Thomas Boutell

Just some guy who made a thing.

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Holy christ, get off livejournal Thomas Boutell 4/3 '17

Look, I don't care where you go, but get off LiveJournal. Today I was presented with this:


"The translation of this User Agreement is not a legally binding document. The original User Agreement, which is valid, is located at" [see document in Russian].

OK, so other sites change their terms... WITHOUT telling you they are NOT BOUND by the English version, that is... But LiveJournal also got rid of HTTPS recently. (Translation: completely sniffable on the wire.)

It's been circling the drain for a long time but COME ON CHILDREN, we need to FIND THE EXITS AND DEPART.

I will have to make time to check my backups and delete my LJ. What a PITA.

Well, it was good while it lasted. And it lasted a long time.

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4/3 '17 51 Comments
Just wanted to say that I'm looking into a number of different backup options. One that I found interesting: https://www.blogbooker.com/
Matt Lichtenwalner
(Though I'm more focused on finding one that backs up comments as well...)
Matt Lichtenwalner
Also, some interesting reading if anyone is curious: http://www.archiveteam.org/index.php?title=LiveJournal
Matt Lichtenwalner
I'm looking at that one for something I can save on my own system. It looks pretty slick.
Genevieve Williams
Agreed. I was thinking of it as a 'secondary backup' / easily portable.

Still - so much of why I loved LJ was the conversation with friends - which is all wrapped up in the commenting system...
Matt Lichtenwalner
Update on BlogBooker - the free version only allows 1 year to PDF or 6 months for Word Doc.

I'm considering the $30 for unlimited.
Matt Lichtenwalner
Update: I bought in. Worked perfectly! I now have a PDF book of all my entries, comments, and images.

My only complaint is that the images get crunched to pretty small sizes, but that's really about it.
Matt Lichtenwalner
Good call!
Lindsay Harris Friel
Thanks!
Matt Lichtenwalner
Nice! Did you have to accept the agreement on LJ first?
Thomas Boutell
Sadly, I did. I tried without it, but received an error message. Dug through that and saw something about 'accept license agreement'.

They've blocked e'erythin.
Matt Lichtenwalner
To answer the question about import to opw: opw allows only one post per day, and I'd need to make some big changes there. Also everybody should leave LJ now, not when I get a round tuit. I think the sensible thing is to move to one of the directly compatible sites folks have mentioned.
Thomas Boutell
Also there's something called BlogBooker that changes LJ/DW/blogger posts into pdfs or Word Docs. It works on Mac (and PC). The service is busy right now (shocker), but I plan to use it in the future so I can get my posts about the kids in a format that I can give to them when they're older.

https://www.blogbooker.com/index.php
Shelle Klein Houser
Never mind, Matt was already on it and did it better ...
https://onepostwonder.com/users/mrlich/2017/04/03/getting-ready-to-head-home
Shelle Klein Houser
This is a thing. Thoughts? Your skills and experience are greatly valued in this regard.
https://www.dreamwidth.org/support/faqbrowse?faqid=127
Lindsay Harris Friel
This was super super duper easy to use. I brought over all of my entries, comments, userpics, custom friend groups, etc. with a click or 4. Nothing to it.
Jill "xtingu" Knapp
I ported my LJ to Dreamwidth awhile back. I forget what exactly the triggering event was, probably either the sale to a Russian company or one of LJ's many outages, and the realization that the platform was starting to die. I've had no complaints; only thing I need to do now is turn off crossposting.
Genevieve Williams
Oh crap. I'm glad you guys mentioned this. I think that _I_ did a dreamwidth account. (How many damn blogs do I have?!)

Anyway - thanks for the reminder.
Matt Lichtenwalner
I'm no expert on Dreamwidth, but Genevieve is pretty smart, and she likes them.

