LiveJournal News

 New Customize Area
The new Customize Journal area has officially arrived. Finding the theme you want has never been easier. You can now search by theme, layout, or designer. Read all about it in lj_design. Thank you to janinedog and chasethestars who worked on it tirelessly, and to all of our beta testers for their great feedback. Now, go forth and customize! 


Searching for Something?
Aren't we all... Look no further than the control strip in your journal. We've added the search drop-down to all journal pages to make finding what you're looking for a cinch. 


Snap: In the Picture
A few weeks ago, we told you about a new tool from Snap.com that provides visual previews on external links within your journal. Based on your positive response, we've enabled these graphics for Basic and Plus users. (Don't worry: If you already disabled the graphic previews, you will not have to do so again. Also, if you don't want to see graphic previews, you can easily disable them within your journal on the Viewing Options page under "Graphic previews.")


Autumn Holiday V-Gifts (and New Halloween Themes)
Autumn is a time of giving, so we added several new autumnal V-Gifts, including a pumpkin pie, red lantern and Diwali lantern.
 
What better way to give than to send a friend our charitable Give Thanks Turkey V-Gift? All of the proceeds from the Turkey V-Gift go to Heifer International, a non-profit organization dedicated to ending world hunger.

Not quite ready for November? We understand completely. Which is why we added Bats & Ghouls to our spine-tingling Halloween themes.
 


NaNoWriMo V-Gifts & Themes
Ever dreamed of becoming a novelist? National Novel Writing Month is your chance to make that dream a reality. Participants begin writing on November 1st with the goal of writing a 50,000 word (175 page) novel by midnight, November 30th. 

We know a lot of writers on LJ participate in NaNoWriMo, so we've added some cool stuff to keep you motivated. One of our brand new writing themes may be just what you need to keep writing into the wee hours of the night. 
(fFrom L to R: Typekeys, Typewriter, Inked and Writer's Block.)
 

You can also show your encouragement with one of our new Writers' V-Gifts. Choose from one of the four ribbon V-Gifts and we'll donate 50% of the net proceeds to the NaNoWriMo Young Writer's Program. You can also send motivation in the form of an inkwell & quill or a typewriter.
 
Find out more about LJ's writers' themes and charity V-Gifts and connect with other NaNoWriMo writers. 
Are you participating? Let us know in the comments! 


Frank's Feeling a Little Grey
So why not put a little color in his life? You still have one day to enter LiveJournal's "Where's Frank?" photo contest. The Grand Prize winner will receive a $100 gift certificate from Amazon.com, and the Runner-Up winners will both receive a $50 gift certificate from Amazon.com. Go to lj_photocontest for all the official rules on how to submit your photo of Frank. 

Lastly, from all of us at LJ... HAVE A HAPPY HALLOWEEN! (And keep an eye out next week for a haunting Halloween site scheme.)

Beta Test the New Customize Area
Does your journal need a makeover for fall? We've launched the beta test for the Customize Journal area and now it's easier than ever to make your journal look exactly the way you want it. The new and improved Customize Area has been thoughtfully streamlined into a user-friendly, two-step process, with some pretty significant changes.

Highlights include:

• New thumbnail screenshots for all 600+ theme choices.


• Categorized themes. (Themes can still be filtered by layout name in View "All" or when viewing by specific layout.)


• Consolidation of all sections into a brand-new, streamlined layout.

Read about the exciting improvements in this lj_design post. We know this is a huge change to a popular area of the site and we can't wait to get your feedback. Become a beta tester, then go to the Customize Journal page to check it out. You can provide your thoughts about what's working, what's not working and where we can improve at feedback.

Color Us FRANK Happy - LiveJournal's Very First Photo Contest!
Speaking of makeovers, Frank has been begging us to give him one for a while. But we decided a task of that magnitude is best left to all the crafty, creative people here on LJ.

Here's the challenge: Color in a picture of Frank (with markers, colored pencils, crafts etc. - no digital artwork, please) and take a photo set in any location or background. Frank's a pretty adventurous goat, as you know, so be creative! Your picture of Frank will be judged on your artistic skills and the originality of your photo backdrop. See our creation below:



There will be three winners: One "Grand Prize" winner and two "Runner-Up Prize" winners selected by the members of the LiveJournal community from a list of finalists that we'll choose. The Grand Prize winner will receive a one hundred dollar ($100) gift certificate from Amazon.com, and the Runner-Up Grand Prize winners will each receive a fifty dollar ($50) gift certificate from Amazon.com.

Go to this post in lj_photocontest for all the official rules on how to submit your photo of Frank.

Picture This
We've added a new tool from Snap.com so that you can have visual previews on external links within your journal.



Enable these graphic previews within your journal at the Viewing Options page (under "Graphic previews"). Don't want to see these images on other journals? No problem Click on "Options" in the upper-right corner of any preview to disable previews on "THIS Site" (throughout LiveJournal) or "All Sites" (all websites).

We plan to add more features in the next few weeks, so try it out and let us know what you think.

A Return to Six Apart
After an 18 month hiatus, daveman692 has rejoined Six Apart as the Open Platforms Technical Lead. While he was away, David focused his efforts on moving OpenId forward, and was recently recognized by Google and O'Reilly as one of the recipients of a 2007 Open Source Award... the youngest recipient in the history of the award, we might add.

For those of you who are curious as to what David has been up to since his return, you may want to check out his recent post "We Are Opening the Social Graph" in Six Apart news. At Six Apart, we want to bring the kind of control that, as LiveJournal users, you have over your friend lists, identity, and privacy to all of the sites you use on the web. One of the first concrete steps we've taken is adding support for Microformats to parts of the site. We'd love to hear your thoughts on the tools we can bring to LiveJournal to continue helping you manage your friends and privacy.

EDIT: We're working through some style kinks from the release that may be affecting your journal and community pages. Hang tight!
EDIT EDIT: The S2 errors should now be fixed. Thank you for being patient with us.