FAQ - Site Navigation Features

If you speak English, and this FAQ is displaying in another language, please visit http://www.livejournal.com/support/faqbrowse.bml?faqid=132&uselang=en_LJ to read this FAQ in English.

LiveJournal uses your browser settings to determine what language to display. If you wish to have your browser present you with your native language in all cases, you can change the settings in your browser. However, this will affect sites other than LiveJournal as well.

To set your language preferences for LiveJournal only, log in and visit http://www.livejournal.com/manage/siteopts.bml. If you have not previously set a language, you can click on the image representing languages to reach this page. In the default (XColibur) scheme, this link appears near the top right-hand corner of the main LiveJournal pages and contains the words for various languages (starting with "English, Español, Deutsch, Français"). In the Dystopia scheme, this link says "Browse Options", and it appears near the upper right-hand corner of the main LiveJournal pages.

After selecting your language preferences, log out of LiveJournal at http://www.livejournal.com/logout.bml and then log back in at http://www.livejournal.com/login.bml. This will ensure that your settings are saved.

Setting your language only affects LiveJournal system pages; individual journal entries will always appear in the language in which they were entered. Not all system pages are available for translation, and not all the available pages are translated into every available language.

Many LiveJournal system pages can be viewed in another language by adding "?uselang=XX" to the end of the URL for the page, where "XX" is the standard code for the language you wish to view. To specify English, use "?uselang=en_LJ". If a LiveJournal system page already has an argument appended to it (for example: http://www.livejournal.com/userinfo.bml?user=exampleusername), then to view it in English you would need to add "&uselang=en_LJ" to the end of the URL (http://www.livejournal.com/userinfo.bml?user=exampleusername&uselang=en_LJ), changing the question mark to an ampersand.

If you would like to assist in translating LiveJournal into another language, please see http://www.livejournal.com/support/faqbrowse.bml?faqid=57.

The appearance of the main LiveJournal page, as well as many other pages (such as User Info pages and the Read Comments pages in S1) is controlled by a 'scheme'. When you first use LiveJournal, you see the default scheme, but you can either change your preferences so that you always use a different scheme, or view individual pages using a particular scheme.

To change your preferences and select the scheme you will normally use, go to http://www.livejournal.com/manage/siteopts.bml. This page shows previews of the currently available schemes. Click on the scheme that you would like to use, and it will take over from your current scheme. The scheme names are listed above each of the preview images.

To view an individual page using a particular scheme, add "?usescheme=name" to the end of the URL, where 'name' is the name of the scheme that you would like to use. For instance, to view the main LiveJournal page without any graphics, you could use the 'lynx' scheme. The URL would read like this: http://www.livejournal.com/?usescheme=lynx. If there already is a ? in the URL, then add "&usescheme=name" (e.g. http://www.livejournal.com/userinfo.bml?user=exampleusername&usescheme=lynx).

When you log in to LiveJournal, your browser writes a cookie to your computer that keeps track of certain information, so that you don't have to keep logging in on every page. There are two options that can be stored in this cookie.

The first is the expiration of the cookie. If this option is set to "When browser closes", you will remain logged in until you end your browser session, and your browser will then delete the cookie. If this option is set to "Never", you will remain logged in indefinitely, and when you close and restart your browser, you will not have to log in to LiveJournal each time. In order to log out, you will need to visit http://www.livejournal.com/logout.bml (also accessible by clicking "Log out" at the top or bottom of each system page, depending on the selected site scheme).

The "Bind to IP address" option stores your IP address in the session information for your cookie, so that your cookie only works with that specified address. If you have a dial-up ISP, your IP address probably changes too frequently for this option to be useful. Also, please note that this option does not stop you from logging in to LiveJournal from another computer, but is merely a deterrent to account "hijacking". You can, however, choose to end all currently logged in sessions by using the "Expire all my sessions" option on logout (http://www.livejournal.com/support/faqbrowse.bml?faqid=159).

The default values for these options are for the login to expire when your browser closes and not be bound to your IP address. You can change these options at any time after logging in by visiting http://www.livejournal.com/login.bml, selecting your desired options, and clicking "Change Options."

