We all have celebrated LiveJournal’s 26th Birthday in a creative way!

On the metaphorical card page "The Birthday is ours — the story is yours!", each of you could select a card that reflects the way you spend your holidays. And not just select, but tell a story about your celebration traditions and favorite holiday occasions.

Kudos to all the game participants! It's time to reveal the names of three lucky winners whose creative approach to posts we want to reward with 12 month-long Professional packages.

Let’s find out!

???? Winner №1 — blogger taz_39 

???? Winner №2 — blogger sireesanwar 

???? Winner №3 - blogger flytoheaven 

Congrats! We’ve already enabled the 12 month-long Professional packages for you!

Keep on writing, reading, and discussing!

With love ❤️,
LJ Team

Folks, here comes our common holiday – LiveJournal is celebrating its 26 birthday! ????

During this time LJ has become not just a mere platform, but a cozy home, where:

• The phrase ‘Hi stranger’ can start a twenty-year friendship
• One can find a gossip for any taste, and a debate for any mood
• The drafts hold unfinished confessions – embarrassing, yet too important to be deleted

But most importantly, it’s a place where your words bear weight. A good LJ entry is worth more than a thousand Likes, as it represents a living breathing thought, so…

Let’s have an LJ-style celebration!

As a birthday special, we’ve prepared a festive landing page where you can tell a truly fascinating story about your holidays.

???? Pick a festive card that best describes your holiday mood, and write a long read about:

• Your most favorite holiday
• Your holiday traditions
• Your dreams about the future holidays

???? Authors of the most captivating posts will receive a set of festive LJ userheads!

Moreover, the contest jury comprised of the LJ staff will select three winners who will receive 12 month-long Professional packages.

To take part in the contest, the participant needs to uncheck the checkbox ‘Minimize my journal's inclusion in search engine results’ in the Privacy settings. The results will be published on May the 13th, 2025 here in the news community.

Write! Read! Comment!

Let LiveJournal get filled with heart-warming stories on these festive days! This is why we’ve been here for 26 years: so the words written today would be read tomorrow. And a day after.

"Even after a hundred thousand million days?" Frank asked.
"Even after a hundred thousand million days," we answered.

With love ❤️,
LJ Team

Friends!

Do you know that if you don’t see 2024 off properly, the new year won’t come in all its splendor? Superstitions are often anchored in reality, so let’s treat it seriously.

We’d like to invite you to remember bright moments and stories you shared in 2024 on the ‘Pictures of 2024’ page.

Let’s find out more!

???? Your goal is to:

1. Check out the ‘Pictures of 2024’ page and get a selection of 5 images you uploaded this year. Doesn’t it reflect the year properly? Then generate it anew.
2. Select one or all five photos, add descriptions to them, tell their stories, and publish the entry.

????️ Surprise! All your posts with 2024 pictures will be given a special holiday design to strengthen the festive mood.

Don’t miss the chance to see the year off properly, cheer yourself up, and inspire friends on the brink of the New Year!

P.S. Use the #2024inpictures hashtag to see how other LJ users will remember 2024

With love ❤️,
LJ Team

Friends!

News for everyone who likes to share their opinion and writes comments actively!

Behold a new achievement! Now your activity regarding LJ posts won’t just help authors promote them, but will also bring you a new achievement!

The new achievement system consists of 6 stages. Each of them represents your contribution to promoting other users’ content:

1. Debate Initiator. Leave the first comment to any blogger’s entry. ????
2. Active Commentator. Write 50 comments participating in discussions on whichever topics.✍️
3. Communication Virtuoso. Reach the threshold of 100 comments by sharing your thoughts. ????
4. Dialogue Pro. Publish 1 000 comments fueling active conversations.????️
5. Wise Interlocutor. Write 5 000 comments sparkling up discussions and gathering like-minded people around.????
6. Discussion Master. Reach the spectacular mark of 10 000 comments by speaking out and inspiring others to open up. ????

