So It Has Come To This

[lupestripe]

So the latest proposed changes to the LiveJournal user experience have not gone down well, resulting in many of my friends suggesting moving en masse to DreamWidth. If this happens, I think this will be the end of blogging for me. Not only do I not particularly like DW, but I do most of my blogging on a mobile and have found DW lamentably awful to use on such a device. Consequently, if this is the end of LJ, it will probably be the end of blogging for me. It's a shame but that's just how it is. I guess we'll see what happens as I do like LJ, I always have, and it would be a shame to close a journal I have had for nearly seven years. Still, what will be will be.

Comments

[startide.livejournal.com]

I'm wondering if they're going to do away with user styles completely. This may be the first part in a plan to homogenize the user experience a-la Apple and Twitter

[lupestripe.livejournal.com]

Hmm I don't know, haven't really been following their developments or plans over the years.

[adia-wolf.livejournal.com]

Holy crap that is not a good design :(

If startide is correct, and they want to do away with the custom styles altogether, then I too may have to migrate somewhere else.

I may use LJ just for my own personal stuff, but I still appreciate the degree of freedom we currently have...

Would be a shame to lose your blog/journal though :(

[lupestripe.livejournal.com]

I don't know what they are planning really but it would be a shame if everyone left LJ, particularly if it's to a site as unwieldy as DreamWidth.

[lionplush.livejournal.com]

I try DreamWidth and it VERY SLOW from Russia...

[lupestripe.livejournal.com]

I am rarely on it so I don't know what it's like here :(

[alexf0x.livejournal.com]

The only reason that I am NOT using DW that much at the moment is that not many people are either there at the moment, but if the changes go through (and they will since LJ's management aren't listening to anyone, again). When things pick up which they might soon I will be mostly posting there. I am not liking the move for LJ to be more and more like Facebook for the Russians.

As for doing things on a mobile personally I HATED the LJ mobile App for iOS on both iPad and iPhone, it's just the mobile browser site in App form and that's it. It's IMHO not even like the bowser version is that good either.

If you want to continue to mobile blog with DW though I will suggest this.

1. Just use notes (or pages *IF* you want to fork out £5 for the iOS app). Type the entries in those then copy paste the text into the update box. Simple! If you use Pages (or have a Apple email account for notes) then you can use iCloud to move the data across in the browser once you get to a desktop system.

2. It may or may not support Dreamwidth yet but there is a better program for blogging on the iPhone (and it's universal) called BlogPress it's NOT at free App but it looks much better than the free effort that LJ put out (and for the time being it is compatible with LJ).

[porsupah.livejournal.com]

I've always used a text editor for my entries. ^_^ Just plain TextEdit, in my case. The current (future) entry sits in my Dock, and occasionally, I add to it. Then, when it feels time, I'll embark on the editing - seeing how the entry flows, both in text and visually, maybe moving portions around, or adding images to help emphasise particular links, especially if visually appealing.

[startide.livejournal.com]

You could check if there's an app for ios called ElJay. I use their android version, and it's a lot more responsive than the 1st party cr-app that LJ has available

[alexf0x.livejournal.com]

I tried running a serch for it on the iTunes store on my Mac. I didn't find anything by that name on the store. The only thing like it is BlogPress, and I am not sure if that supports DW yet.

[lupestripe.livejournal.com]

I think the LJ app on iPhone is quite good - it's basic but it allows me to update and comment on journals very easily, something which going to a browser (like you would have to do with DW) doesn't let me do. If there is a simple way of avoiding a browser to update DW directly I may move across - if not, then I won't.

[porsupah.livejournal.com]

I don't see the new style link on my friends page, so I can't actually test it directly (although, I suppose logging out would work), so I'll reserve judgment on their style decisions. The rationale of abandoning old styles makes sense from a maintainability perspective, but the way ahead would more properly be to get the basic version up and running, as now, then add necessary/desirable features, and then try luring people over. Hopefully the beta period mentioned isn't a "yeah, seems fine to us - ship it!" week or so. =:)

This link provides some further insight, derived from the Russian side of the discussions.

Worst case, I suppose I could finally use this copy of MacJournal I've had kicking around as part of a bundle deal. Or that Firefox plugin, either of which might (I wonder..) also be able to automagically delete the very few tweet-relays I see in my friends pages.

[alexf0x.livejournal.com]

Part of what's killing LJ for me the most over this is how they have treated users who Don't speak Russian as a primary or secondary language. To be kept totally out of the loop is utterly unacceptable, and to not listen to the users not wanting the site to be "Facebook Russia" is totally out of order.

Prepping for a world without LJ as we speak.

[lupestripe.livejournal.com]

I guess their business model has changed and it's not compatible with non-Russian users. I can understand why people would migrate in such circumstances.

[lupestripe.livejournal.com]

I'm not a huge fan of the new friends page but for me it's not so bad as for me to leave LJ. Of course if everyone else does then that's an issue. I'm happy to explore ways of updating DW without having to log in using a browser if you know of any good ways to do that.