You can also change these options by adding special characters to the end of your username when you log in. Adding the character "!" will set "Expiration" to "Never". Adding the character "<" will set "Bind to IP address" to "Yes". These options can be used alone or in combination.

For example, if the user exampleusername wants to log in, all of the following entries in the "Username" field are possible:
exampleusername (Log in exampleusername, leaving both options set to their default values).
exampleusername! (Log in exampleusername, setting "Expiration" to "Never").
exampleusername< (Log in exampleusername, setting "Bind to IP address" to "Yes").
exampleusername!< or exampleusername<! (Log in exampleusername, setting "Expiration" to "Never" and "Bind to IP address" to "Yes").

If you have tried several option combinations, including the default options, and are having trouble remaining logged in, see http://www.livejournal.com/support/faqbrowse.bml?faqid=162 for information on other ways to solve this problem.

When the "Expire all my sessions" option on the Logout page (http://www.livejournal.com/logout.bml) appears, it means there is more than one session for you in the database. There are several reasons why this may occur.

One such reason is that you are logged in on another computer. Another is that you have logged in, then you closed your browser (or it crashed), and you restarted it and logged in again less than 36 hours later. In any case, it is unlikely that this is an indication of a security breach or an account break-in. If you are unsure, do feel free to use this option to expire all sessions, and the option will disappear for the time being.

The following explains in detail how the session handling mechanism works.

When you log in to LiveJournal, two things happen:

(1) A session is created and assigned an authentication code (authcode);

(2) As part of the response to the login request, the server asks your browser to set a cookie with your username, a session number and its authcode in it. This mechanism increases security as it means your browser does not need to store the password to your account to allow you to remain logged in.

Since the browser has control over the cookies, it can expire these when it closes. Once the browser is restarted, the cookie no longer exists. However, by the nature of the World Wide Web, the LiveJournal servers only hear from your browser when it makes a request for a page; there is no way for the LiveJournal servers to know when you close your browser. This is why sessions on the server may still be active. This is not a security risk because, since your cookie is gone, there no longer exists any copy of the authcode that would allow anyone to use the session.

If you choose to expire your cookies when the browser closes, the sessions that are created will expire after 36 hours of inactivity. (If you chose the option to create a login that never expires, the sessions will time out after 60 days of inactivity.) However, sessions are not automatically deleted when they expire - they may remain dormant on the server, and will only be deleted when someone attempts to use them (and the server then notices that they have expired), or when you choose to delete them by way of the option on the Logout page (http://www.livejournal.com/logout.bml).

It is therefore possible to have several dormant sessions remaining on the server that have in fact expired. Because they have expired, they are unusable and do not present a security risk.

The memory feature on LiveJournal allows you to mark your favorite entries on LiveJournal in an easy-to-use keyword archive system.


ADDING MEMORIES

The easiest way to access your own entries and mark them as memories is to enable comments (also called message boards) for your journal. For those using S1 or using S2 without styled comment pages, each site scheme comment page has a small toolbar set in blue that offers a variety of buttons, one of which is a small red heart with a plus sign in the upper left corner. Clicking on this button will take you to the "Add to Memories" page, where you can give the memory a descriptive name and associate it with up to five keywords. These keywords file the memory under one or more categories on the Memories page, which make referencing the memory later on easier.

If you do not have your message boards enabled, and don't want to enable them, you can use your Calendar's monthly view to navigate to the Read Comments page for the entry you would like to mark as a memory. Finding and clicking the red heart button will take you to the "Add to Memories" page. Some S2 styles also have a red heart button next to the entry on the journal or friends page.

If you are using S2 with customized comment pages, the button may have a different location and appearance. For example, it may lack the plus sign or be a different color. Some styles do not offer this toolbar on comments pages, and if your style is one of them, you'll have to add memories manually. Go to the Read Comments page and make note of the URL of the entry in question. For example, visiting an entry of the user exampleusername might give the URL http://www.livejournal.com/users/exampleusername/289.html. To add this entry as a memory, you would visit the URL http://www.livejournal.com/tools/memadd.bml?journal=exampleusername&itemid=289. To add an entry in another journal, replace exampleusername with the username of the journal, and 289 with the number shown at the end of the URL when you visit the comments page.

