sholio | Why don't I have a computer icon?

Some of you probably have already seen this on your own flists, but LJ is changing the look of the friends page. You can preview the new one by going to your friends page and clicking "switch to new" at the top. (You can turn it off and go back to the old one anytime you like -- at least for now.) ~~ETA: Actually, this may only be for paid accounts, or only on some accounts but not others. Anyway, not everyone has this option. I'm sorry - I didn't know that!~~ ETA2: Actually, it's part of the navigation strip at the top of your journal, so you'll need to have that turned on to see it. Apologies for the confusion, and thanks to

torachan for pointing that out!

I'm going to buck the trend here and say that now that I've tried it, I like it, or at least don't mind it. I like it better than the site scheme I've been using, actually. It's clean and simple and I find it very easy to read. I tried clicking on everything, and everything works fine in my browser. The new look will take a little getting used to, but I have to do that whenever I change my custom journal look anyway. (Actually, it'll be nice to be able to change my main journal's look without changing the flist page along with it.) And while I'm really not fond of the infinite scroll, it doesn't crash my browser or make my flist impossible to read, and it seems to be where everyone (except DW *clings*) is heading nowadays anyway.

What I don't like is that they're going to be applying it to everyone eventually -- at least that's my understanding: that no one will be able to have their own custom friends page anymore, or opt out of this one. Everyone will be stuck with the new one, whether or not they like it or can even use it. Gyarrrr.

So that's my basic verdict: I like it myself, and it's not going to make it any harder for me to access LJ if/when they switch. But I really, really don't like the idea that it might (will?) be applied to everyone, regardless of accessibility or personal taste.

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Do you have a paid or permanent LJ? I still haven't seen the "switch to new" thing and am wondering if it's not testable for free accounts yet or if they're just rolling it out slowing and it hasn't reached me.

I actually like endless scroll, so that doesn't bother me. I'm slightly annoyed that I won't be able to customise what links I have in the sidebar, etc. but overall the whole change isn't that big a deal to me. (Though part of that is definitely that I only check LJ once a day for the handful of people on my flist who still post there.)

Ohhhhh ... I do have a paid account, so you could be right about that! It definitely sounds like the sort of thing they'd do. I'll amend the post to reflect that.

I think that I was expecting this to be a lot more horrible than it is. I mean, I hate that it's being applied across the board, because that's a big accessibility issue for a lot of people. But for me, I don't think it's really going to make much difference.

Yeah, especially the endless scroll, which I know causes issues for a lot of people in terms of loading.

Actually apparently it's on the navigation strip, so if like me you don't have that turned on, you don't see it.

Aha, thank you! :) (I've never had mine off, so I always tend to forget that's customizable. I'll update my post!)

I hate infinite scrolling. I turn it off on Tumblr because it slows down my pc, and it's not how I like to control my viewing (Facebook irritates me when I use it too, constantly scrolling back up against my will). I already have a site skin applied to LJ because I find the default has too much whitespace to be readable for any length of time.

I like the look of my flist being the look I applied to my journal - I spend most of time looking at my flist rather my own journal; why would I want to look at some default, painful to read, style 80% of the time? With no opt out, everyone has to have the same mindless corporate look on their accounts. It's just ridiculous. I limit my time on Tumblr because it's a mess to navigate and doesn't really support in-depth interaction or personalisation. LJ seems to want to go the same way.

I'm just really glad I have a DW account, and I hope that more people finally move the majority of their blogging and their comms over here. But I suppose that despite all the complaints, LJ won't listen because they don't care about their users, and everyone will either carry on regardless or leave to just reblog macros at Tumblr :(

I like the look of my flist being the look I applied to my journal

See, I'm kind of the opposite -- the look that I like for the "front page" of my journal isn't really the look that I'm happiest reading elsewhere. Ever since LJ did away with their old default page style (which I'm still annoyed about, incidentally) I've made do with a style that I find usable but not all that great to look at. So I don't mind losing it on the flist pages, since they're still functional for me.

