Sorry to anyone who has RSSed this blog and just got four years worth of LiveJournal posts dumped on their RSS-reader. With the direction of a co-worker of the awesome Cat Sparks, I finally figured out how to import my LiveJournal blog. Given the increasing amounts of comment spam on LJ, and the ongoing unreliability of the site, it seemed like a smart move to make. And I’m now seriously considering deleting my blog there, to avoid the ongoing spammage. Will see if there’s some boxes I can untick to stop getting the notifications maybe, but if not, I really don’t need it any more.
Having said that, I will be sad to close that digital chapter of my life. LJ was my first real social network, and it used to be a great one, with a lot of like-minded people blogging and conversing in an environment that worked well. But digital worlds move on, and so do we. I didn’t want to lose that record of my life, particularly as there were times in there that my LJ friends really were lifelines for me. I’ve never really been one for journalling (haven’t kept a diary since my six week trip overseas, and before that it was my year in the NT), but blogging makes it easier, and the interactivity element changes things up. I’ll miss the ability to f-lock posts, but LJ just wasn’t working anymore.
So thanks for all the good times LJ – I’m glad I finally got told the easy way to extract my posts!
For the interested, it really is very easy to import LJ to WordPress, although with LJ’s unreliability right now it might take a few goes.
1. Click on Tools in your WordPress sidebar.
2. Click on Import.
3. Click on LiveJournal.
4. Fill in the info.
5. Go!
Edited to add: Please be aware that the import will un-flock friend-locked entries. Private ones will (should) stay Private, as WP supports that feature. If you have a paid LJ account, you *might* be able to do a mass-security change to your entire journal, making it all private, on the theory that if everything is private, you have the option to go through and un-private entries if you choose, at your leisure. Can’t guarantee it will work though, because I don’t have a paid account to try it! Option is here: http://www.livejournal.com/editjournal.bml
Also, photos don’t come through with the import 😦 ETA Again – yes they do!
A conversational life 