Release 88

[markf]

Release 88 is now live!

Features:

• Site-scheme comment pages have been redesigned! Any journal or community which has disabled customized comment pages, such as this community, have been updated. Highlights include the commenting form having improved userpic selection, making it easy to insert links, images, and videos, expand/collapse

Comments

[corinn]

Honestly, it's really pissing me off that the Russian users, who had no more say in this than the English users did, are somehow made out to be the villains in this.

Uuuuugh I am not doing well with words right now and am failing hard. I agree with you. Screw this migraine, I can't concentrate on more than a sentence at a time. Thanks for that, new comment format!

I've been involved in some of the arguments on LJ's FB page when people start painting the Russian userbase as villains based on the combination of the Russian employees and the DDoS attacks and am really against that stance. My previous comment comes from frustration with how I can just clearly see the arguments there bring up "But igrick!" whenever I go for the "No, the Russians are not deliberately messing with the English userbase" angle. I don't see "you're falsely conflating the owners and the users" or "they're treating the Russian users poorly too" going well over there. igrick will be the face pasted onto the ~evil Russian~ straw man. Also, I've been arguing that the Russian admins aren't trolling us, and... yeah... that argument is pretty sunk now.

I think part of the problem may be that by "the Russians," some people mean the owners, some people mean the userbase, and some people mean both at the same time. I admit I sometimes fail to establish which I mean. Usually in those arguments, people who say "fuck the Russians" mean both. Which I don't like. I defend the userbase. I can't say that I'm able to defend the owners now.

Oh, Gawd, this comment is awful and probably doesn't make sense. I can't word today hnnnng. *seeks migraine meds*

[metrometric]

No, no, your comment made perfect sense. I admit I'm frustrated, but I was fairly sure you didn't share the sentiment I was frustrated with, and I am sorry if it came off as aggressive towards you.

I see where the idea comes from -- I think Russian LJ has somehow become an entirely separate entity, and the only times we hear about it are changes like this and DDoS attacks. I don't think it's right, and I still think people should be called on conflating the user base and the management, but I understand, rationally, why and how this works. Unfortunately, it's counterproductive to just about everything, especially right now. Both user bases are pissed, and I think their protests would be more effective if both of them were united in their displeasure, so to speak. (Pompous as that may sound.) In fact, the fact that these ~oh so different~ sides of LJ are both equally pissed off about the changes should only make it more obvious how unnecessary the update was.

Basically: I think we agree, I just wish things weren't this way.

Also, I'm sorry the site is causing health issues for you, that's really awful. I hope you feel better soon. :(

[corinn]

That's okay♥ I do think we agree.

And thank you ever so much. You obviously care more than LJ admins do! :D You'd think multiple users going UH HEY GUYS? THIS IS CAUSING ME REAL-WORLD PHYSICAL PAIN, I'M NOT EVEN KIDDING, HEY GUYS? GUYS? would elicit some kind of response.

UGH THESE ILLEGIBLE CAPTCHAS WITH BUTTONS WITH CYRILLIC MOUSEOVER TEXT *REFRESH REFRESH REFRESH*

[unjaundiced]

I've been having massive headaches since the horrible update where they changed how the text editor lets you update previous posts. 3 HOURS SPENT TRYING TO ADD 5 LINES OF TEXT IS NOT NECESSARY!!!

Also, if you completely type in the wrong thing, LJ Captcha usually takes it. You don't even have to type in the Cyrillic. Type a letter that looks like it (or a random symbol/number/draw a picture) and it'll take. Useless Super useful function, this Captcha!

[corinn]

Huh. That's odd. I get ERROR YOU FAIL TRY AGAIN or whatever if I don't do the captcha perfectly. Though I've never tried to enter anything when it actually gives me an image of something Cyrillic. The rollover alt text or whatever on the buttons that should say refresh or whatever is streams of Cyrillic. And by "illegible captcha" I meant "I haven't the damnedest what I'm even looking at" rather than "Is that N or IV?"

[unjaundiced]

Really? I always write whatever in the Captcha box and it takes it, even if it's a whole sentence (okay less than that). When you get Cyrillic or accented letters, usually if you type in a letter that sort of matches, it'll work. I get Aramaic and Arabic all the time, lol. Just to keep things interesting of course.

I think I got a smiley face like this >> ☺ << once and just put o. Sometimes it'll make me do it right, but usually it doesn't care which is good since sometimes the text/numbers are illegible anyhow. Captcha is super weird... For me anyhow.

Captcha wants perfection off-LJ though. It demands utter submission.

[claudine]

You only have to type one of the words in Captchas. (At least the LJ ones.) It's the one with the double-image. (Or the blurrier one, actually.) I found this out on a JE hate meme and it has never failed me. :P

Basically, the unnecessary word is to "teach" the Captcha to recognize new words. So you can either not type it in, or type whatever the hell you want.

[unjaundiced]

Lol good to know. Sometimes I just type in one letter and it works. The excessive typing is usually me telling Captcha rude things that one should not repeat to ones mother.

I would like to be a bad influence on Captcha. Does it recycle the words and reuse them later then? Because typos and stuff would explain some of the weirdness it puts out.

[claudine]

I know people who basically type "cock" on the unnecessary word all the time. XD

[unjaundiced]

Aw... Poor Captcha. It started out life as an innocent little bot full of grammar fails. Now it's been corrupted by the perversions of real life. I know who's f-list to check if I see ckoc come up! because Captcha can't spell

Mine of course! :D

[zeitgeistic]

The unnecessary word is actually a word scanned from an old book that they are trying to digitize, but the computer text reader couldn't read it. This is straight from one of the guy's who worked on the project.

Sorry to jump in, just gotta defend the re-Captchas because I think it's an awesome project.

[unjaundiced]

So they're using us to tell the bot what it really says?
Then we are messing up literacy for bots and our internet overlords will be filled with bad grammar. o.O

[zeitgeistic]

The unnecessary word is actually a word scanned from an old book that they are trying to digitize, but the computer text reader couldn't read it. This is straight from one of the guy's who worked on the project.

You can ignore it if you want, but why make it that much more difficult to digitize an old book? I think it's a cool project.

[claudine]

I ignore it because it saves just that bit of time. As a person who makes use of anon memes, it adds up to a lot. I didn't know about the book project though.

(And really? Because the other word is often weird, scrambled words, or Chinese, or Arabic, and even Cyrillic.)

[zeitgeistic]

Yep, well all the books aren't in English, although I'm not sure the computer knows which Captchas to give to which users, so I just try my best. I figure if it gets digitized with my letters, then hopefully whomever needs to read it will be able to figure out it from similar-looking English characters.

That being said, it does go to abut 10 or so different people, and if all 10 of those people can't come up with a conclusive spelling, then it might trigger an alert that it's being given to users of a different language? You can watch a Ted Talk on it at the site if you're at all interested in that sort of thing. Here's a link, just for giggles.

http://blog.ted.com/2011/12/06/massive-scale-online-collaboration-luis-von-ahn-on-ted-com/