Todd ([info]tooner) wrote in [info]lj_nifty,
@ 2004-08-10 19:09:00
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Hiding public posts/images from latest.bml feeds.
If you don't want your public images and your public posts to show up in latest.bml, latest-rss.bml, and latest-img.bml, go to the Admin Console and enter:

set latest_optout yes

and click the "Execute" button. If you want to change this later, it's simply:

set latest_optout no

========================

I know that this isn't all that new, but I know it isn't widely known.


[EDIT: Removed a bit of snarkiness due to my misunderstanding on why certain threads are rather heavily screened.]

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[info]minusbaby
2004-08-11 12:42 pm UTC (link)
Nice. Thanks for the tip. <):')

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[info]elfy
2004-08-11 12:43 pm UTC (link)
"perfect" entry... heh... (now, just created an insider ;))

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[info]alexf
2004-08-11 12:48 pm UTC (link)
Do you know how often it is allowed to read latest.bml? Once per second/minute/hour?

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[info]asciident
2004-08-11 01:00 pm UTC (link)
It just needs to follow the guidelines at http://www.livejournal.com/bots/

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[info]alexf
2004-08-11 01:52 pm UTC (link)
My question was what is "short amount of time" in this particular case?

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[info]raventhon
2004-08-11 03:41 pm UTC (link)
"short amount of time" isn't defined to avoid bots that read $asoftenaspossible.

I think.

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[info]thetaet
2004-08-11 12:49 pm UTC (link)
How would one go about setting this option for a community they maintain?

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[info]burr86
2004-08-11 12:59 pm UTC (link)
set for communityname latest_optout yes

you can't log in as a community anymore. :P

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[info]insaint
2004-08-11 05:57 pm UTC (link)
Eh. I'm behind the times. :)

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[info]protectra
2006-10-17 01:38 am UTC (link)
It doesn't work. ;____;

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[info]littlekfru
2006-10-17 03:16 pm UTC (link)
Yes it does, you've got to make sure to add the "set for" before the community name first. Then it goes through just fine.

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Hey,
[info]gailvixen
2004-08-11 01:12 pm UTC (link)
thanks! I didn't realize you could do that. Cool.

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[info]cissa
2004-08-11 01:12 pm UTC (link)
I want to be sure I have this straight: if I DO NOT want my posts etc. on the latest feeds, I say "yes." If I DO want them included, I say "no". This seems counter-intuitive, so i want to be sure it's correct. Thanks!

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[info]burr86
2004-08-11 01:14 pm UTC (link)
well, the format is "latest_optout," so if you want to opt out, you say yes. :) this prevents your posts from appearing:

set latest_optout yes

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[info]cissa
2004-08-11 03:15 pm UTC (link)
Thanks for the explanation!

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[info]princeofwands
2004-08-11 01:28 pm UTC (link)
Is there someplace that has a collection of all of the Admin Console commands? The reference page is woefully under-populated.

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[info]kunzite1
2004-08-11 01:53 pm UTC (link)
id like to know this as well.

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[info]osbumlets
2004-08-11 02:25 pm UTC (link)
I appreciate this post.

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[info]wolflady26
2004-08-11 03:26 pm UTC (link)
Ah, thank you so much!

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[info]ashley_y
2004-08-11 04:02 pm UTC (link)
The negative sense of the flag is not good user interface design, IMO...

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[info]adamthebastard
2004-08-11 04:10 pm UTC (link)
How is it a negative? The question is "Would you like to opt out of the latest post/image scripts?". It's a straight forward yes/no question.

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[info]ashley_y
2004-08-11 04:17 pm UTC (link)
"opt out" is negative. Would you like to opt out of getting replies mailed to you (yes/no)?

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[info]adamthebastard
2004-08-11 05:06 pm UTC (link)
Yeah okay, that's fair enough.

me fail english.

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[info]gerg
2004-08-11 06:10 pm UTC (link)
It isn't meant to be a documented feature. It gives users a false sense of security anyway, as anyone can still go read the post to begin with. Preventing people from stumbling across it on random.bml doesn't mean that the post is protected.

