Tweaks and enhancements

1. In order to improve site security, we've temporarily suspended the ability to change passwords for old email addresses that haven't been used for over six months. For further information and support, please visit our customer care page.
2. We've launched a new mobile site with an enhanced UI at m.livejournal.com. View spotlights, post to your journal, read and post to friends pages, and more, no matter where you roam! Please let us know what you think, since this will eventually replace our existing mobile interface. You can update your mobile preferences on your account page.
3. We've upgraded from Beacon to Facebook Connect to improve dual posting. If you've already signed up for Facebook Beacon, you're good to go. If you wish to update your Facebook Connect setting, visit Account Privacy settings and scroll down to the option labeled: "Send information about my updates to Facebook." You can choose Always or Ask each time. Remember to save (on the bottom left corner of the page). To learn more, check out FAQ 249. While we're on the subject, if you happen to be visiting that side of town, please join our Facebook fan page for a touch of home away from home.
4. You'll now receive the Writer's Block Question of the Day in the body of email notifications. To sign up for Writer's Block notifications, visit writersblock and choose the Watch Community option. Next, update your Writer's Block notification settings by checking the box to the right of "Someone posts a new entry to writersblock."
5. Paid and permanent users can now view, add, and edit Notes of commenters. Notes will appear beside the username of comment posters (instead of stars) on S1-themed comment pages.

Send some lovin' thanks to your friends with our holiday vgifts!

Photos of the week

We're so delighted with the immense talent of our growing, global lj_photophile community that we've decided to introduce a poll. Each week, we'll choose a half-dozen photos (based on user comments and staff feedback) and ask you to select a photo of the week. The winning photo will be announced in the next newsletter. If possible, please limit photo size to 350x350 to ensure that images display properly on friends pages. We want to thank you again (and again!) for sharing your passion.

Check out this week's photo poll and more fantastic user content after the jump!

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Curtains

Thanks for joining us. To our American friends, have a fantastic Thanksgiving. To all of our international neighbors, we'll eat a little extra for you!

65redroses
Eva is a vibrant young woman with Cystic Fibrosis who survived a double lung transplant. Read about her difficult recovery and personal triumphs over pain, isolation, and fear. Back in school, Eva now works part-time in a children's center and enjoys running and cross-country skiing. A documentary on her story, entitled 65 Red Roses, won three awards at the Vancouver International Film Festival.

meet_other_moms
A warm and welcoming "Add me" community for moms of all ages and backgrounds from around the world. If you're a mom, just post a little about yourself and start connecting with other mothers based on similar hobbies, musical interests, book/TV/movie preferences, or taste in humor! A great way for busy moms to socialize online.

kitchenfaq
Want to share a fabulous home recipe for coconut bread? Suddenly run out of confectioner's sugar with company on the way and need to find out a quick in-house substitute? Searching for tips on what to charge for a custom-designed wedding cake? Whether you're a professional chef, an aspiring culinary wizard, or a happy home-baker, you'll get delicious guidance from fellow and sister foodies.

naturesbeauty
Always on the lookout for compelling images, we were delighted to discover this flourishing community of artists who share a love of nature. Honoring the subject with photographs, paintings, sketches, prose, poetry, and
other creative works, you'll be simultaneously riveted to your monitor and inspired to run helter skelter towards the nearest wooded dale.

Postcard winners!

We wish to extend our heartfelt gratitude for sending so much joy our way. Frank is still blushing with excitement over the love notes, proposals, propositions, and occasional intimate photos sent from his admirers around the world (China, Norway, Japan, and Poland just this week)! At his request, we blindfolded Justin, one of Frank's BFFs, spun him around in five dozen counterclockwise circles, and asked him to point to ten random postcards/envelopes pasted to the wall. After a brief trip to the bathroom, he chose the following lucky winners, to whom we will give a six-month paid account token (for paid, basic, and plus users) or, for our permanent account holders, a $15 voucher for the LiveJournal gift shop.

So, without further ado, the winners are:

1. seraphene
2. fotog
3. boykitten
4. seshat_6
5. anti_aol
6. lisalees
7. katrinkacat
8. mistyboston
9. _woody_lein
10. another_slender

Bugs, Tweaks, and Enhancements

1. We fixed a bug from the last release that was causing screened comments to become unscreened if they were edited
2. If you happen to be gaming around the corner, check us out on Facebook and be sure to spread the word!
3. We've added new vgifts to celebrate Thanksgiving! Check out our feathered friend, below!

