Current situation of the MSM comm

[ichigobanana]

Hi!

This will be an unusual and serious post, so you can ignore it if you prefer that.

Since the current situation doesn't seem to improve and Livejournal is based in Russia, I'd like to open the discussion for possible scenarios and alternatives for the worst case scenario of this community - LJ closing its gates for people outside of Russia or straight up deleting accounts/getting shut off.

Of course we can just continue posting elsewhere, but that would bring the question of where to achieve the same easy style of posting and protecting files and where to go, so the majority of people can migrate there. Which is the biggest point, in the worst case we'd lose all past files already in here and the users.

Would anyone with the password be able to maybe transfer the posts to Dreamwidth to have this community archived somewhere at least? luma_chan? Any better ideas on that?

I just really do not want to get into the situation where I try to login and everything is gone and I'm sure it's the same for all of you, so I want to include you in the discussion. And sadly this all seems to be a possibility with online services being shut out of Russia left and right, so it's a matter of time until they do the same I return I'm afraid 😔 (we all know that bald dude is an asshole) If nothing happens, we'll stay here and everything will continue as usual of course!

Edit: I have created a Discord server that we can use for better planning and/if LJ goes down to keep posting new files. You can join here. Please don't wreak havoc, I'm at work and can't really take care of it right now lol. I specifically do not want to replace LJ with Discord, but it's easier to plan the move to a new place there. Let's just hope that LJ stays up or comes back someday.

Comments

[meistria.livejournal.com]

hey there, thanks for bringing up the discussion! As of far, I think the Dreamwidth idea is so far the best solution there is...

In any case that the com needs to migrate, I'll follow you guys wherever~ I'm also asked if I'd be dropping any other non Suno shows elsewhere but I'm still between in disbelief if they're really shutting out or not ngl

[meistria.livejournal.com]

Tbh from how I see it, even though the servers are there, doesn't really mean it's being taken away?

What if, V/PN?

[ichigobanana]

Sitting in Germany, yes, this is a realistic fear currently. Even my workplace has stopped cooperations with Russian libraries. LJ itself is a very political platform in Russia and while I don't know which side this is leaning to, I can easily imagine that if there's just one wrong opinion on here right now, the whole page will get taken down.

And I do not want users to have to use VPNs just to access this page. Some don't know how it works, some don't want to use a Russian VPN server, which his understandable. If Russia shuts us out, they will do it properly, anyway.

Tbh I'm very disappointed by the lack of reactions to this post so far and I guess we'll just lose all those files, even though everyone else now is migrating away from here.

[ichigobanana]

Do you have Twitter maybe? Just to stay in contact for the worst case, because I'm not active in the international fandom and wouldn't know how to find people.

[meistria.livejournal.com]

If only I could help someway ;;; And just as you said, migrating might take days since this com has been around for decades, even I haven't been involved for that long on LJ since I usually don't make LJ accounts, my migration isn't done yet ;;;

My handle on Twitter is also MEISTRIA and I'm also contactable on DC amatomachocotapi#5428 if you wanna chat!

[ichigobanana]

Yeah, I think I'll set up a Discord server for now, so there'll be a place to plan a new place at least. Because planning is definitely easier on there, I just don't want the whole community on there because I've seen too many servers go up in flames because of drama 😅 We have over 3000 users here and even if just a couple hundred move to Discord together, it would be a mess.

[chiisanahito.livejournal.com]

in any case, i believe dreamwidth is the way to go for now. at least have everything migrate there first.

i believe the links & whatnot would remain the same, altho i'm not so sure. prolly the mods can verify a few entries at first.

[ichigobanana]

They would, but only the admin can do that. Since it doesn't look like we'll get that access, we'll lose the files sadly. Aside from the fact that it takes hours, if not days to migrate everything, so it might be too late already. I don't know why MSM never got migrated when the servers switched to Russian only. Or maybe it did, but wasn't communicated and then we'd still don't have access.

[katsuki-desu507.livejournal.com]

Hello, maybe discord could be nice? A lot of subbers (most Jdrama subbers) use it and its very easy

[ichigobanana]

I would rather not use that because it's difficult to find servers since it's not very publicly accessible.

