Should I Stay or Should I Go?
I've been thinking about leaving Livejournal for some time. I'm amazed at how much I've put in this blog since 2004 Without Hardly Trying. That being said, I have grown...disenchanted with LiveJournal. Some time in the past few years I began to think it was as relevant and useful as a buggy-whip without really being able to put my finger on why. I suspect I've blogged less and less in the past few years. Part of that reason is I had a long-standing skepticism about the practice of keeping a diary out in the open. Sure, I could keep an LJ and secure it for-my-eyes-only, but I've already been doing that for over thirty years with pen/cil-and-paper. If one's going to be using a popular blogging site, it follows that at least some content be public. Otherwise, one is probably wasting one's time... and hie thee to any shop where you can buy notebooks and disposable pens, i.e., just about any store.
I haven't kept up with even the most minor changes to LiveJournal. Most of them are probably cosmetic but I haven't figured out (yet) how to change my...what's it called? "Theme"? "Banner"? "Ribbon"? Anyway, I have these ultra-silly 3D smiley faces--like rubber balls--scattered all across the "ribbon" at the top of my page and they annoy the snot out of me. I haven't figured out how to change it to something that looks more sensible.
Wait, the ultra-silly 3D smiley faces are gone. At least for now. Huh.
I took a two-part blogging workshop in July where I posed my belief in the form of a question to the leader, i.e., had LiveJournal turned into the millenial equivalent of a buggy whip regards usefulness in today's society. He said there had been some changes to the company in 2006...or 2009..."and then things got weird". He also cited that LiveJournal had been started in Russia but I can't remember whether or not that really had anything to do with the weirdness. (Apparently I'm not even together enough to recall a brief dialogue that happened in early July. I wonder if this is normal for other people, too.)
The subject of said workshop was Wordpress, and using same to keep a blog. (As an aside, I'd intially confused it with Blogger. Once I found out it was Wordpress, and thus without the connection to Google, I said "Even better!" I likes me my Google searches but if there's any chance of the company blocking my future blog-content, I'll go with the alternative.) It turned out I had enough material kicking around in my head that I had the beginnings of a media blog. This could mean a possible return to establishing a semi-professional web presence (I'm not working as a librarian now but am hopeful I might be one again). And if not, I might have some fun blogging about books I've seen, music I've heard and movies I've viewed.
It definitely caught my attention that there's some function in Wordpress that allows one to transfer LiveJournal material to a Wordpress blog, ostensibly with not too much trouble. This was practically the deal-maker for using Wordpress. I haven't tried the "move yer damned scribblings from LJ to WP" function yet but aim to, especially as I'm thinking of moving some/most/all of my damned scribblings. Maybe. Thing is, I don't plan to put anything from "Skyline Farm" into my media blog "The Far-Afield Librarian". I'm thinking of, essentially, having two blogs.
The voices in the back of my brain, somewhere at the top of my spine, (you know, "lizard brain" territory) are yelling in horror. "Are you nuts? You've hardly written in the old "Skyline Farm"!"
On the contrary. I've put up a fair amount of content over the past eight years for a hobby that I wasn't quite sure of.
"You never gave it the time to make sure it was really _good!_ And now you're thinking of trying to keep two blogs at the same time?!"
Yeah! Cool, huh?
"Well, it's not like you've kept up with the changes on the one platform or that you're even competent to use the programming to the fullest. You can't even change what you call the "Ribbon" at the top of the page. Now you're going to try to learn how to use another product to make two different blogs?"
It gets better. I'm planning to keep my LJ "Skyline Farm", transfer the relevant material to my new Wordpress "Skyline Farm", perhaps with relevant content changes, all the while keeping up "The Far-Afield Librarian", also on Wordpress. In the meantime, I'll keep up the old LiveJournal "Skyline Farm" until such time as I'm sure "everyone" is following me over on Wordpress.
"Oh, dear G!d, you can't even keep your _checkbook_ straight. This is going to be such a train wreck!"
Maybe it will be a train wreck. I promise you, though; I will do my best to make that train wreck at least as "pretty" as the one in _Lawrence of Arabia_.
I haven't kept up with even the most minor changes to LiveJournal. Most of them are probably cosmetic but I haven't figured out (yet) how to change my...what's it called? "Theme"? "Banner"? "Ribbon"? Anyway, I have these ultra-silly 3D smiley faces--like rubber balls--scattered all across the "ribbon" at the top of my page and they annoy the snot out of me. I haven't figured out how to change it to something that looks more sensible.
Wait, the ultra-silly 3D smiley faces are gone. At least for now. Huh.
I took a two-part blogging workshop in July where I posed my belief in the form of a question to the leader, i.e., had LiveJournal turned into the millenial equivalent of a buggy whip regards usefulness in today's society. He said there had been some changes to the company in 2006...or 2009..."and then things got weird". He also cited that LiveJournal had been started in Russia but I can't remember whether or not that really had anything to do with the weirdness. (Apparently I'm not even together enough to recall a brief dialogue that happened in early July. I wonder if this is normal for other people, too.)
The subject of said workshop was Wordpress, and using same to keep a blog. (As an aside, I'd intially confused it with Blogger. Once I found out it was Wordpress, and thus without the connection to Google, I said "Even better!" I likes me my Google searches but if there's any chance of the company blocking my future blog-content, I'll go with the alternative.) It turned out I had enough material kicking around in my head that I had the beginnings of a media blog. This could mean a possible return to establishing a semi-professional web presence (I'm not working as a librarian now but am hopeful I might be one again). And if not, I might have some fun blogging about books I've seen, music I've heard and movies I've viewed.
It definitely caught my attention that there's some function in Wordpress that allows one to transfer LiveJournal material to a Wordpress blog, ostensibly with not too much trouble. This was practically the deal-maker for using Wordpress. I haven't tried the "move yer damned scribblings from LJ to WP" function yet but aim to, especially as I'm thinking of moving some/most/all of my damned scribblings. Maybe. Thing is, I don't plan to put anything from "Skyline Farm" into my media blog "The Far-Afield Librarian". I'm thinking of, essentially, having two blogs.
The voices in the back of my brain, somewhere at the top of my spine, (you know, "lizard brain" territory) are yelling in horror. "Are you nuts? You've hardly written in the old "Skyline Farm"!"
On the contrary. I've put up a fair amount of content over the past eight years for a hobby that I wasn't quite sure of.
"You never gave it the time to make sure it was really _good!_ And now you're thinking of trying to keep two blogs at the same time?!"
Yeah! Cool, huh?
"Well, it's not like you've kept up with the changes on the one platform or that you're even competent to use the programming to the fullest. You can't even change what you call the "Ribbon" at the top of the page. Now you're going to try to learn how to use another product to make two different blogs?"
It gets better. I'm planning to keep my LJ "Skyline Farm", transfer the relevant material to my new Wordpress "Skyline Farm", perhaps with relevant content changes, all the while keeping up "The Far-Afield Librarian", also on Wordpress. In the meantime, I'll keep up the old LiveJournal "Skyline Farm" until such time as I'm sure "everyone" is following me over on Wordpress.
"Oh, dear G!d, you can't even keep your _checkbook_ straight. This is going to be such a train wreck!"
Maybe it will be a train wreck. I promise you, though; I will do my best to make that train wreck at least as "pretty" as the one in _Lawrence of Arabia_.