Entry tags:

blurberati, haiti gift drive, help_haiti, scrapbook, server upgrade

LiveJournal Major Notes: Speedier servers, Haiti gift drive, Blurberati

We want to thank you for hanging in there while we upgraded our servers last Friday night (PST). Our maintenance update was successful, resulting in speedier load times and a more robust backend. This will better enable us to deliver the features you want (whose names shall not be spoken, lest we jinx them). We also want to give you an update on some of the incredible fundraising efforts that have been taking place on and around LiveJournal to support emergency relief in Haiti.

• help_haiti hosted a telethon this past weekend and auctioned off a variety of incredible items, including fanfic, original artwork/design, and three annual paid accounts, bringing their pledged donations to over $115,000 to charities and agencies, including UNICEF, Partners in Health, the Red Cross, OXFAM, Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières, and Heifer International!
• ontd_startrek hit it out of this stratosphere, with over $18,000 for UNICEF so far.
• A shout out to the oh-so-feminine benches of ontd_ai, who've raised nearly $21,000 for UNICEF.
• ohnotheydidnt has been keeping a running tally of member contributions for the extended ONTD family, which is now over $93,444.10!
• Our own Help Haiti vgfit has raised over $6,000 for UNICEF and CARE. We thank you for your generosity and support!
• Elsewhere on LiveJournal, there are a growing number of passionate communities that are doing their part, including camelot_love. We hope you'll continue to spread the word about charitable communities in the comments below.

Charitable vgift drive

In order to increase support for Haiti, LiveJournal is hosting a 48-hour charitable vgift drive starting today, January 28th, at 4pm through Saturday at 3:59pm, PST. During this time, we'll donate 100 percent of gross proceeds from ALL vgifts purchased to CARE and UNICEF. Remember, for each $10 you receive in vgifts during any two-week period, you'll get two months of paid account time (and, yes, we do round up, so $0.99 is one dollar, and so on). That makes this the perfect opportunity to send out those belated New Years greetings, send your favorite snarky commenter a token of appreciation, or send your crush a secret Valentine!

Stuff you should know

• We've received a smattering of support requests regarding quirky Scrapbook behavior (missing images) and error messages. If you happen to run across this, most of these resolve with a hard refresh. We think we've got this squared away. Just so you know, this was unrelated to the recent maintenance upgrade.
• In anticipation of Valentines Day, we're still collecting stories from LiveJournal users who found their Significant Other, Best Friend Forever, or Virtual Family on LiveJournal. Tell us how you found each other in the comments below, and Frank will send you and yours a Valentines vgift!

LiveJournal drama heats up the crimson carpet!

With all due humility, we are crazy-proud that our wonderful anthology, Live Journal: The First Decade, has won the attention (and praise) of the Blurberati. You can read Blurb's full interview with Marta, our Community Relations guru and long-time LiveJournal addict user, right here. If you're not yet familiar with the project, we think Marta describes it best: "We wanted a beautiful and tangible way to show the cross-section of talent and contributions–amazing "blog" posts, contributions in communities, art, photography, and personal stories."

Blurb is offering LiveJournal users free shipping through the end of February to celebrate (one coupon per user)! Simply enter the following codes at checkout:

• USD Code: LJFREESHIP (6.99 US dollars = Free Ground shipping)
• EURO Code: LJFREESHIPEUR (5.99 Euros = Free Economy shipping)
• AUD Code: LJFREESHIPAUD (11.00AUD = Free Economy shipping)
• GBP Code: LJFREESHIPGBP (3.99 GBP = Free Economy shipping)

To view the winning picture from the weekly lj_photophile poll and read an ardent plea from Frank, we'll catch you under the cut!

Featured photo

Congrats to ilya_gorokhov who won our eighth lj_photophile weekly poll. Click here to vote for next week's photo of the week!

Oh, you meddling kids!

Thanks for the insightful guesses on Frank's afternoon repast. In case you were planning to prepare him a picnic lunch, Frank is partial to toasted pants sandwiches with sauteed tin cans, smoked cardboard, and filet of wire, smothered in grass pesto. Fiberlicious yumminess. This week, Frank is hoping you'll offer up some guidance on what he should give his beloved partner, Meme, for Valentines. For those who haven't hung out with the feisty couple, Frank tends towards the yin, while Meme veers a touch yangier. You can peruse their colorful history here. Of course, Frank, being a gregarious chap, would love to show his appreciation by sending the following special vgift to the first 25 samaritans who offer him knock-out romantic counsel.

