Is it possible (or will be) to redo an import?

[sqbr]

I just imported my lj to see how it would work (as described on the faq), and of course since it was from a basic account all my icons are wrong. Also I'm probably not going to bother double posting, but would like the option to use this account (or possibly a new one I set up specifically as a backup) to mirror my lj periodically.

So, is it possible to redo an import? If so will it fix all the broken icons?

The icons thing doesn't bother me that much, people can always look up the original lj article if it's very confusing, but if you can't (and won't be able to) repeatedly update an import that will change the way I decide to divide myself between the two journalling services.

Also, if I get a paid account, do all my icons right, import my lj, and then switch to an unpaid account, will all the extra icons vanish?

(I hope this is clear, I am feeling pretty crappy today)

Comments

[cesy]

If you switch to a paid account and then redo the icon import, it will import your icons correctly. However, it will not yet attach them to the old entries properly. I believe someone is working on fixing this, as a lot of people have had this problem.

If you get a paid account and then switch to an unpaid account, the icons become "inactive" but are still there, so if you switch back to paid later, you can still use them.

I'm not sure about your other questions so will leave that to someone else.

[sqbr]

Huh, ok. Well, I guess it can wait. Thanks.

[cesy]

Seeing the other replies, are there any questions we've still missed?

[sqbr]

Hmm...not that I can think of!

[wychwood]

You can reimport as many times as you want (well, you know, within reason *g*). I don't know whether it will necessarily fix the "wrong icons" thing, though I remember someone mentioning it so I'll see if I can find out for you. But repeated imports just pick up anything that's changed since last time, so it'll get your new posts or anything it missed before. Also, there is a crossposter being worked on that will allow you to post to more than one journalling site right from DW itself.

Icons - if you import all your icons now and then revert to unpaid at open beta (or afterwards), I'm pretty sure it'll drop you down to the unpaid icon limit. The unused icons will be there on the server if you renew your account, at least in the short term. I think that's the same as LJ, really.

[hammond]

On re-importing, if you do this with journal entries does it just ignore ones that have been imported before, or does it double them up?

[wychwood]

Ignores them. You'll only get double posts if you've posted the same thing to LJ and DW separately, in which case you'll get both versions.

[hammond]

Iiinteresting, thank you. I hadn't got around to trying this myself yet.

[denise]

On a re-import, it only picks up:

* new entries
* new comments (both to new entries and to old entries)

It doesn't pick up any edits you've made to the entries itself, including userpic changes, tag changes, or text changes. (We're pondering a sensible way to do that.)

[hammond]

Ooh, new comments; that is nifty!

[cesy]

Will it overwrite an entry you have edited on Dreamwidth since importing it to Dreamwidth?

[denise]

Right now, since it doesn't register edits to entries, I don't believe so. (The question of what to do if you've edited the text on both services is part of why we haven't put in edited-entry updates yet.)

[sqbr]

Awesome, thanks.

What about if you get new (and different) comments to both versions of a post? (A question which would never have occured to me until reading your reply :))

[denise]

As long as the system thinks it's the same entry (ie, if it knows it was imported), it will just add the additional $othersite comments on after the comments made on DW.

[sqbr]

That sounds sensible.

[sqbr]

That's really good to know, thanks.