LiveJournal News

Basic Accounts
As we noted in our last News post, as of today users will be able to downgrade their account to Basic through the Manage Account page. In addition, visitors who are not logged in to LiveJournal will now be seeing ads on Basic accounts and communities; the experience of logged-in users will not change.

Paid Account Sale
We are having a paid account sale starting today through September 30, 2008. During that period, you can purchase a 12 month block of paid time and receive a 20% discount – this paid time can be added to any account, or purchased as a gift for your favorite LJ-friend. For full details, see our Paid Account Sale page.

Announcing lj_advisory
We are pleased to announce the creation of the lj_advisory community, set up so you can find news and information related to the activities of the Advisory Board. We recognize that it has taken us a while to get this community up and running, and that has caused some frustration. From now on, we will post topics which will be discussed by the Advisory Board prior to the date of the meeting and summaries of meetings after they occur. Throughout the year, the Advisory Board may also post requests for opinions on topics which may be discussed at future meetings. This is the official community for communication with the Advisory Board – comments will be read by Advisory Board members who will respond as they feel appropriate.

RTE + Opera and Safari = <3
RTE stands for Rich Text Editor, which is the default method of posting entries from the Post an Entry page. Our Rich Text Editor is based on the open-source FCKeditor code. It allows you to make links or LiveJournal user tags, insert photos or videos, and format your entries without needing to know HTML. That is, unless you use Opera or Safari as a browser, in which case you couldn't use the RTE.

That will be changing today. We are pleased to announce that the RTE has been upgraded to the latest version of the FCK code, which includes support for Opera and Safari! In addition, many of the bugs in the old version have been fixed. If you've been using RTE, you will most likely need to clear your browser's cache in order to use the new version.

<strike> vs. <b>
Last year we changed the visual display of deleted and suspended usernames from a line through the username to a bold font. This had the effect of making the name unclickable - which meant that no one could easily determine whether the username had been deleted or suspended. We've reversed this display, returning deleted and suspended usernames to a struck-through and clickable state.

Flash Fiction Contest Update
The deadline to submit your flash fiction entry to "Quick Tales," LiveJournal's partnership with Caferati in India is fast approaching. Users who wish to find out more about this exciting contest should take a look at our india_writing community. Be quick! Entries must be received by midnight, September 7th, 2008 and the contest is open to all who have a mailing address in India, regardless of where they currently reside or citizenship.

Development Goals and Basic Accounts

Last week we updated our development goals for 2008. Generally we noted a number of cool enhancements and investments to LiveJournal that we are working on, including improved search, usability, and site development.

We also wanted to let you know how we hope to accomplish all these things, and how we plan on paying for them. In order to accomplish our stated goals for this year and beyond, we need to increase the revenue gained from both groups of LiveJournal accounts: paid subscription accounts and ad-supported accounts.

As of August 28th, all users will be able to choose to downgrade their account to Basic through their Manage Account page. Additionally, we will start showing advertising to visitors who are not logged in to LiveJournal when they are looking at Basic Account journals and communities.

Basic Account users themselves will not see ads on any Basic journal or community while they are logged in to their account. If you want more information about this, take a look at our new post on lj_2008 where we outline our reasoning.

Indian Flash Fiction Contest

In other news, we are excited to tell you we've launched "Quick Tales" LiveJournal's first initiative for users in India, in celebration of India Independence day, August 15th. "Quick Tales" is a flash fiction writing contest in which we're partnering with Caferati.com, one of India's largest online literary communites. The contest's winners will receive some great prizes and it is open to anyone with a mailing address in India. We hope that users with an interest in Indian writing or just India will watch LiveJournal's india_writing community. That's where the finalists and winners will be announced, so keep an eye on it towards the end of September! If you're in India then enter the contest - if your story is slick and quick (under 500 words) then you could be the lucky winner!

Meanwhile, back at LiveJournal Inc.

We have updated and redesigned our corporate site. The goal of the redesign was twofold: first, to update the look and feel (Dystopia users will appreciate it!); second, we want to provide a destination for prospective employees, partners, and members of the press where they can access important information about the company. Kudos to our design team.

Account Structure Update
Back by popular demand, Basic Accounts will be available to all users again by the end of the (northern hemisphere) summer. More information on the decision-making process and proposals relating to the future of Basic Accounts are in lj_2008.

New Themes
Two attractive and all-new Flexible Squares themes, "Circular" and "Circular Brown" are now available.


L to R: Circular and Brown

New V-Gifts
Give someone you care about the gift of enticement. With the new Chocolate Ice Cream, Vanilla Ice Cream, Tea, Coffee, Curry and Sushi v-gifts, all the significant people in your life will be able to share in the longing for the tasty edibles below. Plus, it reminds loved ones you think they're really sweet, really savory or just plain satisfying.


L to R: Chocolate Ice Cream, Vanilla Ice Cream, Tea, Coffee, Curry and Sushi

Ж-Men...but not the ones you might expect!
This week LJ Russia launched Ж-Men, a new comedy series about superheroes, inspired by the LJ communities dedicated to superheros, comics and cartoons. The title's "Ж" comes from ЖЖ, the nickname for LiveJournal in Russia.

Ж-Men's script is written by a group of LJ enthusiasts who also happen to be television professionals. Who knew? Following the premiere, five more episodes will be broadcast over the next two weeks. We hope you find the series fresh and enjoyable.

This is, of course, an experiment for LiveJournal. As always, we'd love to hear what you think!