As most of you probably know, LJ is removing subject lines from comments, both for new and existing comments. Apparently it's being phased in across different styles and some of them are already gone.

This is not good for kink memes, apparently the "1%" that are making use of comment subjects according to LJ. I wrote a little script that pulls comments from journal posts and saves them in XML files like this:

<?xml version="1.0"?>

<root>

<comments>

<comment>

<subject>Re: Filled: My Paranoid Valentine [3/3]</subject>

<user>emmajane14</user>

<time>2011-08-18 12:39 am UTC</time>

<parentPermalink>http://inception-kink.livejournal.com/756.html?thread=2217972#t2217972</parentPermalink>

<text><![CDATA[HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA &lt;3<p style="margin: 0.7em 0 0.2em 0"><font size="-2">(<a href="http://inception-kink.livejournal.com/756.html?replyto=46028276" rel="nofollow">Reply</a>) (<a href="http://inception-kink.livejournal.com/756.html?thread=2217972#t2217972" rel="nofollow">Parent</a>) </font></p>]]></text>

</comment>
</comments>
</root>

I forgot to save the permalink in a separate field, but it can be reconstructed from the "Reply" link in every post's text. The "Reply" and "Parent" links were hard to divorce from the rest of the comment's body so I left them in.

I have these backup files for all the prompt posts in these LJ communities:


capkink
glee_kink_meme
homesmut
inception_kink
kinkme_merlin
norsekink
sherlockbbc_fic
st_xi_kink
suits_meme and suitsmeme
trek_rpf_kink

Not sure what I'm going to do with it yet. I could create a site to display the posts the way they used to look on LJ. Or if the AO3 eventually has a full-featured prompt meme tool they could be imported there. With the permalink information, someone could create a bookmark import tool that updates bookmarks for these memes from LJ to a new location.