LJ Speaks

Am I just too paranoid?

2008-11-14T05:00:58Z

Does anyone have any birdies whispering in their ear about what precautions LiveJournal is planning on putting in place to prevent Journal hacks like the most recent ones? I don't use a Hotmail account, but you can bet they'll crack gmail addresses too. Sigh. And I did the secret question thingy, but they must have some way to prevent that sort of thing. That one journaler lost 5 years of posts. 5 years! Just sayin'.

ETA: Here's the link where they were talking about the accounts that were hacked.

http://community.livejournal.com/cult_sbp/792846.html

Whose is LJ?

2008-11-08T20:53:24Z

I just cancelled my Vox account because I never really used it, and I got a confirmation e-mail which includes the following:

"If you are still looking for a blogging tool, be sure to check out Six Apart’s other services:

* LiveJournal: Get a free journal with powerful privacy, full customization and easy sharing via IM and text. Connect with a community with over 12 million users."

I thought it was sold on to SUP?

Because probably, 4874 comments in, they aren't listening anymore....

2008-11-08T07:20:21Z

A comment I made in this post:

"Stop catering to MySpace and Facebook. You have a core group of customers, some of whom have been around for close to a decade. If you are that desperate to play nice-nice with the MySpace and Facebook generation, create a new and seperate (and optional!) offshoot of lj and call it "LJ Networking". THERE. PROBLEM SOLVED. Now please return the profile page back to its previous, not-in-any-way-difficult-to-read state."

Y/N? I mean, if that's what LJ's trying to do, why not just do it, and leave the rest of us alone?

Another good suggestion I've seen: If you can't offer everyone a profile page opt-out, at least offer paid and permanent members one.

Has anyone heard anything else about the perm account sale?

2008-11-06T22:14:11Z

The last news release said we would hear about it today November 6, 2008, but so far no info is available. Just sayin'.

ljspeaks @ 2008-10-02T22:30:00

2008-10-03T03:39:34Z

Is Hackgate '08 real?

I found out about it from this link:
http://asylums.insanejournal.com/07refugees/82776.html

I was wondering how widespread it was and if it was big why LJ has not said anything about it?

Use of LJ posts in newspaper

2008-09-13T03:08:48Z

There's a new post ru_news that did not find a reflection in main community news . It has some new things as well as very interesting information. Starting September 16th all LJ posts that are being indexed by russian search engine Yandex.RU might be used as addition to articles in Gazeta.RU. And the post says that the only way to exclude yourself from this "service" is to check off Search inclusion option in Privacy Settings. How's that for violation of privacy and using copyrighted quotations.

BTW the news itself is here: http://ru-news.livejournal.com/7031.html under #2

Unofficial referendum.

2008-07-28T20:41:15Z

I am hosting an unofficial referendum vote on legomymalfoy accessibility and performance.

Please vote.

http://adameros.livejournal.com/2599937.html

Also, please have your friends vote.

Basic Account Returning

2008-07-19T05:20:27Z

I'm delighted by the upcoming return of the Basic Account option! I really appreciate LJ's response to user input.

Regarding themes: I've noticed that some themes have a prominent RSS Feed option, usually appearing in the sidebar; some have a Search window; none have both; and most have neither. This seems to be a function of the theme. I like the "Bluetiful" theme I've been using, but it doesn't have either the RSS Feed or Search option. I'd really like to have those on my LJ, and I need a theme like "Bluetiful" that is plain and boxes in all the subdivisions for clarity.

Howbout doing another theme contest and encouraging people to update old themes by adding those two features or submitting new themes that include them? I think a lot of other users would appreciate that.

Announcing LJ United.

2008-04-26T16:11:29Z

I wanted to let the LJ Speaks community know about the creation of ljunited-- a coalition of LiveJournal users dedicated to putting forth a slate of two qualified candidates for the upcoming LJ advisory elections, drawn from individuals who believe in basic principles for LiveJournal that are very much appreciated by and in line with the beliefs of the LJ Speaks community.

Do you believe that the promises that were made to LiveJournal's members are gradually being eroded?

Promises like:

Working with the community, for the community.
Honoring the status of every account.
Maintaining the uptime and performance of the site.

Staying advertisement free.
Never sending us unsolicited e-mail.
Supporting the Free Software movement.

Are you aware that LiveJournal is shrinking... and concerned about what that could mean for its future in a profit / loss corporate world?

Are you concerned that the promises made by LiveJournal for protecting our privacy may be weakened and undermined by LiveJournal's new owners? Were you aware that in Russia today, LiveJournal user Savva Terentyev is behind bars, facing the possibility of two years imprisonment for posting a comment, saying that Russia would be better off if bad, corrupt police were publically executed?