Unfortunately it looks like we'll all have to accept the agreement before that tool can work. (If it somehow works without it, COOL. Let me know.)
Thomas Boutell
The main potential issue with Dreamwidth is that as far as I can tell it's a labor of love for one or a few people, and those can be kind of unstable. But they haven't, for example, sold themselves to Russia, so there's that.
Genevieve Williams
Indeed, it is extremely similar to OPW then, with the same risks, but also the same relatively low likelihood of active jerkery.
Thomas Boutell
:)
Genevieve Williams
Sounds like a good temporary measure, at least.
Lindsay Harris Friel
Also very interesting that their "account management" page where you can discontinue recurring payments for Paid LJ accounts is conveniently 404'd. I can't stop my payments right now. Fuuuuuck thaaaat.

I just backed up my journal and comments using LJArchive, and am currently in queue to have my LJ posts, comments, userpics, tags, and everything else imported into dreamwidth. I imagine their servers are drowning right now under the load since everyone is probably jumping ship, but there you have it.

So, soon I'll be xtingu.dreamwidth.org. Weird. End of an era indeed.
Jill "xtingu" Knapp
"Interesting" in a "Man, you folks are really making me want to punch you in the baby makers" sense.
Matt Lichtenwalner
I think they ended paid accounts. The agreement justifies a lot of its terms by pointing out it's free.
Thomas Boutell
Sure, we're waterboarding you, but we're not charging you for it, so...
Matt Lichtenwalner
Haha!
Jill "xtingu" Knapp
Ah. Right.
I'd still like to remove my CC info if I can.
Jill "xtingu" Knapp
EDIT! I was a paid LJ'er, and I also paid a few teeny bucks extra to have extra storage space and extra userpics. Those payments were STILL sent to be recurring... I just turned that off now. That account management page is no longer 404-ing.

So even if things are "free," there are still some things they were charging for.
Jill "xtingu" Knapp
Weird.
Thomas Boutell

This comment has been deleted.

*nods*

What she said.

*pumps fist*
Matt Lichtenwalner
Did anyone tell Jenn Abrevaya? She doesn't read OPW, even though she has an account, and she still uses LJ.
Shelle Klein Houser
Good call. I'll ping her.
Matt Lichtenwalner
Fuck. Now I have to put my glasses on and figure out how to backup and/or destroy 14 years of LJ.
Lindsay Harris Friel
Jill had a version of an LJ Backup App (the only one I know of that worked) for Windowz.
Matt Lichtenwalner
Tom, how hard would it be to make it possible for us to import our LiveJournals here, in the way that Dreamwidth offers? I tried Dreamwidth briefly, didn't really turn me on, got completely out of the habit of online journaling, and finally landed here. I was just saying to myself that I wanted to start writing more, too.
Anne Mollo
Bump!
Jill "xtingu" Knapp
Wow. Yeah. Guess I know what I'm doing tonight.

Tried to go to the site. Was presented with the same. Tried to use the "Not Now" option and that took me to a page with two options:

1. Log Out
2. Expire All Sessions

Well crap.
Matt Lichtenwalner
So... if you were very clever, you might manage to back up without agreeing.

However, you can't delete your livejournal without agreeing.

Wow.
Thomas Boutell
They blocked the API too until you agree.
Thomas Boutell
Grr.
Lindsay Harris Friel
Trying to figure out what the best step is. I did read the agreement, which is pretty short and basically says it's free, you don't have any rights, and the whole thing is subject to Russian law. It used to maintain a certain distance, which is definitely gonesville.

I think the best option, which is still a pretty crappy one, is probably to agree, back up, and delete. The agreement does emphasize that delete is still an option. I ain't no lawyer.

Thomas Boutell
I'm doing exactly that: agree, back up, switch off the lights and toss a Molotov cocktail.
Lindsay Harris Friel
Ouch.
Thomas Boutell
Right?
Matt Lichtenwalner
Well shit.
Rabbit
Well said.
Matt Lichtenwalner
Just read this: if you wanna delete your LJ w/out agreeing to the new TOS, install noscript and go straight to the acct status page http://www.livejournal.com/accountstatus/
Purlewe RieMil
1. That's excellent - thank you.
2. It makes me think - I'm planning to delete my comments as well, but have all my people pulled them down yet?
Matt Lichtenwalner