You can mark any LiveJournal entry as a memory, not just one you have posted to your own journal. You can also define entries posted in communities, or by other users in their own journals, as memorable, using the method described above.


MEMORY SECURITY LEVELS

Like journal entries, memories can be marked with different security levels. Memory security levels determine who can see that a post appears in your memory list; they do not change who can view the post itself. If you mark a Friends-Only post as a Public memory, people who are not authorized to read that post will see that you have marked it as a memory and the description you have given it, but they will still not be able to read it.

Memories marked "Public" are shown in your memory list to anyone who views it. Memories marked "Friends" are shown in your memory list only when you or someone on your friends list views it while logged in. Memories marked "Private" are shown in your memory list only when you view it while you are logged in.


EDITING MEMORIES

To edit a memory, you can either re-visit the Read Comments page for that entry and click the heart button, or you can access the memory from your memory list. You can reach your memory list by using the "Memories" link on your User Info page, or by visiting the following URL while you are logged in: http://www.livejournal.com/tools/memories.bml. To edit a memory in the list, find the memory you want to edit by following the keyword links, then click on the [edit] link next to the memory's description. This will take you to the "Edit Memorable Entry" page, where you can change any or all of the memory's description, keywords, or security level, or remove it from your memories.
  

DELETING MEMORIES

To delete a memory, simply erase the description you have given it, then hit the "submit" button. This will only remove the entry from your memory list. It will not delete the entry.

You can also delete memories in bulk by going to the memory category and adding &multidelete=1 to the end of the URL. This will provide checkboxes next to each of the entries in that category. Check the box next to each memory you wish to delete, then click the "Delete Selected" button. Again, this will delete the entries from your memory list, but it will not delete the entries.


DELETING MEMORY CATEGORIES

To delete a memory category, you will need to edit any existing memories associated with that category and remove the category keyword. You may also consider deleting all the memories under that memory category. There is no easy way to delete a memory category without removing this category keyword from all existing memories. Similarly, in order to change the name of a memory category, you must change it on each of the memories contained in that category.


ADDING MEMORIES TO A COMMUNITY

To add memories to a community you maintain, go to the entry you wish to add as a memory and click the "Add to Memories" button. Choose the community journal from the "Work as user" drop-down menu option and click "switch". From here, you can add, edit, or delete memories using the above instructions.


FURTHER READING

What are comments? How do I enable/disable message boards?
http://www.livejournal.com/support/faqbrowse.bml?faqid=62

How does my Calendar work?
http://www.livejournal.com/support/faqbrowse.bml?faqid=70

My protected posts are listed as public memories. Who can see them?
http://www.livejournal.com/support/faqbrowse.bml?faqid=49

The limitations on the lengths of various input fields are as follows:

* Comments: 9,000 bytes or 4,300 characters
* Comment Subjects: 100 characters
* Custom Friends Group Names: 30 characters
* Entries: 65,535 bytes or characters
* Entry Properties (Currents): 255 bytes or 100 characters
* Entry Subjects: 255 bytes or 100 characters
* Memory Keywords: 40 characters
* Memory Titles: 80 characters
* Poll Names: 1000 characters
* Poll Questions: 1000 characters, maximum of 255 questions
* Poll Radio and Check Box Options: 500 characters, maximum of 255 options
* Poll Text Entry Responses: 255 characters
* User Picture Keywords: 40 characters, 5 per userpic
* User Picture Comments: 120 characters


Usernames are limited to 15 characters, and the characters that are allowed in usernames are a-z, 0-9, and the underscore (_). Capitalized letters and the hyphen (-) will be converted to lowercase and the underscore, respectively. Passwords are limited to 30 characters.

