The end of the branch

[altivo]

It's painful, but the door is closed. I will no longer post to LiveJournal. The latest scandal concerning the unannounced and surreptitious actions of LJ management was the last straw for me. I may use OpenID to comment on postings of friends there, but my own LJ account is now frozen. For better or worse, all old postings and comments are being imported from LJ to DreamWidth, which is probably not a perfect process but seems pretty sophisticated.

I have another money spending confession, though this actually amounts to spending money in the future. I have been wanting a digital camera for some time. Gary has one that I bought him years ago, and it's still quite usable and does a good job, but we can't both use it at the same time. It's also fairly large (about the size of a typical 35mm SLR) and I find it too bulky and heavy to carry around as a matter of course.

I've been looking for about six months for something smaller and lighter, lower in price but at least equally capable as that older Olympus. Budgetary constraint is what held me back. I wanted to spend less than $90 if possible. At Sam's Club yesterday I browsed the cameras on display as I have been doing every time we went there. They had a Kodak EasyShare for $79, first time I've seen one that low. It looked promising, but I remembered that I also had a coupon offer through Cafe Gevalia for 15% off on anything at Kodak's own website, so I waited to check.

Turns out that the Sam's Club model is a discontinued item on closeout. Kodak was offering the new camera that would replace it for the same price but it won't be available until April. By pre-ordering now, you could get free shipping. Sure enough, the 15% off worked, bringing the price of the new model down to $76 with free shipping. Yay, bargain. I bit on it. Technically I didn't spend money yet. They will charge me when it actually ships some time in early April. I'll be able to get all the reference photos I want without borrowing Gary's camera. Sometimes it pays to be patient.

Comments

[mondhasen.livejournal.com]

They had a Kodak EasyShare...

The library Kodak EasyShare is a battery hog, but most of the digi's are. If you don't have one ordered you may want to pick up the power adapter for indoor shots and pc transfers. Also, I don't know what your other camera uses for batteries: I find lithium work best for our Kodak here. The director replaced the camera once thinking it had an internal problem when it turned out she had been trying to use standard batteries to power it up.

Me, I want to replace my little HP with a grown up camera that takes interchangeable lenses so I can photograph wildlife respectably. But that will have to wait, and wait.

So sorry to see you leave LJ! Yours was the daily journal I looked forward to most, not just for your interesting content but also because you'd respond to queries, questions, and just plain old replies :o) I'll have to join DW properly so I can venture here on a regular basis without having to click my way through the damned openID thing every time.

...and they have bunny mood icons here!!

[feathertail]

If you can't find a usable invite code on codesharing I've got several!

[feathertail]

Er, that's dw_codesharing, I mean ...

[mondhasen.livejournal.com]

Thanks! I'd like that :o) I didn't realize this was a pay-to-join site, though the lack of blinking, winking, intrusive, and obnoxious advertisements should have been a clue to that.

[altivo]

Yeah, the bunnies even come in more than one color pattern. ;p

You should not have to sign on with OpenID every time. Argos uses OpenID to post at LJ and stays logged in all the time. I think the trick was like this: Go to www.dreamwidth.org while you are already logged in at LJ. Choose "Log in with OpenID" and get logged in. Now look at the screen you get confirming the login. There should be options there to "change your session settings." Click the box for "Keep me logged in" but do not click the box for "Link login to IP address" (or however they word that.) Click the Save or Update button. That should keep you logged in for weeks on end based on a stored cookie on your PC. This is PC dependent, so you will need to repeat it once at each PC you use. If you use a PC that is shared with other people, be aware that they could get into Dreamwidth with your identity, so you may not want to use this method there. No one else uses my home desktop nor my workstation at the library because both have Linux on them and not Windows. Eeeew! They won't touch it. So I stay logged in all over the place, all the time.

You can also syndicate a Dreamwidth feed onto LJ and see it among your friends list, but of course you can't really reply to it that way. LJ will accept replies, but no one is likely to see them unless they are using the same feed definition you are.

[mondhasen.livejournal.com]

My pc's are public property, whether at home or work. I set up firefox to sweep up after my sessions and not store cookies or retain other data. This is to eliminate unwanted one-click purchases from Amazon that I didn't initiate (that occured on my iTouch due to my not paying attention) as well as to keep my business my business.

Yeah, Windows... I'm playing with partitions and portable drives at home just to try to have a clean backup when the inevitable happens. Even 'system restore' failed on the last round at work.

...and to think I used to ride the net bare-back!