Thanks, again, for spending time with us. We'll see you next week.

(513 comments) - (Post a new comment)

	southwest 2010-01-28 10:53 pm UTC (link)
	first (Reply to this) (Thread)(Expand)

	shutter 2010-01-28 10:53 pm UTC (link)
	i hate you. (Reply to this) (Parent)

(no subject) - arielstreasures, 2010-01-28 10:56 pm UTC (Expand)

	zerisama 2010-01-28 10:53 pm UTC (link)
	I haven't had any problems after the upgrade~. (Reply to this)

	shutter 2010-01-28 10:55 pm UTC (link)
	meme needs a longcat of her own. it is appropriate. (Reply to this) (Thread)

	burr86 2010-01-29 03:56 am UTC (link)
	Whoa how did you get the santa hat on your lj user icon? (Reply to this) (Parent)(Thread)(Expand)

(no subject) - shutter, 2010-01-29 03:57 am UTC (Expand)

	discostare 2010-01-28 10:56 pm UTC (link)
	Knock-out romantic counsel? Like what? 'You're one great kid!' Better yet, he should forget Valentine's Day, and then just send her paid time the following day. Edited at 2010-01-28 10:58 pm UTC (Reply to this)

	twissie 2010-01-28 10:57 pm UTC (link)
	LJ users are (mostly) awesome ♥ (Reply to this)

	bitter_crimson 2010-01-28 10:58 pm UTC (link)
	Just curious: What happens to the two months paid time for $10 of v-gifts if you've got a permanent account? Is it possible in that case to gift the paid time to another user? (Reply to this) (Thread)

	You can give vgifts to another user ... bluemeringue 2010-01-29 12:00 am UTC (link)
	to help them earn two months of paid account time, but you can't transfer paid account credit. Thanks for commenting. (Reply to this) (Parent)(Thread)(Expand)

Re: You can give vgifts to another user ... - bitter_crimson, 2010-01-29 12:07 am UTC (Expand)

	Wondering kehleyr 2010-01-28 10:59 pm UTC (link)
	I was wondering if you guys are going to offer permanent accounts any time soon? (Reply to this)

	spin 2010-01-28 11:00 pm UTC (link)
	Meme is a simpleton and would like a box of chocolates wire candies wrapped in denim, the usual goat treat. (Reply to this) (Thread)

	amitié starjaphet 2010-02-09 09:55 am UTC (link)
	j'aimerais qu'on soit amis (Reply to this) (Parent)

	live_on_radio 2010-01-28 11:01 pm UTC (link)
	wheeeee ontd_ai shoutout in news post \o/ (Reply to this) (Thread)

	mcollinknight 2010-01-28 11:04 pm UTC (link)
	awwwww yea XDD (Reply to this) (Parent)

	_wyrd_sister_ 2010-01-28 11:01 pm UTC (link)
	For Valentines Frank should give Meme a voucher for a marriage counseling session. :-) (Reply to this) (Thread)

	_wyrd_sister_ 2010-01-28 11:12 pm UTC (link)
	I've gotta add that even if you use this game as a way of keeping first page spamming low, I really enjoy it. (Reply to this) (Parent)(Thread)(Expand)

(no subject) - soleta_nf, 2010-01-29 12:15 am UTC (Expand)

	What about the Malware Spread By LJ Advertisement systems? lorena_bee 2010-01-28 11:02 pm UTC (link)
	What are you doing about it? http://void-star.net/2010/01/livejournal-malware-interstitial-advertising-and-you/ Edited at 2010-01-28 11:03 pm UTC (Reply to this) (Thread)

	Re: What about the Malware Spread By LJ Advertisement systems? aleph_null 2010-01-30 08:45 pm UTC (link)
	They're not doing anything. They get too much money from pop-up and pop-unders to get rid of them. (Reply to this) (Parent)

	daphnie_1 2010-01-28 11:03 pm UTC (link)
	IDK. I'm not one for romantic advice. Chocolate. You can't go wrong with chocolate. (Reply to this)

	newbluemoon 2010-01-28 11:04 pm UTC (link)
	HELL YEAH _AI!! \o/ YOU GUYS ARE AWESOME. ILU<3 (Reply to this)

	dystopia_dream 2010-01-28 11:04 pm UTC (link)
	Give her a kitten. Can't go wring with kittens. (Reply to this) (Thread)(Expand)

	dystopia_dream 2010-01-28 11:05 pm UTC (link)
	or wrong, even. (Reply to this) (Parent)

