Suggested New Year's Resolution: Leave Livejournal; Migrate to Dreamwidth
You've probably heard about/seen/read this already, but even if you have, let this be yet another reminder: it's time to give Livejournal the heave-ho, and get your data off of servers that aren't subject to 4th Amendment protections or the protections of a group like Dreamwidth, who have reiterated just yesterday that:
Dreamwidth is committed to openness and protecting the privacy of our users and their data. While we must of course follow United States law, we take a very strong position on the protection of your data. We'll do everything we can to be the best we can in this area. In other words, see the Electronic Frontier Foundation's Who Has Your Back? 2015 report. While Dreamwidth is too small to be evaluated by the EFF, [the CTO is] committing us to earning all 5 stars.
In the meantime, there are a few posts talking about what's going on:
Everyone is suggesting that you import your Livejournal to Dreamwidth, using DW's Import Tool. Here are instructions for importing your LJ to Dreamwidth; I've done it a few times, and it really is quite easy and simple. You can also import entire communities; I have no experience with that.
Speaking of having "done it a few times", you may be wondering: "What if I imported my journal a few years ago, but now I've been crossposting for years?" I've just confirmed that:
It might be nice to delete all your entries so nobody can data-mine them, but then keep your account so you can still read and comment on other people's LJs. Sadly, the only way to delete all entries is manually, one-by-one, although a downloadable client could make that a little easier. Edit: Apparently this tool called ljsec works as a mass-delete tool. I haven't tested it yet, but will update again when I do try it out.
So, having just re-imported my LJ, I'll probably be deleting my account in another few days. Most folks seem to have already migrated over; my DW friends page is much more active right now than my LJ one.
If you haven't made the switch yet, now is the time.
You know this entry was originally posted at http://digitalsidhe.dreamwidth.org/1090876.html, right? You can comment there using OpenID, even if you have no Dreamwidth account (plus you'll get my niftier userpics!)... but commenting here is okay, too.
Dreamwidth is committed to openness and protecting the privacy of our users and their data. While we must of course follow United States law, we take a very strong position on the protection of your data. We'll do everything we can to be the best we can in this area. In other words, see the Electronic Frontier Foundation's Who Has Your Back? 2015 report. While Dreamwidth is too small to be evaluated by the EFF, [the CTO is] committing us to earning all 5 stars.
In the meantime, there are a few posts talking about what's going on:
- LJ: The servers are in Russia, political purge of accounts alleged
- LJ: Why now
- Metafilter: Livejournal represents social media without borders
Everyone is suggesting that you import your Livejournal to Dreamwidth, using DW's Import Tool. Here are instructions for importing your LJ to Dreamwidth; I've done it a few times, and it really is quite easy and simple. You can also import entire communities; I have no experience with that.
Speaking of having "done it a few times", you may be wondering: "What if I imported my journal a few years ago, but now I've been crossposting for years?" I've just confirmed that:
- If you imported your journal some years ago, and now you run an import again, the entries and comments that were already on Dreamwidth do not get duplicated or re-imported. Whew!
- If you've been cross-posting entries, and now an entry has comments both on DW and on LJ, it pulls LJ comments over to DW and then it seems to add the LJ threads after existing DW threads (it doesn't try to put all threads in proper chronological order).
It might be nice to delete all your entries so nobody can data-mine them, but then keep your account so you can still read and comment on other people's LJs. Sadly, the only way to delete all entries is manually, one-by-one, although a downloadable client could make that a little easier. Edit: Apparently this tool called ljsec works as a mass-delete tool. I haven't tested it yet, but will update again when I do try it out.
So, having just re-imported my LJ, I'll probably be deleting my account in another few days. Most folks seem to have already migrated over; my DW friends page is much more active right now than my LJ one.
If you haven't made the switch yet, now is the time.
You know this entry was originally posted at http://digitalsidhe.dreamwidth.org/1090876.html, right? You can comment there using OpenID, even if you have no Dreamwidth account (plus you'll get my niftier userpics!)... but commenting here is okay, too.