Just thinking
How do I actually decide which journals to friend?
Well, for starters, I don't use LJ as a social circle all that much. I'm more likely to friend a journal which has posts I find intriguing or intellectually curious than one which belongs to someone I've met online just because I've met them. There is a little bit of that, but mostly I use Facebook for my social address book and LJ as a kind of combination diary and RSS feed.
That said, sometimes I'll feel like looking for a new journal to friend. It might be sparked by a particularly amusing or interesting comment made on one of the comms I read, or something thought-provoking posted somewhere, or a link from elsewhere on the net, or just because I feel like a friending binge and I go trawling /friendsfriends or common interest tags.
However it comes about, there are a couple of things which I've found myself looking for when deciding whether to friend a journal. I'm not saying these are the only, or even the best, ways to go about it, but it seems to be what I've ended up with. Results and mileage may vary.
Things which make me less likely to friend:
- Friendslocked journals, especially those which have very few unlocked posts, doubly especially if they only have the single unlocked post, and triply if they have no unlocked posts at all.
- Infrequent posting. If I'm adding someone to my list of journals I read, it's because there's something there to read. I'll often jump back around twenty posts in a journal and see if the date on the 20th is older than six months ago. If so, I'm less likely to click "Add".
- If I'm already linked to the person via some other social network, and the content of their posts on both networks is pretty much identical.
- Low signal to noise ratio. This is highly personalised, and pretty much comes down to "number of posts I want to read vs number of posts that bore me rigid". I'm just not into reading someone's feed if it's going to feel like a chore, no matter how nice they might be in real life.
- As part of the previous, terrible writing skills. Although it's mostly self-correcting, as people who don't write well don't tend to have frequently-updated online journals for very long in the first place. Or at least don't move in the same digital circles.
Things which make me more likely to friend:
- Frequent posting and high signal to noise ratio.
- If I've known the person for quite some time, either IRL or online.
- If the journal writer is linked to something else I've been following for a while. I have quite a few webcomic authors on my flist, for starters.
- Humour.
- Intelligence.
- Creativity.
- Correct spelling, punctuation and grammar. I don't mind regional variations, just pick one and stick to it.
- Philosophy, or at least thinking more than peripherally about things.
- Of course, posting about stuff I'm into. Pictures and links usually, if not always, a bonus.
- Certain personality types, apparently. I'm not terribly thrilled about this, but it does seem from the available data that I'm more likely to friend/follow/reply to people of particular types more often than others. Occasionally, it can be a User Info page which tips me one way or the other on whether to friend. I'm not sure if this is me being biased or just human.
- Stuff based in Australia.
Well, for starters, I don't use LJ as a social circle all that much. I'm more likely to friend a journal which has posts I find intriguing or intellectually curious than one which belongs to someone I've met online just because I've met them. There is a little bit of that, but mostly I use Facebook for my social address book and LJ as a kind of combination diary and RSS feed.
That said, sometimes I'll feel like looking for a new journal to friend. It might be sparked by a particularly amusing or interesting comment made on one of the comms I read, or something thought-provoking posted somewhere, or a link from elsewhere on the net, or just because I feel like a friending binge and I go trawling /friendsfriends or common interest tags.
However it comes about, there are a couple of things which I've found myself looking for when deciding whether to friend a journal. I'm not saying these are the only, or even the best, ways to go about it, but it seems to be what I've ended up with. Results and mileage may vary.
Things which make me less likely to friend:
- Friendslocked journals, especially those which have very few unlocked posts, doubly especially if they only have the single unlocked post, and triply if they have no unlocked posts at all.
- Infrequent posting. If I'm adding someone to my list of journals I read, it's because there's something there to read. I'll often jump back around twenty posts in a journal and see if the date on the 20th is older than six months ago. If so, I'm less likely to click "Add".
- If I'm already linked to the person via some other social network, and the content of their posts on both networks is pretty much identical.
- Low signal to noise ratio. This is highly personalised, and pretty much comes down to "number of posts I want to read vs number of posts that bore me rigid". I'm just not into reading someone's feed if it's going to feel like a chore, no matter how nice they might be in real life.
- As part of the previous, terrible writing skills. Although it's mostly self-correcting, as people who don't write well don't tend to have frequently-updated online journals for very long in the first place. Or at least don't move in the same digital circles.
Things which make me more likely to friend:
- Frequent posting and high signal to noise ratio.
- If I've known the person for quite some time, either IRL or online.
- If the journal writer is linked to something else I've been following for a while. I have quite a few webcomic authors on my flist, for starters.
- Humour.
- Intelligence.
- Creativity.
- Correct spelling, punctuation and grammar. I don't mind regional variations, just pick one and stick to it.
- Philosophy, or at least thinking more than peripherally about things.
- Of course, posting about stuff I'm into. Pictures and links usually, if not always, a bonus.
- Certain personality types, apparently. I'm not terribly thrilled about this, but it does seem from the available data that I'm more likely to friend/follow/reply to people of particular types more often than others. Occasionally, it can be a User Info page which tips me one way or the other on whether to friend. I'm not sure if this is me being biased or just human.
- Stuff based in Australia.