Purging, Spotlight photos, Twitter reposts, Commenting log-in, Volunteers, Header design

• Spotlight photos: We've added spotlight photos from lj_photophile to the bottom of the LiveJournal homepage. Be sure to include a subject line when you to post to lj_photophile if you'd like your images to be included!
• Commenting log-in: In response to your requests, we've reverted the commenting functionality so that you can leave a 'one-off' comment from an alternate account while remaining logged into your main account. Note: If you aren't logged in at all when you leave a comment, you'll be logged into the account from which you comment.
• Purging: We've resumed purging user-deleted journals (deleted at least 30 days) and suspended journals (suspended at least six months). FYI: We haven't started purging inactive accounts yet. Stay tuned for updates, as we'll be sure to pre-announce all the details right here before we begin.
• Twitter reposts: If you're using the Twitter re-post feature (where your previous day's tweets are re-posted to LiveJournal in one digest), please note that the digest will no longer contain tweeted replies to other tweets.
• WE WANT YOU!: If you love LiveJournal as much as we do, and you're interested in making this a better place for all users, we invite you to join our dynamic team of volunteer superheroes. We especially need Russian-speaking and tech support volunteers. So, if your LiveJournal friends hit you up whenever they can't figure out how to do this or that, we could sure use your assistance. Of course, whether you're a new or experienced user, if you have a hankering to help, we'd LOVE to have you on board! Please check out lj_volunteers for further details.

Congratulations to marspathfinder, who won our monthly header design contest with this awesome entry. We'll accept submissions for the next header contest up through November 22nd. If you submitted after the last deadline, we've automatically entered you in this month's contest. We'll be sending out tokens to all participants later this week: 2,500 LJ Tokens for the winner, 1,000 LJ Tokens to finalists, and 500 tokens to everyone else who contributed. We thank you again for making LiveJournal your canvas!

We're pleased to anounce the winners of our first annual Halloween Pet Costume Contest. The LJ Staff took a vote and awarded first place to snwleop. Second place goes to jessieka for this fabulous photo. Third place goes to evilkyttn for this awesome entry. We thank you all for sharing your absolutely adorable pet photos. We couldn't stop smiling.

Now that we've resumed purging accounts, we wanted to talk to you about how you can rename a LiveJournal account (this can be either a journal or a community you maintain). Renaming an account costs $15 USD. You can either make a direct payment (via credit card, PayPal, etc.) or you can use 1,500 LJ Tokens. (If you want to gift someone a rename, just send them 1,500 LJ Tokens).

Keep in mind that if you rename your account, your account status, profile, entries, comments, and other account-related information will remain the same and display your new username. When you visit the Rename page in the shop, you'll be able to choose whether to keep your Friends list (the journals and communities you have friended), and whether to keep your Friend Of list (the journals of users who have friended you). You'll also get to choose whether to mark your old username as deleted or redirect visitors from your old username to your new one (we recommend this option). If you choose this option, your old URL (i.e., OLDusername.livejournal.com) will forward to your new URL (i.e., NEWusername.livejournal.com). The redirect will remain in place as long as your account exists, making the old username unavailable for new account creations or renaming.

You can choose any of the following for your new username:

• An unregistered username
• The username of a deleted and purged journal
• The username of an account you own, so long as the email addresses and passwords match