Changes to LJ Scrapbook

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News Post | LJ Releases Post

Livejournal's been working on switching to a new photohosting platform for a long time now; this is for once a case of fixing something that really was at least semi-broken, what with security setting and login issues galore in the original version. This one has better multi-picture upload capabilities and general management, it looks like.

It's also, for once and shockingly, LJ telling us before something goes live.

What we know:

• The replacement version will go live in May, probably in staggered groups, since it has to be done one user at a time.
  


• Images and galleries will be migrated intact and as-is, with a couple of exceptions:
  
  
  • The new system works like Windows in that you can't store the same file in more than one folder. Any image that was previously in more than one gallery will transfer to "the first gallery the image is associated with" (i.e. probably the gallery whose name comes first alphabetically)
    
  
  
  • The new system doesn't support sub-galleries, so those will (I extrapolate from comments) transfer over each as its own separate gallery.
    
  
  
  • The new system doesn't support videos (it's... kind of news to me that the old one did) so anyone with videos uploaded to Scrapbook will get an e-mail with instructions on how to download them shortly after the migration is completed.
    
  
  
  • The new system doesn't support tags, so if you used those on images, the tags will unfortunately go poof once migrated. Gallery names stay, tags on individual pictures go.
    
  
  
  • Any images with friends-only security or restricted even further to specific friend-groups will transfer over as private; the security will have to be re-set. This is a protective measure to make sure nothing goes public that shouldn't, during the migration. The friends-only and filtered settings will be available again in the new system.
  
  
  
  
  


• All images will get new URLs, but the old URLs will also redirect. So nothing should disappear from posts, LJ layouts, etc. Except for possibly during the few minutes it takes to migrate that particular account.
  


• Once your images have been migrated, you'll only be able to access them through the new interface. (That one's kind of a given; they can't support two separate file structures at the same time.)
  


• If you want your files migrated over early, join lj-pics-beta and comment to this post with a plus sign.
  


• Despite the "Livejournal, Come On" post that's making the LJ reposting rounds right now, no one's storage space is being reduced. The standard paid account quota is and always has been 2mb. Anyone with more has it because they paid for extra storage space, and they'll still have that extra storage space in the new system.

So that's what we've got right now: the new system sure isn't perfect either, but *crosses fingers* it should hopefully be a relatively seamless change, beyond driving the OCD-ridden among us crazy with the need to re-arrange galleries.

Please consider this entire post to be a universe-preserving OOC thread / open-season on goats.