About that new Explore feature
EXPLORE LJ! Six new realms of posts aggregated by keyword-grabbing software!
I am enchanted by the lesbian slumber party in Culture, the Ginny/Hermione slash in Entertainment, the #80 - Rule number seven Supernatural fanfic in Life, Drugs and maybe some rock and no sex random post about life in Music (which contains no musical references except in the title), the lights question in News (which references an 1875 cabinet; date=news, right?), and The Naughty Tag in Technology, which is a former shared journal, now comm where adult content is locked. I'm sure those people are all thrilled to have their posts showcased for random viewers.
I suppose the plan is to annoy everyone with uselessly off-topic categorization until enough people whose posts just don't fit the six main categories (by the way, where should fanfic be explored?) opt out of inclusion, and "Culture" gets posts about food, "Entertainment" gets movie spoilers and celebrity hype, "Life" gets the anorexia and emo rants, "Music" gets an endless stream of song lyrics, "News & Politics" gets "what candidate should you vote for?" memes, and "Technology" gets any post with the word "computer" or "geek" in it.
So, for the meantime (if I hadn't opted out), where would my posts go?
Hmmm. I suppose Pagan religious posts go under Culture. Religion is cultural; we all know that.
Fanfic might all go under Entertainment (except slash, which would be "Culture" for the LGBT issues, and chan, which will wind up in "Life" for mentioning children). Which means comparing fanfic to gay marriage rights could go under "Culture" or "Entertainment." Probably "Culture," as I didn't use any media keywords.
Life. Not sure what the difference is between "Life" and "Culture"--I'm guessing that Culture has a list of keywords (religion, LGBT, food, etc.), and Life could be anything. Work-related posts are probably "Life." Which will quickly encourage a lot more f'locking of work-related posts. Parenting, of course, must be Life, because raising kids has nothing to do with Culture, and the Entertainment value's a bit thin.
Music: Finally, an aggregate stream for song lyric posts. How did we ever survive without this? Oh, and a place for bandfic. My ancient post about "songs for tarot cards" could go here, except they don't reach back that far. I suppose filk would go here--except that it wouldn't be recognized as "music" by their keyword algorithm, and would instead wind up in "entertainment" (if the topic is obviously pop media), "life" (if it's meta-filk, or doesn't say the names of the characters it's about--Mal's Song won't be recognized as a Firefly post), or Technology, if it's about computers or space exploration.
I suppose I occasionally post stuff that would show up in News & Politics. I wonder if complaining about LJ policies goes there, or Technology? Right now, of course, that's the most obviously on-topic category. With the primaries all over the news, plenty of people are blogging about candidates and voting and all that. But in another two months? Tax posts, if you're lucky; "Support The Soldiers" propaganda if you're not. Hey look! Instant wankfest aggregator!
Geekery Technology is second-most on-topic, and it'll probably stay that way. Lots of people blog about their computers, for fairly obvious reasons. Business world posts may wind up here as well. Along with various anime fanfic, if it's based on something futuristic. I bet the zombie-killing posts wind up in "Technology", as discussions of guns and grenades are probably closer to tech than culture. Just guessin'.
So, the expected breakdown is:
Unknown: where they'll place memes about sexual kinks, what faerie you are, your D&D alignment, your soul color, what emergency-room procedure you should be.
I am enchanted by the lesbian slumber party in Culture, the Ginny/Hermione slash in Entertainment, the #80 - Rule number seven Supernatural fanfic in Life, Drugs and maybe some rock and no sex random post about life in Music (which contains no musical references except in the title), the lights question in News (which references an 1875 cabinet; date=news, right?), and The Naughty Tag in Technology, which is a former shared journal, now comm where adult content is locked. I'm sure those people are all thrilled to have their posts showcased for random viewers.
