Migrants to IJ, 2007

Bots On LJ

07refugees@insanejournal.com — Fri, 03 Oct 2008 00:13:45 GMT

Bots are joining Live Journal!

http://community.livejournal.com/lj_support/762150.html

So non humans are joining LJ and friending people, I am assuming it is the rash of Russian auto-frienders!

Hackgate '08

07refugees@insanejournal.com — Thu, 02 Oct 2008 04:41:17 GMT

So, what appears to be Russian hackers have been taking down journals and communities over on LJ -- posting a link to a Russian site with commenting turned off, and then going back through the journal or community and deleting everything, changing the journal passwords and e-mail addresses, and gods know what else. Copperbadge (sams_cafe over here) was just hit really bad, and I know I saw the wga_supporters community go down last week, along with it's maintainer's journal.

Does anyone know exactly how many journals were hit, or what LJ has been doing about it (if anything)? I haven't seen any news anywhere, other than on the journals of the individuals involved. (And now I'm curious, now that I've... you know, backed up my journal and made sure my current e-mail address was validated...)

Russian goes after Russian Live Journal bloggers

07refugees@insanejournal.com — Sat, 23 Aug 2008 19:38:50 GMT

Russian Government goes after Live Journal bloggers.

I wonder if SUP owning Live Journal and them having close ties to the Russian Government is making it easier to go after people expressing their political opinions?

Less than thirty minutes

07refugees@insanejournal.com — Sat, 09 Aug 2008 16:54:43 GMT

It took less than half an hour for LJ to privatize my request about "Increased limits for Basic accounts." (I'm not surprised; they've ignored the request I made four months ago on the topic.)

http://www.livejournal.com/support/see_request.bml?id=907482 & auth =xwjk (Remove spaces to see request; IJ's coding removes auth bits otherwise). Full text:

At the announcement of the 100-day plan at http://community.livejournal.com/lj_2008/1794.html, one of the features promised was "Increase certain limits for Basic and Plus accounts." The new post in lj_2008 mentions increased userpics for Plus, but nothing about Basic accounts.

Which limits have been or will be increased for Basic accounts?

Any bets on ever getting an answer to that one? Or will it wait a few days until they release info about the new ad-supported Basic accounts, and claim that there are "increased limits" somewhere in there? (We know a lot of you have been awaiting our decision on Basic Accounts, so watch this space for an announcement August 14, 2008. Any changes to Basic Accounts will also affect how we deal with Basic Communities, so you can also expect an update on that.)

Paranoia run rampant or... ???

07refugees@insanejournal.com — Sat, 26 Jul 2008 17:15:34 GMT

Have you recently had Russian LJ'ers friending you? I've noticed that the last 3 of 5 new people who have friended me are Russian. Now I have no problem with someone friending me Russian or whatever else, but looking over their profiles there are NO common interest. The journals are all in Russian so I can't read them. Am I being paranoid or does this reek of something????

Seems like fandom is starting to turn on itself.

07refugees@insanejournal.com — Tue, 22 Jul 2008 04:34:50 GMT

A friend of mine recently posted an entry in their LJ that I think everyone needs to be told about.

http://dejana.livejournal.com/152580.html

07refugees@insanejournal.com — Thu, 17 Jul 2008 17:38:00 GMT

I don't know if anyone has noticed, but LJ's bringing basic accounts back by the end of the summer for the Northern Hemisphere.

Thoughts? Comments?

LiveJournal Abuse Really Takes the Cake

07refugees@insanejournal.com — Wed, 09 Jul 2008 04:00:35 GMT

This is cross-posted from my journal here.

I posted this to LJ Abuse from a community I belong to. It's illegal in New York State to sell fireworks and I thought it would be illegal on LJ to do that do.

http://community.livejournal.com/buffalo_dorks/2418977.html

FIREWORKS FOR SALE!

FIREWORKS!

