In the unlikely event of a crash, your seat cushions may be used as flotation devices.
Alright, folks, I'm sorry to bring the OT, but I figure this is easier than trying to keep up with everyone's worries in PMs. :)
As a lot of you seem to be aware, Livejournal has made some very serious cutbacks in its operational staff in some very not nice ways this morning, which is generally being interpreted as a harbinger of doom. Things do seem pretty dire, in light of the global economic downturn, but I want to reassure everyone that unless something goes drastically wrong, Livejournal is not simply going to vanish overnight. They have kept their advertising and marketing departments, which means they have not given up on trying to squeeze cash out of LJ; if we and they are fortunate, they will manage to gather enough to see them through, and all of this worry will be for naught.
However, it is highly possible that they won't in the long term, as Livejournal has been slowly tanking for a number of years; 2009 could very well be the end of days as far as the service is concerned. Again, this is not going to happen tomorrow, and almost certainly not next month, but now is a good time to start thinking about your options.
Like I said, I think the potential for a sudden disappearance is zilch, but just in case, I have created the radu_fics Bat Signal. This is a YahooGroups e-mail list that you are all welcome to sign up for in case something causes us to lose track of each other. Joining is simple and free; I believe you will receive a single e-mail confirming your membership, but after that, you will hear nothing unless we've been forced to regroup somewhere else, so don't fret about the spam possibilities.
Some of us have years' worth of journal entries, comments, and pictures stored with Livejournal, so the idea of losing all that is not a happy one; fortunately, you don't have to. If you simply want a record, LJBook will export all the information in your journal as an editable pdf, suitable for printing or anything else you might like to do with it. If you'd like to keep it all online, ljarchive will allow you to extract a complete record of your Livejournal, and then upload that archive onto another Livejournal-based service, creating an exact duplicate of your LJ. (Well, almost; some of your decoration and formatting may be a touch wonky, but the important stuff will be intact.)
Livejournal is open-source, so as you may not be aware, there are a lot of other services out there that use the same software. Journalfen, InsaneJournal, AdultBlogs, and Blurty are several I can think of, each with their own pluses and minuses, but I'm sure there's tons more. My personal recommendation would be Inksome. It's a small operation, and is not without its issues, but they are minor, and its staff is very responsive. It is semi-private, however; if you'd like an Inksome account, comment or PM me with your e-mail address and I will send you an invite. Once your journal is set up, you will be able to invite all of your friends, so perhaps you may be able to lure them over with the aura of exclusivity. :)
However, as far as blogging goes, nothing can beat your own software on your own hosting. I have been running a Wordpress blog for years now, and recommend it over any other option. If you like the idea but aren't sure you're up to tackling it from scratch, there's Wordpress.com which, while not quite as powerful, has a very straightforward learning curve and is much more secure than most alternatives.
I've got to take a moment to forward my own agenda here: I hate Livejournal, and basically have only been hanging around for you guys for a year or two. I am tired of collapse scares, of regime changes, of things capriciously deemed obscene and deleted, of all of it. I will be here as long as radu_fics is, but this development has once more sparked my interest in creating an alternative.
It would be pretty simple to throw together a fanfic/fanart archive, a messageboard, put up the scripts, the prequel rumors, anything else anyone wanted to see; I could probably even get a Livejournal clone installed, though that seems a little excessive. :) Technically, it would be pretty spiffy and very easy to use; the only thing I haven't been able to sort out yet is a good domain name. (Though subspecies.us is growing on me, in the sense that it is US doing it rather than Full Moon. :>)
The thing is, though, that what's really great about radu_fics is the actual community of people who post here; I could put up the most Web2.0 site in the universe, and it wouldn't be nearly as much fun without being able to yammer in the comments and giggle at disgusting rap videos with all of you. Being on Livejournal probably gets us a fair amount of through-traffic; it certainly makes it easier for people to participate via their friendslists (though an RSS update feed on the site is a given, for those of you who are so inclined.) However, as we've also seen, Livejournal is its own impediment; unless you're familiar with the setup or willing to muddle through it, creating an account and figuring out how to post to the community can be a significant undertaking. A more general website might be a lot more accessible to the average net user, and help us attract some new blood.
So while I've asked the question before, I put it to you all again: would you be interested in using something like that, or would you rather hang on via Livejournal until the bitter end? I've no problem with putting the work in, but it would be a shame to see the end result sit disused.
So, I think that's where we currently stand. I will do my best to walk you through any of the processes I've described above (though bear in mind I am by no means a software engineer, I've just been through this before :>), and would be happy to answer any questions and hear any thoughts or ideas any of you have.
