LJ-Anniversary Celebrations: Traditional? Modern? Cracktastic?
I'm pondering the phenomenon of the LJ-anniversary today, and wondering why, in all the neverending mole-whacking ongoing discussion of etiquette on LJ, I've never come across a handy guide to LJ-versaries and the appropriate celebration thereof.
The established guidelines for wedding anniversaries aren't terribly helpful in this regard, particularly as one of the first gifts they suggest--"Paper"--goes rather laughably against the very nature of the internet. (Yes, I know there are those amongst you who cherish your hard-copy printouts of fanfic and thoughtfully send snail-mail holiday cards to your LJfriends' RL addresses, but you are LUDDITES with your fresh-air-breathing and your real-world-conversational-gatherings and your inexplicable-resistance-to-assimilation and the tubes will surely get you in the end.)
True, LJ has helpfully provided virtual equivalents of such anniversary-marking gifts as flowers and candy--and it is also true that enterprising souls might very well take it upon themselves simply to write fic or make icons featuring the anniversary gift traditionally suggested for the year in question (an approach that might appeal particularly on one's third anniversary *g*), but on the whole, I think a more LJ-specific guideline is in order, particularly since things move so quickly online that even the "Modern" race to the "good gifts" is just far too slow.
But what would such a guideline look like? Hmmm...
LJ-versary
Appropriate Responses
1 Day
Welcoming squee from the friend who enticed you aboard; polite comments from her LJfriends; icons
6 Months
Encouraging feedback; prompt-inspired drabbles; hi-res picspam, congratulations; LJ-time
1 Year
Large, multicolour-font birthday greetings from your f-list; slightly pastede-on photomanips; remixes; commentfic; hugs
2 Years
Lovingly-designed covers for your stories; fanfic catering to your favourite pairings and kinks; heavily exclamation-pointed feedback; obsequious fangirling; awards; your first troll
3 Years
Multi-Pairing Crossover Incest RPS Crackfic Novellas in your honour; epic vids inspired by your stories; archives devoted to you; serious literary analyses of that Dolphin-MPreg-AliensMadeThemDoIt-Humourfic you wrote on the back of a napkin at last year's Escapade; obsessive meta discussion of your every post; rants about how you and the evil BNF cabal are keeping the newbies down
4 Years
Stray comment asking "Why are you still hanging around here when everyone else has moved on to [hot new social-networking site]?"
5 Years
Puzzled chorus of "Who?"
Have I missed anything?
(And yes, I do seem to have made it to 4 years on LJ without ever having had a Multi-Pairing Crossover Incest RPS Crackfic Novella written in my honour. *sigh* Perhaps this timeline is a little off?)
~
The established guidelines for wedding anniversaries aren't terribly helpful in this regard, particularly as one of the first gifts they suggest--"Paper"--goes rather laughably against the very nature of the internet. (Yes, I know there are those amongst you who cherish your hard-copy printouts of fanfic and thoughtfully send snail-mail holiday cards to your LJfriends' RL addresses, but you are LUDDITES with your fresh-air-breathing and your real-world-conversational-gatherings and your inexplicable-resistance-to-assimilation and the tubes will surely get you in the end.)
True, LJ has helpfully provided virtual equivalents of such anniversary-marking gifts as flowers and candy--and it is also true that enterprising souls might very well take it upon themselves simply to write fic or make icons featuring the anniversary gift traditionally suggested for the year in question (an approach that might appeal particularly on one's third anniversary *g*), but on the whole, I think a more LJ-specific guideline is in order, particularly since things move so quickly online that even the "Modern" race to the "good gifts" is just far too slow.
But what would such a guideline look like? Hmmm...
LJ-versary
Appropriate Responses
1 Day
Welcoming squee from the friend who enticed you aboard; polite comments from her LJfriends; icons
6 Months
Encouraging feedback; prompt-inspired drabbles; hi-res picspam, congratulations; LJ-time
1 Year
Large, multicolour-font birthday greetings from your f-list; slightly pastede-on photomanips; remixes; commentfic; hugs
2 Years
Lovingly-designed covers for your stories; fanfic catering to your favourite pairings and kinks; heavily exclamation-pointed feedback; obsequious fangirling; awards; your first troll
3 Years
Multi-Pairing Crossover Incest RPS Crackfic Novellas in your honour; epic vids inspired by your stories; archives devoted to you; serious literary analyses of that Dolphin-MPreg-AliensMadeThemDoIt-Humourfic you wrote on the back of a napkin at last year's Escapade; obsessive meta discussion of your every post; rants about how you and the evil BNF cabal are keeping the newbies down
4 Years
Stray comment asking "Why are you still hanging around here when everyone else has moved on to [hot new social-networking site]?"
5 Years
Puzzled chorus of "Who?"
Have I missed anything?
(And yes, I do seem to have made it to 4 years on LJ without ever having had a Multi-Pairing Crossover Incest RPS Crackfic Novella written in my honour. *sigh* Perhaps this timeline is a little off?)
~