I have tons of them that I bought in PA a few months ago. I'm looking to sell them. So, if you're interested in buying them, get at me! It'll save you all that gas money from driving to PA for them. Also, they are NOT silly little bottle rockets and such. I'm talking real fourth of July boomcrackers. I have a car, so if you don't drive and really want them, I'm willing to drive them to you -- for a small gas fee of course.

You can just drop me a comment here and we'll discuss prices, or if you prefer privacy e-mail me at jodiejustice@xxxxxxxxxx.com. I can take pictures of the fireworks for you as well.

So this is what I wrote:

Prozacnation (********@grilled-cheese.org)
Account type: Plus Account
LiveJournal: username: [info]prozacnation
style: (S2) core: public, i18n: none, i18nc: none, layout: public, theme: public, user: custom,
email validated?yes
cluster: Soybean; data version : 7
scheme: dystopia; language: en_LJ
underage? no
Support category: Abuse
Time posted: Thu, 03 Jul 2008 03:55:54 GMT (3 days ago)
Status: answered (still needs help)
Summary: +(03) unk poss IA in buffalo_dorks [PE]

This is a private request. It is not publicly visible.

Original Request:
This is illegal in New York State:
http://community.livejournal.com/buffalo_dorks/2418977.html

*
Diagnostics: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 6.0; en-US; rv:1.9) Gecko/2008052906 Firefox/3.0

===========================
Their reply

Answer (#3432474)
Posted: Sun, 06 Jul 2008 23:12:55 GMT (4 hours ago)

Dear LiveJournal user prozacnation!

Thank you for your report. Unfortunately, the entry to which you link is protected. The Abuse Prevention Team is unable to view protected entries; this ability is limited to select LiveJournal employees and is only used in the event of grievous violations of United States law or LiveJournal's Terms of Service. Without evidence that the entry contains such material, we will be unable to assist you.

Regards,
Pauline
LiveJournal Abuse Prevention Team

===========================
WHAT?! You don't have the VIEWALL option for ABUSE? When we did Abuse for GJ the abuse team had the VIEWALL option so we could see illegal activities. People get suspended for listing LOLITA in their interests but it's okay to sell fireworks?????

Oh yeah, I was pissed and of course I needed MORE HELP from their half assed abuse department.

Comment (#3432616)
Posted: Mon, 07 Jul 2008 02:48:40 GMT (36 minutes ago)

For the Abuse Team on Greatestjournal, all members had the VIEWALL option to see the protected entries.

Buffalo is located in new York and in NEW YORK this is illegal.

http://www.dos.state.ny.us/fire/firewww.html

If you would like, I can contact the Office of Fire Prevention and Control and they can serve you with a subpoena to open the locked entry that you cannot see located on Live Journal.

From the Buffalo News about the confiscation of illegal fireworks in the area:
http://www.wkbw.com/news/local/22451964.html

http://community.livejournal.com/buffalo_dorks/2418977.html?viewall

Here is the entry that you cannot see:

Jodie ([info]herljusername) wrote in [info]buffalo_dorks,
@ 2008-07-02 20:10:00

/ \

Previous Entry Add to memories! Edit Tags Track This Next Entry

\ /
Current mood: calm

FIREWORKS FOR SALE!
FIREWORKS!

I have tons of them that I bought in PA a few months ago. I'm looking to sell them. So, if you're interested in buying them, get at me! It'll save you all that gas money from driving to PA for them. Also, they are NOT silly little bottle rockets and such. I'm talking real fourth of July boomcrackers. I have a car, so if you don't drive and really want them, I'm willing to drive them to you -- for a small gas fee of course.

You can just drop me a comment here and we'll discuss prices, or if you prefer privacy e-mail me at jodiejustice@xxxxxxxxxx.com. I can take pictures of the fireworks for you as well.

===================================================

It is interesting that people were suspended for listing certain items in their userinfo or posting something protected in their personal journal that was "fanfic". YET you are not able to see someone selling fireworks in a protected entry in a community that is located in a state that considers this ILLEGAL. This is more illegal than putting "lolita" as an interest on the userinfo page.

