Livejournal Update: State of the Goat-Punching

[nookiepowered]

Hi, folks. We know you've been waiting on news and discussion about Fandom High's future location and how we're going to work that out as a community. So have we, but it's been pretty scarce, and thus there hasn't been much to pass on before now. Livejournal has been exceptionally Livejournalish for the past month, even more so than usual, about not letting us know what's going on and when/if things will be changed.

Like we said back in the Open Forum, though, while we still hope we can stay with LJ, your admin critters don't want to be them, so we want to keep you up to date with what we've been doing and thinking.

We've been gathering as much LJ-based information as we can by tracking comments in the existing news and lj_releases posts, new posts in the changelog community, and also joining the Russian language beta, lj_ru_beta. Sadly there's a very limited amount of news we can glean from those last two, for technical reasons with changelog and language reasons with the other. (Huge, huge thanks to taseredagod for helping us post feedback there by translating it into Russian so the techs could understand it.)

We've also been keeping up on the changes made at Dreamwidth; we're happy to let you know that they've now set things up so that imported comments can be "claimed" and attached to the owner's Dreamwidth journal. So if a move does happen, you'll be able to fix all those Open ID comments in old threads, and automagically put the icons back so everything is pretty again. (As long as the player is still around to do that for their old/current character journals.)

In the OF, we said the plan was to announce a decision about LJ vs. Somewhere Else by February 19th, with a poll beforehand (unless things at LJ got so very fixed that staying seemed a foregone conclusion). We're still planning on a poll, and we're still not going anywhere if the majority of players vote to stay. We do, however, need to shift those dates a bit, due to some hopefully-good news.

Up until yesterday, after several delays where it seemed like info was about to come out from LJ and then it didn't, our intent was to put that poll up for you on the 16th. (And extend the decision deadline by a few days so you'd have more time to vote.)

However, while the company was busy touting its new LJ Media community program instead of saying anything about fixing the problems from the recent release, one of the volunteers let us know that the non-Cyrillic Beta version of Release 89 just went live for the staff and high-level volunteers, and it does include the long-promised classic comments style.

It seems to be tied to Minimalism (aka the S2 style that most of us are using right now) in a way that might mean we'd still be limited in our journal designs to an extent -- we don't know the details beyond the phrasing of the tweets the volunteer made. If so, though, there are a lot of Minimalism designs to choose from (around 40 just from LJ, plus any customized layouts that users have created) so it could still be a pretty workable option for all of us, if Classic Comments are available for all Minimalism layouts.

With this in mind, we're expecting/hoping that Release 89 will go public sometime next week, and we'd like to hold off on polling the game about staying or moving until after that happens. This way we'll know more about what options to put on the poll, and you'll have a chance to try out the changes and fixes that come with R89, and make your decision based on more information.

This means we no longer have a specific decision deadline date (and moving during Spring Break isn't feasible anymore, no matter what happens), but our revised plan is to get a poll up for you within a week after Livejournal Release 89 goes live, and give you at least 5 days to vote in it. Once that poll closes, we'll start totaling up opinions and get back to you ASAP with the final decision and discussion of how we're going to Make It Work. (If anyone knows Tim Gunn's cell number, he is totally invited to that post. FH needs all the silver-foxed help it can get.)

Questions? Comments? Suggestions? We're all ears. Except for Lainey, who's all toes.

Comments

[emoclops.livejournal.com]

Do you prefer punching goats with a boxing glove, or does good old fashioned bare knuckle punchin' better?

Seriously, though, thank you for the update. The delay sounds reasonable and I have my fingers crossed that the LJ update actually helps matters.

[nookiepowered]

I prefer punching goats with THE FIST OF AN ANGRY GOD.

[xxlstretchpants.livejournal.com]

Lies. We all know the secret about Lainey's toes.

But thank you for the update. The last thing I've had time to do is try and see what LJ was doing or not doing. It's nice to know that our crack admin team is looking out for us.

Or you're just on crack. Po-tay-toe/Po-tah-toe.

[nookiepowered]

It could be po-tay-to and po-tah-toe. Crackheads are capable of loving you too, you know.

[chief-cheerio.livejournal.com]

Thank you for the update.

I understand and appreciate the decision to delay the vote. That said and quite candidly, I have gone from tepid to enthusiastic about moving over the last month.

This is because I simply do not trust LiveJournal to provide a minimal level of service. When was the last time we had a full week without a DDOS attack, "varnish" errors, randomly delayed comments, and so on? I doubt anybody remembers.

Now, I understand the DDOS part is not their fault, and I've been patient about it for that reason. But there are few if any signs they're capable of or even interested in improving the site's performance; as you noted, their general approach to communicating with their users is exceptionally pathetic.

I'm not a DreamWidth booster. I agree that it's overhyped, didn't sign up for it when it was the new shiny thing for exactly that reason, and it's unlikely I'll ever export my personal journal. But I feel the game deserves a platform that works, and DW seems like it can provide that in a way LJ doesn't.

There are still hurdles, of course. I understand moving will be a major pain in the kiester, and, for many of us, one that will represent a financial hit. The fact we'll lose icons in old threads that port over doesn't really bother me, but I can understand why it's an emotional hit. I also agree their journal designs aren't as pretty, but it sounds like a full range of pretty journals are lost to the ages no matter where we are.

