This is a horribly dangerous tool, the only purpose of which is to actively destroy the content of a LiveJournal account. I wrote it so I could remove my content from LJ in protest at the April 2017 ToS change.

You must have clicked-to-accept the LJ ToS change in order to use this tool! The API is locked out until you log in in person and click the box. (Note that if you routinely disable JavaScript, you probably need to enable it for the clickwrap license to work.)

About this tool

I don't offer any support or warranty. You use this tool at your own risk.

You will be prompted for your LJ login and password, and asked to accept that this is a dangerous program which will destroy your data.

You have to explicitly tell the script what you want to do to your entries. The options are:

• --block-out to replace all non-whitespace text with the unicode block character '█' (U+2588)
• --random-garbage to replace all non-whitespace text with randomly chosen letters and numbers
• --mixed-mode to randomly choose whether to block-out or random-garbage each entry in turn
• --chicken to replace all words with the word "chicken"
• --zalgo to zalgoise the text
• --delete to just delete the entry text, which has the effect of deleting the entry completely.
• --printout is a test mode which doesn't change anything.

(There are other options on the command line -- check out the help message below.)

Note that all the text of an entry is replaced, including any inline HTML-like tags such as <lj-cut>.

Entry subjects are affected in the same way as the entry text. The posting date, mood, userpic, entry tags and comments are left unchanged.

NOTE: If you are importing your content to another site, you should make sure that that import has finished before you run this tool.

This program will take some time to run. LJ does not allow an account to make or update too many posts too quickly so there is a --throttle-time option (default 3 seconds, which worked for me). If you only have a small number of entries you can set it to 0.

As the program runs you get a progress report. The --start-date option is provided so you can pick up where you left off if you encounter errors.

Installation

You will need to install Python 2.7 if you haven't already got it. I don't believe you need any extension libraries.

You can download the script on its own here: https://raw.githubusercontent.com/crazyscot/ljshred/master/ljshred.py

Command-line options

$ python ljshred.py --help
usage: ljshred.py [-h] [--cleartext_password] [--except-latest]
                  [--start-date YYYY-MM-DD] [--end-date YYYY-MM-DD]
                  [--throttle-time THROTTLE_TIME]
                  [--printout | --block-out | --random-garbage | --chicken | --mixed-mode | --delete | --zalgo]

Shreds all the entries in a LiveJournal.

optional arguments:
  -h, --help            show this help message and exit
  --cleartext_password  Sends the password in (nearly) clear text, which is
                        faster but less secure
  --except-latest       Doesn't affect the latest entry
  --start-date YYYY-MM-DD
                        If given, starts shredding at the given date (e.g.
                        2017-12-31)
  --end-date YYYY-MM-DD
                        If given, stops shredding at the given date
  --throttle-time THROTTLE_TIME
                        Attempts to defeat the LJ API posting limit by waiting
                        this many seconds (default 3) between successive entry
                        updates.

Action modes (specify one):
  --printout            Only prints out all the entries it would touch,
                        doesn't actually change anything.
  --block-out           Replaces all non-whitespace text in all entries with a
                        solid block character
  --random-garbage      Replaces entries with random garbage text
  --chicken             Replaces all words with the word "chicken"
  --mixed-mode          Applies one of --random-garbage, --block-out or
                        --chicken to each entry in turn
  --delete              Deletes entries
  --zalgo               Zalgoises the text (adds a bunch of Unicode combining
                        characters which smear a mess over them). This
                        conversion is largely reversible, and it doesn't look
                        very good in all browsers.

This program is DANGEROUS and IRREVERSIBLE. Use at your own risk.

Example

$ python ljshred.py --mixed-mode --except-latest

====== DANGER, LASER GUIDED DRAGONS =================================

This program makes irreversible changes to the contents of your LiveJournal
account.

THERE IS NO UNDO FUNCTION.

Do not run this program "just to see what it does".
It does what it says on the tin. It DESTROYS YOUR DATA.

If you are sure you want to do this, type the phrase:
    I want to destroy my data
and press Enter.
        
Are you sure? I want to destroy my data
OK, proceeding. Don't say you weren't warned.
Username on livejournal.com: crazyscot
Password: 
Using challenge-response
There are 1723 entries
2002-12-31 has 1 entry
2003-01-01 has 3 entries

(output truncated for brevity)

FAQs

What does it mean to zalgoise text?

Adding a bunch of Unicode combining characters which smear over the top of the existing text. Something like this.

Why does my zalgoised text look different to yours?

Not all web browsers support Unicode combining characters properly. Chrome on Linux doesn't, showing a load of boxes; Firefox seems OK. Chrome and Safari on OSX show the characters but don't combine them correctly. I haven't tried any other combinations.