This is yet again why I would not renew my account on here giving LJ the money for my yearly fees and extra userpics.

Thanks again for not having the VIEWALL option. Someone on the Abuse Team should have it as you are investigating Abuse.

I'm still waiting for the response to the ticket after I added to it.

CNN article on internet freedom of speech

07refugees@insanejournal.com — Tue, 08 Jul 2008 11:04:21 GMT

Here's an article on Internet Freedom of Speech that mentions the 07 debacle on LJ. Admittedly, they have glossed over or or erred on some details. However, beyond picking at the specific context, it's generally an interesting look at speech issues on the net. The piece makes an excellent point about the social significance of being expelled from a community like LJ or MySpace, among other things.

New default sitescheme poll

07refugees@insanejournal.com — Mon, 07 Jul 2008 22:27:41 GMT

A poll is up, on announcements, to vote on a new default sitescheme for IJ.

Go vote.

Thoughts on journalling preferences

07refugees@insanejournal.com — Sun, 01 Jun 2008 07:06:09 GMT

Thank you to everyone who's taken my poll on journalling preferences. It's still open so if you haven't taken it yet, please come on over. I've just put together a few of the (hopefully) interesting things I noticed.

IJ vs. LJ

07refugees@insanejournal.com — Fri, 30 May 2008 20:45:07 GMT

This is something I've been wondering for a while now, but in light of LJ's announcement, I'm even more curious. I'd appreciate it you could take a second to fill out a quick poll on your journaling habits.

Please feel free to distribute this poll on InsaneJournal! I'd like to get as many answers as possible from IJ users.

Thank you!

Comments @ GreatestJounal no longer working?

07refugees@insanejournal.com — Wed, 14 May 2008 11:04:11 GMT

Every once in a while I like to check up on GJ and make a big "BACK UP YOUR JOURNAL! FLEE NOW, WHILE YOU STILL CAN!" comment to the last ~news post. This morning when I went there I got this when I clicked the "comment" link:

This happening for anyone else?

Support requests marked "answered" w/o answer

07refugees@insanejournal.com — Tue, 13 May 2008 02:14:35 GMT

Found two more today--support requests marked "answered," with no answer listed.

#824444, about the unsearchable interest terms.
#836059, about graphic artwork policy not included in the TOS or FAQ.

That's the third support request they've closed without answering; there's another, from late March, that they've just been ignoring--I assume that when it gets old enough, they'll mark it "answered" and let it drop off their "open requests" list. (#862270, asking what promised "increased limits for Basic and Plus users" the new owners will be implementing, since they got rid of Basic accounts.)

I suppose this is not news to anyone. Just thought I'd mention--if you made a support request a while back, especially on a touchy subject that takes a policymaker's decision rather than an abuse team member's judgment call ("is this random wankage, or real harassment?"), it may have been marked "done" without telling you.

Squeaky Headquarters

07refugees@insanejournal.com — Fri, 09 May 2008 16:06:13 GMT

As it stands now, squeaky is a strong contender for the LJ Advisory Board, coming in at second place for number of actual nominations. I believe that squeaky actually does have a chance, but the word needs to be spread that squeaky represents the choice of substance over style, that he knows how to listen to a userbase, and that he is not a Drama Goon.

Other candidates are setting up communities for campaign headquarters on LJ, so I think there ought to be one for squeaky as well. Does anyone want to volunteer for this? Please don't volunteer unless you've had experience running fairly large communities, and are willing to heavily promote the comm in the various LJ promo communities. I don't really feel qualified, so I'm hoping that someone else will step up.

ETA1: So far aristoboule has volunteered.

ETA2: I went ahead and set up vote_squeaky here on IJ as well as LiveJournal.

Squeaky. Srs Bsness.

Squeaky Posters

07refugees@insanejournal.com — Tue, 06 May 2008 20:22:38 GMT

Support Squeaky!