Note that the web client (http://www.livejournal.com/update.bml) limits the entry properties so that "Current Mood" can only hold 30 characters and "Current Music" can only hold 60 characters. However, if you use a downloaded client that does not limit the length of these properties, you can fill in the entire 255 bytes or 100 characters. See http://www.livejournal.com/support/faqbrowse.bml?faqid=158 for information on downloading a client.

These limitations relate specifically to the Edit Personal Information page (http://www.livejournal.com/editinfo.bml):

* Name: 50 characters
* E-mail: 50 characters
* Webpage URL: 255 bytes
* Webpage Name: 255 bytes
* AOL IM: 28 characters
* ICQ #: 12 characters (standard)
* Yahoo! ID: 33 characters (standard)
* MSN Messenger: 60 characters
* Jabber Address: 60 characters
* City: 60 characters
* State/Province/Territory: 50 characters
* About You: 65,535 bytes or characters
* Journal Title and Subtitle: 80 characters each
* Friends Page Title: 80 characters

Interests are limited as described in http://www.livejournal.com/support/faqbrowse.bml?faqid=60.

User pictures are limited as described in http://www.livejournal.com/support/faqbrowse.bml?faqid=1.

To-do list items are limited as described in http://www.livejournal.com/support/faqbrowse.bml?faqid=86.

Phone posts and transcriptions are limited as described in http://www.livejournal.com/support/faqbrowse.bml?faqid=183.

Link Lists are limited as described in http://www.livejournal.com/support/faqbrowse.bml?faqid=169.

The number of memories and memory keywords that you can have is unlimited. For more information on memories, please see http://www.livejournal.com/support/faqbrowse.bml?faqid=47.

If you have a Paid Account, the number of mood themes you can create is unlimited. For more information on mood themes, please see
http://www.livejournal.com/support/faqbrowse.bml?faqid=64.

The maximum number of custom friends groups you can have is 30. For more information on custom friends groups, please see http://www.livejournal.com/support/faqbrowse.bml?faqid=102.

The maximum number of users you can list as friends is 750. If you have more than 500 friends, only the first 500 will be listed in bold on your Friends list and appear on your Mutual Friends list. For more information on managing your Friends list, please see http://www.livejournal.com/support/faqbrowse.bml?faqid=61.

The maximum number of S2 styles you can have is 10. For more information on creating an S2 style, please see http://www.livejournal.com/support/faqbrowse.bml?faqid=177.

The maximum number of comments that can be posted on any given entry is 5,000.

Only the 75 most recent entries of your journal will display in the Most Recent view. You can change how many of those 75 display on a single page through the customization interface, if you are using S2 (http://www.livejournal.com/customize/), or with the OPT_ITEMS override, if you are using S1 (http://www.livejournal.com/support/faqbrowse.bml?faqid=13). However, if you attempt to navigate back further than 75 entries, your journal will begin to use the Day view.

The Month View (http://www.livejournal.com/users/exampleusername/2002/09/) is limited to showing the first 2,000 entries made during that month. To access subsequent entries, navigate to individual Day Views, like the one linked to below.

The Day View (http://www.livejournal.com/users/exampleusername/2002/09/05/) is limited to showing the first 200 entries made during that day. To access subsequent entries, use the "Previous" and "Next" arrow buttons found on individual entry pages.

Your Friends view will only display entries that were made within the last two weeks. If your friends have posted more than 1,000 entries within those two weeks, your Friends view will only display the first 1,000.

You can only view the 50 most recent entries in a journal when you choose to edit from the recent entries at http://www.livejournal.com/editjournal.bml as described at http://www.livejournal.com/support/faqbrowse.bml?faqid=2.

Additionally, there are limits imposed upon the earliest and latest dates that you can post on LiveJournal, using the "Backdate Entry" option (http://www.livejournal.com/support/faqbrowse.bml?faqid=91). The earliest date posts are allowed to have is 1970-01-01, and the latest date is 2037-12-31.

