The empire strikes back

In recent weeks, we've taken huge steps towards blocking spam accounts on LiveJournal. In fact, we've suspended as many as 30,000 accounts in a single day! We've implemented several pre-emptive measures to prevent the creation of spam accounts, and we've honed our detection of suspicious content. Spam bots are a crafty lot, so we'll continue to refine our tactics and keep up the good fight to keep you safe from spam attacks on LiveJournal.

RSS feeds again

If you're addicted to xkcd_rss, icanhaschzbrgr, or other syndicated feeds, we're pleased to report that we've resolved the update error that was mucking up your RSS feeds. While content was being pulled correctly, it wasn't being posted to the feeds themselves. Late last week, we finally nailed down what we hope was the root problem, so content should post properly. We thank you for your patience.

Wii have killer CSI Deadly Intent contests!

c_s_i

If you're a gamer who loves CSI, have Wii got news for you! c_s_i is sponsoring killer contests. Simply post a question to a member of the CSI crew. The winner will get a free copy of CSI: Deadly Intent for Nintendo Wii (with a retail value of $39.99) and get their question answered by a member of the CSI writing team! There's also a fantastic monthly contest. To enter, join c_s_i, play the online version of CSI: Deadly Intent, and respond to a two-part query for a chance to win a Wii! Entries will be judged on composition and originality. Sorry, but you must be a U.S. resident and over 18 years old to participate. Check out the rules here.

Enveloped in postcards

Last week, we asked you to send in postcards to help us decorate our drab concrete walls. Here's a photo of the results so far! Thank you so much and please keep them coming! You can mail them to Frank the Goat, Esq., c/o LiveJournal, Inc., 539 Bryant Street, Suite 210, San Francisco, CA 94107. Be sure to include your username, since we'll be giving ten random users paid account credits.

Photos of the week

If you haven't visited our new LiveJournal photo community, you're in for an amazing visual trip. LiveJournal users from around the world will take you on a scenic journey to everywhere. Post your own pictures or kick back and enjoy at lj_photophile. You can view some of this week's awesome photos after the jump. Please start tagging with geographic location, since we'd like to track all the places around the world represented in this community. Keep on commenting too!
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在photography 上看见这套婚照（图多杀猫，真的杀），非常漂亮。我一直不喜欢国内盛行的婚纱照，虽然漂亮，但更喜欢这种的自然和独一无二。尽管不认识这对新人，那些俄语更是一个字都看不懂，但只要看着那些图片，看着他们的笑颜和亲吻，奔跑和拥抱，就觉得真好啊，这样的爱、这样的结合真好。身边的婚姻常被物化得很严重，真爱已经变成大家口头上调笑的对象，参加同事的婚礼也不会去探究他们的感情究竟如何，而是谈论着两家是否门当户对，谁出的房子谁买的车，有没有贷款谁在按揭……幸好还有这些照片，让我记起两个人在一起，办这么一个仪式，是因为有爱，而婚礼是一件美好、庄严、浪漫的事情。而照片里那些自然流露出来的幸福感，随性而致的动作，又哪是婚纱照那些固定好的姿势，做作的神情能够比拟的？爱不是摆拍出来的，结婚照也不应该是新娘子一个人满足表演欲的时候（看过N多婚纱照里男方都是陪衬）。在zepr镜头下，这对新人是如此珠联璧合，不可分开，他们的举手投足，眼神流转，耳鬓厮磨之间，无不满溢着爱。即使从头到尾只有一套服装，即使那些表情不够精致冷冽，即使在中国人看来，女比男高都不般配，但当我一次次看着他们的微笑和亲吻，都觉得非常动人。相较之下，之前见过很多婚纱，也不过是两个美丽的人偶（还未必美丽），若不是他们相拥亲吻，很难去想象他们之间的关系。

当然这个摄影师真是够强的，构图完胜，抓拍也是无懈可击，够我学好几年了。啊～真想有一天能拍出这样的照片，记录下亲人的、朋友们的生活和幸福。从别人的照片里能看到自己玩摄影最初的愿望，而不是想着要卖弄技巧，模仿构图，刻意用光，也是很难得呢：D

回帖的人里有人说“almost makes me want to get married again”，真的……看到这些照片想不心动，很难呢。

最近累得和狗一样，是的，和狗一样（奇怪，狗很累吗？）。万圣节的时候虽然很想出去high，但其实我的性格还是很保守的，加上工作缠身，正好给了自己一个借口不出门。节日本来也就是给人一个理由去high而已，满足想high的人，挺好。而我，打这段话的时候已经困到快要睡着了，但今天的图还没贴，今天的日语还没看，强打着精神也得都做完。为何要在这种地方如此执着？答案就是Doit.im！目前很满意的时间管理工具，第一次让我感觉软件也能优于笔记本，打勾时的成就感无与伦比。虽然执着于这一勾很傻，但既然有人能执着于Plurk的Karma，那这也没什么可耻的XDDDD

今天强烈降温，最喜欢的秋天过去了，冬天就要来临。我讨厌白天短的日子，讨厌回家时外面已经一片昏暗，但湿漉漉的冷风也能让我想起不少快乐的悲伤的值得记住的回忆。四季中，最不喜欢冬天，但一旦想起就百感交集的也是冬天。不知道这个冬天，又会留下什么回忆。

哎呀今天Flickr抽风不知道为啥传不上图，放弃，明天再传好了，不是我跳票哦～

EDIT: If you're reading this, our maintenance is OVER! The problem was not found on our equipment, which means we'll have to work with our ISP to fix this small problem -- which also means another maintenance window in the future -- but at least we have eliminated our side.

