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

[tay_21]

Copy and pasted from glofigs...

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 stupidity 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, 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.)  ARRRGH!!!!!

Really, I don't know why I'm surprised. LJ is always screwing 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 anything. 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. ;)

Comments

[prehistoriccat.livejournal.com]

I really don't get why the social networks keep messing about with formats that users are happy with... facebook do it all the time (I'm yet to see how this new "timeline" thing will pan out on there) and I believe there's been an update on twitter which I haven't yet had (or maybe its just the mobile version) Not one of them has been in consultation with the people who use them. I left MySpace because they messed about with it so much it became complicated and un-usable. Facebook is heading that way, and Google + is too complicated.

The fact that people actually PAY to use LJ makes it even worse.

The problem is, unless people stop using these services en masse then they'll keep making "improvements"

[tay-21.livejournal.com]

I don't get what is so complicated with asking your users, especially on a service that you pay for, what would you like to see? What do you like that you don't want us to change? Hay we're thinking about doing this, what do you all think? I mean SERIOUSLY? GAH!

[fredbassett]

This is weird. I can still see a subject line and the old user pic selection, even though it now appears to have gone live. Or maybe it hasn't yet?

[samueljames]

Everything looks the same for me too, *touches wood*

Not sure if I'm lucky or just a little behind everyone else in getting the hideous new layout. I wish they'd stop "improving" things.

[fredbassett]

I've been told that if you have something called an S" style, which apparantly my journal and denial does have, then you won't get the ghastly new 'improvements'.

[samueljames]

Do you know where to see what type of style one's layout is?

[fredbassett]

I think if you can still see the old style boxes then you definitely have an S2 style. But no, I don't know how to check. I'll see if I can find out and let you know.

[samueljames]

That's okay thanks. I'll take a look at the FAQs. I think I'm probably safe from the changes, hopefully.

[tay-21.livejournal.com]

I hope they don't go through with those changes. That would annoy the crap out of me. ARGH!!!!!!

[samueljames]

Unfortunately LJ don't have a great track record of listening to users but hopefully they will fix things for those being affected.

[tay-21.livejournal.com]

Yeah. So I've noticed. :-(

[tay-21.livejournal.com]

I have no idea how to check on that either. Mine seems currently unaffected, but who knows what will happen the next time I either log out or get logged out and have to log back in.

Maybe they saw all the freaking out and the pimping of other sites such as Dreamwidth and stuff that they refrained form doing their "improvement"? Who knows...

[samueljames]

The comments on the release post are still coming and Dreamwidth have added extra servers to cope with the increased traffic to their site. I think it's just luck that S2 layouts are okay for now. Hopefully they will stay okay but since LJ like to surprise us with 'enhancements' I'm crossing my fingers.

[tay-21.livejournal.com]

Yeah. I saw that too. I've about had it with their "enhancements" myself, but I don't know that I'm ready to jump ship quite yet. However, it might be time for me to go check out dreamwidth and poke around a bit to get a feel for the place.

I know I DO NOT like insanejournal. It's just bloody weird.

[tay-21.livejournal.com]

I actually just took a real good look at that page and HOLY HELL! it's like hundreds of times worse that I thought. They took away the preview button for the comments. I NEED that button. EFFING FOOLS!

[samueljames]

I use the preview comment function quite a bit, especially for comment fic and checking I've done HTML right. I'd hate to lose it. Some people have been triggered by stuff in abuse recovery comms because of missing subject lines and while there has been some spamming of the posts there's a lot of unhappy people.

I have a permanent Dreamwidth account and love their functionality but most of my f-list and communities are still on LJ so I wouldn't want to leave completely.

[tay-21.livejournal.com]

Yeah. I'm going to head over to Dreamwidth and see what it's like. I don't have to leave completely, I can just go set up an account over there and not renew my paid one here. I can still be a part of stuff over here with out giving those IDIOTS my money.

I'm done. Especially after reading the "They'll get used to it" comment over on Twitter. Arrogance will piss me off faster than you could imagine.

[samueljames]

The import function on DW works really well.

I saw the twitter link too. It's so completely dismissive. I'm paid up here till 2014 (so I could get my loyalty userpics now) so they've got my money.

[fredbassett]

We have a version of Denial on DW as well, but the problem is that most of the fan activity is still on LJ.

And it's a bit like banks in my view. They all end up as bad as each other eventually. There have been instances recently of people getting pissed of with DW over things they were getting pissed off with LJ over a few years ago, so what goes around tends to come around, unfortunately.

[fredbassett]

If you're unaffected it means you have something called an S2 style. Journals and comms with that are OK.

The 'improvement' only applies to S1 styles.

It took me a while to find that out.