Why it matters

Your comments help aspiring authors develop, and create a friendly community for everyone – a community where everyone’s opinion matters and gets appreciated.

How it works

Just participate in discussions! The more comments you publish – the bigger your contribution is, the higher achievements you reach!

With love ❤️,
LJ Team

P.S. We previously talked about achievements for Likes. If you missed it, check it out.

Friends!

It's time for good news for all active LJ users!

We’re happy to present a new special achievement for Likes. From now on, supporting posts of beloved authors can bring you unique badges.????

The new achievement system consists of 5 stages. Each of them represents your contribution to promoting other users’ content:

1. Friendly Liker. You get this one for Liking posts 10 times.????
2. Jolly Liker. 500 Likes will bring you to another level.????
3. Sunny Liker. 1000 Likes will get you there.????
4. Like Virtuoso. Endorse authors with 10 000 Likes and obtain this honorable reward.????
5. Like Master. Like LJ posts 25 000 times, and the top rank is yours.????

Why it matters

Your Likes don’t just support authors, they help build a friendly and active community. Achievements are the way to thank you for being involved, and to inspire you to keep up the good work.

How it works

Just like users’ entries and receive achievements.

New achievements await!

With love ❤️,
LJ Team

Folks!

The anniversary hashmob #LJ25, where we asked everyone to tell the world about themselves and their blog within the 25 point questionnaire, is over.

All participants had an opportunity to show the readers and friends their new, previously unknown sides. Thanks a mil for your participation! And the authors of the most unique entries will be given 5 Professional packages! The jury has already reached the decision, so now the only thing that remains is to announce the results.

Here they come!

A 12 month Professional package is awarded to calico_pye . There’s the blogger’s questionnaire:

6 month Professional packages are awarded to:

picosgemeos 

taz_39 

3 month Professional packages are awarded to:

mew2mew 

elderraven 

Congrats to all the hashmob winners! 

In the nearest time we’ll enable your Professional packages. Once it’s done, you’ll get a notification from Frank the mascot. Please make sure your profile settings allow messages from other users.

See ya! Or rather, read ya!

Friends,

hot off the press! Now in LiveJournal you can get your accounts verified and receive a checkmark beside the journal or community name.

The verification checkmark means that the account is maintained officially on behalf of a famous person or an organization — it's neither a fan page nor a hoax.

The checkmark doesn't imply any additional privileges or rewards for the author.

How to get an LJ verification checkmark

You can receive a checkmark for your blog or a community if you already have a checkmark on any other platform: Twitter, Tiktok, Youtube, Telegram and others. Just post a link to your journal in the social network account profile description and submit an application to the LJ Support service. In the application, please provide links to your verified accounts on one or more platforms.

Communities can also get a verification checkmark, the terms are no different. The owner or one of the maintainers can apply for it.

Learn more about the checkmark in the LJ FAQ.

With love❤️,

LJ team

So, our beloved LJ is turning 25 – quite a serious date! They say a human personality is finally formed at this age. And what about LJ? Our personality is… you, dear users. We’re ready to share some more news about you and us – enjoy the reading!

We’ve found out that 95% of LJ bloggers are trying the platform’s new features – functions, designs, services – while 5% stay loyal to the original functionality. We value both parties! So in honor of the platform’s 25th anniversary, we’ve prepared two new achievements — Keeper of traditions and Pioneer of changes.

How to be a Keeper? If you’re using the old LJ design, old editor, and your style is NOT the AIR, you’re in business! Perhaps somewhere in a library full of paper books you’re sitting in a cozy chair, in the candlelight, and writing impeccable lines with your quill.

How to become a Pioneer? The new website design plus the modern editor plus the AIR style — and here comes the achievement. And that’s how we picture you: wherever you are, as soon as a new notification of an available update arrives – you gladly push ‘Accept’ and utilize it in a new entry right away.

What do the Pioneer-required functions give you?

- Modern LJ design: an intuitive interface, convenient navigation, and nothing in excess. This is a version that doesn’t remain dormant – it gets timely updates, new functions, and has even more new content.

