Release notes, Rich Text Editor update, Contest updates, be a STAR, Bullying awareness, Halloween

[theljstaff]

September 30th, 2011 - Greetings, LJ! Welcome back to another edition of the news! It's been a few weeks so let's get you caught up on recent LJ happenings. We've run a couple contests and we've made some new friends since our last news update. More on that in just a moment. First, we address the hot topic as of late, the status of the Rich Text Editor. Let's get right into it with a list of recent site changes.

New features / Improvements

• The functionality of the Rich Text Editor has significantly improved. A complete list of adjustments made to the Rich Text Editor can be found here. Please Submit a Support Request if you're still experiencing difficulties with the Rich Text Editor and we'll look into the issue.
• The Edit Entries page has been redesigned. It now has calendar functionality as well as the ability to filter entries by community. The filter by community option allows you to see entries you have posted to a specific community as well as entries which have been posted to communities you maintain. There is also an option to filter the results to only show entries in the specified community posted by you.
• There is now an option to have re-posted entries automatically be collapsed behind an on your Friends page. This option can be found on the Manage Settings page.
• An error which prevented some users from being able to load the Manage Friends page has been fixed.
• Attempting to upload a userpic larger than 100x100 pixels now properly resizes and allows the image to be uploaded.
• Moon and Stars and Simply Wood, two of the winning journal styles from our last custom style contest, are now available!

For more information on the changes in this release, please visit lj_releases.

National Bullying Prevention Awareness month
LiveJournal has joined the be a STAR alliance, a group of organizations united to raise awareness of bullying and to create avenues of discourse in communities on the ground as well as in cyberspace. bullying_begone, a LiveJournal community created by a victim of bullying, is a place for people to share their stories, seek advice, and support each other in a open and friendly environment.

October is National Bullying Prevention Awareness month. Throughout the month, we'll be addressing bullying topics in various features and communities on the site. To get the conversation started, LiveJournal and bullying_begone are sponsoring a giveaway in Writer's Block this Monday, October 3rd. Here's the details:

• When: Monday, October 3rd, 2011
• Where: Writer's Block, on the LiveJournal homepage
• One winner, chosen at random, will receive an Amazon Kindle e-reader and a $25 Amazon gift card
• To enter, answer the Writer's Block question on Monday, October 3rd
• The winner will be chosen on Tuesday, October 4th, and announced at lj_contests

While bullies aren’t going to vanish overnight, we can turn the tide by reaching out to friends, victims, and bullies alike to learn more about the roles people play in this cycle and what can be done to improve relationships. By working to better recognize bullying and the tactics employed by bullies, we can engage both the victims and their aggressors in an effort to minimize the effects of bullying. If you've been affected by bullying directly or you know someone who has, we invite you to share your experiences over at bullying_begone.

Halloween @ LJ
Costume shops are popping up in cities all across the U.S. Each one resonates with an eerily similar message: Let's scare up some Halloween fun! In October, we're conjuring a little Halloween fun of our own with a couple contest giveaways and the Halloween-themed header image selected by the LJ community.

Pumpkin carving contest - Nothing says community like enjoying the cool artistic pumpkins on display around the neighborhood during Halloween. As LJ's way of celebrating community and Halloween, we're offering prizes to five random pumpkin carvers and a grand prize to our favorite submission. Entering this contest is easy. On Halloween we'll post a question on the LJ homepage in Writer's Block asking for pictures of your carved creations. The picture should include your pumpkin and your username written on a piece of paper to prove you're the crafty pumpkin carver. Along with this, feel free to include any moody pictures of the pumpkin that you find frighteningly festive! Winners will be chosen and announced on November 1st.

ONTD costume contest - Before heading out for a big night of Tricks n' Treats on Halloween, share your clever costume designs in a special Halloween entry we'll post over at ohnotheydidnt on October 31st. Much like the pumpkin carving contest, prizes go to five random costume submissions and a grand prize to our favorite submission. Winners will be chosen and announced on November 1st.

Halloween-themed header contest - LiveJournal service pages across the site will feature a Halloween-themed header during the last week of October. Choose your favorite of the five finalist submissions today at lj_contests. The Halloween header poll is open until Monday, October 3rd. The winning submission and the finalists will receive 2,500 and 1,000 tokens respectively. Good luck, finalists! Prizes for the costume and pumpkin carving contests will be announced in the next couple weeks. Keep an eye on news and lj_contests for further details regarding these upcoming Halloween events!

For news about LJ_Scribe and LJ_Photophile and recent contest winners, we'll see you under the cut!

Photo of the week
Congrats to b_d_v, winner of our 84th LJ_photophile contest!

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, gwendolynd, and portraitofafool, who won prompt #31 of our lj_scribe writing contest! We've selected 5 finalists in response to our 32nd prompt theme for your review. In addition to the joy of sharing your well-turned phrases, the top three finalists will each win 1,000 LJ Tokens. The remaining finalists will receive 500 LJ Tokens.

Recent contest winners
Two recent events were celebrated by LiveJournal in the form of giveaway contests in Writer's Block on the homepage. One giveaway celebrated the much anticipated arrival of Star Wars on Blu-ray and the other allowed all of us to embrace our inner pirate.

Congrats to ansketil_rose, winner of our Star Wars saga Blu-ray giveaway promoted in Writer's Block! Check out their winning entry for the question: If you could write the next Star Wars movie, what story would you tell?

Also, congrats to all the winners of our recent Talk Like a Pirate Day contest. There are too many winners to mention here, so check out the winning jokes and random winners when yer done swabbin' the decks, matey.

Thanks for stopping by! See you next time!