[feathertail]

Congrats x2. ^.^

[altivo]

Thanks, I think.

[(Anonymous)]

You will be missed.

I'm not completely ready to make the jump myself, again because of how long I've been on LJ and having most of my network there. Still, can't say what the future holds, right?

-- Caly.

[altivo]

There are now more detailed instructions at the end of final LJ post that tell you how to read and reply to DreamWidth without really leaving LJ.

[schnee]

I'm curious, did something new happen since yesterday that broke the camel's back, as it were, beyond what had already happened before?

Mmm, looks like I'll have to check two friends pages now, too. Ah well. *s*

Myself, I'll not switch (yet?), though, and I won't crosspost, either: I know DW can do it, but I don't feel comfortable giving another site my LJ password. My public entries can be read here as schnee_livejournal_feed, at least, though (for non-public ones, you'll still have to go to LJ — sorry).

Who knows, maybe I'll be switching at some point, too. So far, I'm a bit wary of doing so because DW is still comparatively young and all that.

[altivo]

DW is a year old now and at least in my opinion, has a refreshingly open and honest management policy. They also have a better atmosphere, fewer outages, and no ads.

You don't have to read two friends pages just to see posts. DW has RSS just as LJ does, and you can add a syndication for any DW journal you want to read, so that it shows up in your LJ friends list. To comment, though, at least so that the writer can see it and respond, you'd need to go to DW and sign on with OpenID. Even that isn't really so bad. If you handle your settings properly, you can stay signed on at both sites continuously, which is what I'm already doing.

Two contributing factors to my decision to pull the plug: first of all, LJ management is still waffling and not admitting the full truth. Whatever happened was more than just "a mistake," even if what happened wasn't exactly what they intended. They should have already admitted to what they were doing, but either they hope the furor will just die away or else they're working on some coverup story. Second, a close friend accused me of hypocrisy for continuing to post to LJ, claiming that criticizing LJ management does no good anyway. That made me angry enough to do it, since I'd been preparing for this eventuality for a year anyway.

[schnee]

DW is a year old now and at least in my opinion, has a refreshingly open and honest management policy. They also have a better atmosphere, fewer outages, and no ads.

Fair enough; it's just that I've seen too many LJ clones spring up and go down again, and I'd rather not place my eggs in any basket that I'm not convinced will actually stay around for, say, the next decade at the very least.

You don't have to read two friends pages just to see posts. DW has RSS just as LJ does, and you can add a syndication for any DW journal you want to read, so that it shows up in your LJ friends list.

I won't see non-public posts that way.

To comment, though, at least so that the writer can see it and respond, you'd need to go to DW and sign on with OpenID. Even that isn't really so bad. If you handle your settings properly, you can stay signed on at both sites continuously, which is what I'm already doing.

Well, I do have an account here (which I'm using right now), so this wouldn't be a problem. :)

[farthing]

Good time for me to get an account here too, been wanting to get it done for a while anyways. =)
Too bad though about that LJ thingie, but I'll have to admit, they've slided towards worse all the time.

Those cheap cameras are handy for general use, there's always something that needs a quick documentation, be it a page from a book, or something during its construction phase. I've been wanting to get some small pocket camera, something that I'd be able to carry with me most of the time. As they say, the best camera is the one you have along when you need it. :-)

- Far

[altivo]

Yep, the smaller camera looks pretty handy and seems to have nearly all the features of our old Olympus, perhaps more. Just how well I can get it to work with Linux remains to be seen, but if all else fails I can probably pull the SD chip out and read it directly. That's how I deal with the Olympus.

I keep seeing things and thinking "Darn, wish I had a camera with me" or even "That would make a good drawing or painting but I can't stop right now." Carrying a small camera may prove pretty inspiring in that respect.

And I'm glad to see you here. I was afraid it would be awfully lonely.

[(Anonymous)]

I never even heard of Dreamwidth before this.
I'll miss you, but I am not moving.
- Daks

[altivo]

No need to move. I understand.

Dreamwidth is about a year old and uses the same core code as LJ. I've been over here since last March.

You can log in here using OpenID, by just specifying your LJ account URL. As long as you are logged in at LJ, you don't need a password or anything else to comment here.

You can also pick out individual DW users and add them to your LJ friends page by using syndication. DW supports RSS just as LJ does.

[avon-deer.livejournal.com]

It's really annoying for the simple reason that now I have another bloody site I need to check every night. But I fully understand your reasons for doing it, and fully support them. SUP has been taking the piss for some time now, and the underhanded way they dealt implemented this is shameful. Is there a way of streaming your content via RSS?