Thank you everyone, and a special shout out to rekoil for giving me a great suggestion AND also the opportunity to feel like I've just called in to a local radio station.

Have a great day, night or afternoon wherever you may be.

---

Hi everyone, sorry for the late notice but I'm going to have to do some testing on 1 of our 4 internet circuits TONIGHT; Friday night or Saturday morning depending on which time zone you're in.

Most of us shouldn't notice any impact, though there may be some slowness or lag when I switch traffic on to our other ISP circuits and then another hit when I stop the tests. If a page won't load or times out, try hitting refresh 1 or 2 times and it should load then. If it doesn't work at all... trust me, I'll be typing really really really fast to try to undo whatever I just did. Hopefully you'll have some Halloween candy (if you're in the USA and celebrate that kind of thing) nearby to take away the bitterness of a small site outage. :(

Here's the handy-dandy Website That I Always Use to get a feel for when the maintenance will start in your area. Our site traffic historically dips on Friday afternoons until Saturday morning which is why we tend to pick this time for maintenance work.

( tech details )

status.livejournal.org will, of course be updated before and after the maintenance window. Or else marta will get mad at me. :D

bt

和Spooky去拙政园的时候拍的，今年六月。

前景实在是太乱了，泪。

In response to user comments from last week, we want to let you know that we'll remain LJ cut-free for the next month in order to get more eyeballs on our evolving newsletter. As for product coverage, that continues to be our top priority. For more granular detail, however, we recommend you join lj_releases.

Super-tweak for Yandex search

Some of our beta testers expressed privacy concerns using the Yandex search engine. Here's why: Last week, when you ran a search, you could see the usernames (and only the usernames) of everyone who commented on an entry, even if that entry was switched to Private or Friends Only after it was originally indexed. You could NOT see the actual comments from Friends Only or Private posts. In response to your input, we've implemented a fix to keep all user activity currently marked Friends Only or Private completely hidden. If you'd prefer your public content not to be indexed by Yandex, click here and use the settings labeled Search Inclusion (this covers your entire journal) and/or Comment Search Inclusion (which covers comments only). To test drive Yandex search now, click here.

Postcards from the edge

Several years ago, we asked LiveJournal users to send postcards to help us decorate our dull, white-washed offices. Since a good idea warrants repetition, we're at it again (same issue, new address). We hope you'll surround us with LiveJournal love by sending your postcards to Frank the Goat, Esq., c/o LiveJournal, Inc., 539 Bryant Street, Suite 210, San Francisco, CA 94107. We'll post snapshots right here. Be sure to include your username, since we'll randomly pick 10 lucky recipients to win free paid account time.

Conquer Writer's Block

Here are some excerpts from this week's most popular question of the day:

If a friend or relative makes a racist or homophobic remark, do you tend to confront them or let it slide? Are you more likely to confront them if it offends you directly or someone else who seems reluctant to speak up?

1. I find it easier to stand up for other people, and i wouldn't let it slide if they made a rude or hurtful comment.
2. Usually if a friend makes a racist or homophobic remark, I tend to let it slide. I think that while i would not say such things myself, I have no right to censor those around me.
3. This happens all of the time. I confront some relatives, but I refuse to if they are drunk or watch Fox News.
4. I'd let it slide if it was just a private remark... As much as I despise bigotry and intolerance, I know that you can't change people-they have to change themselves ...
5. Confront! confront! confront! Politely, but without equivocation.
6. SPEAK UP. Always, always, always speak up. Letting something slide lets ignorance win. No matter if it offends me directly, or someone else, I will confront the speaker and let them know that's not ok.
7. I don't get offended personally. As an immigrant, woman, gay and person of color if I took every single potentially offensive remark seriously I wouldn't get anything done.
8. I punch them in the balls. With my mind.
9. I do speak up, but often very timidly because I feel that I'm white and therefore I don't really have any authority to lecture someone on what's racist and what isn't...
10. Generally speaking, I do not let this shit fly, because it reduces me as a person, to this non-person and it replicates the destructive discourse that makes sure that sexual minorities, racial minorities, women, people with disabilities, trans people and every intersection thereof into something other than human... And sometimes... I'm just too tired to deal with it, so I roll my eyes, make a sarcastic remark and hope the conversation moves on quickly.

For more daily questions and user comments, join writersblock. FYI, we don't want to invade your privacy, so we haven't credited individual users for their responses. We'd appreciate your feedback on this!

Spotlight community of the week

We can't resist making one last midnight trip to the ol' pumpkin patch. If you adore crazy costumes, fiendish festivities, and bottomless candy consumption as much as we do, this community has just what it takes to light up your jack-o-lantern.


halloween_fan

Photos of the week

We received so many incredible photos, we had to close our eyes and point. We uploaded a selection of awesome images at our new lj_photophile community. Please join and start posting (try to keep the width at around 625 for the sake of consistency)! We'd love for you to tell us more about your photos! You can help us select spotlight photos by commenting on your favorites. Once again, we thank you for making our online world more beautiful!

shutter	pancetta	ilya_gorokhov

Curtains

Thanks, again, for tuning in. We look forward to seeing you next week.