Yeah, this one is bad...
Please speak up at the places suggested below...
Originally posted by twissie at LiveJournal
So, after nearly a decade at this site, LJ finally does something that makes me actually rage. No popcorn and laughing as the masses storm to news posts complaining, this time I'm actually worried.
A while back I was invited to help out with BETA testing new LJ services (I got this invite via lj_releases).
They have just announced BETA testing of a new friendslist.
LJ is planning on redoing everyone's friendslists in the style of the new comment page and update page. They want to copy tumblr and make your friendslist into a dashboard-like system page (infinite scrolling and all). It's also been renamed to "feed" (this I don't mind too much, though). In fact the whole dashboard idea with infinite scrolling wouldn't be so bad if it weren't for the fact that everyone will be locked to one specific layout. The system style comment pages are bad enough, but now I'll have to strain my eyes reading my flist? That defeats the purpose of this entire site. The font, use of whitespace, oversized boxes and UI elements ... all contribute to making the page difficult to read, on a site where all you do is read. Aaaah. Even just the possibility of adjusting the font (style and size) would make this suggestion easier to swallow, but it's still not something I'd want for my journal. It would not improve my LJ experience in any way (in fact it would most likely make my daily LJ activities more time consuming).
Now, I wasn't able to make the BETA page display my own friendslist, so I apologise to the random users who are featured in the screenshot, but to give everyone an idea, the below image shows you what your friendslist probably will look like in a couple of months.
(Click for big)
All friendslists will look the same.
Snippet from the locked post at lj_releases:
The friends page has been redesigned as a system page for all users, and is now available for Beta testers. There is a link at the top of your friends page allowing you to switch between the new and old versions, and will later go into public beta testing. You can switch back and forth between both versions throughout beta testing.
I wish I had a public link for you to leave comments at, but the best option is probably just to leave comments on the newest public entry at lj_releases.
You can also see the proposed changes for yourself by enabling the BETA on your own journal:
How does Beta testing work?
To begin Beta testing, you will need to go to http://www.livejournal.com/betatest.bml and click the icon for "Beta". You can also use this page to switch back to "Production" at any time to use the regular version of this site. Switching between these while testing can be a useful way for seeing how things look or behave differently on each version of the code. While you are in Beta, yellow "BETA BETA BETA" text will appear at the top of any system page to remind you that you are in Beta.
You can easily switch back to the old version.
Make sure you let LJ know what you think of these proposed changes, I can't be the only one who thinks this is a horrible idea.
ETA: It's nice to see that I'm not the only one worried about the proposed changes, but please direct your feedback through the proper channels. This is a private journal, I have no affiliation with LJ. Please also be respectful when addressing the LJ staff. They are just doing their jobs. Thanks!