[altivo]

Yes. I think Dakhun already set up the feed on LJ. It's syndicated as altivo_dw_feed and you should be able to follow it.

If you authorize LJ to always validate you for DW, and log into www.dreamwidth.org/openid once and then change your session to "stay logged in" and click SAVE, you should be able to comment from your LJ friends page. There's a link in the text that appears, and that link takes you to the DW display for the message. Use middle button or mouse-wheel click to open it in a separate window or tab. Then click "Reply" on that page (not on the original feed display, no one would see your reply probably) and have at it. It's one extra click and wait a second or two for the display compared with just one click and wait on LJ.

I held off for a year hoping that LJ would get better, but this latest shenanigan and then trying to pass it off as a "mistake" rather than a really lousy management decision is just too much. We both know that code that complex and cleverly hidden doesn't happen by "mistake."

[flamekist.livejournal.com]

Altivo, you were my first furry friend and you can't get away from me this easily. I probably won't be getting a DW account (yet), but you certainly haven't gotten away from me. :)

[altivo]

I'm really not trying to get away. I was pushed away, but you didn't do it. Looks like you've figured out how to keep in touch, though. There's already a syndicated feed on LJ. Add altivo_dw_feed as a friend and you'll still see me on your friends page.

If you want to reply to a post, be sure to click through the link at the top rather than just replying normally. That way your reply goes to DreamWidth. If you set your OpenID at DreamWidth to "Keep me logged in" it will recognize you automatically.

I didn't realize you were cross-posting, too

[typographer]

It does feel rather like a last straw, doesn't it?

Re: I didn't realize you were cross-posting, too

[altivo]

Yes, the utter dishonesty and the attempt to secretly sneak in a way to rake off more money were the last straw for me. Several people point out that it's only to be expected from SUP, and they're probably right. I can't imagine why they're willing to put up with the prospect of more and more such shenanigans.

Ah well

[rustitobuck.livejournal.com]

I'm glad I found you here. You're one of the people I read the most, and since you're public, I can pull your RSS feed so I keep reading your articles.

I don't want to lose you.

I guess I oughta figure out what this scandal was, because I didn't hear enough screaming in the furry groups.

Got any invite codes? It may be worth it to just have an account to log into for replies or stuff, or if the whole herd moves over.

Re: Ah well

[altivo]

Yeah, in the last year I've not made a single friends only post, so just the simple RSS or Atom feed will get you everything I write. The same is true of my alter-ego argos who writes mostly about the arts: weaving, spinning, drawing, painting, music, and poetry. He is less prolific, averaging maybe two posts a month.

I think argos has an invitation or two left, if he does I'll have him send you one.

The scandal was the sort that furries, being mostly so young and (dare I say it) underexposed, are less likely to take seriously. LJ was caught using surreptitiously inserted scripts to alter outbound links that people posted in their journals. It was quite devious, and it appears that the object was to collect affiliate commissions for links to sites like Amazon or EBay that pay such bonuses. Supposedly they were trying to insert their own affiliate code in links that had none specified, but in fact what was happening was that they also replaced legitimate affiliate codes with their own.

Certainly this can be defined as stealing in my opinion, but it was the clandestine nature of the thing that really sent me off. They never announced they were doing anything, and though problem reports were filed about the altered links it was a month before they admitted to it, in a sort of backhanded way, by saying it was a "mistake" and the scripts would be removed. The coding was on the level of malware, very well concealed and obviously didn't happen by mistake. You couldn't tell a link was altered by mousing over it, it looked normal. When you clicked on it you usually (not always, but almost always) ended up at the intended site so you wouldn't know it was altered. The only way to catch it was to right mouse and "copy link" then paste the link where you could compare it to the original URL. They were being altered dynamically at the time of a mouse click and not before. To me that was the last straw, and I cannot trust any corporation that treats users that way, so dishonestly and without admitting or announcing their intention. I had been more or less expecting to have to move for a year anyway, and this was the time.

As for the whole pack moving over, that seems unlikely in the extreme. Most are bound by their own inertia and the "my friends are here" perception. Just as some have fled LJ almost entirely for twitter, so some are moving to DW or elsewhere. I've had enough requests that I exhausted the invitations attached to this account, and I've spent a lot of time this week answering help requests about using OpenID and syndication. It's flattering, in a way, that people paid any attention at all when I moved.