Which I recognize that they are not going to be for everyone. And I feel your annoyance, I really do! While this particular change isn't really bothering me, I hated some of the past changes and I'm really not fond of infinite scrolling in general (especially Facebook's particular implementation, OMG). It's just that ...

... I don't know, I guess I'm just over getting upset about this stuff. Any of it, whether it's my mail client changing its functionality, or having to get rid of the word processor that I've used for 12 years because it's no longer supported on my new OS. Stuff changes, and just about every piece of software or website that I use regularly is different now than the ones I used 10 years ago (and even those that are the same have a different look and feel now). At this point I'm just trying to roll with the changes and accept them as they come along, because I'm 36 and I expect to be on the Internet for another 50 years (or BrainNet or whatever they have 50 years from now *g*). I'm on both LJ and DW, so I figure that people for whom it's a dealbreaker will leave, and those for whom it's not will stay, and I'm basically down with it either way.

I think LJ as a company is probably on its way out, at least the English side of it, but "on its way out" could take another 10 years to limp slowly away, so I guess I'll just stick around as long as there are people there I want to follow. I'm on Facebook for much the same reason. Having said that, I really wouldn't mind seeing more fannish activity move to DW; these days I think it's a much more functional blogging platform than LJ.

ETA: Er, I desperately hope this comment doesn't sound terribly unsympathetic! It's not meant to be ... Like I was just saying in a comment on the LJ side, I have a strong knee-jerk "do not want!" to changes in any program or website I use regularly, and LJ's sucktastic customer service doesn't make the changes easier to swallow. But I'm trying to be more mentally flexible and willing to learn new ways of interacting with the technology I use regularly, because I figure that it will only benefit me in the long run.

Edited 2012-10-30 17:25 (UTC)

What bothers me most is that with the new look there is no summary module for my flist anymore, so I can't see all the recent subjects at a glance and also see comment numbers, and thus see whether it's worth visiting a recent entry I already read again. I could get used to the new design, and I'm not that attached to my look, but that the sidebar is now gone sucks. The infinite scroll doesn't outright crash my browser, but it is jerky and hogs resources.

Oh crud, I hadn't even noticed the summary was gone! Yeah, I use that too.

What is not there anymore matters much more than how the elements that are still on the page look. The latter you can always change somewhat with user stylesheets in your browser if it comes to the worst, but if the content isn't there anymore, you're out of luck.

Looking at my old LJ layout, I just realized that my old layout didn't have the summary, either! Which I guess is why I didn't notice it missing from the new one. (Though my DW layout does.)

ETA: I guess I should add that my current LJ layout was chosen almost entirely on the basis of how readable it made the interior pages of my journal (after they did away with the old default pages) and it's never a layout I've been that fond of, which is probably one reason why I'm not that bothered by having a different look for my friends page. I never have been all that pleased with the one I have now.

Edited 2012-10-30 18:07 (UTC)

Yes, same here. I had to abandon my LJ layout of many, many years to a minimalist one to be able to keep the comment subject lines and still have a look somewhat like the old default entry page. So it wasn't really a choice to begin with.

Edited 2012-10-30 18:11 (UTC)

I don't like the new friends page, but at this point, I'm very nearly numb to whatever bone headed changes LJ makes. I've let my paid LJ account lapse, and I do my best to encourage activity on DW. I've had limited effectiveness with the latter, but oh well.

I see a lot of self fulfilling prophecy going on. People bemoan the fact that DW is comparatively quiet. And that's true! But if people participated on DW, posting to communities and such, then that might change!

I don't want to guilt or strong arm anyone into leaving LJ to take up DW. But I think we could all work together to make DW more lively, if we wanted to.

(I hope I'm not coming off as preachy or demanding. I just see room for forward momentum.)

Why don't I have a computer icon?

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