LiveJournal News

As you may have already noticed, some video and media embedding in LiveJournal entries have been disabled, and content and security level of some entries may have changed unexpectedly. Both are related to a web security exploit that affected some entries on LiveJournal for approximately two hours today. Here is what you should know:

• You should check your recent entries to be sure the security level has not been changed and embed tags (as described below) have not been added.
• This exploit was spread through malicious Flash code embedded in journal entries.
• To combat the exploit, most video and other media embedding has been disabled - we will re-enable them on a site-by-site basis over the coming hours and days.
• Once media embedding was disabled, the exploit was stopped; it is no longer a risk.
• If you see four boxes (picture below) on a friend's entry, you should inform your friend since they may not be aware of what occurred.

( For a detailed explanation and discussion click here )

We're thrilled to announce the launch of Your Journal - Your Money, a joint program with Google AdSense that allows LiveJournal paid and permanent account holders around the world the chance to earn extra cash just by displaying ads on their journals.



If you have a paid or permanent account on LiveJournal, you can start earning some extra pocket money simply by doing what you love to do on LiveJournal, like writing, sharing photos, and catching up with friends! The more people who visit your journal, the more money you can earn. It's that simple. You’ll get to control where ads appear and whether you prefer text or image ads. You can even customize colors and choose different ad sizes and formats. LiveJournal is turning over 100% of net proceeds to you. (After Google takes their cut, the rest is yours.)

Here's how it works: If you sign up for Your Journal - Your Money, you'll see Google AdSense ads displayed on your own journal. You can opt-in if you want to see ads on other journals. As always, paid and permanent account holders who don't opt-in will not view ads on other LiveJournal pages.

Here's all you'll need to get started:

• A paid account on LiveJournal: If you don't have one, click here (it costs from $19.95/year)


• Next, click here to sign up for a Google AdSense account or to associate your existing AdSense account with your LiveJournal account


• Complete the easy sign-up process and choose the type of ads you wish to display


• Keep posting and start earning extra income now

Curtain call
That's it for this issue of LiveJournal Major Notes. We're really proud to be in partnership with Google. You can read more about it here. There are some other minor improvements in today's code release. You can read about it in lj_releases.

Thanks, again, for tuning in. Without you, there's no harmony.

Your number's up

Back by popular demand, we're thrilled to announce that we've brought back international voice posting. We'll be adding other countries soon, but here's what we've got so far:

• Canada - (705) 805-0069
• United Kingdom (tollfree) - 0808 280-0740
• Australia - (03) 8888-5192
• United States (this hasn't changed) - (888) 840-6189 or (888) LJ-VPOST (558-7678)

Get lucky on LJ

We've got lots of win-win action with some contests and competition this month. Check it out and get in on the fun.

Designing minds: Check out the LiveJournal anniversary theme contest at lj_turns10. Submissions are open until September 14, so there's still time to design the theme of your dreams. Winning designs will play a starring role as our Featured themes, and the theme that takes the Grand Prize will be the default theme for all new accounts for the rest of 2009.

Zazzle bedazzles: Our friends over at lj_promote are so excited about the new LiveJournal store on Zazzle that they're hosting a contest. Comment with a photo of yourself with your favorite LiveJournal t-shirt/pencil/hoodie/hat/thingie (there's lots to choose from at the Zazzle store!), and you could win a $5 LiveJournal gift certificate. Get details here.

Get schooled in giving: LJ’s own ontd_ai_gives has raised serious cash for the Adam Lambert DonorsChoose.org fan group competition. ontd_ai_gives group is at the top of the class with over $25,000 already banked. Donations are welcome through September 20, so you can help support public schools while earning ontd_ai the coveted title of Most Generous Adam Lambert fan group.

Check, mate

A heads up to all of you with checks in the mail. Effective October 1, 2009, we'll ONLY accept payments using a major credit card, PayPal, or Web Money. If we're already billing you online, you're good to go. We're really sorry for the inconvenience, but we won't be taking any new orders with cash, check or Money Order as the payment method after October 1, 2009. If you created your order and mailed your payment before October 1, we'll still credit the order, even if the payment doesn't reach us until after the 1st.

Go bi-postal on MySpace

We know how much you love to share. Now, the writing's on the wall. Install the MySpace widget and instantly syndicate all your LJ posts to your MySpace profile.

To install the widget, log into MySpace, click More (from the upper nav bar), choose Apps Gallery (from the drop-down) and do a keyword search for LiveJournal. Install the widget, complete the quick online form and all of your LiveJournal posts will publish automatically on your MySpace profile. We'll be adding more syndication widgets down the line, so stay posted.


Tag, you're it

We've just released an update that allows Community Maintainers to restrict tag editing to only the author of the post and Maintainers. So, if you subscribe to the philosophy that too many cooks spoil the broth, you now have three restricted options to choose from: (1) Members only, (2) Maintainers only, or (3) Entry author and Maintainers. If you prefer the group soup approach, by all means, change the default setting to Any User, which means any LiveJournal user can edit tags.

To update your tag editing permissions, here's what you do:

• log into LiveJournal
• mouse over Journal (on the upper nav bar)
• choose Manage Tags (from the drop-down-menu)
• on the top of the page, next to Work as user, choose the community you want to change permissions for; click Switch
• scroll down to Tag Settings and choose a permission level
• when you're done, click Save Settings (on the bottom of the page)

LiveJournal is hiring!

If you're smart, driven and passionate about LiveJournal, we want you on our team!

Check out our current openings for a Russian Abuse Prevention Team member and an Operations Engineer:

• http://www.livejournalinc.com/active_jobs/russian_abuse.php
• http://www.livejournalinc.com/active_jobs/operations_engineer.php

Other important stuff

• TxtLJ service through Verizon is still down, but we have been told it should be working shortly!
• The number of comments has been added to the entry view of each post, so you can watch your comment-count grow.
• TxtLJ limits remain status quo, but will be increasing in the near-future.
• Read more details on changes and feature updates in lj_releases.