All of that said ... you're stuck with me no matter what. I'm not paying LJ again, so I'll be playing with 15 icons for eternity if we stay, but there are worse things in the world.

That is all. Now, have I attracted any teal deer?

[fh_beasties]

OM NOM NOM NOM NOM.

(Which should on no account be taken as a sign that all teal deer present are not also way past irritated with LJ.)

[unburnt-queen.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the update, guys; it's much appreciated. I'm still personally sort of ambivalent about moving, but like E said above me, LJ hasn't exactly imbued me with a sense of hope that things might get better.

But here's to being optimistic, and thank you guys for staying on top of this, because god knows I wasn't aside from the occasional "GODDAMMIT LJ WTF WHY WON'T YOU LOAD UGH I FORGOT TO CHANGE MY LAYOUT SO I COULD PING FROM MY PHONE SMH" curse-streams thrown at Twitter.

[wesleynotponcy.livejournal.com]

Thank you guys so much for this update. Pushing back the poll date for the reasoning you've provided makes a lot of sense and, frankly, calms my nerves about the process a little bit. All your hard work on this is really appreciated.

[serial-quitter.livejournal.com]

Thank you so much for keeping us updated. You'd think that Livejournal, being a social media company, would be a little bit better at communicating with their English-speaking users if they weren't so fail-tastic.

[nookiepowered]

Seriously, on that last thought. Seriously.

[taseredagod.livejournal.com]

Randomly, my mom gave my translation a B+, with point off for improper conjugation and use of google translate, and bonus points for interesting usages. Final note was "stick to poetry".

[nookiepowered]

Aha! I would think that poetry is the hardest to translate and still keep the same meaning / lyrical qualities.

[taseredagod.livejournal.com]

It's easier because I translate into English :)

[nothornlessrose.livejournal.com]

Thank you guys for the update. *hugs all and gives booze*

I'm still up for moving, but you will be stuck with me no matter what. :D

Seriously, though, thank you for doing such a good job keeping us all in the loop.

[trickydemigod.livejournal.com]

Thanks for updating us and pushing the date back. I'm still not up for moving so I'm glad you're waiting a bit to see how the release works.

[wwiii]

Thank you guys for the update! Waiting a little longer so that we can all make informed decisions is perfectly fine by me!

[wasthecuteone]

Okay, so LJ ate my comment the first time I tried to reply, so let's see if this time goes any better...

Thank you for keeping us updated. I understood the delay, because LJ kept promising news and then not delivering...I assume that by 'big news on the fifteenth' they meant, "Hey you might see a press release on the new supercomms if you know where to look!" *punches goat*

I remain really committed than ever to the idea of moving, and while I completely understand waiting to see if the new release fixes anything, I'm kind of getting sick of waiting. It just feels like we're stuck in limbo right now, you know?

That said, y'all are stuck with me, even if, if we stay, I'll be playing with fifteen icons per journal eventually. Hell, I already am with Anna, and I have to delete one tonight so I can do bodyswap. It's gonna suck, but LJ gets no more of my money.

Also, as a data point, I can say from experience that they haven't fixed the Firefox-users-unable-to-use-new-commenting-system problem yet, at least not entirely, because I've stumbled across a few roomposts in journals still using the new commenting style where if I'm logged in as Anna (since plus can't make all journals display in their style), it doesn't work.

[glacial_queen]

Since I'm also on the no-buying-new-icons bandwagon, I can share a trick I intend to use?

Stop having a default icon. Then use the < img src > tag at the beginning of each ping with an icon of your choice. You'll still get an icon, it's just in the body of the comment instead of outside of it. It's what I do in preplays, and I've started doing it slightly more in regular threads, too. I've got a whole Photobucket account for Karla, broken down to subfolders by emotion.

I know that's something helping me stick to my principles of not giving LJ any more cash.

[izzyalienqueen.livejournal.com]

Yup, I still can't comment using Firefox on the new system. It's annoying as hell.

You can also add me to the list of people that will no longer pay LJ money. When the time comes, I'll be deleting icons and just working with 15.

Much love to the admins for trying to deal with all of this.

[angelo_wings]

Thanks for the update, guys. I noticed we werenearing spring break and was starting to worry that we hadn't heard anything -- I trust you guys not to be LJ, but I've been burned by LJ so much that I deep down don't really trust anybody not to turn into LJ, if that makes sense? (It's not meant as a diss. More a sign of my bitterness, I swear.)

Is Minimalism one of the styles you can use with a free account?

Most of my accounts are set to lapse back to free any day now, and I have no idea if I'm going to lose my custom comment pages when that happens. Did anyone else lose theirs? I really do not want to be faced with the choice of either giving LJ money or having to use those horrifying migraine-inducing default comment pages.

I'm not sure a week will be enough time to see all the bells and whistles of the new update -- there might be hidden features that are shiny, or, conversely, hidden bugs we don't spot. But that's not my call, I'm just commenting.

Also, fucking hell, LJ, why have they not even mentioned this to us? Better question, why am I still asking about LJ's shitty customer service?

[ft_directory]

If only I could answer the last ones.

The ones I can answer are yep, Minimalism is one you can use with a free account. You can't get all of the minimalism styles with it, but you can get... looks like 33 out of 40.

And (I say after playing around with ft_directory and switching it between Plus and Basic) it looks like Basic loses the custom comments page, yes. Plus has access to it, though, so if you can put up with the ads, you can still get them without paying any of your own money into LJ.