saga. You may now start posting entries for the next context in frankandmeme. The winning author will be awarded 1,000 LJ Tokens. Other participating writers will receive 500 LJ Tokens. On behalf of our quarreling darlings, we thank you for keeping the drama alive!

Thanks, again, for joining us. We'll see you next week!

DDoS Attack, Facebook and Twitter Updates

Thu, 07 Apr 2011 19:31:40 GMT

As most of you know, LiveJournal has been the victim of repeated, large-scale DDoS attacks over the last two weeks. These attacks are against multiple journals worldwide, several of which are political in nature. LiveJournal believes strongly in the ideal of freedom of expression, and we're working very hard to ensure that users around the world have a place where their voices can be heard.

Based on our analysis of the traffic, most of the attacks are coming from entire networks in the same subnets, suggesting participation by multiple network operators. We have made significant changes to our systems and processes to battle attacks of this nature and are continuing to adjust to each new attack as quickly as we can. We share your frustration in not being able to access LiveJournal during these attacks -- please know that we're doing everything within our power to get this behind us.

Frank's weekly giveaway

This week we're celebrating April birthdays. If you were born this month, tell us your birthday wish (a coordinating userpic always delights us), and Frank will send you a box of buttery popcorn to make your day (up through the first ten pages of comments).

Header design update

A number of you had questions about the currently-displaying LiveJournal header. We wanted to let you know that the design is based on an open stock image that allows for unlimited use and licensing, so there's no copyright issue. We also wish to take this opportunity to urge our remixed header designers to use original imagery, photographs, or designs as much as possible to avoid these kinds of concerns in the future. We thank you, again, for making LiveJournal your canvas.

Did You Know ...?

As we discussed above, LiveJournal was the victim of repeated DDoS attacks this week. We try to update our external status page as quickly as possible in these cases and have also begun to post to Twitter and Facebook. Here are the links to our Facebook Page and our Twitter feed. Please be aware that in addition to site outage and maintenance information, we also post links to news updates, contests, and other site-wide features.

For more fun with photos, Frank and Meme, and LJ_Scribe, we'll catch you under the cut!

Photo of the week

Congrats to hep, who won our 61st lj_photophile contest! Click here to help choose the next photo of the week. FYI: We pick entries for the poll based on a combination of comments, +1 ratings, and staff input. The winner receives 500 LJ tokens. We thank you for sharing your talent with the global LiveJournal community.

Welcome back, dear scribes

Congratulations to levi_averi, bridals, jim_lonsdale, and dashingmare, who won our LJ_Scribe contest! After aching deliberation, we've selected seven finalists in response to our eighth prompt for your review. In addition to the joy of sharing your well-turned phrases, the authors with the most votes will each win 1,000 LJ Tokens. Finalists will receive 500 LJ Tokens (a limit of one award per user). For our next contest, we'll ask you to respond to the following prompt in the form of prose, poetry, or an IM chat (no more than 100 words, excluding the prompt): "She left her email open and popped into the bathroom to take one of her notoriously long showers (all the while proclaiming herself an environmentalist)." You do not need to include the prompt in your writing. Be sure to post your submissions as entries, rather than comments, to lj_scribe up through Monday, April 11th, at 4PM, PDT. You'll find the +1 rating link under each post, so remember to check back and vote for your favorites!

Frank and Meme's excellent adventure

We received five terrific entries in our frankandmeme contest. Please vote here to choose the next official chapter in the Frank and Meme saga. Comment on the post and Frank'll send you a little something to brighten your day. On behalf of our quarreling darlings, we thank you for keeping the drama alive!

Thanks, again, for joining us. We'll see you next week!

DDoS Attack

Thu, 31 Mar 2011 19:16:08 GMT

As many of you know, LiveJournal was the victim of a DDoS attack yesterday, resulting in several hours of downtime.

We appreciate your patience as we work on resolving the remaining issues resulting from yesterday's attack. If you receive a page in the wrong language or get a 'Guru Meditation' error page, please refresh the page -- these are unfortunate side effects of one of the DDoS abatement tools we're using. We're also investigating a problem with some userpics and calendar pages not displaying correctly -- we hope to have that resolved as soon as possible. For those of you who received a 'You've been blocked' error message yesterday, we're pleased to report that we've already expired many of the IP address bans that were put in place to get our site back up and running, so please try again. On a positive note, in response to the attack, we've upgraded our servers, which should make the site run faster!

It's important to keep in mind that denial of service attacks are made possible, in part, by infected computers (known as zombies). Let's all do our part by regularly checking our computers (and maybe our parents' if they're not so tech-savvy) with virus and malware-scanning programs, keeping our firewalls and anti-malware programs up to date, and practicing safe surfing!

For further information and status updates from our Ops team, check out lj_maintenance.

