Frequently Asked Question #141. I tried to customize my journal using overrides and now it won't display. Why?

If you include <style> tags or opening comment tags (<!--) without closing them, your journal will not display. You will need to ensure that any <style> tag or opening comment tag that you use has a corresponding closing tag -- </style> for <style> tags, and --> for comment tags.

This FAQ provides examples of CSS with proper closed tags, and explains basic CSS syntax. It also gives solutions to other common problems with overrides.

If you've used CSS or overrides given to you to create a particular effect, such as from tutorials in the howto journal, you may have changed parts of the CSS that shouldn't be changed. In general, tutorials in the howto journal will indicate parts of the CSS you shouldn't change, so you should compare your CSS with that given in the tutorial. Similarly, you should also make sure that you've used the correct tutorial for your style, as some tutorials are style-specific and won't work properly if you don't use the appropriate one for your style.

It's also possible that your journal is temporarily displaying incorrectly (or not displaying at all) because of high load on LiveJournal's servers. If this is the case, waiting a few minutes and refreshing the page should cause it to display properly.