As of tomorrow, no more subject lines in comments on LJ

[gentlehag]

Here's more information on what I posted on earlier. Fucking lovely. This shit is so tacky.

Originally posted by neotoma at As of tomorrow, no more subject lines in comments on LJ

Originally posted by moerlin at As of tomorrow, no more subject lines in comments on LJ

I was gonna update this with much happier stuff, but for the past week I've just been so enraged with LJ's asshattery that I've had it to here.

In case you didn't know, on 12/12 they first announced sneakily on the Russian journal of LJ's design guy that with new changes being implemented tomorrow, there will be no more subject lines in comments and that this change was "non-negotiable" (good round-up and translation here). I'm sure you all realize that this will basically make fandom and RP communities unusable. LJ's staff, however, doesn't give a shit. At least 18 pages of 100% negative feedback didn't sway them.

They've backpedaled some and will make keeping comment subject lines optional in some S2 styles, but the default (that 99% of communities are running right now) will decidedly be subject-less! Not to mention that their new and frankly, fucking ugly design will take forever to load and make the site a pain to use on mobile browsers.

And oh, it looks like they might be taking away the drop-down menu to select icons as well, so you'll have to load all your icons as pictures to select them. Lovely. (I will beta-test tonight to see if this is actually true.)

Really, I don't know why I'm surprised. LJ is always fucking with the parts of the site that actually work and breaking them, so this is just another instance of that. Because seriously, who are subject lines hurting by just being there? (And no, it can't be a matter of server strain, considering the new "graphic" interface will definitely be using up more resources - so much fun when there's DDoS attacks!)
As far as I know, they've never once listened to their customers, so those thousands of comments already posted probably won't do shit. I've left a message expressing my concerns about the new comment pages here anyway; so if you want to do that too, go for it! If anything, it helps with the rage. ;)

FYI: Dreamwidth is feeling Christmasy has reacted to LJ's bullshit and has open account creation (no invite codes needed) for the rest of the week. Might be a good idea to get your back-up or new home, whatever the case may be, up and running now.

Personally: I don't want to move to Dreamwidth. This is my history here, you know? But this shit is tacky.

Comments

[bellipotens.livejournal.com]

This is ridiculous. I'm not very involved in fandom and RPing anymore, so the subject lines in the comments doesn't really bug me, but I'm pissed off on behalf of the people who are. I mean, really, what's the point of eliminating the subject in the comments? Zero. Fuck off with this shit, LJ.

I have a Dreamwidth account, but I haven't logged in or used it in months. The user base isn't very big there and LJ is my home.

[zeitgeistic.livejournal.com]

It also removed user notes, one of my most used paid features. I mean, they're still in there, but before, they would show up next to your name for easy reference. It's how I keep peoples' kids and spouse names straight before I can commit them to memory. I am just so sad about this.

[kinjuru.livejournal.com]

I don't think i ever even noticed the subject line to be honest but if it's pissing other people off then that's shitty. Especially if they don't really have to remove it in the first place. I know that for me a lot of LJ stuff doesn't work. I definitely won't be getting a paid account next time

[zeitgeistic.livejournal.com]

It also removed user notes, one of my most used paid features. I mean, they're still in there, but before, they would show up next to your name for easy reference. It's how I keep peoples' kids and spouse names straight before I can commit them to memory.

[iwantasoda.livejournal.com]

And it's live and I fucking hate it! DXXX

[zeitgeistic.livejournal.com]

me too

TESTING SUBJECT LINE

[pikacharma.livejournal.com]

????

[pikacharma.livejournal.com]

WOAH weird, I can get it to work if I post from my own style. STILL I disapprove of this nonsense. >:\

[liret.livejournal.com]

I don't like the userpic switching much, either.

Though the insert photo/video options could be nice.

[zeitgeistic.livejournal.com]

Yeah, but you could always just do a quick HTML for a pic, and YouTube gives you the embed code no questions asked.

The userpic selection...I am so annoyed over this. I can't even bother to sort through my icons when they aren't alphabetized, and of course the randomizer is now broken.

[zeitgeistic.livejournal.com]

How are you putting in a subject line? It's showing up as the first line of text, and I get a subject line in my email notification, but I can't see how to make one myself.


ALSO, WHAT GOOD IS A SUBJECT LINE IF YOU CAN'T SEE IT WHEN THREADS COLLAPSE?

Subject line ability depends on layout apparently...

[pikacharma.livejournal.com]

Okay, from what I can gather, the subject line field is still HERE, but hidden from use\view in some of the styles (can't be used, and only shows up as regular text in the comment itself).

When I view this post regularly, subject line is disabled. However, if I tack ?style=mine to the end of the URL, I have full functionality, and can also see subject lines in collapsed threads (I also just tested this in an old SE post).

So, this is still complete fuckery, but there appears to be some sort of work-around. At least until they manage to fuck that up too.

[pikacharma.livejournal.com]

Also, I posted the work-around in Ministry just now.

[peridium.livejournal.com]

NOOOOOO THIS IS SO UGLY, WHAT IS THIS?

I don't want to move to DW and honestly, I probably won't. But by god, I'll be cranky about it!

