Journalfen Concerns
Well since my rather short and clearly biased plea for journalfen, a lot of people responded with issues and perceptions they have about journalfen. I thought rather than leave it spread out on two posts I’d consolidate, and hopefully be able to add solutions to some of the issues.
So, in no particular order:
“Is LJ being even stupider?”
Yes, yes they are. At this point I think LJ bought all the surplus stupid they could lay their hands on and are planning the IPO in order to raise funds and run out to buy more stupid. They are stupid junkies so deep in denial that rather than admit they're addicted to stupid they've decided to pretend stupid is a business model.
“It always seems to be down” or the servers are robust issue.
Yes, JF does go down periodically. I personally don’t find that they do more than other journaling services, and recently the downtimes have been for upgrades, so yay? They’re building a bigger and Fan journal for YOU. Occasionally I’ll get the “sorry we’re working on something” message, but I’ll refresh the page immediately and its gone. So if you are getting that message, refresh - and tell someone?
“SA wants LJ full of teenagers posting about music and dating and video games. We are supposed to go to Vox and post about wine and children. If only we could stay within strictly defined age related stereotypes - this would all be much easier for everyone. :D”
It does rather look that way, doesn’t it? I think what a lot of people saw with strikethrough was just how hostile LJ is to certain users. I personally am not interested in supporting a corporation that singles out and vilifies a group of people engaged in a LEGAL for of creative expression because the 15 year old boy mentalities running the place think it’s icky. Nor am I particularly fond of being LIED to and having make believe law thrown at me as an excuse to cover LJ execs prejudices.
Whether or not I fall into the group being targeted doesn’t really matter. No one is arguing (at least, not here) that LJ doesn’t have the right to ban whatever they find icky. But I also have the right to think they’re small minded morons and take my money, my content and my eyeballs elsewhere.
“People don't want to lose their flists, and though a lot of people say they'll keep up with folks who go to different journal communities, few do -- especially if people flock in several different directions.”
Yes, I agree completely. It’s hard. It’s going to be tough to move, and there will be growing pains. Ultimately each person has to decide what is more important: going through the hassle of rebuilding their communities somewhere where the principles of acceptance and openness are actually believed in vs. staying where the structure exists, knowing that some (most?) of your friends are perceived as icky nuisances by TPTB, and others might wake up one morning to find themselves suspended.
The best idea (at least my best idea. I’m sure someone has a better one, and if so please share) is to slowly rebuild. X post until the pieces have fallen together. Recreate those comms you love so much. Build your own community.
“But I really like my flist.”
Yeah, me too. Yes, even you, back there. You know who you are, the one that never says much and hides in the back. I like you too. So I created two hopefully helpful resources:
Leavin_Eljay here on LJ.
This comm has people with permanent paid accounts who have volunteered to make fan journals (as opposed to wank journals. There is a comm for that on JF already) for people on journalfen. We’re also happy to set up comms for you.
Welcome2jf on journalfen.
This comm is to connect, find help each other rebuild and navigate. Friending frenzies, whatever - however it works, use it.
“What about fanarchive?”
I love fanarchive. It’s a great idea. I fully intend to support this project when it happens. This is about fanjournaling. Also this is NOW. The frame exists already, we just need to hang our pictures.
“Maybe it needs one a them friending frenzy deals?”
Probably. I suck at these things, but I tried to start one here for HP. Feel free to join / post for other fandoms. I’m happy to mod or hand over moderation to people interested in making this community useful to all fans.
“Moving services is a stopgap. Eventually Insanejournal / greatestjournal / journalfen will do the exact same thing and we’ll have to move again.”
Journalfen provided a safe harbor for fandom wank, a community that causes them trouble, when no one else would. FW was deleted off of blurty (and insanejournal?) before it found people willing to protect their brand of speach. There is no reason to think that the JF owners - who are themselves slashers - would do any less for us.
An ideal journal service would have a set up similar to the one proposed by fanarchive: committees and group consensus. Unfortunately JF is not ours. However I’ve found the owners quite benevolent in their dictatorship.
Honestly though? I think I would really like to hear from the JF owners on this. How do they plan to govern / solve issues/clashes as the community grows? I think we all want to see transparency and fairness, whatever the solution is. The great thing about JF is that when you have a question? They will answer it.
“Journalfen’s 18 and over rule is a deal-breaker for me. I have an account over there, but I would never move over there permanently. I have people in fandom under 18 on my friendslist now, and I have some very good fannish friends who I met on lj when they were under 18.”
Yeah. This one’s tough. Because that isn’t something I see them changing. Lim suggested creating an RSS feed of you JF on LJ to keep both flists in touch. I may do this.
“LJ's far niftier, everything's there, and all my friends are there. I haven't seen LJ actually do anything that's had an great impact on fandom yet either.”
Yes, no doubt. Every journal service is a step down in terms of nifty add ons. I like tags and tracking myself. JF is blogging like it’s 2004. I have no idea if there are plans to build up the nifty features. I have no idea how open Bonnie & Robin are to suggestions or input. We can always ask.
“journalfen is just - the atmosphere there is really stressed-out, imo. And it's got this whole kind of anti-fan thing where you're not meant to care about fandom because it's uncool”
This question was actually answered by the OP, but I thought I’d share her solution: killfile the people who stress you out, and build on the communities that make you happy. Here’s a great easy to use program.
“There's 65 people who have listed me as a mutual friend. I don't particularly want to abandon any of them, or demand they pay $15 for a JF (even though I'm almost willing to do so myself by this point) to keep seeing me around.”
Come to leavin_eljay. Build an RSS feed of your LJ. It won’t happen over night, but don’t expect miracles. But you know - I have large flists on both JF and LJ, and there isn’t a lot of overlap. I personally found it very rewarding and have met people I would never have know if I’d only kept one journal. Instead of thinking you’ll lose friends, consider how many more neat people you’ll meet!
