LJ Meme
How did you come to start your LJ?
....from slemslempike but from ages ago...
How did you come to start your LJ?
Following friends. I wasn't looking for yet-another-group-to-track at that time. In particular I had resisted moving much stuff to blogs, especially 'social network' type blogs, but as more friends moved here from usenet/mail lists I eventually went baa and followed along, flicking my tail behind me.
How did you find your first friends?
Following friends mainly, people commenting on their journals, being introduced to others.
Are those first friends still on your FL?
Yes mostly, although a few never update and a couple have deleted their journals.
How long have you been on LJ?
Since end of 2003ish I think. I held out for quite a while.
Do you have more friends or communities on your FL?
Friends in terms of 'what I actually read'. Communities tend to be further down the reading list than friends. I participate in a very few communities and then on a sporadic basis but that is lack of time and energy rather than lack of interest.
Do you do a lot of friends cuts?
Assuming this means 'culls' then no. I don't have a lot of opportunity to read, but I'm always hoping for more scope to read/stay in contact with people. I see no automatic correlation between 'lj friend' with 'personal friend'; many are friends in the personal sense but others are simply journals which interest me. Sometimes the latter have become the former which is always a plus point of any community.
What do you like in an LJ friend?
Oh I'm a complete hypocrite. I want my friends to be constantly updating despite being entirely rubbish at doing so myself; I tend to assume that like me they would update more if they could and just look forward to their next entries.
I am particularly interested in people's lives (usually because I've failed to see them IRL) but I also really love journals which generate real discussions and am very appreciative of the commitment it takes to maintain that kind of journal. Mainly the kind of discussion I used to find more often on usenet and mail lists.
I have a tendency to draft lots of random updates and then never finish them, either because of time or because they are just not very interesting.
What do you dislike?
I'm not a great lover of memes unless they are a framework for some actual content and discussion (as with these 'question' types).
What would make you un-friend someone immediately?
Can't think really - my list is still mostly people I knew before I friended them or whom I got to know via other friends or through discussions which makes it a fairly self selecting list. I guess a fundamental difference in viewpoint - I can tolerate most things but true intolerance? I don't go for people playing silly buggers either, CBA.
Have you been caught up in a lot of LJ drama?
I've seen lots of it, occasionally tried to de-'Daily Mail' discussions. One of my friendlist has 'Its all more complicated' as their slogan/title - I wish I'd chosen it first :-)
I don't have the energy for drama ridden debates in the way I might have done once on usenet; unless I really think part of the audience is more interested in the debate than the simplistics of the drama I don't even try. Once a discussion has become drama it ceases to have a positive value but as drama it can perpetuate ignorance and prejudice. The speed of access and propagation simply make it easier to entrench position and then shoot first, not really bother to think later.
Do real-life friends and family members know you have a journal on LJ?
Yes. Some of them are on here too.
Do you also have Facebook and if so, what do you prefer - LJ or FB?
I do have Faffbook, but I'm even less active there. It is pretty much exclusively to follow other people but it isn't the greatest site in the world for accessibility and in practice if I log into it once in a week, I classify it as an achievement. I keep intending to read it more.
What about Twitter?
Yes. I have quite an early Twitter account and yes it is the usual account name for anyone interested. Its all aquarionical's fault but I have failed to emulate his prodigious output, too small a critical mass at that time meant the effort/buggeration ratio wasn't quite right for me.
I was probably the only person on LJ to be sorry when people stopped posting summaries of their daily tweeting (mainly because this meant by and large I have stopped seeing them here and hence stopped seeing them). Suddenly I find after nearly two years of scarcely using my account for anything beyond topic specific aggregations that half the population seems to have moved to Twitter. I found it useful for one event recently, I just haven't gotten around to playing the hunting game for individuals from here.
Do you blog on any other sites?
This isn't a blog in the 'blogging' sense - its mostly friends and bits of random stuff. I have had blogs in various places, largely technical in content so limited interest, elsewise 'political' with the small 'p' so equally limited interest. Generally both stay separated from the personal but I've written precious little of anything non technical in last couple of years.
How often do you check in on LJ?