Interest pages, Header design winner, Free vgift for Paid users

Tue, 29 Mar 2011 19:22:20 GMT

We've continued to make strides in our spam-fighting efforts and have already restored a good many notifications. We'll keep you posted on our progress right here. In response to your questions about purging inactive accounts, we're still in an early phase of this project. We plan to resume discussions on this topic once we resolve the spam issue. We'll keep you apprised of future developments in news.

Frank's weekly giveaway

When we last left Frank and Meme, they had both transformed into colorful rays and were zooming off to points unknown. Their new friend, &$%** (pronounced Ralph) invited them to partake in some light refreshments in his mother's cabin. Frank and Meme were anxious, but they didn't want to offend *&*& (pronounced Miriam), who beamed at them in a delightful shade of purple. So they took their respective bottles and slurped down the sweet, creamy shakes. They suddenly felt themselves tumbling through space in a colossal free fall. A moment later, they were sitting on the mountaintop, hooves, fur, and all. Frank and Meme are now wondering: (1) Did they hallucinate the entire event?; and (2) If not, what did the aliens want from them? Let them know what you think (a festive userpic is most welcome), and they'll send you a sprig of mimosa to show their appreciation (up through the first ten pages of comments).

Interest Pages

We're pleased to introduce our new Interest pages, which are designed to help you find relevant entries and communities based on your particular interests. Each Interest page contains a dynamic feed of recent public posts from communities, featured entries and communities, a search tool, and a poll. We've seeded the categories with public communities, but we're hoping you'll pitch in and submit your communities for inclusion. You'll find a tool on the lower right of each page where you can request to "add or delete your community." (Please note that you must be a maintainer of a community to request addition or deletion.) There are currently twelve Interest pages:

Important stuff to know

LJ-Cuts on comment pages: Comment pages past the first page of comments will now display any LJ-cut that was used in the entry (the cut remains in the same place as it originally appeared). This was done to speed loading time for comment pages.
Share tool: In response to user requests, we've replaced the "Share This" tool with an improved, homemade sharing tool. You can click on this icon () to share posts on LiveJournal, Facebook, Twitter, Digg, Tumblr, Stumbleupon, or by email.
Leave a comment improvements: We've streamlined the 'comment as' feature. When you click to leave a comment on an entry, you can now select the identity you'd like to use from a drop-down menu. You can choose to post anonymously (if allowed) or from any of the following identities: LiveJournal, Facebook, Twitter, OpenID, and Mail.ru. If you're logged into a LiveJournal account, you can also click "Other user" to log into a different account and leave your comment from that account.

Header design contest

Congratulations to cirtholien who won this month's header design contest on the subject of health and healing. You'll be seeing this lovely design on the top of LiveJournal during the month of May. We'll accept entries for our next contest up through Monday, April 18th at 4PM, PDT. If you submitted a header after the last deadline, it will be entered into the next contest. Just a reminder: The winner gets 2,500 LJ Tokens. Finalists receive 1,000 LJ Tokens. All other participants get 500 LJ Tokens (a limit of one award per user). We thank you, again, for making LiveJournal your canvas!

Look at that "S" car go!

If you have a paid or permanent account (or if you've signed up for our free Paid Account trial), you can send five free snails now until Monday, April 4th, at 4pm, PDT! You'll see both the free and the $0.99 gifts displayed until you've sent them to your friends. If you're not receiving vgifts (from friends and/or Frank), you may have disabled them. To enable vgifts, visit Edit profile (under Profile), scroll down to the bottom of the page, and check your settings. Have fun at the races!

For more fun with photos, Frank and Meme, and LJ_Scribe, we'll catch you under the cut!

Photo of the week

Congrats to mackintosha, who won our 60th lj_photophile contest! Click here to help choose the next photo of the week. FYI: We pick entries for the poll based on a combination of comments, +1 ratings, and staff input. The winner receives 500 LJ tokens. We thank you for sharing your talent with the global LiveJournal community.

Welcome back, dear scribes!

Congratulations to darklotus1211, terachan, and levi_averi, who won our LJ_Scribe contest! After aching deliberation, we've selected seven finalists in response to our seventh prompt for your review. In addition to the joy of sharing your well-turned phrases, the authors with the most votes will each win 1,000 LJ Tokens. Finalists will receive 500 LJ Tokens (a limit of one award per user). For our next contest, we'll ask you to respond to the following prompt in the form of a greeting card poem, Craigslist missed connection, or a sonnet (up to 100 words, excluding the prompt): "They were standing on line waiting for Chai Lattes when their eyes met." You do not need to include the prompt in your writing. Be sure to post your submissions as entries, rather than comments, to lj_scribe up through Monday, April 4th, at 4PM, PDT. You'll find the +1 rating link under each post, so remember to check back and vote for your favorites!

Frank and Meme's excellent adventure

We received a few wonderful entries for our Frank and Meme fanfic contest. We'll accept submissions for another week at frankandmeme, so keep the adventure coming! On behalf of our quarreling darlings, we thank you for keeping the drama alive!

Thanks, again, for joining us. We'll see you next week!