LJArchive

[jducoeur]

Thanks to tpau for pointing out the layoffs at LiveJournal. If this article is to be believed, it's probably not the end of the world -- everybody's laying off right now, and I can't say I'm entirely astonished that LJ is consolidating. But it's a good reminder that backing up one's journal is a good idea, just in case.

Thanks also to her for the pointer to ljArchive, a tool for doing exactly that. It's not a panacea -- it's .NET-based, so mainly intended for Windows, and I gather from its LJ community that some users have had reliability issues with it. But I found it quite nice: easy to install, easy to use, and quick. It took just a few minutes to get it up and running, and just a few more to download my entire journal (about 1800 entries and 14000 comments, so that's nicely efficient). It's open-source freeware, and even comes with a reasonably good viewer for reading and searching your journal. In fact, the search functionality is so fast that it may be the easiest way to look up old entries.

So I'd strongly recommend to Windows users that, if you don't already have a solution in place, it's worth downloading ljArchive and backing up your journal. I put the odds of LJ collapsing fairly low still, but it's always better to be prepared...

Comments

[jducoeur]

I *so* don't agree. Several counter-points:

First: yeah, some journals *do* have literary value. I and a number of her friends have been telling ladysprite for years that her occasional "Adventures in Veterinary Medicine" essays are well worth collecting into a book, and I hope that she does so someday.

Second: for many of us, our journals are the best records we have of our lives -- far moreso than any diary or photo album. That has enormous sentimental value, and losing them would affect us as strongly as losing a diary to a fire or flood would to many people. You of all people should be aware of the value of keeping records and archives against inundations and conflagrations (digital or otherwise).

Third: don't underestimate the practical and business importance of these journals. Much of the design work for CommYou was conducted in discussions in this journal, and those conversations still have considerable real-world value to me.

No, none of this is irreplaceable; no lives would end if LJ suddenly melted down and took its content with it. But there is nonetheless considerable value of many sorts contained here, and it's well worth making a modest effort to preserve it against the vagaries of the Internet business...