Wrapping Up, Part 3

[fandebate_mod]

This is a mirror post of the third wrapping up part of this series from Henry Jenkins' blog.

Comments

[anatsuno]

Seconding all that Robin pointed out about LJ. AND adding my own two cents: I find it most disturbing that LJs are linguistically opposed to blogs throughout this discussion: in my vocabulary, an LJ IS A BLOG. (yes, this deserved allcaps). I understand the mental boundary-forming, I understand that there are differences in cultures and technology (somewhat only though) and I understand that it is a handy shortcut to assign a certain meaning to "blog" that allows it not to contain LJs. I also know that I am probably raising this way too late for a change in habits to occur in a certain crowd, and language being usage, well... But the fact remains that an LJ can be and very often is a blog - a blog is defined by the usage made of it, the content it carries. I have used Wordpress and Movable Type, two blog-engines, to create websites that were not blog-like at all; likewise, I have always used my LJ like one uses a blog, which makes it, tada, a blog

[cathexys]

See, I really disagree. After having done metafandom for years and sga_newsletter for a bit now, I've had way too many encounters with people who don't want their posts linked, don't want their stories linked, get very upset or very angry. I've actually written about layered public discourses, because I do think there's a sense of hiding in plain sight among many LJ users in a way that I tend to not see in the blogs I read

[ex_gnomicut]

Whereas to me, livejournal is two things: a blogging tool, and an online community which exists on that blogging tool. I have a blog on the software platform provided by livejournal.com, and I am posting this comment from the identity associated with that blog. I also have a different identity (which in my opinion is also a blog) but which is a member of the online community that I think you when you say "LJ".

This identity is a member of an online community which is not constrained to the livejournal platform -- instead, it is the online community defined by the blogs (livejournal, WordPress, blogspot, and others) of librarians and academics. My other livejournal identity is a member of an online community which *is* constrained to the livejournal platform, comprising accounts on livejournal, greatestjournal, insanejournal, and journalfen.

[cathexys]

Yes, that's a really good way of putting it!

And I think that goes a bit towards Robin's comment and my contrary stance that somewhat appreciates Henry's not linking into my personal debate in someone's personal LJ doing what we do everyday :)

[st_crispins]

I sent Henry a comment ---and on time, too ---and I don't see it. Since his blog's gone down for now, I could post it here.

[ex_gnomicut]

Please do!

[lavendertook]

I agree with Robin.

It's a bad idea to discourage linking to LJ due to thoughts of privacy when LJ users have perfect control over whether they want their posts to be private or public. Such a suggestion dissuading bloggers from linking to LJ keeps LJ users out of the public domain and treats us as second-class writers on the internet in relation to other blogs.

With the gendered implications of identifying LJ as female space, discouraging linking to LJ goes down a very old road of identifying female space as private and ignored and male space as public and valorized--I don't think anyone wants to keep going down that road.