So, in no particular order:
“Is LJ being even stupider?”
Yes, yes they are. At this point I think LJ bought all the surplus stupid they could lay their hands on and are planning the IPO in order to raise funds and run out to buy more stupid. They are stupid junkies so deep in denial that rather than admit they're addicted to stupid they've decided to pretend stupid is a business model.
“It always seems to be down” or the servers are robust issue.
Yes, JF does go down periodically. I personally don’t find that they do more than other journaling services, and recently the downtimes have been for upgrades, so yay? They’re building a bigger and Fan journal for YOU. Occasionally I’ll get the “sorry we’re working on something” message, but I’ll refresh the page immediately and its gone. So if you are getting that message, refresh - and tell someone?
“SA wants LJ full of teenagers posting about music and dating and video games. We are supposed to go to Vox and post about wine and children. If only we could stay within strictly defined age related stereotypes - this would all be much easier for everyone. :D”
It does rather look that way, doesn’t it? I think what a lot of people saw with strikethrough was just how hostile LJ is to certain users. I personally am not interested in supporting a corporation that singles out and vilifies a group of people engaged in a LEGAL for of creative expression because the 15 year old boy mentalities running the place think it’s icky. Nor am I particularly fond of being LIED to and having make believe law thrown at me as an excuse to cover LJ execs prejudices.
Whether or not I fall into the group being targeted doesn’t really matter. No one is arguing (at least, not here) that LJ doesn’t have the right to ban whatever they find icky. But I also have the right to think they’re small minded morons and take my money, my content and my eyeballs elsewhere.
“People don't want to lose their flists, and though a lot of people say they'll keep up with folks who go to different journal communities, few do -- especially if people flock in several different directions.”
Yes, I agree completely. It’s hard. It’s going to be tough to move, and there will be growing pains. Ultimately each person has to decide what is more important: going through the hassle of rebuilding their communities somewhere where the principles of acceptance and openness are actually believed in vs. staying where the structure exists, knowing that some (most?) of your friends are perceived as icky nuisances by TPTB, and others might wake up one morning to find themselves suspended.
The best idea (at least my best idea. I’m sure someone has a better one, and if so please share) is to slowly rebuild. X post until the pieces have fallen together. Recreate those comms you love so much. Build your own community.
“But I really like my flist.”
Yeah, me too. Yes, even you, back there. You know who you are, the one that never says much and hides in the back. I like you too. So I created two hopefully helpful resources:
Leavin_Eljay here on LJ.
This comm has people with permanent paid accounts who have volunteered to make fan journals (as opposed to wank journals. There is a comm for that on JF already) for people on journalfen. We’re also happy to set up comms for you.
Welcome2jf on journalfen.
This comm is to connect, find help each other rebuild and navigate. Friending frenzies, whatever - however it works, use it.
“What about fanarchive?”
I love fanarchive. It’s a great idea. I fully intend to support this project when it happens. This is about fanjournaling. Also this is NOW. The frame exists already, we just need to hang our pictures.
“Maybe it needs one a them friending frenzy deals?”
Probably. I suck at these things, but I tried to start one here for HP. Feel free to join / post for other fandoms. I’m happy to mod or hand over moderation to people interested in making this community useful to all fans.
“Moving services is a stopgap. Eventually Insanejournal / greatestjournal / journalfen will do the exact same thing and we’ll have to move again.”
Journalfen provided a safe harbor for fandom wank, a community that causes them trouble, when no one else would. FW was deleted off of blurty (and insanejournal?) before it found people willing to protect their brand of speach. There is no reason to think that the JF owners - who are themselves slashers - would do any less for us.
An ideal journal service would have a set up similar to the one proposed by fanarchive: committees and group consensus. Unfortunately JF is not ours. However I’ve found the owners quite benevolent in their dictatorship.
Honestly though? I think I would really like to hear from the JF owners on this. How do they plan to govern / solve issues/clashes as the community grows? I think we all want to see transparency and fairness, whatever the solution is. The great thing about JF is that when you have a question? They will answer it.
“Journalfen’s 18 and over rule is a deal-breaker for me. I have an account over there, but I would never move over there permanently. I have people in fandom under 18 on my friendslist now, and I have some very good fannish friends who I met on lj when they were under 18.”
Yeah. This one’s tough. Because that isn’t something I see them changing. Lim suggested creating an RSS feed of you JF on LJ to keep both flists in touch. I may do this.
“LJ's far niftier, everything's there, and all my friends are there. I haven't seen LJ actually do anything that's had an great impact on fandom yet either.”
Yes, no doubt. Every journal service is a step down in terms of nifty add ons. I like tags and tracking myself. JF is blogging like it’s 2004. I have no idea if there are plans to build up the nifty features. I have no idea how open Bonnie & Robin are to suggestions or input. We can always ask.
“journalfen is just - the atmosphere there is really stressed-out, imo. And it's got this whole kind of anti-fan thing where you're not meant to care about fandom because it's uncool”
This question was actually answered by the OP, but I thought I’d share her solution: killfile the people who stress you out, and build on the communities that make you happy. Here’s a great easy to use program.
“There's 65 people who have listed me as a mutual friend. I don't particularly want to abandon any of them, or demand they pay $15 for a JF (even though I'm almost willing to do so myself by this point) to keep seeing me around.”
Come to leavin_eljay. Build an RSS feed of your LJ. It won’t happen over night, but don’t expect miracles. But you know - I have large flists on both JF and LJ, and there isn’t a lot of overlap. I personally found it very rewarding and have met people I would never have know if I’d only kept one journal. Instead of thinking you’ll lose friends, consider how many more neat people you’ll meet!