- AIR style: exactly what’s in its name. It’s really very lightweight. It’s easy to adapt it to your needs and taste, show your personal touch, and you don't need to dig into complex settings for that.

- Modern editor: everything you need to write posts comfortably. Nothing distracts you from creating, and all the useful tools are at your fingertips. BTW, you don’t need to know html to format the text.

And photo albums: clear, nice, genteel, and way more spacious than before.

A nice bonus that would make perfectionists happy: if you enable the modern LJ version and AIR together, all the pages of your blog will be visually related to each other.

Get new achievements and go on celebrating with us!

Folks!

LiveJournal turns 25! We’re inviting everyone to celebrate the jubilee together by participating in the #LJ25 hashmob! Authors of the best entries will get rewards from LiveJournal!

Over numerous years spent together, we’ve gotten to know each other quite well; but in the new #LJ25 hashmob you’ll have a chance to view your blog pals from a new angle! Use our 25-point questionnaire to tell the world about yourself and your LJ blog, or collect your own set of 25 interesting facts about yourself!

Now let’s have a look at the details!

How to participate:

1. In a new LJ post, tell 25 curious things about yourself and your blog. Choose a more convenient option:

• Fill out the 25 point questionnaire. Click to open and start completing it in your blog;
• Compose your own 25 point questionnaire about yourself and your LJ blog.

2. Add the #LJ25 hashtag to the entry. This will let us locate your posts (please make sure that ‘Minimize my journal's inclusion in search engine results’ box is unchecked in the privacy settings).

3. The number of entries per participant is unlimited.

Hashmob schedule:

15 April – 12 May – participants are publishing entries,

13 – 15 May – the jury is reviewing the entries,

15 May – hashmob results are published in the news,  

16  May —  the award distribution.

Prizes and awarding procedure:

Entries will be reviewed by the jury comprised of LJ staff.

The assessment criteria are the following:

• how complete the answers to the questionnaire are;
• quality and uniqueness of the entry content.
• how popular the entry is: the number of Likes and comments (an auxiliary criterion).

5 winners will get Professional packages that will let them use the full extent of the LJ services:

???? one 12-month package, 

???? two 6-month packages, 

???? two 3-month packages.

???? A jubilee hashmob wouldn’t do without nice surprises! Each participant* will receive a special gift from LJ – a symbol of strong friendship and love for many years to come!

*provided that the participant’s post complies with the proposed hashmob participation conditions and does not violate the LJ user agreement.

Join the #LJ25 hashmob!

Let’s celebrate 25 years of LJ together!

Folks! 

Hurray! Today LiveJournal turns 25! 

Over all these years, you’ve been passionately telling stories, reading them, discussing them in the comments, learning new stuff, making friends, sharing impressions, traveling... Thank you for staying with us!

Of course, none of this would be possible without the efforts of LiveJournal creator Brad Fitzpatrick brad. Brad, congratulations and lots of love!

We, the LJ team, have prepared for you the LJ 25 festival with a ton of activities and nice surprises. We’ll be sharing all this with you throughout the holiday week.

Today we’ll talk about just a few. Let’s celebrate the anniversary together!

‘25 facts about 25’ project

The 25th jubilee is a great opportunity to tell you what makes the number 25 so special. Behold the anniversary project “25 facts about 25”!

Just a few facts you’ll learn from the project:

• It takes 25 years for a stalactite to grow by 7 cm. On average, its growth rate is 3 mm per year;
• during their lifetime, on average a person spends 25 years sleeping;
• A massive update of core technologies occurs every 25 years. This is called Kuznets swings.

Tap the link to learn more entertaining facts. Share them in blogs and social media!

Congratulate and earn achievements

Traditionally, the jubilant gets gifts and congratulations on their birthday; so we’ll be glad to hear some kind words from you in the comments to this post. In return, we will gift you a holiday achievement!

We'll have a new batch of news soon! Stay tuned!

