Green Room - Week 13 - Day 7

[clauderainsrm]

The poll closes tonight: https://therealljidol.dreamwidth.org/1036867.html

So make sure YOUR voice is being heard when it comes to determining the results!

***

I've been seeing a lot of people sharing articles about Livejournal lately, with the usual "I wish it was still around" (despite it, you know, still being around)

In reading the comments though, I get the sense that it's more "I wish things were the way they were back then". Which is a common enough part of getting older.

Also noted - how many of the "downfall of Livejournal" articles seem to revolve around how much people like porn. :D

https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2019/01/the-linux-of-social-media-how-livejournal-pioneered-then-lost-web-blogging/

https://boingboing.net/2019/01/22/nipplegate-legacy.html

https://mashable.com/2018/05/13/was-livejournal-ever-good/

https://www.theverge.com/2018/12/6/18127869/tumblr-livejournal-porn-ban-strikethrough

OK, the porn is really only a part of what people are talking about. A big part though seems to revolve around the idea of giving people what they want/the dangers of doing that. I have enough problems with that with Idol. I can't imagine the pressures facing LJ in it's infancy and growing into it's teen years. It's no wonder that they brought in help, and eventually just sold it.

The anonymous communities alone would have made me want to bail and call the experiment an morally bankrupt failure. (interestingly enough, that seems to be one of the biggest groups of "I miss those days". If being assholes to people was one of the best times of your life, you may want to reevaluate just what you were doing with the rest of your life. :) )

Comments

[bleodswean]

Yes, and yes, and yes!

Admittedly, I LOVED LJ the first decade or so. I had come over from usenet and then email lists and just adored the platform with the "friends" page and the communities. Wank had already been part of the internet via the listgroups, but it really exploded once the nasties got their girl gangs gathered behind them. For the most part, that didn't bother me because really who cares what a group of goofballs think....but the porn was where I drew the line. Although, to be honest, the cliques that became part and parcel of the wankers...were hard on the general feeling of friendliness and I thought MySpace just made those worse. Tumblr was never an option for me and to this day I can't get it to load because of my internet connection. FaceBook was just like a ???????????? for me because I don't need to reconnect with anyone. YUCK.

DW is fine, but I agree....it still needs some sort of JOLT.

[clauderainsrm]

The LJ/DW rift is real, and it is deep.

There are people who simply will not cross in either direction.

[clauderainsrm]

I was in a conversation yesterday about "why people don't come to DW" that ended up having an argument over what the DW owner's politics was. (People were arguing in both "they are really conservative" AND "they are really liberal", and both citing that as a reason they don't use DW)

[bleodswean]

These arguments seem strange to me. Obviously, the vast differences between the arguments and the fact that folks are discussing the same thing is a concern, but overall...I think people are lazy and they just aren't interested at this point in the development of the internet, in using this type of media. It's a strangely worrisome psychological development and one that bears studying a bit.

[bsgsix]

"but overall...I think people are lazy and they just aren't interested at this point in the development of the internet, in using this type of media..."

Your quote is the reason why the Internet feels so... weary, I think. And it definitely bears study, I concur.

(The hilarious thing is that the owner is very liberal and that is basically in the bio, but no one reads the fine print. And it shouldn't matter if we're discussing Internet development. Politics invades everything. It's draining. Probably an unpopular opinion, but I'm just tired of it.)

[bleodswean]

It SHOULDN'T matter!!!! That's exactly how I feel. Does the platform work? Yes! I've heard complaints about image posting but I'm not having that using photobucket. If you want to write and to read and to hold forth in words, then this IS THE ONLY PLACE to do that just like LJ used to be! WHAT IS THE ISSUE??? It's confusing to me and I don't want to take the low road or the moaning way and just say, it's over, but c'mon people!

[bsgsix]

Exactly! It's just like shouting into the damn void after a while, and it's not worth it. If the platform works, use it. This is a place where the platform works, it feels safe, and I can share. I hope that holds, and for now, I have to do what I did with LJ - pay attention but hope for the best, and so far, so good. I'm still learning, but good for me.

So here is where I'll be. This IS the only place that is like the place LJ used to be! LJ is NOT that place, there isn't an issue in my mind. And it's not taking the low road or moaning... because when something is over, it is over. I'm so with you on this.

Hi there!

[kizzy]

HUH?!? WTH?!?

Just goes to show how out of touch I've been with everything. The biggest reason in my flagging corner of the internet is because those who are still on LJ don't want to change venues because they have too much already invested there, especially those who have permanent accounts. Many of my *older* contemporaries feel that the TOS doesn't apply to them and why would *they* be interested in my everyday ramblings?

Re: Hi there!