I thought it would be cool to use the symbol for Open Source to represent Squeaky. There's also the dual meaning of "openness" with the userbase that I'm hoping to convey here. But I'm sure there's plenty of creative folks that can come up good alternatives.

ETA: Squeaky likes the poster, but asked me to make an icon. I'm just not an icon wizard. This was the best I could do:

I'll leave it up to more artistic folks to run with the idea.

Squeaky Throws His Hat In The Ring!

07refugees@insanejournal.com — Tue, 06 May 2008 16:44:32 GMT

squeaky had thrown his hat in the nomination ring for the LJ Advisory Board. Let's show him our support! Go here to support his nomination.

07refugees@insanejournal.com — Mon, 28 Apr 2008 11:41:35 GMT

dang it...I can't get my email posts to work.

Anyone else having this problem?

Vote for what kind of service you want

07refugees@insanejournal.com — Fri, 18 Apr 2008 19:38:26 GMT

Squeaky has posted a poll asking IJers what kind of hosting service they would prefer to move to, and what we'd be willing to pay for it. Seemed like the kind of thing this community would want to know of.

LJ Archive possible overwrite question

07refugees@insanejournal.com — Thu, 17 Apr 2008 13:46:11 GMT

I forget where I saved this information or where it is, but I want to be sure before I do anything.

I archived everything back in January, then imported it all with LJ-sec.

My question is: I want to archive my IJ regularly. Do I need to make a new folder/name for each time I do this? Or do I actually *want* to overwrite my older file, seeing's how I've added to it?

What do you-all do? What is best?

I promise I will put this post and all its replies in my Memories!! :-D

Thanks in advance!

07refugees@insanejournal.com — Thu, 17 Apr 2008 00:52:03 GMT

People who have paid accounts and are not upset at Squeaky and Insanity over the recent downtime - considering how hard they worked to get it fixed ASAP and keeping us up to date on Twitter - if you don't want or need compensation for the 36 hours we were without the site, Ardath has set up no_comp_needed. Like fandom_counts on LJ last June, it's not likely to have any real post traffic, it's just a head-count asylum to show support for the staff and let them know that we don't feel that they owe us anything for something that was out of their control.

Need feed help

07refugees@insanejournal.com — Sun, 06 Apr 2008 07:52:15 GMT

I recently started a weekly newsletter to promote the Queer as Folk fandom on InsaneJournal. It's a roundup of all fandom activity on IJ, and there's a lot, so it's a long, graphics and link heavy newsletter.

I created a feed on LiveJournal for it, and have a lot of subscribers, but every time I have sent it, the entire newsletter dumps onto LJ friends pages, with, just to add insult to injury, mangled code.

I've done a LOT of feeds since moving here, and I understand them. I had it set to give a summary. The newsletter is in a table format, behind a LJ cut.

I have used my backup journal and experimented with "set title" and "set summary," with a lot of plain text before the cut, with the table eliminated, and NOTHING works. If I skip the table and set it to summary, it does truncate about halfway through, but that's not good enough.

Even "set title" results in the exact same result as "set summary."

And the commands are successful when I enter them at the IJ admin console, so that's not it.

This is the newsletter:

queer_as_news

Obviously if I can't fix this, people on LJ will stop subscribing, as it's a hot mess on their friends page. I've run out of ideas, personally. If you want to see what I've tried, it's all at xie_backup.

Thanks for any help you can give!

How to migrate from LiveJournal to WordPress (and crosspost to InsaneJournal)

07refugees@insanejournal.com — Sat, 05 Apr 2008 03:38:20 GMT

Thanks to everyone who commented on my post the other day about cross-posting between WordPress, InsaneJournal, and LiveJournal.

For those who were interested in more details, I've written up a proper guide for how to migrate from LiveJournal to WordPress. It includes how to cross-post your entries to LiveJournal, InsaneJournal, and/or other journaling sites, and how to pull in userpics if your commenters come from LiveJournal, InsaneJournal, or Journalfen.

You can read it here.

