Packing it in...
Only a few days after my three-year anniversary with LJ, I'm leaving. As of today, I am officially retiring this journal, creating a brand new DW journal under the name next_to_normal, and moving fully and permanently to Dreamwidth.
This is not just because of the LJ/Facebook/Twitter nonsense. If it were simply a matter of LJ being stupid (and when isn't LJ being stupid?), I'd be happy continuing with my dual presence as eowyn_315 at both places, and following the winds of fandom, wherever they might blow. As it turns out, the most recent LJ feature freak-out has turned out to be a blessing in disguise, because it reminded me why I had always been hesitant to make the move to DW in the first place: fandom.
And now that's why I'm leaving. There is no joy left in fandom for me, and I don't want to be this angry and miserable all the time. It's not good for my mental health. I'm not going to deny that the comics were a part of that decision, but this is something that has been building for quite a while, and is coming from my issues with multiple facets of fandom, not least of which is my anxiety at not writing fic anymore, frustration at my loss of interest in the series, and melancholy from feeling like I'm no longer a valuable part of fandom. Issue #36 was merely the last straw.
I still like all of you as individuals, and I don't expect to disappear. I might even still talk about Buffy (the TV show - I don't want anything else to do with the comics, ever), but I don't want it to be a larger proportion of my life than, say, Lost. I just need a good bit more distance from fandom, and I'm hoping DW can provide a better balance.
From now on, I will be posting at DW under the name next_to_normal, and the subject matter will be pretty much what I have been posting at LJ: TV, movie, and book reviews; Musical Sunday; Cooking with Eowyn (though I suppose I'll have to come up with a new name for it, lol); blog recs; memes; etc. I will NOT be crossposting to LJ.
I have uploaded many of my old posts to that journal for continuity's sake, but I am trying to filter out as many fandom-related posts as possible, which means none of my fic, awards, commentary, or fic recs. I am keeping some of my BtVS and AtS meta, when it is in keeping with what I'm currently writing about other TV shows. I am also updating my index posts, reorganizing the links given the new focus, and eventually replacing the LJ links with DW links. The journal layout is also currently a work in progress, so if anyone wants to volunteer their artistic abilities to pretty it up, I will be most appreciative.
As of today, this LJ will be retired, so I won't be offended if you defriend eowyn_315. I am not deleting the journal, though I may change my mind in the future, if I decide to archive my fic at someplace more suitable for archiving than LJ. Right now, though, I think I have enough to keep me busy with setting up at DW.
I don't expect to be making any more new posts to this journal, with one exception. I do still want to finish my fic revision project. At the moment, I don't have any enthusiasm for fic writing, but I don't want to leave the posted fics as is, and so pushing through with the revisions is preferable to pulling them from the internet entirely. If/when I update any existing fics or decide to move them to another site, I will post a notice here.
I am, however, deleting my eowyn_315 journal on DW. I wanted a fresh start, hence the new username, and it seems redundant at this point to keep it as a backup for a journal that's now inactive.
I am not trying to get rid of any of you, so if you have a DW account, feel free to add me if you want to keep following my posts (and please don't be concerned about how much fandom-related material you post - I'll take care of managing my exposure). If you don't have a DW account and you want one, I have invitation codes - either comment here or PM me with your email address and I'll send you one.
I am also curious who's not on DW and doesn't have any plans to move. Depending on how many people that is, I may continue to read a filtered version of my eowyn_315 flist and comment here on LJ in order to keep in touch. (I don't plan to defriend anyone, in case anyone still wants access to my flocked posts for some reason, but I will be filtering to avoid duplication and the things that were frustrating me about fandom.) And my understanding is that you can add a DW feed to your flist if you want to follow my posts from your LJ.
I think that should cover everything, but if anyone has any questions, concerns, or suggestions, let me know in the comments.
ETA: Borrowing from my comment to Gabs, here's the best way to follow a DW journal, for those of you who want it to show up in your LJ flist:
1. Go here to access your RSS feeds.
2. Down at the bottom, where it says "Add Feed by URL," paste this link: http://next-to-normal.dreamwidth.org/data/rss
3. My posts will show up in your LJ flist. You will have to go to Dreamwidth to comment, which you can do with a DW account, with your LJ account if you've set up an OpenID, or even anonymously.