Are you concerned that the election of LiveJournal members to LJ's advisory council could become little more than a popularity contest, without making sure that LiveJournal's users get what they want - skilled representatives who stand up for our rights, strongly supported by LiveJournal's members?

Then please, join LJ United. A coalition of LiveJournal users that believe that the promises that were once made to us should be the basis of what we would ideally like to see again, and who intend to use those promises as the platform for the nomination of a Russian and non-Russian representative to LiveJournal's advisory council.

We believe that the best way for LiveJournal to be a successful business is to restore the trust of its members, for we are its greatest asset, its strongest evangelists, and its most loyal, dedicated customers... but only when we have reason to believe in them again.

Until that time, there's ljunited
Let's stand together.

Forced to delete an entry, threatened with termination of accounts

2008-04-18T19:27:59Z

It's a long story, but I will try to keep it as short as possible. I have talked about it in my journal, but it is in Russian, and I figured some of you English speakers out there might be interested to know as well.

Three weeks ago I posted an entry which linked to a script I wrote, and explained how the script worked. The script generated a code composed of HTML tags allowed on lj and text, based on user input, and was (still is) located on a remote site. Since then the link has been reposted around the Russian blogosphere (lj mostly) close to 300 times (270 at the moment). The page containing the script was loaded 7500 times, the script was run 5000 times and the HTML code generated with the help of this script was posted here and there on lj over 600 times. Yesterday I received a letter from an AT member, which I will quote here along with my response. I have heard rumors of users getting banned from lj for posting AT letters. However, this is not in violation of ToS, I have not signed any other agreements with the party in question and I have not been explicitly asked to keep this information confidential.
-------

Dear LiveJournal user bukva,

It has come to our attention that your entry located at http://bukva.livejournal.com/97285.html contains content that is in considered a violation of LiveJournal's Terms of Service. Comment generators of this nature disrupt the LiveJournal service and are not allowed to be used on LiveJournal in any way, shape or form. The use of one to impersonate another user can be grounds for immediate termination of your account and possibly the LiveJournal service. Your account has been suspended because of this. We have supplied you with a link, below, that will allow you to unsuspend your account for a period of 1 hour so that you may delete this entry. Use of the below link and failure to comply with our request to delete this entry will result in the termination of your account. It will not be reinstated for any reason if this occurs.

Please be aware that this content is not to be displayed on the LiveJournal service in any way, shape or form. It's use by you and/or continues violations of this nature will result in the immediate termination of all associated accounts and your use of the LiveJournal service.

Unsuspension link: http://www.livejournal.com/abuse/unsuspend.bml?#######.########

Regards,

Corey
LiveJournal Abuse Prevention Team

-------

Dear LiveJournal Abuse Prevention Team member Corey,

I deleted the entry in question as you demanded. Would you mind clarifying the following for me:

1) What exactly in my entry, previously located at http://bukva.livejournal.com/97285.html, violated exactly what part of the LiveJournal TOS?

2) Where, again, _exactly_ in TOS does it say anything with regards to any "comment generators" (if such things were at all possible outside of LiveJournal) of any nature and their use, let alone posting links to or describing such? I must stress, that I did not provide a link to a "comment generator". The script I posted a link to _does not_ generate LiveJournal or any other sort of comments. As far as I know, only those who have access to LiveJournal accounts can generate LiveJournal comments, and only comments from the accounts they have access to, using the interface of LiveJournal itself.

3) I quote, "Please be aware that this content is not to be displayed on the LiveJournal service in any way, shape or form". - Again, what content exactly are you talking about? A specific URL, an HTML table, a username, an image, a description of an html-generating script?

4) Do you seriously mean to say that if I copy part of the code generated by the script (containing my own userpic and username, for example), and post it in my journal, my account will be terminated? I believe this follows directly from "not allowed to be used on LiveJournal in any way, shape or form[...] It's use by you[...] will result in the immediate termination of all associated accounts".

5) I have already consulted with Annika on what kind of depiction may or may not be considered impersonation. Did that change? Will any at all sort of depiction be automatically considered impersonation now (if the depicted user complains, that is), including but not limited to the depiction of oneself? If not, then why are you prohibiting me from posting links to or describing a script, located well outside of LiveJournal and/or demanding from me to delete such entries?

Sincerely,

LiveJournal user bukva

-------

LJ Labs

2008-04-18T04:51:10Z

Just a heads up for a new participatory LJ endeavor: LJ Labs (found out from Mashable).

SnapShot WTF....?

2008-03-28T02:18:30Z

I can’t turn it off. All of the sudden, it came back. Now, I’ve already had to turn it off several time’s, and I had kind of perfected the whole issue.... Just go to the snapshot main page, go to help, go to the FAQ 'hot to turn this shit on and off', disable, clear cookies, reload, done.

