quasimodal's Friends

libertarianism

(jerseycajun)

11:22PM - Iran

Keeping this short an simple, how does a classical liberal/minarchist/libertarian approach a foreign policy issue such as the one posed by Iran? Traditionally, the classical liberal response would be non-interventionist. Stay away from them and defend yourself. Does the traditional worldview work, however, when the foreign power in question gives off every appearance of ignoring rational self-interest (the equivalent of the suicide bomber as state)? While mutually assured destruction worked during the Cold War, Iran is hardly as stable a power as Russia once was.

I'm not suggesting I support a first-strike approach (because I don't), but how would this community handle this situation? Thoughts? Ideas?

libertarianism

(gunslnger)

4:28PM

Are Backyard Ethanol Brewers an Answer to High-Priced Gas?

A company banking on drivers' weariness of skyrocketing gasoline prices unveiled a home refinery device on Thursday offering another option: ethanol. E-Fuel Corporation says its EFuel100 MicroFueler can produce up to 35 gallons (132 liters) of ethanol a week that consumers can pump directly into their cars and trucks. There is no combustion inside the device, which runs on a standard household 110- to 220-volt AC power supply (consuming about 150 watts per day) and uses a membrane system to distill the sugar, yeast and water solution required to make ethanol rather than combustion heating elements, as commercial ethanol producers do.

Why do I get the feeling that once someone figures out how to use this to make moonshine, it will be made illegal?

albuquerque

(synk)

5:14PM - Alright clouds

We've watered the lawn, the trees and flowers.  Don't make me wash my car, too.  Make with the rain already.

albuquerque

(nosyferret)

2:26PM - Apartments/houses for rent.

I was curious if any of you guys would happen to be renting an apartment/house any time very soon. It would just be for myself, my girlfriend, and our cat. If so, please reply and hopefully something can be worked out!

Thanks!

libertarianism

(ghoststrider)

1:30PM - Myanmar

I'm surprised no one is discussing Myanmar yet.

That link above is to a story about the military junta in Myanmar blocking foreign aid. So, of course, I'm going to present the obvious question: Should the US be providing aid to Myanmar?

It doesn't have to be government aid, necessarily, although everyone in here knows that's going to be the bulk of it. But even for NGO-provided aid, there's a more important question: if the Myanmar junta prevents humanitarian workers from delivering life-saving aid to the Burmese, would this not be a criminal act? And if so, should we do anything about it?

Right now I'm so mixed I don't really have an answer to anything.

albuquerque

(jkrissw)

5:25AM - Celtic music tonight!

From the St. Andrew's Society** email list:

Celtic Coyotes in concert
Friday, May 9, 7 PM
St. Michael's & All Angels Episcopal Church, 601 Montano Rd NW

$10 -- tickets at Music Mart or at the door
Proceeds benefit NM Interfaith Power & Light *

Includes Irish step-dancing by Heather McKechnie!

Flyer:
http://www.nm-ipl.org/calendar/celtic_coyotes_flyer.pdf

* - More information on NMIPL, an interfaith environmental group:
http://www.nm-ipl.org

** - and info on the St. Andrew's Society, a Scottish cultural group:
http://www.nmscots.org

albuquerque

(elegantelbow)

3:01AM - late night food and drink

Ok, I give up. Can you tell me where I can go after midnight that serves both beer and food?

As far as I can tell, most bars close their kitchens down by 10pm, and NYPD told me that the city requires them to stop selling beer at 11pm.

suggestions

(intrepia)

6:57PM - Add Userpic "Browse" Button to Full Comment Page

Title
Add Userpic "Browse" Button to Full Comment Page

Short, concise description of the idea
The userpic "Browse" button, which allows you to browse through your userpics to select one when making a comment, should be added to the full comment page.

Full description of the idea
Currently, the userpic "Browse" button is available when you comment using the quick-reply comment form, but it is not available when you go to the full comment page (?mode=reply). This feature should be made available on the full comment page.

• Users will be able to select userpics by sight even when they want to select comment settings that are not available in quick-reply.
• Consistency between the two comment forms.
• Full version will not be missing features available in the "light" version.

