DeviantArt, and other past failures
Socializing online's a funny old business. You can act the way you want, talk how you want, create a whole persona for yourself or simply act like a tit (if you weren't doing so unknowingly already). Nowadays I mostly talk to people I know IRL through MSN, and now post long-winded and pompous monologues through Livejournal) but it wasn't always so. Back in the day I was a regular on several of those strange websites that weren't quite messageboards, and weren't wuite social networking sites - the online societies.
It's a long one, folks, but bear with me - i'm being witty and engaging here, which isn't like me.
The first online society I took part in was the (briefly defunct, now back online) Bolt.Com - this was entirely because having reasoned that I should get an email account, I got one at hotmail, and Bolt was the first thing suggested to me by hotmail. This would be back when I was 12. I made a few penfriends through it though, one of whom I still keep in touch with, but most of whom turned out to be emo wristcutter types sooner or later, that latched onto my almost infinite capacity to listen like leeches, something I would only find out later as I expunged the last of them from my MSN years later. But Katie, minus a few blips of a month or so, has been my friend for well over TEN YEARS. Funny, no? Anyhow it was pretty much messageboards, customizeable profiles and endless polls, 2/3rds of which I get on Facebook, and the first of which I hopefully will find here on LJ (more on that later).
The next social website I joined up with was Gaia Online. Yes yes, keep your derisive hoots to yourselves, I was decieved by the pretty pictures into thinking it was a roleplaying website, when in fact it was simply a messageboard with a customizeable avatar. And customize him I did, even though I couldn't afford any of the ludicrous fees for all the clothes etc. And boy did some other people's avatars look silly in their unique gear from one-off events and bought through Gil earned through massive ammounts of posting. I haven't looked back, and snigger un self-consciously when I read the drama on Encyclopediadramatica.
Actually, tell a lie, the second site I ever joined was DeviantArt. Now we reach the titular issue. See, unlike the previous two, on DA you actually had to do something of merit, and produce art. Now I produced art, but whether that is "something of merit" is debateable. I sucked. And the worst part is, as we all did when we drew as teens, is that I thought it was good. Good enough to post on a website where half the users are actual published graphic artists, although this didn't stop people (several of whom I encountered) from drifting through simply by adding other artists' works to their favourites, commenting on others' works, and occasionally stretching themselves to recolouring an obvious frame from a manga or anime to reflect their OC. Still, I saw some cool pics, and socialized quite a bit - I chatted with the guy who does Rob Zombie's cover art, and did several art exchanges with a guy who was much better than me, but didn't hold it against me. I forgot all about DA once I got to uni (too busy, I tell myself) and it still bugs me - I was friendly, in a way, with these people and sorta left them hanging, though no-one noted my absence.
The only other online "society" I joined was a messageboard run by a friend of mine (well, schoolfriend, and we all know how long those last. I'm still blocking by rote anyone from back then who adds me on facebook) ran through Proboards. It was peculiar how this worked - we held long and detailed conversations with each other online, entirely seperate from our daily interactions. Indeed it was never mentioned at all during the day, and the two lines never crossed over. I looked it up last month - its still there, floating in dead cyberspace. Barring a brief dilliance at one point with...*urgh*... Vampire Freaks, these are all I bothered with up until the age of about 18.
As for social networking sites, I made a halfhearted attempt at Myspace and Bebo since all my friends were doing it, but after being hit on a couple of times by frankly creepy men, and once the hackers, spammers and shit indie bands took over, I left. Facebook was the same in University, although this time I took to it and update it every day. Who knows, maybe i'll abandon it once I leave Uni and my friends go off and get lives of their own.
This brings me neatly to LJ. Having abandoned my hangups about LJ users being all emo, I found that there are quite a lot of interesting things going on here, mostly to do with that elusive beast Fandom (more on that another time). Since coming to LJ though, I look at things like Fandomsecrets, or listen to hikari_datenshi and kestrellan talking IRL, and wonder how it's done sometimes. How do people make "fandom friends" so easily? How in the heck do you roleplay via text anyhow (I do it around a table with fellow drunks, as is the norm)? How in the heck do you socialize? Its hard enough in real life, especially if you aren't a fan of being plastered and shouting at people over awful techno music.
Although, writing this now, it occurs to me that what I did back when I was a young'in on Bolt wasn't that different. I read messageboard threads, commented and dialogued with people on issues and ideas. Granted the people weren't always fun to talk to; you wouldn't BE-LEEVE the shitstorn I was subjected to on the Paganism board the time I mentioned in passing that I sometimes meditated with an open portal, you'd think I had told people that I prayed to Cthulhu and meant it. Leaving aside the fact that this was maybe a bad idea anyway, since I lived next door to a graveyard......... anyway, back to the point.
I suppose its a matter of self-consciousness. So what if you get into an argument with someone you've never met or will ever meet? And if a conversation doesn't take off, then start another. It's just the memories of having upset someone that sometimes linger, and the people who upset YOU never seem to have a problem getting over it, do they? I'd better stop, since I have work in eight hours and am drifing off topic.
