To Elle Jay, or not To Elle Jay.
That is...
Hey anyone who might still be lurking here
I have questions...maybe after a small rant.
I still very much miss this place, and yet I never manage to post, nor even read with any consistency. Of course what i miss is the community, the time when almost all our friends were on here... the tool remains, but the community has moved on. - Quoth Capt. Obvious.
I really miss the long form posts, I miss knowing whats going on in my friends lives. I miss a venue to talk about personal life that doesn't immediately descend into ugly political sniping and virtu-signalling ...and for some reason - I can't fathom - I'm feeling extra isolated these days.
It seems everyone is on FB now... While, I have been on a tiny bit more lately, for all the worst reasons, chiefly the deaths of three friends, and the serious illness of two others... it reminds my vividly of that this used to be like...
And yet, alluring as that is, I still cannot abide Zuckerburgs fiefdom. If you've made it work for you, thats great! I am not trying to yuck your yum... but for me personally... there are nearly endless reasons to abstain. I have objections over privacy, security, usability, anti-trust, moral and political faults. The latest dromedary burdening straw is that even intentionally interacting with my like minded friends I end up witness or party to sparing with the most reprehensible Law and Order, All lives Matter, MAGA, and Anti-vaxer trolls. I promise don't need to live in a cloistered protected bubble, but trying to keep calm and carry on in 2020 is hard enough. Keeping abreast of the news is challenging enough... I don't need the extra influx of bile and rage
Here is a specific example It's bad enough to know that in Kenosha police shot unarmed Jacob Blake 7 times in the back, and that worse yet, in response to that murder, A fucking 17yo white kid thought he needed to defend fucking car dealerships and have his mom drive him and his pet AR across state lines... to inevitably take two more innocent civilian lives, and cripple a third. That's the state of things here in 'murica in Twenty-fucking-Twenty is heartbreaking and gut-wrenching enough to sit with, I don't need to also here from your Uncle Tony, that Kyle is a hero, and was 110% justified and that BLM are terrorists with an excessive heaping of posturing and vailed threats. That is more than my heart and my blood pressure can take. If i'm to maintain any shred of love or regard for humanity and our survival. I can't do it.
*deep breath*
So. Friends if you're still here...
Have you figured out a work around the 'new' friends time based cutoff... a way to see who has posted most recently?
Any other tricks to make it more usable today
OTOH have you found any decent alternatives? Dream-width?
Have you migrated?
How was it?
Do you find you still manage to post there?
Do you get responses?
Any other thoughts or opinions on the matter?
Thanks. I hope you're all managing to stay safe and sane!