• It might be a lot to fit on that line on the full comment page, since "Don't auto-format" and "Quote" are also there.

suggestions

(theverycold)

12:31AM - sidebar boxes

Title
sidebar boxes

Short, concise description of the idea
be able to add two blurb (or html boxes in my mind) or two link lists

Full description of the idea
what sucks is that i've only been rationed ONE link list and ONE blurb. what if i don't want to put all my links in one place? i don't want to be limited to having to post all my goodies in the blurb box.

the sidebar, in truth, very restricted when it comes to customization

• -ability to have two separate link lists (of course, all links adding up to max allowed by account)
• 
  -increased customization
• 
  

• -long time to load if person places connection draining material (i.e. extremely large pictures or videos)

suggestions

(icy_blitzwing)

11:59AM - Animated Ads

Title
Animated Ads

Short, concise description of the idea
Animated ads bog down dial-up connections

Full description of the idea
Dial-up internet users like me have slow connection speeds, and ads that show an animation, movie clip sequence, or move and change requires more download on a very narrow band. This bogs down a dial-up connection. Can there be a catagory to select for ads that don't animate so much for dial-up users to select?

• Better user satisfaction
• Quicker navigation

• Dial-up is not as common of a connection as broadband these days.

suggestions

(dbcooper)

9:29PM - Please Change the Suggestions Community Tagline for Accuracy

Title
Please Change the Suggestions Community Tagline for Accuracy

Short, concise description of the idea
Currently, the suggestions community bears the tagline, "Want to improve LiveJournal? Contribute your ideas!" Since the community is closed to new members due to sheer volume, this tagline no longer correctly describes the community, and the line should be updated until the community is reopened.

Full description of the idea
The new, more appropriate tagline could guide people to this very page--perhaps, "Want to improve LiveJournal? Contribute your ideas by clicking here!

Further, the profile page of the community, while clear on the point that joining is not necessary to suggest changes, should also point out that joining is also not presently possible, and that the link is in fact required for suggestions.

• *The description would be clearer, and therefore less of a false welcome, as it would quickly and simply explain what's going on.
• *It would reduce complaints and questions about the nature of the community.
• *It would save time for the maintainers, both employee and volunteer.

• It would take several minutes for someone to go in and make the necessary text edits, and would require someone to cut and paste some basic HTML.

suggestions

(radiantsoul)

2:36PM - Limited user profile visibility by security levels

Title
Limited user profile visibility by security levels

Short, concise description of the idea
This would give control over who can view parts of my user profile.

Full description of the idea
I would like to be able to limit the amount of information that is available to people on my profile if they are not friends(or in a certain friends group).

The idea is that you could have a "teaser" public profile and then a more detailed profile for people you actually friend. There are two similiar solutions available at the moment, a future dated entry which makes editting entries a pain as the future dated entry always comes up first or a link on the profile to a friends locked entry.

It would also allow me to limit contact info on my profile, so it open to set groups of friends.

• Benefits are more control over what is in public domain.
  Provides new friends with a useful overview of person, rather than doing what I have to do a drawl back through dozens of entries or not realising for months someone is married, etc.

• Increased complexity in creating user profile.

suggestions

(uniquewonders)

12:30AM - Community Invites & Friends Groups

Title
Community Invites & Friends Groups

Short, concise description of the idea
When you accept a community invite, you're not asked whether you want to include it into a custom friends group or not. It'd be great if this could be changed. (The way it's already done when you add or join a community on your own actually.)

Full description of the idea
If you need to see what happens when you add or join a community, try these:
http://www.livejournal.com/friends/add.bml?user=lj_2008
http://www.livejournal.com/community/join.bml?comm=lj_2008

• Have this process as simple and fast as joining a community on your own is.

• None?

suggestions

(paul1149)

9:49AM - Filter comments by date

Title
Filter comments by date

Short, concise description of the idea
Have comments auto-expand based on selected time period (Today, Two Days...), but show headings of entire tree structure.

Full description of the idea
With lots of comments, the article page becomes unwieldy. Have older comments collapsed, newer ones expanded. This could be done via a view filter at the top of the page.

• Makes navigation easier.

• Collapsed parents might make context more difficult in some cases.

suggestions

(c425cc33)

10:00PM - Easy access to secure login (https) from URL livejournal.com.

Title
Easy access to secure login (https) from URL livejournal.com.

Short, concise description of the idea
Secure login is a must on today's internet and should be an obvious option on the LJ Home URL.

Full description of the idea
If you choose not to make https the login default on the URL livejournal.com, please make access to it an obvious button that I can just click to get to secure login. Then give me the regular login page, not a poorly designed afterthought that requires me to click to get to *any* useful content.