I really disagree with it being implemented at all, and honestly don't think it should be documented. The "bad" UI for it is intentional, IMO.

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[info]ashley_y
2004-08-11 06:15 pm UTC (link)
There seem to be a number of features like this that come under the heading of "privacy theatre". Hiding your "friends of" list on your info page while /misc/fdata.bml is available is another one.

Keeps the users happy, I guess.

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[info]tooner
2004-08-11 06:33 pm UTC (link)
There is a lot of concern about people's webspace getting hammered when they post images in their journals. For most, it isn't so much a matter of privacy (though I'm sure it probably is for some) as it is a matter of still wanting to make your posts/images available for anyone on the Internet without falling victim to the bandwidth overage that can happen when a bot like those pages serves your image to thousands of people at the same time... especially since people usually only use them out of mild curiosity.

It also prevents a person's images from being viewed out of context, which might include a caption or more importantly, a copyright notice.

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[info]tooner
2004-08-13 09:38 am UTC (link)
A thread under this one has been screened by me in an effort to more closely follow the moderator's goals for the community.

To quote her in a previous screened thread:
I screened them because they're mostly off-topic and increasing the noise to signal ratio. The average user comes here looking for something nifty and doesn't want to wade through 50 comments debating whether someone should opt out or post protected etc etc.

The thread here had been about copyright of images.

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[info]maryling
2004-08-11 09:36 pm UTC (link)
The traffic from random.bml isn't a problem. Ten or fifteen bots grabbing your picture and your bandwidth is.

And yes, I /could/ restrict the sites that I allow hotlinking from, but why inconvenience myself when there's a solution here on lj?

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[info]burr86
2004-08-11 11:34 pm UTC (link)
Console commands are always boolean towards the new behavior. So if you want to enable a change, use 1 or yes. Disable the change (keep the default behavior), use 0 or no. It always makes sense to me when I think of it that way. :P

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[info]ashley_y
2004-08-12 12:38 am UTC (link)
Oh, well that's different then.

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[info]bodymassager
2004-08-12 10:12 am UTC (link)
I hate to sound totally dumb, but I guess I am. What is/are the ramifications of setting the latest_optout to yes and setting the latest_optout to no??? I don't understand the impact of "latest.bml, latest-rss.bml and latest-img.bml . So if someone will educate me, I will greatly appreciate it. Thank you.

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[info]tooner
2004-08-12 11:36 am UTC (link)
http://www.livejournal.com/stats/latest.bml
http://www.livejournal.com/stats/latest-img.bml
http://www.livejournal.com/stats/latest-rss.bml

These are the pages I mentioned. The first, latest.bml, is linked to from the stats area on the LJ home page. If you look at it, you'll see a collection of the latest public posts.

If you click the links here for the other two pages, you'll see XML files listing the URL's of the most recent public images, and the raw feed for the latest public posts. This in itself isn't the problem. It's that there are so many pages/applications out there that take the URLs and actually load them for everyone.

For right now, if I want an image to appear in my journal, I have to have that image hosted elsewhere. Since most of the free sites out there (e.g. Yahoo) won't let you link to the images from another site (as in LiveJournal), I put those images on webspace I'm paying for. When thousands of people access my images at once, my bandwidth allotment might be used up, causing my to have to pay an overage fee.

If you "set latest_optout yes", you're telling LJ that you do not want even your public posts and images included in any of those feeds. Since the default is "latest_optout no" you only need to do that if you've previously opted out ("yes") and want to change the option back so you will appear in those feeds.

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[info]furahi
2004-09-16 10:42 am UTC (link)
So it's only public images now?
Good, I remmeber in the past they also posted private images, That was quite annoying.

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[info]jedistardust
2006-10-17 11:11 pm UTC (link)
The console keeps telling me I've failed whenever I try to submit the data. So then I put < > around it and tried again and I still failed. Do I need to do something else too?

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