It varies and is a source of frustration. I've tried running an automatic pull of expanded pages so that I can capture posts and their comments, to read on trains and planes. Then I end up not having time or laptop dying or whatever. In practice I have discovered that this means I get flagged as reading journals when I haven't actually managed it :-) But I try. I am very trying...
I regret how much I miss, I know people use Facebook, LJ, Twitter etc to pass on news, invites etc instead of email and sometimes that news is important. I always regret that I miss a lot of personally relevant content even more than I regret missing miss plain interesting posts. I hate creating the impression that I was too rude to reply to an invite sent via here, Facebook or similar medium when I missed it entirely.
What do you rarely or never post about?
most of my friends would say 'anything'...
In terms of avoidance, I almost never post about identifiable people in other than the most general terms or 'meet report' terms and even then I'm likely to tuck it behind a filter.
I rarely post about contentious topics which interest me in this arena because I'd want to have the time to keep up with it.
Why don't you post about that?
The former, because I have quaint old fashioned views on people's right to privacy outweighing my right to be nosey? I've never been a subscriber to 'if you have nothing to hide, you have nothing to fear'. Each person should be able to share or not aspects of their own lives and only they can know what matters to them in terms of their own privacy.
Have you ever thought about deleting your journal?
Yes. But not because of what is in mine - more because as long as I have it people tend to assume I've read theirs which has caused me no small problems at times.
Have you ever changed your username?
No but I would if 'my' name came up without the underscores.
Why did you choose your current username?
Its my nickname since so long that it became my name to lots of people. I respond to it as unthinkingly as I respond to my birth name.
If you're looking for new friends, how do you find them?
I don't actively seek new friends here. That doesn't mean I'm not pleased to meet them or have them join but I write so little that I am very hesitant to add new friends unless I know them IRL or via other media.
Sometimes people friend me and then they subsequently defriend me because I'm not active enough and they interpret that as lack of interest in them. I regret this because it couldn't be further from the truth. However I just can't write much here or on the journals of others and so I can see why they might think in that way if they don't know me better.
Are you taking new people on to your Friends List just now?
See above. I generally assume that anyone who would want to friend me has done so.
Finally, tell us the reasons why you keep an online journal.
See answer to question 1.
....from slemslempike but from ages ago...
How did you come to start your LJ?
Following friends. I wasn't looking for yet-another-group-to-track at that time. In particular I had resisted moving much stuff to blogs, especially 'social network' type blogs, but as more friends moved here from usenet/mail lists I eventually went baa and followed along, flicking my tail behind me.
How did you find your first friends?
Following friends mainly, people commenting on their journals, being introduced to others.
Are those first friends still on your FL?
Yes mostly, although a few never update and a couple have deleted their journals.
How long have you been on LJ?
Since end of 2003ish I think. I held out for quite a while.
Do you have more friends or communities on your FL?
Friends in terms of 'what I actually read'. Communities tend to be further down the reading list than friends. I participate in a very few communities and then on a sporadic basis but that is lack of time and energy rather than lack of interest.
Do you do a lot of friends cuts?
Assuming this means 'culls' then no. I don't have a lot of opportunity to read, but I'm always hoping for more scope to read/stay in contact with people. I see no automatic correlation between 'lj friend' with 'personal friend'; many are friends in the personal sense but others are simply journals which interest me. Sometimes the latter have become the former which is always a plus point of any community.
What do you like in an LJ friend?
Oh I'm a complete hypocrite. I want my friends to be constantly updating despite being entirely rubbish at doing so myself; I tend to assume that like me they would update more if they could and just look forward to their next entries.
I am particularly interested in people's lives (usually because I've failed to see them IRL) but I also really love journals which generate real discussions and am very appreciative of the commitment it takes to maintain that kind of journal. Mainly the kind of discussion I used to find more often on usenet and mail lists.
I have a tendency to draft lots of random updates and then never finish them, either because of time or because they are just not very interesting.
What do you dislike?
I'm not a great lover of memes unless they are a framework for some actual content and discussion (as with these 'question' types).
What would make you un-friend someone immediately?
Can't think really - my list is still mostly people I knew before I friended them or whom I got to know via other friends or through discussions which makes it a fairly self selecting list. I guess a fundamental difference in viewpoint - I can tolerate most things but true intolerance? I don't go for people playing silly buggers either, CBA.