[katsuki-desu507.livejournal.com]

Oh... I see, but aside from that other Johnny fandom use it too

[ichigobanana]

Yeah, I don't because it's messy 😅 There's no way to just google a group and get a Discord server shown. I'm actively using Discord, but I wouldn't even know where to start looking and while it's neat to have different channels which can function for only download sections and such, I'm not a fan of the chatting aspect because that inevitably leads to drama and people shitting on each other and/or the idols. It's a ton more work to mod than a blog with maybe a post or two every day and a comment section compared to a chat that has several messages an hour, if not more.

Sure, for other people this is an option of course. But I'd prefer a blog where download links can be posted as an archive like here on LJ.

[riezriezriez.livejournal.com]

To be honest, I can only think of dreamwidth. Since I've been using this for so long. I haven't tried any thing aside from dreamwidth. Sorry that I can't help much. I wonder what webs the anime subbers use? I not quite sure if it is discord(such as era*, nya* etc?)

[den-kiiro.livejournal.com]

Thanks for starting this discussion!

I would personally also be against Discord; it doesn't have clean organizational posting and the whole chatroom nature doesn't feel right for this specific comm to migrate to.

I'm sorry that I can't do more to help as I don't actively participate in the Eng-speaking fandom, but I could try to reach out on Twitter to get more people in the conversation?

[den-kiiro.livejournal.com]

A quick add-on: Looks like WordPress may be an option, but it would take a bit of work as community pages aren't natively supported. The few sites I read made it seem like there's some good easy and free plug-ins specifically for community pages, though!

[ichigobanana]

I'm not active in the international fandom at all, so yeah, I'm lost on that part as well lol

For now my goal would be to get the LJ comm archived somewhere, but that's impossible without the password, so I'm stuck on that. I've been on Wordpress a couple of times, but I don't think I'd have the time to get really into that and set something up and I feel like there isn't really someone who'd be willing to invest that time from here 😕 To keep the community aspect similar, DW is probably the only option. I know WP has password-protected posts already implemented but organising that even if it's only in the beginnging is also a ton of work.

I guess Discord could be useful to keep things in one place and plan from there in case LJ goes down though. At least that would be set up quickly, so maybe I'll do that for now, because I'm sure none of us wants to come back to a dead page when we just want to watch a show and then we'll never find download links for it again. So that would be a good temporary emergency solution.

[je12-vz09.livejournal.com]

i agree with importing the comm to dreamwidth. that's the best and easiest option for everyone - maintainers & members.

[sarahscarlet104.livejournal.com]

Hi! I'm sorry I can't be any of help., I see many are importing their entries to dreamwidth now., not sure for discord., I have discord acc., but I don't really understand how to use it.. it looks kinda messy on discord..

I would prefer a site like journal, like dreamwidth.. but I'm still new to dreamwidth., I really hope nothing happened to livejournal T_T

[euynoia.livejournal.com]

hi, sorry if I can't help in any way bcs I'm also just new here in lj :( but I can suggest you can either use discord but it's kinda hard to use that app and also you can use telegram I guess ??? because there's this thing where you can make an account in telegram and everyone can subscribe in that channel, I have subscribe in a channel in telegram where they post full movie, I think that can also be an option but I don't know how to make one :(

[hyeli073.livejournal.com]

Thanks for starting this discussion!!
I would love to see you updated in the future <3
Now I think I need to start downloading old content from the community

[amerain-k.livejournal.com]

Hi, thank you for bringing up this discussion! (Also a little disclaimer here, English isnt my first language and I just woken up, sorry for any mistakes ><")

I only really used LJ this year, but I know, if we look at fandom history, that a LJ purge already happened in the past. And seeing the news of Internet censorship growing in Russia, I think LJ shutting down is a possibility too, if the worst happens. =/

I cant think of another option that isnt DW. In terms of community and similarity to LJ, it's probably the best option. DW was also built using LJ code, and I google about DW and took a look at Whois, it seems DW servers are based on France, so I think we wouldnt have to worry about DW shutting down.

And I dont know how to import LJ archives, sorry that I cant help with that. ><" I'll google about it and see if I can find something that can help.