So yes, socializing on the internet. Next topic? Go ahead, give me a topic. If you've read this far. I dare you.
It's a long one, folks, but bear with me - i'm being witty and engaging here, which isn't like me.
The first online society I took part in was the (briefly defunct, now back online) Bolt.Com - this was entirely because having reasoned that I should get an email account, I got one at hotmail, and Bolt was the first thing suggested to me by hotmail. This would be back when I was 12. I made a few penfriends through it though, one of whom I still keep in touch with, but most of whom turned out to be emo wristcutter types sooner or later, that latched onto my almost infinite capacity to listen like leeches, something I would only find out later as I expunged the last of them from my MSN years later. But Katie, minus a few blips of a month or so, has been my friend for well over TEN YEARS. Funny, no? Anyhow it was pretty much messageboards, customizeable profiles and endless polls, 2/3rds of which I get on Facebook, and the first of which I hopefully will find here on LJ (more on that later).
The next social website I joined up with was Gaia Online. Yes yes, keep your derisive hoots to yourselves, I was decieved by the pretty pictures into thinking it was a roleplaying website, when in fact it was simply a messageboard with a customizeable avatar. And customize him I did, even though I couldn't afford any of the ludicrous fees for all the clothes etc. And boy did some other people's avatars look silly in their unique gear from one-off events and bought through Gil earned through massive ammounts of posting. I haven't looked back, and snigger un self-consciously when I read the drama on Encyclopediadramatica.
Actually, tell a lie, the second site I ever joined was DeviantArt. Now we reach the titular issue. See, unlike the previous two, on DA you actually had to do something of merit, and produce art. Now I produced art, but whether that is "something of merit" is debateable. I sucked. And the worst part is, as we all did when we drew as teens, is that I thought it was good. Good enough to post on a website where half the users are actual published graphic artists, although this didn't stop people (several of whom I encountered) from drifting through simply by adding other artists' works to their favourites, commenting on others' works, and occasionally stretching themselves to recolouring an obvious frame from a manga or anime to reflect their OC. Still, I saw some cool pics, and socialized quite a bit - I chatted with the guy who does Rob Zombie's cover art, and did several art exchanges with a guy who was much better than me, but didn't hold it against me. I forgot all about DA once I got to uni (too busy, I tell myself) and it still bugs me - I was friendly, in a way, with these people and sorta left them hanging, though no-one noted my absence.
The only other online "society" I joined was a messageboard run by a friend of mine (well, schoolfriend, and we all know how long those last. I'm still blocking by rote anyone from back then who adds me on facebook) ran through Proboards. It was peculiar how this worked - we held long and detailed conversations with each other online, entirely seperate from our daily interactions. Indeed it was never mentioned at all during the day, and the two lines never crossed over. I looked it up last month - its still there, floating in dead cyberspace. Barring a brief dilliance at one point with...*urgh*... Vampire Freaks, these are all I bothered with up until the age of about 18.
As for social networking sites, I made a halfhearted attempt at Myspace and Bebo since all my friends were doing it, but after being hit on a couple of times by frankly creepy men, and once the hackers, spammers and shit indie bands took over, I left. Facebook was the same in University, although this time I took to it and update it every day. Who knows, maybe i'll abandon it once I leave Uni and my friends go off and get lives of their own.
This brings me neatly to LJ. Having abandoned my hangups about LJ users being all emo, I found that there are quite a lot of interesting things going on here, mostly to do with that elusive beast Fandom (more on that another time). Since coming to LJ though, I look at things like Fandomsecrets, or listen to hikari_datenshi and kestrellan talking IRL, and wonder how it's done sometimes. How do people make "fandom friends" so easily? How in the heck do you roleplay via text anyhow (I do it around a table with fellow drunks, as is the norm)? How in the heck do you socialize? Its hard enough in real life, especially if you aren't a fan of being plastered and shouting at people over awful techno music.
Although, writing this now, it occurs to me that what I did back when I was a young'in on Bolt wasn't that different. I read messageboard threads, commented and dialogued with people on issues and ideas. Granted the people weren't always fun to talk to; you wouldn't BE-LEEVE the shitstorn I was subjected to on the Paganism board the time I mentioned in passing that I sometimes meditated with an open portal, you'd think I had told people that I prayed to Cthulhu and meant it. Leaving aside the fact that this was maybe a bad idea anyway, since I lived next door to a graveyard......... anyway, back to the point.
I suppose its a matter of self-consciousness. So what if you get into an argument with someone you've never met or will ever meet? And if a conversation doesn't take off, then start another. It's just the memories of having upset someone that sometimes linger, and the people who upset YOU never seem to have a problem getting over it, do they? I'd better stop, since I have work in eight hours and am drifing off topic.
So yes, socializing on the internet. Next topic? Go ahead, give me a topic. If you've read this far. I dare you.