You cannot use an identity account to log in to an existing LiveJournal account, nor can you merge an identity account with an existing LiveJournal account. If you choose to upgrade your identity account to a standard account
, you can continue to log in to that specific account using your identity login.
An identity account has a username of the form ext_number
. This number can be found by visiting the profile page of the identity account and clicking on the "track user" link. The page that results will have a URL that ends in ext_number
, and this is the number used to construct links to that account's profile and Friends pages, and to link to it with an lj user tag.
An identity account's profile is accessible through http://ext-number
.livejournal.com/profile, and its Friends page is located at http://ext-number
.livejournal.com/friends/, replacing number with the number associated with the account. An <lj user="ext_number"> tag for an identity account will link to its profile on LiveJournal when the alternative userhead is clicked. Clicking on the username will take you an appropriate page such as a profile page on an external site, since the account does not have a journal on LiveJournal.
Due to the nature of identity accounts they have access to a limited number of LiveJournal's features. An identity account can:
- Post comments wherever registered user commenting is enabled (as long as you have set and validated your email address, otherwise you will be limited to commenting where anonymous commenting is allowed.).
- Join communities and watch their entries on your Friends page.
- Post entries in communities on LiveJournal.
- Add users to your Friends list to view their entries on your Friends page. Other users can also list your identity account as a friend. This gives you access to their friends-only entries.
- Edit your profile. (Note: HTML placed in the Bio section of an identity account profile will be displayed as plain text.
- Upload userpics (up to 6 for OpenID accounts, 15 for other identity accounts). You can choose one of these pictures when you post a comment.
- Customize the appearance of your Friends page.
- Create custom groups of friends for filtered viewing of your Friends page.
- Register an email address, or change the registered address.
- Subscribe to events (up to 25 for OpenID accounts, 200 for other identity accounts).
- Receive email notification of all replies to your comments.
- Add entries to your Memories.