Another LJ Post
So, yet another of my friends "moved" his blog to a different interface. He is cross-posting to LJ, but it's no longer the same. This is the upshot of a comment I just left for him, scrolling back to find the last actual LJ post he made...I wanted to express to you that I'm loath to comment when I see a pile of instructions telling me to log in somewhere else and comment using an open ID...
So, the new plan may mean no more comments from little ole me...
I wonder if anyone else is similarly disaffected or if everyone else is happily flexible to adapt.
I also wanted to comment on travel coincidences. They've definitely always happened to me... like one time finding some long-lost and favourite best friends on the same flight with me and we actually smoked a joint together in the back of the plane and got the whole cabin stoned. This was back when people could still smoke on planes. One of the stews gave us a big lecture but at the same time thought what we'd done was really ballsy and funny. I think even the pilots benefited with a contact high.
Anyhow, I RSS several people's blogs - people that started out with an LJ but are no longer making actual LJ posts. The thing I've found consistent is that this makes them into something else, and invariably this transforms their status from being 'people I knew on LJ' into simply becoming blogs I read, rather than people I am in touch with. A subtle but important difference. There's less intimacy, less camaraderie, less interaction possible. It's not the same to me.
In at least two cases, these people are active on facebook so I interact with them on FB and read their blogs but don't participate with the blogs any more, and in another case I still have the friendship on FB, but the person changed the server of their blog I was RSSing on LJ and I didn't even know, and only vaguely noticed they were no longer (from my POV) making blog posts. Turned out they were, but from a new vantage, which I have not bothered to RSS, her FB postings proving adequate.
I think what stops me is the act of having to log into some other interface some different way to make comments. It's not the same as reading a bunch of comments on a post and getting into the middle of a discussion (as often happened with your posts) and now, even if I read your posts, I don't have visibility on the comments, which takes away a valuable and tangible element.
This is important to me.
I liked reading his posts and seeing that there were say, 6 comments and clicking to read the comments before weighing in with my own. I can still read his posts, the the LJ interactivity with his other mates no longer applies, so an element of what made his journal interesting is diminished.
Another friend still posts on LJ, but became much more active posting on another blog. Since this is someone whose writings and POV are important to me, I RSSed his new blog... for a while. I deleted the feed soon after subscribing to it, because i soon discovered that while I still valued my friend's writings, I could only RSS the whole blog, which included the rantings and ramblings of the rest of their gang, some of whom I found myself profoundly disinterested in. Worse still, they all post and then post comments back and forth to one another, which meant that I was having to wade through a whole load of rubbish I found worse than uninteresting. It was easiest just to drop the feed. I'll live without my friend's writings, so be it.
Meanwhile, LJ activity continues to wane. There are still some active souls, and I've added a few new people recently, but it's a ghost town compared to the old days, and I think in the comment I block-quoted here, I've articulated what is different (and for me better) about LJ compared to 'blogs'.
So, the new plan may mean no more comments from little ole me...
I wonder if anyone else is similarly disaffected or if everyone else is happily flexible to adapt.
I also wanted to comment on travel coincidences. They've definitely always happened to me... like one time finding some long-lost and favourite best friends on the same flight with me and we actually smoked a joint together in the back of the plane and got the whole cabin stoned. This was back when people could still smoke on planes. One of the stews gave us a big lecture but at the same time thought what we'd done was really ballsy and funny. I think even the pilots benefited with a contact high.
Anyhow, I RSS several people's blogs - people that started out with an LJ but are no longer making actual LJ posts. The thing I've found consistent is that this makes them into something else, and invariably this transforms their status from being 'people I knew on LJ' into simply becoming blogs I read, rather than people I am in touch with. A subtle but important difference. There's less intimacy, less camaraderie, less interaction possible. It's not the same to me.
In at least two cases, these people are active on facebook so I interact with them on FB and read their blogs but don't participate with the blogs any more, and in another case I still have the friendship on FB, but the person changed the server of their blog I was RSSing on LJ and I didn't even know, and only vaguely noticed they were no longer (from my POV) making blog posts. Turned out they were, but from a new vantage, which I have not bothered to RSS, her FB postings proving adequate.
I think what stops me is the act of having to log into some other interface some different way to make comments. It's not the same as reading a bunch of comments on a post and getting into the middle of a discussion (as often happened with your posts) and now, even if I read your posts, I don't have visibility on the comments, which takes away a valuable and tangible element.
This is important to me.
I liked reading his posts and seeing that there were say, 6 comments and clicking to read the comments before weighing in with my own. I can still read his posts, the the LJ interactivity with his other mates no longer applies, so an element of what made his journal interesting is diminished.
Another friend still posts on LJ, but became much more active posting on another blog. Since this is someone whose writings and POV are important to me, I RSSed his new blog... for a while. I deleted the feed soon after subscribing to it, because i soon discovered that while I still valued my friend's writings, I could only RSS the whole blog, which included the rantings and ramblings of the rest of their gang, some of whom I found myself profoundly disinterested in. Worse still, they all post and then post comments back and forth to one another, which meant that I was having to wade through a whole load of rubbish I found worse than uninteresting. It was easiest just to drop the feed. I'll live without my friend's writings, so be it.
Meanwhile, LJ activity continues to wane. There are still some active souls, and I've added a few new people recently, but it's a ghost town compared to the old days, and I think in the comment I block-quoted here, I've articulated what is different (and for me better) about LJ compared to 'blogs'.