As a lot of you seem to be aware, Livejournal has made some very serious cutbacks in its operational staff in some very not nice ways this morning, which is generally being interpreted as a harbinger of doom. Things do seem pretty dire, in light of the global economic downturn, but I want to reassure everyone that unless something goes drastically wrong, Livejournal is not simply going to vanish overnight. They have kept their advertising and marketing departments, which means they have not given up on trying to squeeze cash out of LJ; if we and they are fortunate, they will manage to gather enough to see them through, and all of this worry will be for naught.
However, it is highly possible that they won't in the long term, as Livejournal has been slowly tanking for a number of years; 2009 could very well be the end of days as far as the service is concerned. Again, this is not going to happen tomorrow, and almost certainly not next month, but now is a good time to start thinking about your options.
Like I said, I think the potential for a sudden disappearance is zilch, but just in case, I have created the radu_fics Bat Signal. This is a YahooGroups e-mail list that you are all welcome to sign up for in case something causes us to lose track of each other. Joining is simple and free; I believe you will receive a single e-mail confirming your membership, but after that, you will hear nothing unless we've been forced to regroup somewhere else, so don't fret about the spam possibilities.
Some of us have years' worth of journal entries, comments, and pictures stored with Livejournal, so the idea of losing all that is not a happy one; fortunately, you don't have to. If you simply want a record, LJBook will export all the information in your journal as an editable pdf, suitable for printing or anything else you might like to do with it. If you'd like to keep it all online, ljarchive will allow you to extract a complete record of your Livejournal, and then upload that archive onto another Livejournal-based service, creating an exact duplicate of your LJ. (Well, almost; some of your decoration and formatting may be a touch wonky, but the important stuff will be intact.)
Livejournal is open-source, so as you may not be aware, there are a lot of other services out there that use the same software. Journalfen, InsaneJournal, AdultBlogs, and Blurty are several I can think of, each with their own pluses and minuses, but I'm sure there's tons more. My personal recommendation would be Inksome. It's a small operation, and is not without its issues, but they are minor, and its staff is very responsive. It is semi-private, however; if you'd like an Inksome account, comment or PM me with your e-mail address and I will send you an invite. Once your journal is set up, you will be able to invite all of your friends, so perhaps you may be able to lure them over with the aura of exclusivity. :)
However, as far as blogging goes, nothing can beat your own software on your own hosting. I have been running a Wordpress blog for years now, and recommend it over any other option. If you like the idea but aren't sure you're up to tackling it from scratch, there's Wordpress.com which, while not quite as powerful, has a very straightforward learning curve and is much more secure than most alternatives.
I've got to take a moment to forward my own agenda here: I hate Livejournal, and basically have only been hanging around for you guys for a year or two. I am tired of collapse scares, of regime changes, of things capriciously deemed obscene and deleted, of all of it. I will be here as long as radu_fics is, but this development has once more sparked my interest in creating an alternative.
It would be pretty simple to throw together a fanfic/fanart archive, a messageboard, put up the scripts, the prequel rumors, anything else anyone wanted to see; I could probably even get a Livejournal clone installed, though that seems a little excessive. :) Technically, it would be pretty spiffy and very easy to use; the only thing I haven't been able to sort out yet is a good domain name. (Though subspecies.us is growing on me, in the sense that it is US doing it rather than Full Moon. :>)
The thing is, though, that what's really great about radu_fics is the actual community of people who post here; I could put up the most Web2.0 site in the universe, and it wouldn't be nearly as much fun without being able to yammer in the comments and giggle at disgusting rap videos with all of you. Being on Livejournal probably gets us a fair amount of through-traffic; it certainly makes it easier for people to participate via their friendslists (though an RSS update feed on the site is a given, for those of you who are so inclined.) However, as we've also seen, Livejournal is its own impediment; unless you're familiar with the setup or willing to muddle through it, creating an account and figuring out how to post to the community can be a significant undertaking. A more general website might be a lot more accessible to the average net user, and help us attract some new blood.
So while I've asked the question before, I put it to you all again: would you be interested in using something like that, or would you rather hang on via Livejournal until the bitter end? I've no problem with putting the work in, but it would be a shame to see the end result sit disused.
So, I think that's where we currently stand. I will do my best to walk you through any of the processes I've described above (though bear in mind I am by no means a software engineer, I've just been through this before :>), and would be happy to answer any questions and hear any thoughts or ideas any of you have.