[clauderainsrm]

KIZZY!!!!!


Nothing to add. Just excited to see you poke your head in here.

Re: Hi there!

[kizzy]

I still don't have a working laptop so I have to steal whatever bits of time I can on SO's desktop. I hate posting on my phone. Ergo, my absence as of late. Not to mention my now turned upside down work schedule :p

[bsgsix]

Well, with the LJ TOS, once fully spelled out from the Russian... yeah, I can't cross back. Not any longer. Between that and the loss of community... not going to happen for me. I'm happier here. But maybe I like the quiet (and the freedom of talking about things without them being deleted. Same with FB. Don't miss THAT noise, either! I'm getting old!). ;)

[wolfden]

I feel the same way. I’m glad DW is here. I don’t use it as much as I did LJ in the early years but when I need it. It’s here. I don’t have as many friends as I did on lj but I am getting more and always glad to have more.

When things were hard last spring when teddy was such a premie, I found a lot of peace from DW and a couple Facebook communities. Having that was a huge blessing.

[bsgsix]

I like having it here as well. And while I don't post too often, you are always welcome to add me as a friend. I tend to comment on most things, especially when people are having a rough go of things. <3

[bsgsix]

We are definitely on the same page.

I LOVED LJ. Loved. I was able to move my old account entries over to DW, and I posted probably 2-3 times a day in 2008 and 2009. I wrote long pieces that actually meant something about my life. I had lengthy comments from friends who gave a damn. It was just a nice place to be. And I opened that account in 2003, so, for about 10 years - same account, same people, same community.

But hiding behind ALL THAT, if I dared step outside my community (or writing ones like LJ that didn't rely on, you know, fanfic kiddie porn, essentially) - it was so ugly. It was mean. Wank was everywhere from the start (oh, my first computer with the Internet in 1995 was a disaster, because I was 13 and had no clue what I was doing...), but on LJ, I was good at avoiding it. Until I wasn't, because it was everywhere, and NO ONE shouted about it. Or if I did, I was called everything from a bitch to a creative killjoy to - well, there were death threats. I remember those, too.

So it was where you lurked that the problems were. When it was friends and our communities, like you said, all was well. When the wank started to invade, and there was no escape because of The Great Porn Invasion (I'm tired, sorry if this is wordy or oddly-stated) - it just wasn't FUN here. It wasn't great for me to watch people staring at 4-year-olds or writing about sex with their daughters. Nope, nah, never.

Cliques are everywhere (from our small group, though I don't see it as badly on DW as I did on LJ, especially back in the day, so - credit where credit is due there!), but porn cliques are the literal worst. Or people who can defend that and then insist upon hanging around LJ "just in case." Nah. I'm good. I left for a reason. If you want to be on LJ, cool, but I'm not good with it. Between the TOS and everything you mentioned, like wanting to find that connection via words, leaving LJ felt like a natural progression. There wasn't a place for me there. I missed things, and still do, but not enough to sell myself out to it.

Ugh, I'm rambling. James had his tonsils out at 7 this morning, so I'm tired, and my newest lab numbers are just - bad. Doc just called for a second time and "why is your body doing this" is a tiring line to hear from a specialist. I'm tired. I'm sorry.

MySpace was such a trash playground. I had one but never enjoyed it. I liked FB at first, when it was mostly just for college connections, but by 2009, even THAT felt old, and yeah - why reconnect with people I hadn't been talking to? And 2009 was my 10-year high-school reunion, so people were coming out of the woodwork, and it was just - nah. Deleting it last month has been freeing. As for Tumblr - never used it, never needed to, and I couldn't tell you how SnapChat or Instagram worked if you paid me to. I do have a Twitter account, but it was for book promotion when I had a nonfic book published in 2017, and I hop on now for some sci-fi fan stuff. Otherwise... I think I'm gathering dust here, but at least I LIKE it here.

So DW is fine, but it does need a JOLT. I think having Idol here is REALLY nice - I won't ever play it on LJ because I refuse to use LJ - and I've noticed new names and faces. If things like that happen, DW could have a big life (and with Tumblr users coming over, it may see a jolt. It just may take time. I wish I knew. In the meantime, I'll just keep - taking up my little corner here!).

[halfshellvenus]

Poor James and poor you!

I hope he's feeling better soon, and I hope your body becomes more cooperative than it has been. *hugs*

[bsgsix]

Thanks. James is doing really well (his voice sounds so very different with his tonsils out! It's cute!) though as it gets later, his temperature is rising. So I'm keeping an eye on him. As for me... just another day. I'm going to go to bed soon, I hope. It's getting so hard to stay awake for longer than an hour at a time. But I try. I really do. *hugs*