PSA: Fixing Livejournal

[mdlbear]

Here, in two easy pieces, is how to fix Livejournal's recent problems.

Fixing the comment page.

1. First, if you're still using an S1 (ancient) style, switch to S2.
2. Go to your profile.
3. Go to Journal > Journal Style, and in the box headed <yourID>'s Current Theme click on "Customize your theme" (or just follow the link)
4. Under "Basic Options", find the line labeled "Disable customized comment pages for your journal". Select "No". (As in "no, don't fsck up my comments".)
5. Go to Profile > Settings > Display(tab) (or just follow this link.)
6. Under "Comment Pages", check the box for "View comment pages from my Friends page in my own style"

Fixing DDOS attacks, Rich Text Editor failures, and a host of other problems.

1. Go to dreamwidth.org and create an account. For the rest of this year you can create a free account without an invite code, but a paid account is well worth the price.
2. From your profile, go to Organize > Manage Account > Other Sites (tab), or follow this link.
3. Add your LJ account under "Crossposting", and check the boxes under "Crosspost by Default" and "Display Crosspost Link". Now anything you post on your shiny new DW account will be crossposted to LJ.
4. Go to Organize > Import Content (or follow the link to Import Journal). Import your old LJ contents. Do this every month or so to import the accumulated comments.

Now, sit back and watch the ongoing decline of LJ with a certain air of amused detachment.

Comments

Thank you!

[wyld-dandelyon.livejournal.com]

I appreciate the links. It makes doing these things so much easier. I suppose I should also get a paid DW account...

Re: Thank you!

[mdlbear]

You're welcome. Yes, you probably should.

Re: Thank you!

[thnidu.livejournal.com]

Just exactly what she said!

Although I do have one minor complaint about DW. I have about 45 userpics here on LJ. I am allowed 15 on DW. In the import process, "if you have more user icons than you are allowed here, only the default one will be imported". I suppose that lets you pick and choose, but how do I do that?

And how many will I get w a paid account?

[thnidu.livejournal.com]

boosted

Re: Thank you!

[kshandra]

I'm not quite sure I follow what you mean by picking and choosing. You can manually upload whichever of your current LJ icons you'd like to take with you to DW, sure, but Loiosh is the only one that will automatically import with your entries. (When you do manually upload userpics, if you name them the same on both sides, you can select "Update icon keywords" the next time you do an import, and any entries that used those icons on LJ will be updated on the DW side to use them, as well.)

Paid DW accounts get 100 userpics.

Re: Thank you!

[thnidu.livejournal.com]

Thanks.

[thnidu.livejournal.com]

boosted again

[mdlbear]

Thanks! Glad it's coming in handy.

[phillip2637.livejournal.com]

I've now tried the comment fix on two journals and, for unknown reasons, I see no difference when using either setting for customized comment pages. I saw a post that suggested the result was also influenced by the style the journal was using but I haven't tracked down anything specific about that either. (My two use quite different styles.)

I'm still trying to figure out if there's another factor or whether I've misread simple instructions from both you and filkertom. It could happen! :)

[mdlbear]

Whether it can be fixed or not depends on the style -- only S2 styles can be fixed this way, apparently, and even then it may depend on the journal's style.

[kyrielle]

Only S2 styles, and you need to view *all* journals in your style (the option above the comment one) for it to work when you're viewing things you didn't get to via your Friends page. If you do a lot of reading following direct links, or directly in the journal, or using the friendsfriends page, you'll want that on.

It does have to be an S2 style unfortunately. They've "fixed" S1. :P

[phillip2637.livejournal.com]

I am using S2, I believe -- at least, it gives me an option to revert to S1 (which I haven't clicked) so I take that as evidence.

It doesn't seem to matter how I get to a journal; even attempting to comment on a post of my own gets me the new comment form.

For me, it's not a big deal from a practical point of view. The software developer/debugger in me just gets curious when something that's supposed to work doesn't. :)

[asavitzk.livejournal.com]

Thank you for this basic guide. It plus the DDOS stuff plus the general attitude from LJ is finally enough to push me to move. I just signed up with Dreamwidth and am waiting in the queue for my import.

[judifilksign.livejournal.com]

Well, I am in the queue in Dreamwidth to import my LJ stuff. I've had a fear of losing my entire journal.

Thank you for the instructions; I'm not an intuitive user, and really appreciate the clear, step-by-step guides.

[kyrielle]

Do you have it set to use custom comment pages, as described in the post above, fixing comments #4? If so, maybe your style doesn't have comment styling.... :|

[mdlbear]

You're welcome! See you on the other side.

[mdlbear]

You're welcome. Having a backup was my initial reason for going to DW. The fact that it's easier to use and has more cool features was a nice bonus.

What LJ commenting bugs?

[pingback-bot.livejournal.com]

User natalief referenced to your post from What LJ commenting bugs? (http://natalief.livejournal.com/1788038.html) saying: [...] of the problems with LJ commenting and so on that people keep mentioning: PSA: Fixing Livejournal [...]

[asavitzk.livejournal.com]

Question - do you know of a way to subscribe to an LJ community on Dreamwidth? I figured out how to recreate all my RSS feeds but the communities I was on didn't come over with my import and adding them manually isn't working for me.

[mdlbear]

If the community has an RSS feed you could subscribe to that; otherwise you'll probably have to wait until the community itself moves over.