• Everyone with an account should:
• see your interesting, well-designed login page;
• have easy access to secure login;
• and from there get routed directly to their personal LJ "Home" without having to click again to get to it.

• Easy access to secure login (https) from the main page doesn't have any drawbacks . People can continue to use the unencrypted login (http) or click a button to get secure login (https).

suggestions

(tsukinofaerii)

9:44PM - Charity Sponsor Journals

Title
Charity Sponsor Journals

Short, concise description of the idea
Journals able to support charities via their layout and ads

Full description of the idea
With the Paid by Sponsored accounts coming out, it would be nice if users of any level non-Sponsored could chose to sponsor charities of our choice using the same method; instead of them supporting us, we support them by having the banners and the layout, and perhaps an easy link to donate discreetly places in the main layout and profile. This would allow LJ members to support some wonderful causes easily. Paid members might even be able to pay an extra amount of their choosing which would go to the charity. Also possible is that some of the actual Sponsors may like to support these, so that for every pageview/click or however the current billing is set, the sponsor sends money to the charity.

• Money to charities
  Encouraging good community practices
  Good press all the way around ^~

• Finding charities
  Arranging the donation set-up
  Taxes and records, if people donate enough to be tax-deductible

suggestions

(feanelwa)

11:47PM - Automatic friend re-adding

Title
Automatic friend re-adding

Short, concise description of the idea
When de-friending somebody, have the ability to automatically re-friend them after a certain time.

Full description of the idea
Sometimes users post something that is unpleasant for a small number of their friends, for example a picture of a dog would unintentionally make a dog-phobic friend uncomfortable every time they read their friends page. This can be got around by reclassifying the friend or removing them from one's friends list until that particular post has passed a reasonable number of friends pages. A better way of doing this would be to give an opportunity to restore the friend to their former status after a certain mark has been reached, for example "in 3 days" or "once this post has reached skip=200". If this time restore option is selected the friend could be informed by email that this has taken place and when the change will be reversed.

• -More convenient method of achieving what user wants (stay friends but do not want to see this post) without offending friend by forgetting to add them back

• Can't think of any, I'm sure other people can!

suggestions

(orionsfaith)

11:31PM - Referrals

Title
Referrals

Short, concise description of the idea
Since you have paid accounts it would be a great idea to let us poor people earn points toward a free account with X amount of referrals.

Full description of the idea
You supply us with banners to put on our other sites, people click them, come here, we get points, BONUS points if they sign up for a paid membership.

• Once we get a taste of a paid membership (assuming we don't earn infinite referral points) we may be more likely to continue the paid membership once our referral points run out and more random people learn about and come to lj.

• if our referrals don't sign up for paid accounts but we get alot of people to sign up for unpaids, thus still earning X amount of ref. points it could possibly cause you to give out a few paid accounts but it wouldn't be THAT bad, I promise! Or you could just give me a paid account for coming up with the idea and I won't tell ANYBODY! I swear!

suggestions

(annieonline)

10:46AM - Maintainers should be notified of community deletion

Title
Maintainers should be notified of community deletion

Short, concise description of the idea
Maintainers should be notified of community deletion.

Full description of the idea
I was/am a maintainer of the community mucholdermoms. All of a sudden, the community was deleted - with no notification sent to me. Granted, the owner decided to up & leave, but why wasn't I automatically notified that the community was going to be deleted? In fact, why isn't there an option given to the owner/creator to automatically pass on the maintainership to the already-named maintainer?

• It would save a lot of confusion as to what happened to the community.
• It would save a lot of stress for those maintainers who had dedicated lots of time to the community.

• I can't think of any problems!

suggestions

(shimmersplash)

10:18AM - Suggestion: Automatic Recording of Last Date Profile Updated

Title
Suggestion: Automatic Recording of Last Date Profile Updated

Short, concise description of the idea
I want LiveJournal to give users the option to automatically record, on their profile or userinfo page, the date that the profile was last updated.

Full description of the idea
The summary explains exactly what I want. Presently, LiveJournal does not give users the option to automatically record, on their profile or userinfo page, the date that the profile was last updated.

• For users like me, who update their profiles often, it will allow them to record the date of last update without needing to record it manually on their profile.
• It will allow viewers of the journal to know the date of last update, for their knowledge and in case they are citing the profile as a source in their writing.

• It might be unfeasible for LiveJournal. However, LiveJournal already automatically records the date of last entry on each profile.