(no subject) - lafinjack, 2010-01-28 11:20 pm UTC (Expand)

katsu_neko_kun 2010-01-28 11:05 pm UTC (link)

stormy_dusk and I met here on Live Journal Back in 2006 on the community nekofluff the day after meeting there we started talking on Instant messenger almost everyday. We became the best of friends very quickly and by 2007 we confessed our love for each other. another year went by and in 2008 we finally decided that we absolutely couldn't live without each others company and we moved in with each other in real life. And since then we have been living happily together to this day. (Reply to this) (Thread)(Expand)

	katsu_neko_kun 2010-01-28 11:06 pm UTC (link)
	Frank should sing Meme A valentine love song. during a candle lit dinner at the local clothing store. Edited at 2010-01-28 11:10 pm UTC (Reply to this) (Parent)

(no subject) - icedmaple, 2010-01-28 11:09 pm UTC (Expand)

(no subject) - katsu_neko_kun, 2010-01-28 11:14 pm UTC (Expand)

(no subject) - icedmaple, 2010-01-28 11:18 pm UTC (Expand)

	kotomichi 2010-01-28 11:05 pm UTC (link)
	'punch the goat'... oh god, i hope that isn't the tennis gods' way of telling me tsonga will beat federer. /tennis talk give her a ring. made of wires. or something. idk idk, i'm no love expert, especially not when it comes to goats in love. (Reply to this)

	icedmaple 2010-01-28 11:05 pm UTC (link)
	"Robust backend," ha. (Reply to this) (Thread)(Expand)

	featherypony 2010-01-28 11:21 pm UTC (link)
	Damn, I knew someone would beat me to it. I'm just surprised it took that long. Edited at 2010-01-28 11:21 pm UTC (Reply to this) (Parent)

(no subject) - rose_cat, 2010-01-30 08:23 am UTC (Expand)

	ainabarad 2010-01-28 11:06 pm UTC (link)
	Frank, you are absolutely the sexiest goat that ever existed. *muah* :) (Reply to this)

	gemxpink 2010-01-28 11:07 pm UTC (link)
	Some of the wires he's munching on! (Reply to this)

	carefreespirit 2010-01-28 11:09 pm UTC (link)
	Hard refresh doesn't work. Images are still missing. C'est la vie. This is why I don't trust to store images here. But storing text seems to work wonderful! (Reply to this)

	miakun 2010-01-28 11:10 pm UTC (link)
	Still waiting on those thread tracking issues to be fixed. Should get that skeleton gif. (Reply to this) (Thread)

	Yes, we are currently working on this issue. bluemeringue 2010-01-28 11:45 pm UTC (link)
	Thanks for commenting! (Reply to this) (Parent)(Thread)(Expand)

Re: Yes, we are currently working on this issue. - joshuaorrizonte, 2010-01-28 11:56 pm UTC (Expand)

	mackenzie 2010-01-28 11:12 pm UTC (link)
	Frank, always offer the lady the first bite of pants! (Reply to this) (Thread)

	kmittenz 2010-01-29 05:26 pm UTC (link)
	lol (Reply to this) (Parent)

	technobabbled 2010-01-28 11:13 pm UTC (link)
	You can't go wrong with a romantic dinner. Just avoid mixing hay and candles, Frank! (So actually I guess you could go wrong with that...) (Reply to this)

intrepia 2010-01-28 11:14 pm UTC (link)

My boyfriend and I first met years ago through mutual friends here on LJ (they were mutual friends in real life too, but we met on LJ!), but that is only the tip of the iceberg. I met my closest college friends through LJ, too, meeting first in the LJ community I made for our school and later in person. And the best friends I've met after college were made through lj_support. The LJ Support team is my online family, and I am daily grateful to be able to call such a fun, diverse, generous, and accepting group of people around the world my friends. I heart you, LJ. <3 (And to anyone reading this, if you've ever looked for a way to give back to the LJ community while meeting a wonderful group of people, LJ Support can always use more volunteers. It's easy to get started!) Edited at 2010-01-28 11:15 pm UTC (Reply to this) (Thread)

	intrepia 2010-01-29 02:39 am UTC (link)
	Hey Frank, thanks for the heart box! Well, at least thanks unless it opens in a couple of weeks and turns out to be dead spiders or something! My boyfriend's username is abangaku, and I bet he would get a kick out of one too. Thanks! :D (Reply to this) (Parent)

	emthefrootloop 2010-01-28 11:14 pm UTC (link)
	Chocolated dipped pants, always a winner for the ladies. (Reply to this)

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(513 comments) - (Post a new comment)