Moving from LiveJournal to WordPress & InsaneJournal, and Cross-Posting to All Three Simultaneously

07refugees@insanejournal.com — Wed, 02 Apr 2008 23:00:44 GMT

I recently moved from LiveJournal to a WordPress blog on my own server, with a backup on InsaneJournal. I'm *really* happy with it, so I thought I'd share my experience in case anyone here may be interested in doing something similar.

* I was able to copy my LiveJournal archives to WordPress using LJ Archive and WordPress' built-in LiveJournal importer. It copied all entries and comments, although the comments lost their threading. It didn't copy metadata (security settings, icons, tags, moods, music, etc) but I was able to restore most of that pretty easily. (Security settings with a simple MySQL query, tags with the SimpleTags plug in).

* I was able to copy my LiveJournal archives to InsaneJournal using LJ Migrate. It copied everything but comments; moods, tags, music, icons, you name it. I found LJ Sec useful for removing duplicate entries (I'd been manually cross-posting between LJ and IJ for a while.) I found karma_apple's tutorials invaluable.

* I installed a bunch of plugins to get my WordPress blog working like a LiveJournal clone (moods, icons, threaded comments with emailed replies, something resembling security settings). Here's a post explaining which plugins I chose. The only thing I haven't figured out is how to get OpenID working with threaded comments, so if anyone knows how to do that, please share.

* There are some areas where WordPress completely kicks LJ's ass. Like excellent statistics, drag-and-drop widgets for arranging your sidebar, tons of nifty themes (over which you have way more control), and awesome plugins for things like photo galleries and managing tags. I was able to duplicate friendslock functionality, but I do miss the ability to post to custom friends groups.

* There's already a plugin to cross-post automatically from WordPress to LiveJournal (or InsaneJournal, or theoretically any other LJ clone site): LiveJournal Crossposter. It's quite nifty, because it doesn't just cross-post new entries; it also allows you to edit and delete entries in WordPress, with the changes reflected on LiveJournal. The only thing it doesn't cross-post is icons, moods, and music, since you need plugins for those. It does cross-post tags, but you have to put them in WordPress as categories (which is easy).

* LiveJournal Crossposter doesn't have the ability to cross-post to multiple journals, though. So I, uh, I figured out a way: InsaneJournal Crossposter. If you install LiveJournal Crossposter and InsaneJournal Crossposter, you'll be able to cross-post to all three sites simultaneously. And you'll be able to edit or delete entries in WordPress, with the changes reflected instantly on all three sites. (Which is nicer than Semagic, because Semagic doesn't let you make simultaneous edits once an entry is posted.) You can also have different friendslock and comment settings for each journal; for example, I've set it to allow comments on my InsaneJournal entries, but not on my LiveJournal entries.

I made this by duplicating LiveJournal Crossposter but changing all the "LiveJournal" references to "InsaneJournal." (I'm kind of shocked that it worked.) In theory, you could also do this for JournalFen or any other LJ clone site, and cross-post to all of them simultaneously.

(I make no guarantees about this, but it's working so far and it's a great time saver.)

If anyone has any questions, I'd be happy to answer. And if you try any of this, I'd be really curious to hear how it worked for you.

Edited to add: I've written up a proper guide on how to migrate from LiveJournal to WordPress. It includes a couple of custom plugins that I modified. You can read it here.

Something IJ-related

07refugees@insanejournal.com — Mon, 31 Mar 2008 20:18:26 GMT

(Note: I know this is kind of a borderline case, but I've talked to the maintainer to make sure it's not against the rules or something. I'll keep myself short!)

As we have a lot of newcomers and co-refugees from LJ, I decided to revive the InsaneJournal Asylum Meme. Initially I created it in January 2008, with the main purpose of raising activity on IJ and, as a side effect, the awareness of existing asylums. In short, you cross-post one of your old entries (be it essays, general [i.e. non-fandom] discussion, icons, fan fic...) or otherwise post to asylums that haven't been active in a while, and then all updates are compiled in a master list. More info in this post.