Have you been caught up in a lot of LJ drama?
I've seen lots of it, occasionally tried to de-'Daily Mail' discussions. One of my friendlist has 'Its all more complicated' as their slogan/title - I wish I'd chosen it first :-)
I don't have the energy for drama ridden debates in the way I might have done once on usenet; unless I really think part of the audience is more interested in the debate than the simplistics of the drama I don't even try. Once a discussion has become drama it ceases to have a positive value but as drama it can perpetuate ignorance and prejudice. The speed of access and propagation simply make it easier to entrench position and then shoot first, not really bother to think later.
Do real-life friends and family members know you have a journal on LJ?
Yes. Some of them are on here too.
Do you also have Facebook and if so, what do you prefer - LJ or FB?
I do have Faffbook, but I'm even less active there. It is pretty much exclusively to follow other people but it isn't the greatest site in the world for accessibility and in practice if I log into it once in a week, I classify it as an achievement. I keep intending to read it more.
What about Twitter?
Yes. I have quite an early Twitter account and yes it is the usual account name for anyone interested. Its all aquarionical's fault but I have failed to emulate his prodigious output, too small a critical mass at that time meant the effort/buggeration ratio wasn't quite right for me.
I was probably the only person on LJ to be sorry when people stopped posting summaries of their daily tweeting (mainly because this meant by and large I have stopped seeing them here and hence stopped seeing them). Suddenly I find after nearly two years of scarcely using my account for anything beyond topic specific aggregations that half the population seems to have moved to Twitter. I found it useful for one event recently, I just haven't gotten around to playing the hunting game for individuals from here.
Do you blog on any other sites?
This isn't a blog in the 'blogging' sense - its mostly friends and bits of random stuff. I have had blogs in various places, largely technical in content so limited interest, elsewise 'political' with the small 'p' so equally limited interest. Generally both stay separated from the personal but I've written precious little of anything non technical in last couple of years.
How often do you check in on LJ?
It varies and is a source of frustration. I've tried running an automatic pull of expanded pages so that I can capture posts and their comments, to read on trains and planes. Then I end up not having time or laptop dying or whatever. In practice I have discovered that this means I get flagged as reading journals when I haven't actually managed it :-) But I try. I am very trying...
I regret how much I miss, I know people use Facebook, LJ, Twitter etc to pass on news, invites etc instead of email and sometimes that news is important. I always regret that I miss a lot of personally relevant content even more than I regret missing miss plain interesting posts. I hate creating the impression that I was too rude to reply to an invite sent via here, Facebook or similar medium when I missed it entirely.
What do you rarely or never post about?
most of my friends would say 'anything'...
In terms of avoidance, I almost never post about identifiable people in other than the most general terms or 'meet report' terms and even then I'm likely to tuck it behind a filter.
I rarely post about contentious topics which interest me in this arena because I'd want to have the time to keep up with it.
Why don't you post about that?
The former, because I have quaint old fashioned views on people's right to privacy outweighing my right to be nosey? I've never been a subscriber to 'if you have nothing to hide, you have nothing to fear'. Each person should be able to share or not aspects of their own lives and only they can know what matters to them in terms of their own privacy.
Have you ever thought about deleting your journal?
Yes. But not because of what is in mine - more because as long as I have it people tend to assume I've read theirs which has caused me no small problems at times.
Have you ever changed your username?
No but I would if 'my' name came up without the underscores.
Why did you choose your current username?
Its my nickname since so long that it became my name to lots of people. I respond to it as unthinkingly as I respond to my birth name.
If you're looking for new friends, how do you find them?
I don't actively seek new friends here. That doesn't mean I'm not pleased to meet them or have them join but I write so little that I am very hesitant to add new friends unless I know them IRL or via other media.
Sometimes people friend me and then they subsequently defriend me because I'm not active enough and they interpret that as lack of interest in them. I regret this because it couldn't be further from the truth. However I just can't write much here or on the journals of others and so I can see why they might think in that way if they don't know me better.
Are you taking new people on to your Friends List just now?
See above. I generally assume that anyone who would want to friend me has done so.
Finally, tell us the reasons why you keep an online journal.
See answer to question 1.