Writer's Block: To me, LiveJournal is...
When I first came to LJ, it was mostly just following the crowd - the only relatively sane part of fandom is here, and I sure as hell didn't want anything much to do with Gateworld or FanFiction.Net. I really didn't understand what LJ was about when I first came - I thought it was just like Xanga or MySpace or whatever, just a hell of a lot more work to customize. For this reason, I resisted it for a long time.
After arriving and making some friends, however, it all started to become clear. LJ isn't just a place where you can stake a small, insignificant claim on a part of the web, like you do with things like MySpace. LJ is a big community of people from all walks of life - you meet people you don't agree with, people you agree with, and people who are just awesome in every way. In a way, I don't think personal journals are all that significant - they're just to hold your place and for people to find out who you are. The real life of LJ is in the communities, in the debates, in the friendships that are born, in the people you meet. And that's why I love LJ - because it's not like all the rest.
(And then there are the icons, of course.)
After arriving and making some friends, however, it all started to become clear. LJ isn't just a place where you can stake a small, insignificant claim on a part of the web, like you do with things like MySpace. LJ is a big community of people from all walks of life - you meet people you don't agree with, people you agree with, and people who are just awesome in every way. In a way, I don't think personal journals are all that significant - they're just to hold your place and for people to find out who you are. The real life of LJ is in the communities, in the debates, in the friendships that are born, in the people you meet. And that's why I love LJ - because it's not like all the rest.
(And then there are the icons, of course.)