For a moderated community, there may only be a maximum of 50 posts waiting for approval at any one time. Additional posts will cause an error message to be displayed to the user attempting to post indicating that the queue is full. Also, each user may only have one entry waiting for approval in any particular moderated community. Additional posts to a community from a user who already has a pending entry for that community will cause the error message "Maximum queued posts for this community+poster combination reached" to be displayed to that user when posting. Information about community moderation can be found here: http://www.livejournal.com/support/faqbrowse.bml?faqid=157).

The Calendar view (http://www.livejournal.com/users/exampleusername/calendar/) contained in every user's journal is not meant to keep track of personal schedules like other online calendar services. Rather, it serves as a record of your previous entries. As you post in your journal, each one is archived on your Calendar, according to the date that it is posted, for ease in locating later.

If you have posted on a particular day, the number of posts that you have made in that day will display in the date box, including private or protected posts. The number that displays in the date box will link to a Day page that displays all of the entries you made on that day. However, all of the usual security settings still apply (http://www.livejournal.com/support/faqbrowse.bml?faqid=24), and anyone visiting a Day page on your journal will see only entries that they are normally permitted to view.


Another feature of the Calendar view is the ability to view a list of all the posts, including subjects and number of received comments, that you've made in a given month, arranged by date. The month view is located here: http://www.livejournal.com/view/?type=month&user=exampleusername. It is also linked from each of the month blocks on the Calendar page. If you are looking for a particular entry, this is often the best way to locate it, particularly if you remember the subject you used for that entry.

Links to posts in a non-current year are shown in the Calendar view. They can also be reached by appending a specific year onto the end of the Calendar view URL (such as http://www.livejournal.com/users/exampleusername/yyyy/).

In all examples given in this FAQ, replace "exampleusername" with the username of the user whose Calendar view you wish to read. You may also substitute a community name instead of "exampleusername" to view the Calendar of a specific community.

LiveJournal offers a feature called a to-do list, which allows you to quickly and easily file certain projects and goals that you want to accomplish.

To find your to-do list, simply log in (http://www.livejournal.com/login.bml) and go to http://www.livejournal.com/todo/. To see another user's to-do list, go to http://www.livejournal.com/todo/?mode=pickuser and enter his/her username. You can also go to http://www.livejournal.com/todo/?user=exampleusername to go directly to another user's to-do list. Replace exampleusername with the username whose to-do list you want to see.

Users with Paid or Permanent Accounts can have an unlimited number of to-do list items. Free Accounts can have up to 25 to-do list item, but cannot set the security to anything other than Public. For more information about the different account types, see http://www.livejournal.com/support/faqbrowse.bml?faqid=38.


ADDING A TO-DO LIST ITEM

First you'll need to log in (http://www.livejournal.com/login.bml) and then go to your to-do list (http://www.livejournal.com/todo/).

On the to-do list page itself, there will be a section called "Actions", with a link labeled "Add Item". Following this link will bring you to the "Add to-do Item" page, where you can enter in pertinent information regarding your to-do list item. When you are done, click the "Add" button at the bottom of the page and this item will be added to your to-do list.

You can edit the fields, as follows:

* Subject: the title of your item. This is the only required field on the page.
* Priority: to specify the relative urgency of your item.
* Details: to include a description of the item.
* Status: to describe the status of your goal (e.g., "starting stages", "drawing board", or "almost done".)
* Percent Done: to reflect the percentage amount accomplished towards your goal.
* Due Date: to give your goal a certain deadline. The date fields are set up in the order of Month-Day-Year (4 digit year) Hour:Minute, or mm-dd-yyyy hh:mm.
* Categories: to file each item with certain keywords (e.g., "personal", "work", or "school"). Each item can have up to ten keywords. These kewords will then allow you to filter your to-do list.
* Security: field allows you to choose who can see this to-do list item. Public allows anyone to see it, Friends allows only the people who are listed on your Friends list to see it, and Private allows only you to see it.


EDITING A TO-DO LIST ITEM

You can edit a to-do list item by going to your to-do list (http://www.livejournal.com/todo/) and clicking on item's subject line.

Doing this will take you to a page similar to the add item page, and will allow you to edit your to-do list item. See the previous section for information on the function of each field.