Not working. It says it's disabled, when I’m seeing right here. I deleted the cookies only a few thousand times, I went to 'how to disable it' for the whole mozilla and internet explore and it's STILL THERE.

Anyone else having this issue or knows how to get rid of it?

I think one of the things LJ could do, considering how hard to disable this absolutely insufferable feature is let the users CHOOSE weather if they want to have it or not, instead of automatically enabling it for them and then having to fight the goddamn little windows and try to disable them all.

VP of Product Management Quits

2008-03-26T23:50:39Z

VP of Product Management at LiveJournal, Jason Shellen, has quit. He twittered this morning: "I resigned my post at LiveJournal on Monday. It was only 3 months but it was long enough to realize it wasn't a fit. Onward and upward!" and Valleywag picked it up.

There are no announcements in news or lj_biz. lj_biz was last updated in December.

What will LiveJournal Inc do now? How will this affect LJ for the users in the long-term? A comment from LJ would be welcome.

audio captia gone!

2008-03-25T19:45:08Z

Hi guys,

This is my first post in here, and seeing as I'm a totally blind user, this affects me greatly. LJ used to have a feature wherin the captia (the image you have to tipe in in order to make an account) had an audio alternitive for those who were visually impaired or couldn't read the immage on the screen in some way. I have just found out through one of my other communities that this feature has been removed.

If you all could open a support request and comment to the affect that this feature is importan to keep live journal equally usable for all new users, I would very much appreciate it. I really feel that by doing this, lj is cutting out many potential new users, and this is what I don't like. I also feel that this is a step backwards in new user support, something that lj says they promote above anything else...? lj's system used to be one of the best out there: I've used it to create several accounts to date. But now that it's not there anymore, it is no longer possible for us as totally blind/visually impaired users to create an account without sighted assistance, something that we do not always have, or have access too.go here to open a support request. Remember to be polite, and that those who read the requests may not have anything to do with the removal of this feature. I know this should go without saying, but... :)

Thanks guys. Seriously.

the Phoenix

Stats from Yandex

2008-03-24T23:03:27Z

Russian search engine Yandex (who also keeps its own stats on different russian speaking blogs) published its own research/info on the boycott "Day Without Content" in cyrillic sector of LJ

http://company.yandex.ru/blog/message.xml?msg=102405

So here we go:

Number of cyrillic bloggers who posted in LJ on the last 5 Fridays:

These are numbers for each Friday from February 22nd till March 21.

And some info on people who did not write on March 21st:

20.27% - people who had the LJ account for over 3 years
18.79% - "from 3 to 1 year"
13.41% - "from 2 months to 1 year"
The numbers represent % of bloggers who did not post that day in their respective category. i.e. on march 21st 20.27% of russian speaking blogers who had LJ account for over 3 years weren't posting.

On average there was 15% drop in activity last Friday among russian-speaking LJ.

Is there any way to look up stats on the rest of LJ?

Nosik Interview Audio

2008-03-20T18:53:37Z

Since Nosik is denying he used terms like "idiot" and "blackmail", the audio of his interview has been provided.

If you are a Russian speaker, or you know someone who is a Russian speaker, can you please direct them here and ask them to translate/confirm what he has said?

The audio is here, it is 8MB. A big thanks to Luydmila Telen for making this available.

More Info on Privacy Concerns?

2008-03-20T18:53:26Z

Hi all,

I've been trying to find information on LJ's *current* practices regarding tracking the information of its users (an other privacy-related issues) and I'm having some trouble finding anything but rumors. I know I've heard that LJ is now gathering private information on its users regarding where they surf, for instance, but I can't seem to find details or confirmation. Can anybody provide some links that I can pass on to some users who are telling me these concerns are made-up?

Thanks!

Does anyone want to...

2008-03-20T18:51:38Z

Right would anyone like to go for the full weekender with the content ban?
I was just thinking, I know that not EVERYONE will take part in the content ban, however if enough of us do it we'll be able to make a significant dent in LJ history.

Also- if as many people as possible could stay away from LJ from a whole weekend this would affect the figures even more.

Also- what if we did the content strike regularly? For longer each time?
so this time its a day, next time 2 days, the time after 3 days, etc until LJ have to listen to what we are asking for, and even if they don't give it us at least give us good reasoning and be more clear about their actions in future?

Let me know what you all think please? :).

New post in lj_2008

2008-03-20T04:48:01Z

http://community.livejournal.com/lj_2008/3846.html

Highlights include:

"The announcement last Wednesday was a mistake in regards to Basic accounts, as the change was not clearly stated, it did not allow for you to provide feedback, and went into effect immediately. Many of you have pointed out that the decision worried you less than the way it was communicated. You should have been given a voice, and you were not; we didn’t follow our own rules, and we apologize.