This is not just because of the LJ/Facebook/Twitter nonsense. If it were simply a matter of LJ being stupid (and when isn't LJ being stupid?), I'd be happy continuing with my dual presence as eowyn_315 at both places, and following the winds of fandom, wherever they might blow. As it turns out, the most recent LJ feature freak-out has turned out to be a blessing in disguise, because it reminded me why I had always been hesitant to make the move to DW in the first place: fandom.
And now that's why I'm leaving. There is no joy left in fandom for me, and I don't want to be this angry and miserable all the time. It's not good for my mental health. I'm not going to deny that the comics were a part of that decision, but this is something that has been building for quite a while, and is coming from my issues with multiple facets of fandom, not least of which is my anxiety at not writing fic anymore, frustration at my loss of interest in the series, and melancholy from feeling like I'm no longer a valuable part of fandom. Issue #36 was merely the last straw.
I still like all of you as individuals, and I don't expect to disappear. I might even still talk about Buffy (the TV show - I don't want anything else to do with the comics, ever), but I don't want it to be a larger proportion of my life than, say, Lost. I just need a good bit more distance from fandom, and I'm hoping DW can provide a better balance.
From now on, I will be posting at DW under the name next_to_normal, and the subject matter will be pretty much what I have been posting at LJ: TV, movie, and book reviews; Musical Sunday; Cooking with Eowyn (though I suppose I'll have to come up with a new name for it, lol); blog recs; memes; etc. I will NOT be crossposting to LJ.
I have uploaded many of my old posts to that journal for continuity's sake, but I am trying to filter out as many fandom-related posts as possible, which means none of my fic, awards, commentary, or fic recs. I am keeping some of my BtVS and AtS meta, when it is in keeping with what I'm currently writing about other TV shows. I am also updating my index posts, reorganizing the links given the new focus, and eventually replacing the LJ links with DW links. The journal layout is also currently a work in progress, so if anyone wants to volunteer their artistic abilities to pretty it up, I will be most appreciative.
As of today, this LJ will be retired, so I won't be offended if you defriend eowyn_315. I am not deleting the journal, though I may change my mind in the future, if I decide to archive my fic at someplace more suitable for archiving than LJ. Right now, though, I think I have enough to keep me busy with setting up at DW.
I don't expect to be making any more new posts to this journal, with one exception. I do still want to finish my fic revision project. At the moment, I don't have any enthusiasm for fic writing, but I don't want to leave the posted fics as is, and so pushing through with the revisions is preferable to pulling them from the internet entirely. If/when I update any existing fics or decide to move them to another site, I will post a notice here.
I am, however, deleting my eowyn_315 journal on DW. I wanted a fresh start, hence the new username, and it seems redundant at this point to keep it as a backup for a journal that's now inactive.
I am not trying to get rid of any of you, so if you have a DW account, feel free to add me if you want to keep following my posts (and please don't be concerned about how much fandom-related material you post - I'll take care of managing my exposure). If you don't have a DW account and you want one, I have invitation codes - either comment here or PM me with your email address and I'll send you one.
I am also curious who's not on DW and doesn't have any plans to move. Depending on how many people that is, I may continue to read a filtered version of my eowyn_315 flist and comment here on LJ in order to keep in touch. (I don't plan to defriend anyone, in case anyone still wants access to my flocked posts for some reason, but I will be filtering to avoid duplication and the things that were frustrating me about fandom.) And my understanding is that you can add a DW feed to your flist if you want to follow my posts from your LJ.
I think that should cover everything, but if anyone has any questions, concerns, or suggestions, let me know in the comments.
ETA: Borrowing from my comment to Gabs, here's the best way to follow a DW journal, for those of you who want it to show up in your LJ flist:
1. Go here to access your RSS feeds.
2. Down at the bottom, where it says "Add Feed by URL," paste this link: http://next-to-normal.dreamwidth.org/data/rss
3. My posts will show up in your LJ flist. You will have to go to Dreamwidth to comment, which you can do with a DW account, with your LJ account if you've set up an OpenID, or even anonymously.