I suppose the plan is to annoy everyone with uselessly off-topic categorization until enough people whose posts just don't fit the six main categories (by the way, where should fanfic be explored?) opt out of inclusion, and "Culture" gets posts about food, "Entertainment" gets movie spoilers and celebrity hype, "Life" gets the anorexia and emo rants, "Music" gets an endless stream of song lyrics, "News & Politics" gets "what candidate should you vote for?" memes, and "Technology" gets any post with the word "computer" or "geek" in it.
So, for the meantime (if I hadn't opted out), where would my posts go?
Hmmm. I suppose Pagan religious posts go under Culture. Religion is cultural; we all know that.
Fanfic might all go under Entertainment (except slash, which would be "Culture" for the LGBT issues, and chan, which will wind up in "Life" for mentioning children). Which means comparing fanfic to gay marriage rights could go under "Culture" or "Entertainment." Probably "Culture," as I didn't use any media keywords.
Life. Not sure what the difference is between "Life" and "Culture"--I'm guessing that Culture has a list of keywords (religion, LGBT, food, etc.), and Life could be anything. Work-related posts are probably "Life." Which will quickly encourage a lot more f'locking of work-related posts. Parenting, of course, must be Life, because raising kids has nothing to do with Culture, and the Entertainment value's a bit thin.
Music: Finally, an aggregate stream for song lyric posts. How did we ever survive without this? Oh, and a place for bandfic. My ancient post about "songs for tarot cards" could go here, except they don't reach back that far. I suppose filk would go here--except that it wouldn't be recognized as "music" by their keyword algorithm, and would instead wind up in "entertainment" (if the topic is obviously pop media), "life" (if it's meta-filk, or doesn't say the names of the characters it's about--Mal's Song won't be recognized as a Firefly post), or Technology, if it's about computers or space exploration.
I suppose I occasionally post stuff that would show up in News & Politics. I wonder if complaining about LJ policies goes there, or Technology? Right now, of course, that's the most obviously on-topic category. With the primaries all over the news, plenty of people are blogging about candidates and voting and all that. But in another two months? Tax posts, if you're lucky; "Support The Soldiers" propaganda if you're not. Hey look! Instant wankfest aggregator!
Geekery Technology is second-most on-topic, and it'll probably stay that way. Lots of people blog about their computers, for fairly obvious reasons. Business world posts may wind up here as well. Along with various anime fanfic, if it's based on something futuristic. I bet the zombie-killing posts wind up in "Technology", as discussions of guns and grenades are probably closer to tech than culture. Just guessin'.
So, the expected breakdown is:
- Culture: Obscure-fandom slashfic, wingfic, biblefic, recipe exchanges, same-sex marriage studies, religion of any sort, haughty rants that use four-syllable insults, memes about what city/meal/wonder of the ancient world you are.
- Entertainment: Big-fandom slashfic, RPS, celebrity wank, WGA strike details, Colbert Report YouTube links, memes about what actor/Buffy character/cable channel you are.
- Life: Incestfic, chan, avant-garde fanfic that doesn't directly name the characters involved, anorexic emo wank, kids bitching about their mean teachers, "I need a job" posts, "my roommate sucks" posts, anything that doesn't fit anywhere else, memes about what kind of inner child/zodiac sign/mental disorder you are.
- Music: Songfic, bandfic, mp3 exchange posts, anorexic emo wank expressing a desire to look like [singer of choice], memes about what song/musical instrument/band you are.
- News & Politics: Sadly, not enough fanfic, unless someone's been writing some Obama/Clinton or Paul/Huckabee. Although possibly anything featuring the Ministry of Magic might show up here. Some X-files fanfic could go here, if the FBI is prominently mentioned. Any posts with a body count or a date, posts about marijuana legalization, teenagers yelling that their exes are "criminally" stupid, memes about what candidate/great disaster/'60s party drug you are.
- Technology: Trekfic, SGA fic, Mac/PC slash, computer & hacking posts, DRM countermeasures, ac-vs-dc vibrator comparisons, forge-and-kiln posts, bomb-making, memes about what OS/automobile/power tool you are.
Unknown: where they'll place memes about sexual kinks, what faerie you are, your D&D alignment, your soul color, what emergency-room procedure you should be.