[zeitgeistic.livejournal.com]

God, I just...Dreamwidth is so boring. Honestly, I will probably just stop journalling at all instead of moving. I always try to get through it, but this shit is nasty.

[peridium.livejournal.com]

In all the getting pissed off about the vanishing subject lines, I didn't even realize they were going to fuck with my icons. No, Livejournal. MY ICONS ARE NAMED IN A SPECIFIC WAY BECAUSE I WANT TO BE ABLE TO FIND THEM QUICKLY WHEN I'M COMMENTING OR POSTING. Why fuck with alphabetical order, one of the simplest and most universal means of organization there is?

[zeitgeistic.livejournal.com]

I don't even know. Apparently, reading is hard for the guy who designed the changes because he said the change is 'genius' because now he can pick icons better.

[kibet.livejournal.com]

The Subject line may have gone which seems bizarre, but the adding icon is quite nice.

[zeitgeistic.livejournal.com]

Oh god, I hate it. I have 130 icons, all named so that I could scroll through by topics (e.g.: [nature] tree, [nature] beach) and now...they are just a jumbled mess of 130 icons NOT in alphabetical order. I can't even find the ones I want.

[kibet.livejournal.com]

I never noticed the alphabeticalness (or lack thereof) of the icons, but I only have 10 icons.

lj changes

[pingback-bot.livejournal.com]

User __hibiscus referenced to your post from lj changes (http://users.livejournal.com/__hibiscus/205969.html) saying: [...] Oh LJ, what are you thinking? :( has more information here [...]

[fauxkaren.livejournal.com]

[zeitgeistic.livejournal.com]

Pretty much this. I am dying inside.

[slightlymore.livejournal.com]

The funny part is that they're trying to play with the big kids (popular sites) but no ones going to sign up for lj strictly because they have a funky new comments page. It's really only made dropping my paid account that much easier. And you could always browse your icons this way, all they did was eliminate the fact that you could also pick them out of an alphabetical list...so the guy who says this change is amazing and makes picking icons easier is of questionable intelligence.

And is it just me or did they remove any links to news posts from the homepage?

[zeitgeistic.livejournal.com]

The problem is that they are trying to cater to the wrong market. The Facebook/Twitter junkies aren't going to be interested in reading or writing 500+/- word posts from people.

They need to try to appeal better to bloggers, and bloggers don't go for that.

I think the news post links were removed a while ago.

[zeitgeistic.livejournal.com]

This is my sad face, yeah.

[blue-mangos.livejournal.com]

I hate this new layout, too much white space is hard on my eyes. The expand all thing is annoying, what if I don't want to see all 200 comments in a long thread?

As for the subject line removal, where I am going to miss it most is for trigger warnings.

Just to not be all negative, I do like the new auto html insert images from the comment box and that it shows what is a new comment.

[zeitgeistic.livejournal.com]

I really preferred it all compact, yeah. The white space is glaring. The new blue is a little too vibrant, too.

Trigger warnings, yes. However, as the decision to remove them was made by a white male Russian, I don't see that argument affecting him whatsoever.

I like the CRTL-Enter to post a comment now (because I'm used to doing that with Chrome's LJ Extension) but I could do without the image/video thingers. I hand-type < img > tags quicker than I can click and fill that box, and YouTube gives you embed codes automatically, so.

[skindyedindigo.livejournal.com]

See icon.

[zeitgeistic.livejournal.com]

Pretty much sums it up.

[sandokai.livejournal.com]

A year or two ago they pretty much ruined the search engine too. Crazy!

[zeitgeistic.livejournal.com]

Yeah I remember the search engine changing, but I can't remember what it was before. It's just buggy. If they'd put some work into it, the Yandex one would be okay, but now if I search for my username, it'll give me all sorts of weird results.

[hanzan.livejournal.com]

Well, this sucks.
And the ironic thing is, the only party that can make me consider leaving LJ is LJ themselves.

[zeitgeistic.livejournal.com]

Hehe, well I won't ever leave LJ because my history is here and the alternatives are even uglier (InsaneJournal/DreamWidth). I might start up a WordPress blog one day, but it would only be a professional one. I'll stay here, but that doesn't mean I'll pay for it if it gets annoying.

[cleodora.livejournal.com]

For me it's really just a cosmetic change, because I rarely use the subject lines, but I sympathise with the fandom/RP journals and communities who are going to have to come up with a whole new way of using LJ. I'm sure I'll get used to the new look, so although I don't like it much, that's not what bothers me. What really pisses me off is the fact that LJ won't listen to its users and don't care what they want. Doesn't make me feel much like giving them money.

I have a dreamwidth and I've thought about moving over there before, but unless everyone makes the decision to go over there at once (unlikely) I probably won't. I tried cross-posting for a bit but it was a hassle.

[zeitgeistic.livejournal.com]

It's not even just the subject lines, but it is something that they are apparently working to fix, so I will wait it out and see if we can come to a good compromise. I really just hate the new flash nonsense when commenting. That shit is going to be bananas when we get DDoS'd again.

I hate DreamWidth even more than Livejournal on a bad day, so I won't ever move there, but I might stop being a paid member if it stops being worth my time.