sergebroom: (Doctor Strange)
[personal profile] sergebroom
The recent - and still ongoing - problems here have convinced me that it might be a good idea to back up as much of my blog for later rebuilding over at DreamWidth. (I've been registered there for a few weeks now, thanks to TexAnne's suggestion.) As some of you may have noticed, my blog contains lots of photos, and backing them up manually would be a daunting task. The software "Semagic" was recommended as a tool to make backups easier. I downloaded it last night, but I can't figure out most of it yet. I expect that, given time, I'd figure it out, but the sooner I can save my stuff, the better. If someone knows how to use this softwre, please let me know.

Thanks.

Date: Jul. 29th, 2011 08:56 pm (UTC)
readinggeek451: green teddy bear in plaid dress (Default)
From: [personal profile] readinggeek451
Same ID over on Dreamwidth? (I'm there with the same. Both of them.)

Date: Jul. 29th, 2011 11:47 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] medievalist.livejournal.com
Serge

I'd first try the import feature; all of my images etc. moved over beautifully.

Then, you can post at Dreamwidth and have those posts automatically posted at LJ as well.

Date: Jul. 29th, 2011 11:58 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] serge-lj.livejournal.com
I've looked everywhere I could think of and couldn't find any 'import' function. It obviously is in the one place I'm not thinking of.
Edited Date: Jul. 30th, 2011 12:01 am (UTC)

Date: Jul. 29th, 2011 11:59 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] serge-lj.livejournal.com
I'm 'sergebroom' over there. I'll look you up as soon as I can.

Date: Jul. 30th, 2011 12:24 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] serge-lj.livejournal.com
Oh goodness... I thought I'd import all my LJ pictures into a file on my laptop, and that from there I'd have to re-upload them to DW. I didn't realize I could bring stuff in directly from LJ into DW. That's great! Before I do it though, I'd better buy more resources from DW than the basic service allows.

Thanks for your help!

Date: Jul. 30th, 2011 12:38 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] serge-lj.livejournal.com
One last question...

DW warns that, based on the size of the request, the import may take days. It'd then probably be a good idea to import the picture galleries, then import my posts.

My question is...

If a post includes pictures, will it know where to find the picture within DW if I import the pictures separately? Or should I do a full import?

That's two questions, I know.

Thanks. I hope I can repay you for your help.

Date: Jul. 30th, 2011 12:49 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] medievalist.livejournal.com
I dunno.

I'd probably try a straightforward import first.

It took about 1.5 days to get to me in the queue.

If I were writing the code, I'd write it to evaluate the number of entries, then parse an entry, import it, with anchor tags rewritten to suit DW local image store, then import "attachments," and move to the next entry; repeat until done.

Date: Jul. 30th, 2011 01:02 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] serge-lj.livejournal.com
Thanks for the tips!

Date: Jul. 30th, 2011 01:39 am (UTC)
readinggeek451: green teddy bear in plaid dress (Default)
From: [personal profile] readinggeek451
I had already guessed, and added you. :)

Date: Jul. 30th, 2011 01:42 am (UTC)
readinggeek451: green teddy bear in plaid dress (Default)
From: [personal profile] readinggeek451
I don't think Dreamwidth does picture hosting as such. But if you import your LJ posts, the pictures will appear there, pointing to your LJ-hosted pictures. Which means that if LJ dies, your pictures won't be there on DW, either.

...I'm not sure I phrased that clearly. If you're having trouble parsing it, I'll try to rephrase.

Date: Jul. 30th, 2011 03:42 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] serge-lj.livejournal.com
I saw that. Thanks. I'lll do the same for you once I've got my act together.

Date: Jul. 30th, 2011 03:44 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] serge-lj.livejournal.com
I'll probably go for the 12-month premium plan. It doesn't say anywhere how much memory I get to play with, but I'll assume it's enough for me to copy my whole LJ over. My fingers *are* crossed.

Date: Jul. 30th, 2011 03:52 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] medievalist.livejournal.com
As a belt-and-suspenders type, I'd also try one of the external LJ export clients, post moving the content to DW.

Date: Jul. 30th, 2011 04:57 am (UTC)
soon_lee: Image of yeast (Saccharomyces) cells (Default)
From: [personal profile] soon_lee
Others have pointed out DW's ability to import your account from LJ. For archiving, I've been using LJ Archive which isn't flash but does what I need.

Date: Jul. 30th, 2011 05:05 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] serge-lj.livejournal.com
Thanks. It's always good to have options.

Date: Jul. 30th, 2011 08:07 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] serge-lj.livejournal.com
So DW doesn't allow you to set up photo galleries? In that case, I'd better look for a another site where I could upload photos and which would be more reliable than LiveJournal would be. Maybe Flickr?

Date: Jul. 30th, 2011 08:14 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] serge-lj.livejournal.com
Since DW doesn't allow you to set up photo galleries, I'd better look for a another site where I could upload photos and which would be a backup for unreliable LiveJournal. Maybe Flickr. To get there, I downloaded the software Semagic, but I'm having problems with figuring it out. Thanks again.

Date: Jul. 30th, 2011 09:30 pm (UTC)
readinggeek451: green teddy bear in plaid dress (Default)
From: [personal profile] readinggeek451
Flickr or Photobucket are the two main ones. I went with Photobucket, but I don't remember what my reasoning was; they're both good.

Date: Jul. 31st, 2011 12:00 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] mjlayman.livejournal.com
I used LJBook. It works in minutes and keeps photos in it. The only bad part is that it's .pdf, but I use a very fast pdf reader.

Date: Jul. 31st, 2011 02:13 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] medievalist.livejournal.com
Flikr is actually quite nice. Well worth the 25.00/year for a pro account.

You might also want to take a look at Picasa; it's free.

Again, I'm belt-and-suspenders, so I use both.

Also: If you want to take a look at importing LJ to another CMS,