SailAweigh, thanks for the info. I checked, and under "You are viewing so-and-so's Journal," the only option I have is "Add them as a friend." I assumed something was missing from my navigation bar and went to the page where you can Customize Journal Style. There's a section there about the navigation bar, but it doesn't say anything about changing how a page is viewed. I have a free account; maybe that makes the difference?

Ah, if it's a free account I don't think you get that facility.

I have to say, I do appreciate it - I feel like knifing people who decide to set their journal to a teeny tiny font, or write in fucking light grey on a dark grey background or some idiotic thing.

I don't mean to judge you for reading, Plei. But I'm judging the writers somewhat.

I don't mean to judge you for reading, Plei. But I'm judging the writers somewhat.

Mostly, I just think they're *SO CUTE* writing political slash now that it's "cool" or something. Back in my day, we had to tinhat Gingrich (Newt)/Clinton (Bill), I tell you what.

Man, I should really find and finish that story. I could title it The One Where Monica's a Beard or something. I think I still have the outline. The only story I lost from my politicwip pile was the Kissinger/Bob Evans one. WHICH WAS TRAGIC, because it was AWESOME. Sigh.

I mean, seriously. I was doing this stuff 6-7 years ago when most of these kids were still dreaming of training bras. Of all the fandoms for me to be all BOFQ about, I never thought it would be this one.

Oh, there is an option to add "format=light" at the end of any page. And if you're in FF, you can add it as a toolbar link, and when I get home, I'll share with the class.

I know...I kind of thought of you. But not really, because the stories are bad. Maybe I could forgive the "sacrilege" a bit more if they weren't. As it was, and ironically, given the Rahm stories, I found myself thinking there ought to be a few more fast-food accidents.

there is an option to add "format=light" at the end of any page. And if you're in FF, you can add it as a toolbar link, and when I get home, I'll share with the class.

This made me excited, but... the page I'm trying to convert ends in html. So I tried pageaddress.html/format=light, and got the "Page Not Found" message. So then I tried pageaddress.html.format=light, and got the same "Page Not Found" message. Obviously I'm doing something wrong -- what punctuation/format/whatever should I be using to make this work?

If FF means Firefox, no, I'm using Internet Explorer.

Wait, wait, wait -- you were writing slash about Newt Gingrich? shudder just a world of No.

The thing you add to the end is ?format=light, to display the page in a stripped-down fashion. You can bookmark JS snippets (probably in IE as well, but I don't use that at home for LJ/DW) that will append that to the end of any LJ or LJ-based page.

you can also use ?style=mine, which is an option available to everyone if you append it yourself at the tail end of the URL.

Oh my goodness, thank you both. I tried the ?format=mine and ?style=mine options, and they both worked. I will definitely mark that down for the future. I don't know if it's a side effect of getting older, or just sheer general crankiness, but if I have to struggle to read a site I just don't bother any more.

I use format=light a lot when doing recs. If I think the author's page is too busy, I click that button before the delicious one.