Give more with charitable vgifts

In honor of national adoption month, we're offering a charitable vgift (priced at $2.99) to support Love Without Boundaries, an organization that provides healthcare and adoption to orphans suffering from life-threatening diseases. LiveJournal will donate 100% of gross proceeds from the sale (we'll cover the cost of credit card transaction fees). To learn more about Love Without Boundaries, please visit lj_cares. You can purchase your Love Without Boundaries vgifts in the Virtual Gift shop. We'll keep you posted on how much we raise!

Photos of the week

We're delighted to showcase yet more incredible photos from some of our brilliant LiveJournal photographers around the world. Keep posting (and tagging). And be sure to show some love by commenting on the awesome view at lj_photophile.

Check out this week's photos and more amazing user content after the jump!

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Curtains

Thanks, again, for joining us. See you next week!

givesushope
It's that glorious time of year when we reunite with loved ones (we neglected all year), stuff our faces to excess, and pass out in front of the TV. Perhaps a recalibration of the thanksometer is in order. A spin-off of the popular GivesMeHope.com site, this community invites you to document moments of kindness, generosity, and pure human love.

veggieslackers
Despite its mainstream appeal, Thanksgiving is not for everyone. There are those struggling with food disorders, for whom this day causes endless conflict. There are the cash-challenged, who can't afford the gluttony we've grown to expect. There are the lonely, who don't have loved ones nearby. And let's not forget the vegetarians, who decry the animal cruelty. But there's one more group we often overlook: the terminally lazy! This community of lazy vegetarians offers easy recipes for an animal-friendly feast.

fashin
Just in time for holiday shopping season, this fashionista community brings you the world of haute couture in the form of sumptuous photos, video clips, and candid commentary. There's also a sugary sprinkle of mainstream movie discussions and debates on such pressing social issues as manicure styles and celebrity colonics. If you need a break from the daily grind to indulge your girlie side, this is twinkly pink on steroids.

I recently met the woman behind the amazing sex-ed site Scarleteen. After talking for a few minutes, she asked if I would ever want to write some stuff about birth for Scarleteen. Um, HELL YEAH! Scarleteen embraces all aspects of sexuality and reproduction, and gives people judgment-free, factual sexuality information based on the assumption that everyone deserves a consensual, fulfilling sexual & reproductive life. And it turns out that they're doing all this amazing stuff for practically no money. Which means, they need some freaking money to keep doing this amazing work. I'm determined to generate $300 in donations from friends of mine. Friends in the family planning world will donate because we know how important good information is to people making healthy reproductive choices. Friends in the midwifery community will donate because we know that a healthy relationship to her sexuality can help to normalize a woman's birth, and that birth itself is a sexual event that people must be educated about. Friends in the queer community will donate because Scarleteen provides queer kids with much-needed sex ed which acknowledges their existence, which we never got in high school. So do it. Give these folks some money, whatever you can afford. And if there's a teen in your life, make sure they have this resource.

Emailed to Senator Maria Cantwell of Washington State:

Dear Senator Cantwell,

Thank you for being a champion for reproductive justice. In a just world, a woman would never make a choice about when, where or how to bear children because of what is covered by her insurance. She would not give birth to an unwanted child because an abortion costs more than she can afford. And she would not accept unnecessary routine interventions in a hospital that are paid for by her Medicaid when she would have preferred a cheaper physiologic birth with a midwife. You have shown time and again that you understand these issues, and in this you truly represent Washington state, where poor women can access Medicaid to pay for care with any licensed provider she chooses to see for her pregnancy, be it an abortion provider or a home-birth midwife. The language you championed in the Senate Finance Committee's healthcare bill which would require Medicaid to reimburse any licensed care provider working in a free-standing birth center is a step in the right direction for our nation, and I cannot thank you enough.

As you know, the House of Representatives has shown significantly less respect for women's health and reproductive justice. The Stupak abortion coverage ban is bad policy. Conservatives tout the importance of "patient choice" as an argument against any healthcare reform, but then they single out this one legal medical procedure and restrict women's abiltiy to choose to access that service. The Stupak ban does not maintain the status quo in regard to aboriton access. Rather, it would deny a woman the ability to purchase insurance covering abortion, even when that coverage will be provided soley from funds taken from women's own premiums rather than federal dollars. The Senate is our only hope for ensuring that this affront to women's self-determination does not become law. I know that you will fight as hard against Stupak-like language in the Senate healthcare bill as always do for women and families.

In August, I organized a meeting between a group of moms, dads and midwives and one of your staff members. We spoke about the importance of a real pulic option in healthcare reform, the specific challenges faced by women and young people in accessing comprehensive healthcare benefits, and the importance of midwifery care as part of a full range of reproductive health choices. Thank you for listening. Thank you for fighting for us.

God bless you,

Alison Cole Duren-Sutherland