Interests are a way of expressing what you like and what you are interested in. They show on your userinfo page snd you can use them to search for other users and communities who are interested in a subject.
  
  
ADDING AND REMOVING INTERESTS
  
There are several ways to add or remove interests. The simplest way is to enter them in the "Interests" section of the Edit Info page: http://www.livejournal.com/editinfo.bml. You should enter them in separated by commas. For example: cookies, chocolate, music, swimming. Each interest has a limit of 50 characters or four words with single spaces between them. If you try to add a longer interest, it will not be added and will not display on your userinfo page. To remove an interest, simply delete it from the same box. You cannot add more than 150 interests.
  
You can also add interests through "en masse" mode. You can do this by going to someone's userinfo page and clicking [Modify Yours], which appears at the end of their interests. On your own page, this will appear as [Remove Some]. Once on this page, you can check checkboxes next to interests you want to add, and uncheck checkboxes next to interests you want to remove.
  
Another way to reach this page is from the main interests page: http://www.livejournal.com/interests.bml. You can enter someone's username in the box labeled "Modify your interests based on those of:" to add some of their interests. Some users will be offended if you make all of your interests the same as theirs. Interests are a way of finding people who are similar to you, and by adding things you are not really interested in, you make them less useful.
  
  
SEARCHING FOR INTERESTS
  
If an interest you list is listed by other people, it will appear as a link on your userinfo page. Clicking this link will take you to a list of other people who are also interested in this topic. Because of the strain it would put on the database to load all the usernames who list a popular interest, this search is limited to the first 500 users and the first 500 communities to list it as an interest. The actual list may contain fewer than 500 journals or communities if there are deleted or suspended journals that list the interest. If no one else lists an interest you have, it will not appear as a link, but as plain text. If you are viewing another user's userinfo page, the interests that they have in common with you will appear in bold.
  
Another way to search for interests is via the main interests page: http://www.livejournal.com/interests.bml. By typing an interest in the box labelled "Find people and communities interested in:" you can find people who are interested in the selected topic. From that page, you can click the words "click here" to add the interest to your list of interests.
  
Finally, you can find the most popular interests here: http://www.livejournal.com/interests.bml?view=popular.

If you know the LiveJournal username of the person you are looking for, you can find their journal by going to either of the following links, replacing exampleusername with that person's username:

http://www.livejournal.com/users/exampleusername/
http://www.livejournal.com/~exampleusername/

Alternatively, you can use the "search" box in the top right corner of main LiveJournal pages to search for their username.

Usually, if you know a specific person has a LiveJournal but do not know their username and are unable to ask them, the simplest way to find that individual is to use this same "search" box to search for their e-mail address or Instant Messenger identity. However, many users do not make this information public. If this is the case then you will not be able to find them by this method.


SEARCH METHODS

If you are not looking for a specific individual, or if the method above did not work for you, then there are several other methods of searching that you may wish to employ. These include:

* Searching for people based upon their interests -- http://www.livejournal.com/interests.bml

* Finding people through communities of similar people -- http://www.livejournal.com/support/faqbrowse.bml?faqid=77 describes communities and http://www.livejournal.com/support/faqbrowse.bml?faqid=85 explains how to find communities.

* Searching for people at random -- http://www.livejournal.com/random.bml

* Looking on the friends pages of your other friends -- http://www.livejournal.com/users/exampleusername/friends (where exampleusername is replaced by their username.)


PAID ACCOUNT OPTIONS

If you have a paid account (http://www.livejournal.com/support/faqbrowse.bml?faqid=21) you also have access to the following options:

* Searching by region or doing an advanced search with the directory -- http://www.livejournal.com/support/faqbrowse.bml?faqid=123

* Viewing your "friends' friends" page -- http://www.livejournal.com/users/exampleusername/friendsfriends (where exampleusername is replaced by your username.)


Once you have found another user whose journal you are interested in reading, you may wish to add them to your friends list. This is described at http://www.livejournal.com/support/faqbrowse.bml?faqid=61.


FURTHER READING

What are the paid account benefits?
http://www.livejournal.com/support/faqbrowse.bml?faqid=131