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Bo Jones. Or maybe Dennis. ([personal profile] nookiepowered) wrote in [community profile] fandomhigh_ooc2012-10-30 06:41 pm
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Livejournal Release 98: The "IDEK What To Say Here, Man" Edition

LJ Releases | News | Summaries of machine-translated Russian News and Igrick posts

Minor Changes

* There's now a "share on Tumblr" button that can be manually added to posts or inserted via the Rich Text Editor. (In addition to the FB and Twitter ones that have been around for ages.)

* The stats page (Paid/Plus accounts only) now tracks traffic from non-LJ visitors as well as LJ users.

* Scrapbook now provides instant pop-up access to the direct link and html code for each picture.


The Big Kahuna

LJ has unveiled the public beta version of a new Friends page that's a sitewide style, rather than matching your journal design. Aside from the general and resounding Do Not Want of that whole concept, specific problems with the design include:

  • No sidebar, so you lose access to your Links list and any other stuff you have stashed there in free text boxes.



  • Infinite scrolling a la Tumblr/Facebook/Twitter with no way (as of yet) to turn that off. As well as chewing up memory/bandwidth, this can make it hard to keep track of where you are while scrolling, especially if you leave the page, then come back.



  • White, white, white.



  • Chunky entry blocks that take up so much vertical space per entry that I had to shrink the screen resolution to 70% to get more than one entry to show in this screencap.



  • The LJ-Cut scissors are back, because they're harder to make a fake version of that's really just a link somewhere else. Which LJ doesn't want us doing, apparently. (Presumably it's a spam/malware protection, in their minds.)



  • There are no customizing options. What you see is what everyone gets. (Allegedly -- meaning I don't have direct links, just the summaries of comments made in the Russian-language posts -- there will be a few in the future, possibly limited to background image and font size. Also allegedly, there will be an on-off toggle for the infinite scroll.)



Possible benefits/neutrals are those little buttons floating on the right side in the screenshot, which stay put while the flist scrolls, and let you access filters and calendar from the pictured ones. Once you've scrolled down a bit you'll get a floating "Up" button, and a notification one will also appear if new entries are added to the top of your infinitely scrolling feed.

You can try it out by enabling the Nav Strip on your journal, then going to your Friends page; a blue bar will appear directly below the Nav Strip that says "You're using the old version of the Friends page — switch to the new one" with a link. (Some folks aren't seeing the blue bar, but I don't know if those people just don't have the Nav Strip on, or there's an actual bug.)

Right now, you can switch back and forth between your regular flist (with blue bar that won't go away) and the new version (with blue bar that won't go away). When the beta period is over (no date given for that), the option to use your old style will go away.

Unless LJ listens to the 1500 and counting emphatically negative comments (vs. approximately two positive comments that aren't from spammers) on the News and Releases posts, and lets the new version remain optional at the end of the beta period. That's certainly the outcome we're hoping for.

If you've got feedback for LJ, we encourage you to head to those posts linked at the top and add your thoughts. (The Russian translation one is just a non-staff dude who posts those summaries as a service to fellow users -- if you want to leave feedback on those, follow his links.)

If you've got goat-punching needs, we're here -- though I personally would suggest wearing gloves, since the goat is clearly suffering from some form of dementia this time, and who knows if the source is congenital or communicable.

[identity profile] gdiumbrella.livejournal.com 2012-10-30 10:56 pm (UTC)(link)
As a beta tester I got word of this like a week ago, but I decided to close my eyes and forget the whole deal.

Just checked the Beta post- as usual the tester's pleads for not allowing that idea to ever see the light were ignored. I know, shocking.
genesishero: (DON'T TALK ABOUT KANSAS LIKE THAT)

[personal profile] genesishero 2012-10-31 12:33 am (UTC)(link)
Do not want do not want do not want.

[identity profile] gdiumbrella.livejournal.com 2012-10-31 05:28 pm (UTC)(link)
Also, this. (http://darth-eldritch.livejournal.com/156797.html)

I can't read Russian so I don't know if this guy is serious about the paid accounts.

[identity profile] mpoetess.livejournal.com 2012-10-31 05:41 pm (UTC)(link)
*lazy replies from RL journal*

This comment (http://ru-news.livejournal.com/27672.html?style=mine&thread=2388504#t2388504) machine-translates to:

"I will share with you a secret: in fact there will be one type of account, but will be packages. All current services of current paid account will be included in the package, which all run out and paysite. Plus added a number of services in this package. But also, you can buy all of the services to be alone, without the package, which is now impossible."

Which I think in human is "Paid/plus/basic accounts will eventually be eliminated, but all of the features of paid accounts will be available to purchase either by themselves, or in packages." So (sometime in the future which the guy won't or can't give a date on), they plan to make all of the bonus stuff -- extra userpics, extra scrapbook space, customized comment pages, etc. -- available to all users.

In theory, this might actually be an improvement, if the pricing is sane. You would just pay for the exact features you want -- extra icons, for instance -- and not the ones you don't.

[identity profile] gdiumbrella.livejournal.com 2012-10-31 05:43 pm (UTC)(link)
Here's to hope it goes that way then.