Interest pages, Header design winner, Free vgift for Paid users

[news]

We've continued to make strides in our spam-fighting efforts and have already restored a good many notifications. We'll keep you posted on our progress right here. In response to your questions about purging inactive accounts, we're still in an early phase of this project. We plan to resume discussions on this topic once we resolve the spam issue. We'll keep you apprised of future developments in News.

Frank's weekly giveaway
When we last left Frank and Meme, they had both transformed into colorful rays and were zooming off to points unknown. Their new friend, &$%** (pronounced Ralph) invited them to partake in some light refreshments in his mother's cabin. Frank and Meme were anxious, but they didn't want to offend *&*& (pronounced Miriam), who beamed at them in a delightful shade of purple. So they took their respective bottles and slurped down the sweet, creamy shakes. They suddenly felt themselves tumbling through space in a colossal free fall. A moment later, they were sitting on the mountaintop, hooves, fur, and all. Frank and Meme are now wondering: (1) Did they hallucinate the entire event?; and (2) If not, what did the aliens want from them? Let them know what you think (a festive userpic is most welcome), and they'll send you a sprig of mimosa to show their appreciation (up through the first ten pages of comments).




Interest Pages
We're pleased to introduce our new Interest pages, which are designed to help you find relevant entries and communities based on your particular interests. Each Interest page contains a dynamic feed of recent public posts from communities, featured entries and communities, a search tool, and a poll. We've seeded the categories with public communities, but we're hoping you'll pitch in and submit your communities for inclusion. You'll find a tool on the lower right of each page where you can request to "add or delete your community." (Please note that you must be a maintainer of a community to request addition or deletion.) There are currently twelve Interest pages:

• Food & International
• Advice & Support
• Parenting & Pets
• Entertainment & Music
• Television
• Gaming & Technology
• Creative Expression
• Fanfic
• Politics & Culture
• Fashion & Style
• Sports & Fitness
• Everything Else

Important stuff to know

• LJ-Cuts on comment pages: Comment pages past the first page of comments will now display any LJ-cut that was used in the entry (the cut remains in the same place as it originally appeared). This was done to speed loading time for comment pages.
• Share tool: In response to user requests, we've replaced the "Share This" tool with an improved, homemade sharing tool. You can click on this icon () to share posts on LiveJournal, Facebook, Twitter, Digg, Tumblr, Stumbleupon, or by email.
• Leave a comment improvements: We've streamlined the 'comment as' feature. When you click to leave a comment on an entry, you can now select the identity you'd like to use from a drop-down menu. You can choose to post anonymously (if allowed) or from any of the following identities: LiveJournal, Facebook, Twitter, OpenID, and Mail.ru. If you're logged into a LiveJournal account, you can also click "Other user" to log into a different account and leave your comment from that account.

Header design contest




Congratulations to cirtholien who won this month's header design contest on the subject of health and healing. You'll be seeing this lovely design on the top of LiveJournal during the month of May. We'll accept entries for our next contest up through Monday, April 18th at 4PM, PDT. If you submitted a header after the last deadline, it will be entered into the next contest. Just a reminder: The winner gets 2,500 LJ Tokens. Finalists receive 1,000 LJ Tokens. All other participants get 500 LJ Tokens (a limit of one award per user). We thank you, again, for making LiveJournal your canvas!

Look at that "S" car go!


If you have a paid or permanent account (or if you've signed up for our free Paid Account trial), you can send five free snails now until Monday, April 4th, at 4pm, PDT! You'll see both the free and the $0.99 gifts displayed until you've sent them to your friends. If you're not receiving vgifts (from friends and/or Frank), you may have disabled them. To enable vgifts, visit Edit profile (under Profile), scroll down to the bottom of the page, and check your settings. Have fun at the races!

For more fun with photos, Frank and Meme, and LJ_Scribe, we'll catch you under the cut!

Photo of the week




Congrats to mackintosha, who won our 60th LJ_photophile contest! Click here to help choose the next photo of the week. FYI: We pick entries for the poll based on a combination of comments, +1 ratings, and staff input. The winner receives 500 LJ tokens. We thank you for sharing your talent with the global LiveJournal community.

Welcome back, dear scribes!
Congratulations to darklotus1211, terachan, and levi_averi, who won our LJ_Scribe contest! After aching deliberation, we've selected seven finalists in response to our seventh prompt for your review. In addition to the joy of sharing your well-turned phrases, the authors with the most votes will each win 1,000 LJ Tokens. Finalists will receive 500 LJ Tokens (a limit of one award per user). For our next contest, we'll ask you to respond to the following prompt in the form of a greeting card poem, Craigslist missed connection, or a sonnet (up to 100 words, excluding the prompt): "They were standing on line waiting for Chai Lattes when their eyes met." You do not need to include the prompt in your writing. Be sure to post your submissions as entries, rather than comments, to lj_scribe up through Monday, April 4th, at 4PM, PDT. You'll find the +1 rating link under each post, so remember to check back and vote for your favorites!

Frank and Meme's excellent adventure
We received a few wonderful entries for our Frank and Meme fanfic contest. We'll accept submissions for another week at frankandmeme, so keep the adventure coming! On behalf of our quarreling darlings, we thank you for keeping the drama alive!

Thanks, again, for joining us. We'll see you next week!