With love❤️, 

LJ team

Folks, 

April the 15th is coming! What makes this spring date so special? Well…

On April 15th, 1999, 19-year-old student Brad Fitzpatrick opened a new page in history – he registered the livejournal.com domain. And the most attentive will notice that almost 25 years have passed since then!

For the LJ anniversary, we’ve prepared a holiday festival – LJ 25! We'll be sharing festival activities and news with you for the whole next week!

Don’t miss it. See you on April the 15th!

With love ❤️, 

LJ team

Folks,

It's April — so, LJ is about to celebrate its 25th anniversary! This time we want to organize something special — not a mere birthday party, but a real festival with raffles, gifts, and unique jubilee memorabilia.

There will be a ton of activities in April. Here comes the first one we'd like to tell you about — LJ birthday festival achievements!

Getting some of them will be a piece of cake, and others will require imagination. Go for it! ????

Meet 3 festival achievements:

• for 25 entries published in April;
• for 25 comments posted in April;
• for 25 Likes you've given in April.

There are lots of amazing activities ahead. We'll talk about them as they are launched.

With love ❤️,

LJ team

Folks,

Let us distract you for a moment from the holiday preparations: we still haven’t run out of good news! And we can’t wait to share them with you!????????????

Each of you can get a card with a personal creative review of the year 2023. 

That’s how you can do it!

Together, in 2023 we’ve written millions of posts, posted and received millions of comments and reactions. But it’s still interesting what your personal contribution is, right?

Tap here to get a card with your own year review card.

Share your achievements in the blog and social media!

We wish you all happy holidays – Christmas and New Year! Let 2024 be filled with creative endeavors – write, take photos, film videos, share your impressions and ideas with the world!

With love ❤️✨,

LT Team

Folks,

we've considered different ways to thank our active authors. These brave people who don't forget about their audiences despite all the holiday fuss, all the gifts, mistletoe, and roasted birds!????????????

For a month we'll disable ads for all the LJ authors who remain active from December 14 till January 8! Those who have the Professional package will have it extended for a month.

You can learn more about the ad-free month in the LJ FAQ.

With love ❤️????,
LJ Team

Folks,

We've got a couple things to tell you: how to decorate your blog for the winter time and how to share photos only with the nearest and dearest. Let's go!

???? #1. Cover the blog from the cold!

Some news for those using the standard journal design style — Air. We've added a few covers filled with the spirit of winter. There are holiday-themed, winter-themed, and simply cozy ones. The choice is yours!

You will find more covers in the Air style settings. The settings button is right on the main page of your blog.

???? If you wanna try the style with shifting covers, you'll first have to enable the Air style. It can be done on the journal style settings page.

???? #2. A new privacy type — link-enabled LJ Photos access

Traditionally, you can make LJ posts and photos public or private (only for the blog owner), accessible for friends or friend groups. We've added a new level of privacy for LJ Photos — one allowing only those having a private link to access the private album.

So basically you can now create private photo albums in LJ Photos and show them to your inner circle by using private links.

You can generate a private link in your album's 'Share' menu.

???? IMPORTANT: if you want to disable previously granted access rights, you can deactivate the link. Nobody will be able to view the album via the link anymore.

Folks, we hope that these novelties will be of use to you. Read you later!

With love ❤️,
LJ Team

Folks,

each photo is a kind of a time machine — it can deliver us to the past and remind about long forgotten events and sensations.

We're inviting you to take part in the 2023 Photochallenge that will go on till December 3, 2023. All participants* will be rewarded with camera-wielding userheads.

I wanna participate. What should I do?

1. Pick a few (or all five) photos from the selection on the challenge page. Is the selection not to your liking? Then just generate another one!
2. Tap Share in post and accompany the photo with whatever text you want: where or when it was taken, who you were with, what the weather was like, how you felt... Or maybe tell the story of the items and people depicted. Tell it the way you enjoy!
3. Publish the entry. The #photochallenge2023 hashtag will be added to it automatically. It will also help you find other participants' posts.