Edit: Hi, I tried to check other options for back up (we talked a little on Discord), but it didn't work. ;w; Anyway, thanks a lot for everything you're doing! Let me know if you need any help

[dead-dimension.livejournal.com]

Having the Discord server for emergencies is a good move but organisation wise, it's really not the best.

I've been testing out some websites today for Iwasaku's backup and Dreamwidth is the easiest option out of them all so far. I can probably create a backup for it tomorrow and give you access to it? The importing process will take a while though. Iwasaku's community has less entries and comments but it's taking me over 8 hours to complete.

As for wordpress, security and posting access would probably become an issue since it's more suitable for a single person or small team posting.

[ichigobanana]

Do you have MSM's password? Because that's the only issue why a move to DW isn't possible yet from my side 😕

[dead-dimension.livejournal.com]

I've checked and it doesn't seem like this comm has a dreamwidth backup already set up so we'll need a new account there anyway.

As long as you're a maintainer (doesn't have to be owner) on this community and an admin on the dreamwidth community, you'll be able to import!

[ichigobanana]

I tried that earlier already and it didn't work for me because of the password. I can try again but I don't really have time today, so if you wanna try before that, feel free to! Migrating the comm was a thought on my mind for a while already but over night the whole world seems to have had the same thought and now it seems kinda urgent 😣

[ichigobanana]

I tried again and got in this time, it kept giving me errors but... suddenly it went poof and all posts were imported all at once 👁️👄👁️ All 1069 of them and all of them are working so far (minus the images).

[dead-dimension.livejournal.com]

Otsukare!! Yeah, lj has a system that periodically blocks the import. I got several errors as well before it started importing.

[fushimawashi.livejournal.com]

Honestly I don't believe in mass wipe out on LJ. I expect some technical issues like problems with DNS servers outside Russia and blocking ru-net from outside. I think that as long as we don't discuss here politics we are safe in terms of using LJ, bcs russian authorities are concern with fake news, not with j-pop fan communities :)
I like an idea with Dreamwidth and vote for it. To have a back-up archive is good anyway. Discord for me is a mess.

[adjeng-allzoun.livejournal.com]

Hi.. thk u so much for creating dc.. I know it's not easy to create it..
As for lj situation.. I hope lj won't shut down..
Btw do u know about application named telegram? It's much more simple than dc.. and u can search your channel name there.. and new members can access the old post.. it's too simple tho but maybe it can be another emmergency option since as far as I used dc I couldn't access their old files before I joined the channel..
Sorry if it's not really good solution

[miyukisayu.livejournal.com]

Hiiii, actually after knowing the news that Russia shut down or might just restrict other internationals from using LJ somewhat made me sad because we've been using LJ for how many years now and we have been used at using it. Which is why, from the sudden report that something will happen to our special platform for fangirling made me emotional so much 😭. Hopefully, things will go back to normal again and LJ will not gonna be disappear or I mean that hope that the news is not true. I dont know anymore 😭. But for all the following admins or official creator/members of this LJ comm thank you in advance for keep thinking or planning what should be the appropriate way to do in order to keep safe all the files that were being posted here. Thank you so much really. 😭🥺💗

[summer-concerto.livejournal.com]

Sorry that I can’t be of any help … the only one that I could think of is dreamwidth as well. Though I’ve only been sharing some performances videos but I want to keep sharing them too in the future. I’ve joined the discord channel too though I have not use it before. Let me know if I can be of any help. I’m also available on Twitter / Instagram / Line

[riezriezriez.livejournal.com]

Hello. Good day to everyone.
I was able to backup all my posts here in dreamwidth. When I opened LJ one of the top posts is how will you able to transfer/backup your posts and I used that. The only things is if you upload pics directly here you'll not be able to back it up there. if it's in an external link it's alright.

[yuurisub.livejournal.com]

Great to think about it, since we don't know the future.

I'm more into DW if we can. I used it in the past and it was easy for me,even though I'm a beginner there.
Also, other Janizu fandoms use it so I think it's an idea to keep in mind :)

If you share the pwd with me and tell me what is the name of the community, I can help you transfer posts.
I have my own DW now but you'll have to tell me how to do it. I find this link : https://ohnotheydidnt.livejournal.com/122905299.html . Does it work this way?