At this point we are working on a solution to enable existing LiveJournal users to create new Basic accounts as so many of you have requested. Nothing has been decided yet, but we are considering options which would allow existing users to continue to create new Basic accounts."

ALSO, as pointed out by connie_chung:

"Subscriptions – Should moderators be able to charge for access to closed communities?"

Comments also reflect a general sense of displeasure at Mr. Nosik's comments and subsequent conduct; feel free to drop LJ a line regarding this and other matters.

Nossik's rebuttal

2008-03-20T04:34:06Z

Finally Mr. dolboeb came out with his own view on the whole basic account issue. And it is in english!

Here you go boys and gals: http://anton-nossik.livejournal.com/16069.html

Regarding the content strike...

2008-03-19T20:10:28Z

Each user individually deciding not to use LJ on Friday is a good impact. We'll likely get a couple thousand people to participate. But think about communities. Some communities have hundreds of posts a day. So here's what I propose:

- If you run a community, switch it to moderated posting for a day and accept absolutely no posts that day. Make a post beforehand alerting your members, obviously. I'm doing this for the 2 communities I run.

- Send a message to the mods of other communities you're a member of urging them to take the same action.

This way we can really make a huge dent, not just a small one. A 4,000 person fanfiction community I'm a member of is doing this. They get dozens of posts a day. There are 2 pages of comments on their alert post, all positive comments.

Think about it. If we get 100 communities to not post at all that day, that will really multiply the impact. Plus, some of the members of the communities may decide to participate on their personal journals as well. This is doable.

EDIT: I should've been more clear. I'm not advocating some arbitrary decision to stop posts in all communities. It depends on the topic and the atmosphere of the community. It would be a little odd to restrict posting on a knitting community, for instance. But both of the communities I run are fandom communities, and have a lot of Basic members, and therefore are greatly impacted by LJ's homophobic censoring and their refusal to let people create Basic accounts.

Resurrecting an idea that's been suggested already...

2008-03-19T19:37:20Z

This has already been suggested in a previous post here by tsukinofaerii, but I think it's worth bringing up again:

I'm curious how much of an impact would be made if we make an effort to urge everyone we come across who has a Plus account created before 12 March to switch their accounts to Basic. If it were widespread enough, it could have a twofold effect:
1. It takes away from LJ's revenues, since neither Basic users nor non-members will see the ads. (But then again, this could backfire and end up making LJ switch everyone to Plus...::gag::)
2. More importantly, depending on the number of Plus accounts that joined in, this could potentially skew the statistics in favor of Basic, showing LJ that hey, maybe there is a demand for Basic accounts after all.

Thoughts?

Let's buy it.

2008-03-19T19:36:53Z

Like many who are here, I'm not terribly happy with the changes that Livejournal has gone through for the past several years now. (I miss you brad.) I started thinking about how I am not happy with the profit model that Livejournal's running on and haven't been for a while. However, I am loathe to leave Livejournal. It's been my home for 7 years now and all of my friends are here. Moving your journal is something of a nightmare.

So, I started thinking about Livejournal and it hit me -- let's buy it and make it a non-profit.

Let's stop thinking small with protests and Livejournal News comment overloads. Think big.

Let's buy Livejournal and make it what we want.

Here's my crazy idea that I am sure will require some math/business/law geniuses to figure out the nitty-gritty details but why not seriously consider having the userbase buy Livejournal and run it as a non-profit? That way, we're not interested in shareholders or making money and we have our Livejournal again. Someone with a business degree can come up with the details but it's doable, isn't it? Create a non-profit board, having voting rights for all the members (userbase), spend income on upgrading and maintaining the site and don't care about how much money the site made this month.

Could we do this? What do you think?

Why and How to Leave LJ

2008-03-19T14:37:30Z

A lot of people seemed to find my OpenID tutorial useful, so I've made a post in my Insanejournal outlining both SUP's most recent screw-ups (with a link to russianswinga's translation of the Anton Nosik interview), as well as a list of resources that I and others have used to migrate from Livejournal to LJ clone sites. It's over here. Feel free to spread it around as much as you like; I've left it public for that exact reason.

And I'm mainly posting this because I'm planning to delete my journal on Thursday night before the content strike starts, so I figured it'd be nice to post something potentially useful here before I go. :)

Off-site strike support

2008-03-19T14:37:08Z

tsukinofaerii mentioned having an off-site forum for LJ-strikers to communicate and such on the day of the strike, so I went ahead and created an asylum at InsaneJournal for the purpose.

http://asylums.insanejournal.com/picket_line/

Membership and posting is open, though I'll be around Friday to make sure no one gets ugly. Feel free to spread the link around and use it day of for support, morale-boosting, plotting, etc. Because tsukinofaerii is right, LJ could easily be termed an addiction! :D