LJ has begun rolling out changes to the comment system, as part of a larger upcoming site redesign.
wendymr describes the changes and implications to fandom
here. I use a customized S2 style, so apparently the changes don't apply to my personal journal (yet), but I do participate in fandom prompt memes and other comms that use elements of the comment system that have been disappeared. Thus far, I am not happy with the changes, but I'm especially not happy with how dismissive LJ representatives seem to be of users' expressed concerns (see, e.g.,
this news update, in which LJ fails to acknowledge the subject line issue, even just to say "We've considered your feedback, but are not going to make any changes.").
There have been a lot of complaints about the DDOS attacks. I'm sympathetic regarding the assaults LJ has endured, and consider riding out the DDOS my contribution to supporting freedom of speech in a quasi-oligarchy. Re-designing the site in a manner that ignores the feedback of current (especially paying) users is, to me, another thing altogether.
I've been a paid user of LJ for over ten years. I'd really rather not move off of LJ. Many of my fandom activities are LJ-centered. Most of the comms I enjoy are here. I'd really rather work with LJ to figure out what changes really are going to benefit users and how site changes can be rolled out with minimum disruption for all. Unfortunately, right now, I'm not getting the sense that LJ wants the same things.
In the meantime, I've registered a Dreamwidth account for my username. If you've got some advice about how to best execute a backup of my journal without accidentally unlocking old posts or otherwise messing up my current settings, I'd appreciate it. If things on LJ get too hairy, I plan to use the mirror update feature at DW I see some of my friends using, and let this account lapse into basic status.
In other backup-related news, please ignore any texts or emails I may have sent you about how Delicious has been restoring old functionality. Sadly, the restoration was short-lived. Delicious has gone back to forcing a picture-laden, white space-heavy format on users, while removing bulk edit functions and minimizing the ability to navigate via tags. Like LJ, Delicious seems to think the future is lots of pretty pictures with a minimum of text. Eventually, the entire Internet is going to look like a celebrity gossip magazine.
I've signed up for Pinboard, using my Delicious username. I'll set my Pinboard and Delicious to mirror each other, for the forseeable future. I like having all of my fic recs organized and easily sortable (text-heavy Pinboard seems like the best current provider for this function), but I also really enjoy using the social aspects of Delicious to discover other reccers with similar tastes, so I'm going to try for the best of both worlds.
I won't be maintaining the Diigo account. Diigo imported all of my bookmarks with the original settings--not surprising, since most of my recs run along the lines of "Sherlock is scratched by a kitten; John puts a bandaid on his wound and then they talk about their friendship." However, Diigo appears to have severe link description restrictions (incompatible with the degree to which I want to squee about certain stories), and Diigo's content restrictions don't work for those with more catholic tastes (effectively torpedoing the social aspect of reccing).
Batten down the hatches, ladies and gents.