Join us! Accept the photochallenge!

Rewards are issued every week!

Detailed challenge rules

* Participants' posts must comply with the challenge rules

Folks,

we've got some good news to share. Let us introduce the updated photo albums — otherwise known as LJ Photo!

What's new?

LJ photo has received a brand new interface that will let you enjoy your photo collection in its full glory.

In the album, photos are presented in their original scale and in the new 'mesh' — connoisseurs of horizontal and vertical shots will appreciate it.

Pressing the photo will open it for a full screen view. You can also zoom it with the mouse wheel!

What else?

The photo management process has become much handier. Now you can:

• upload photos via the interface button as well as by dragging all of them into the browser window;
• move photos from one album to another;
• add descriptions to pictures;
• set images as album covers;
• manage your albums' and photos' privacy.

The new albums deserve more to be told, but we'd rather you tried yourselves — the link is in the website header, in the dropdown menu!

With love ❤️????,
LJ team

Friends,

Today LiveJournal turns 24. Balloons are in the air, candles are lit – it’s time to celebrate!

We’d like to share this glorious day with you, our dear users. Thank you for being with us throughout all these years, sharing your joys and pains on the journal pages, breathing life into the digital space. It is your love and support that help us improve and grow. And we are happy to do our best for you ❤️

Tell us about your LJ life, share your experiences and memories in the comments to this entry. Each Like and comment are a gift for us, and our beloved frank will surely give you a hug in response.

With love,
LJ team

Friends,

you often asked for an opportunity to express your creative side with the Air design style. So, we're proud to report that it's done! Now you can tune up your blog design to reflect all that's dear and interesting to you! Let's have a look!

The main page of a blog using the Air style can look like this:

What features are available to blogs utilizing the Air style:

• Set up a blog cover (select one from the pre-set range or upload your own image)
• Update the blog description (to engage new readers or help search engines understand what your blog is about)
• Pick the best way to tell about your audience (show the number of subscribers, the total audience number, or show no numbers at all)

Don't hesitate! Spring demands a new look (for a blog as well).

Spring update: instruction

Step 0. How do I start?

First of all, you have to enable the Air blog style on the style settings page.

If it's already on, you can begin — the settings page is right on your front page.

Step 1: Updating the visuals

In the settings you can upload a new cover, pick one from the roster, or hide it.

You can upload a new userpic or pick the main one from those you uploaded earlier.

Step 2: Getting to the point

Here you can update your blog description and change the header.

Step 3: Tell everyone about your audience

You can also decide what blog stats will be displayed in the description. Now there are 2 options available for blogs:

1. Total number of journal entries
2. Blog audience — here you can show the total number of subscribers and friends, or show your monthly average from LJ statistics; by default, subscribers will be displayed (if permitted by your privacy settings).

Communities also have an option to show the number of participants.

Press Save, and it's done!

☝️ Don't forget to share your design change experiences in a new entry with the #springupdate hasthag, and frank may visit you for a hug.

With love ❤️,
LJ Team

Friends!

We have upgraded the comment reactions. Now there are sixteen of them! A whole treasure trove of feelings.

Prologue

Comment reactions were introduced in LJ more than three years ago. And we all got used to the fact that our intense feelings could be expressed without trivial words, just by picking a reaction. Yet this approach, however quick and succinct, had a flaw: there were too few reactions! Human emotion range is so wide, it cannot fit into just 7 smileys. So...

Now there will be more reactions, and you can pick which ones to use! Behold!

16 reactions to choose from

You have 16 reactions to select from! By default, the standard set is available; you can add new reactions or remove some in the blog settings:

Here's what the LJ mascot frank  thinks about it:

We've been asked to add some of these reactions for ages. All good things to those who wait!

And if your journal is a serious place on serious Earth where funny pictures aren't welcome, you can just switch off the comment reactions.

Folks, set up our new reactions, use them, tell frank what other reactions you want... And keep reacting!

With love,
LJ team