archive now

[mellowtigger]

jpeace points out this article about LiveJournal laying off the majority of its employees without warning.
http://valleywag.gawker.com/5124184/the-russian-bear-slashes-a-social-network

Here is the FAQ entry for exporting information.
http://www.livejournal.com/support/faqbrowse.bml?faqid=8

I was going to try the LJ.NET downloadable client, but it requires .NET 1.1 which apparently won't install on Vista.  (I tried, but Vista complained.)  Anybody have other suggestions for programs that they've used successfully?

So.... what's the next blog service that the Bear crowd will be moving to, assuming that LiveJournal plans on closing its doors and servers? I've long been impressed by the writing I could find at blogspot, but a spammer took over my name there before I could get to it, so I won't be finding a home there. *sigh*

edit1: recommended archive programs so far...
http://fawx.com/software/ljarchive/ (Windows)
http://www.mp3vcr.com/ljsec/ (Windows)
http://antennapedia.livejournal.com/266462.html (requires Python)
http://ljbackup.yamnet.co.uk/ (Windows)
http://www.ljbook.com/frontpage.php ("LiveJournal and this service are currently under heavy load.")

edit2: ogam mentions that there is a user buyout effort underway at ljuser_buyout .

edit3: theamazingjosh reveals a page with confirmed information about the layoffs.

edit4: artfldarknbuzzd points out the official Livejournal announcement.  They say that they are planning for the "long-term success" of the site.

Comments

[joshuwain.livejournal.com]

Hmmmm...

How likely is it that it's really going away?

[mellowtigger]

"The company's product managers and engineers were laid off, leaving only a handful of finance and operations workers — which speaks to a website to be left on life support."

Sounds like they'll try to milk it for whatever subscriber money they can get, but new development has ended. (I'm still wishing for the ability to search my own blog for particular text without having to resort to Google.)

If a for-profit company can't decide how to make bazillions profit out of a product, they shut it down. I don't understand that reasoning (small profit is better than no profit) but I've seen it all too often. Unless some new buyout plan emerges, I do expect them to shut down the servers.

[joshuwain.livejournal.com]

Do you have a suggestion for a good client to archive ALL of a person's posts from start to finish? I've been on LJ since 12/18/01 and if I use their standard exporting feature, it would take me MONTHS to export them one at a time...

[arkanjil.livejournal.com]

theres ljarchive for windows, but i never found a good client for mac yet

for the curious...

[mellowtigger]

http://fawx.com/software/ljarchive/

[joshuwain.livejournal.com]

Got it... Thank you to both you and Terry...!

[mellowtigger]

Apparently Python comes pre-installed in OS X, so the link to antennapedia (main post) might work for you.

[anziulewicz.livejournal.com]

The thought of clicking on my LJ bookmark only to find the site DOWN and all my past postings irretrievable was a little bit too unsettling to me ... so I've started archiving everything on the CD. I just finished 2005.

[furr-a-bruin.livejournal.com]

Hmmm.... .NET is supposed to be backwards compatible, so the app should work with the more recent version of .NET that comes with Vista. Did the app complain about not being able to specifically find 1.1?

I'm currently giving ljArchive a try. If it works, I'll probably set up a scheduled task on my home server to refresh the archive every night at 3am or something.

[mellowtigger]

Yes, it pops up a window "This setup requires the .NET Framework version 1.1.4322." and will not continue without it. *shrug* I'm on Vista 64-bit, if it matters. (Though I'm hoping to be using Windows 7 later this month.)

[fingertrouble.livejournal.com]

I've backed up to InsaneJournal...just in case. Seems like a few of the bears are going there.

Sadly all my videos go bye bye, but as I have them locally I can re-add them if need be.

[dodecadragon.livejournal.com]

There is LJBook: http://www.ljbook.com/frontpage.php

But they are really busy right now, I wonder why? :ob