Green Room - Week 18 - Day 4

[clauderainsrm.livejournal.com]

Everyone on Livejournal is good. It’s doesn’t matter if you joined back when you had to get an invite from someone to sign up or signed up on a whim last week to post your stuff on that fandom community your friend was telling you about.

You are good people.

If you come over from Dreamwidth – well, chances are you used to be on Livejournal and are over there for legitimate personal reasons. So you are still pretty good.

A blogger using Open Access – you’re decent. But really, shouldn’t you have a Livejournal?

Are you coming in from Facebook or Twitter??? Why? You can’t be up to any good, why would someone from those sites actually come over to see anything on Livejournal, unless it was for nefarious purposes?

I’ll admit, I’ve had moments like that (above). Most people have. I think it comes from the inferiority complex LJ (as a culture and community) has developed toward other social media. Or perhaps the walls that people put up in their own life, keeping their LJ apart from all other social media. Walls that the rest of the world seems determined to eliminate regardless of what people think about it.

It’s been a blip in the past. But as time goes on, the presence is getting larger. Of the top 5, only ONE contestant didn’t end up benefiting from voters coming in from facebook. (and yes, they are still in the competition)

Other sites are still a blip. (There were 2 votes that came from Twitter and 1 Open Access vote as opposed to the 35 from facebook for our largest influx of any week in the history of Idol)

There are some ways to look at this – Oh, no, this is the end! Let’s hand the winner icon to the one person who didn’t use those/have people use them on their behalf! Or, these are people coming to Livejournal who might never have known about the site before, or who used to be here and are being seduced back! They are coming to support good writing – and isn’t that awesome! We should welcome these people with open arms.

If we are going to the latter though, there is a rule. It’s not a request. It’s a rule. It’s always been a rule, and it always will be a rule. Why? Because it makes sense. If you aren’t following this, you need to be…

Tell People to Read.

If you are just encouraging people to vote blindly, you aren’t doing anyone any favors. I’d like to assume that people know that they should be reading what they are actually voting for, and based on the names I’m seeing, I’m sure that they are. But there is always the chance of that not happening… after all, Idol has the prettiest clicky boxes on the Internet. Nowhere else really compares to how compelling they are, and how fun it is to watch them for hours on end. Let’s face it – isn’t “meta” just clicky box porn?

There is some great writing happening here in Idol – and being able to reach people out there in the Great Social Media Beyond and bringing them back to the fold, and exposing them to what our writers are offering, that’s amazing stuff! Thank you to anyone who is doing it. But make sure to include a line or three about checking out the entries. Not just the one, but all of them – especially since there are three people left, that’s really not going to be difficult! Lead them to the water, and we get our next generation of Idol writers for Season 9! People who experience what is going on here *want* to be a part of it. People who just see it as a clicky box… many of them don’t.

As I said, based on *who* is coming to vote, I don’t think the “not reading” is a real problem. But there is a perception problem involved and that has a habit of festering. So, let’s be proactive about that – OK?

We have three contestants, who are adding their entries as we speak: http://therealljidol.livejournal.com/696365.html Let’s make these last few moments together awesome!!!

Comments

[porn-this-way.livejournal.com]

Yaaaaay, home soon and then I can take a look-see from my real computer (as opposed to quasi-cooperative phone).

[kathrynrose.livejournal.com]

Who'd have thunk all three entries would be up hours before the deadline?

[lrig-rorrim.livejournal.com]

I feel like I'm way behind on everything (massive story/game is massive and took quite a while to finish), but of course I have opinions, and I'm at least a little inclined to share them.

For what it's worth, whenever I share the poll or link to an entry, I entreat people to read as much as they can. It's a writing contest, and I honestly think people will come over here and find something enjoyable to read.

But I also realize that when the polls go up, they're basically open to the entire internet. Almost anything could happen with those clicky buttons - they are very shiny, after all - for almost any reason, or none. Maybe a bunch of script kiddies gets it in their head to give thousands of votes to people randomly (thank goodness this has never happened, as far as I know). Maybe people pimp a lot. Maybe it's a slow week in LJ land. Maybe anything. I don't use the poll as the basis for my self-worth, or as a metric for whether or not my writing is good.

Sure, I like to see the numbers go up, and I'm amazed and delighted to have made it into the top three in this particular instantiation of the game, but I know that at the end of the day Idol is both what we put into it, and what we we get out of it. I hope that I'm helping to make it a better place, because I sure do have gotten a lot out of competing, making friends, writing, and reading. And of course, clicking on those buttons for the things I like.

[lrig-rorrim.livejournal.com]

I KNOW, right? It's crazy time over here. ;)

[lrig-rorrim.livejournal.com]

I loathe facebook. I think it promotes bumper sticker style-thinking, where slogans take the place of dialogue. I think it breaks down the barriers between different kinds of friendships in terrible ways - by default, your Great Aunt Edna and little Timmy from down the street and the dude from that concert you went to a month ago all have the same level of access to your posts (and in some ways, to your life) and you to theirs. I think it is the most egregious of the social platforms in treating its customers blatantly and without respect because they're not customers - they're products. Just click-throughs for ad revenues, and nothing more.

I... kind of have opinions on the subject.

[lrig-rorrim.livejournal.com]

I think I caught all the pesky bugs and squashed them, but having another pair of eyes to go over it will be great. Do the links not work from your phone, or is your phone just generally non-cooperative?

[porn-this-way.livejournal.com]

My phone's just non-cooperative. Tiny screen, spotty service area (it kicks in and out of service constantly at work), just generally disastrous recipe for trying to rapidly surf through a bunch of close-together links.

[halfshellvenus.livejournal.com]

I agree with every one of them, too!

The superficial thinking, the "soundbite" mentality, and the inability to shape access (or easily filter, for real, trivial updates from really chatty people)... it's all dreadful.

It's kind of the opposite of what I'm looking for in a social platform, really. :)

[kathrynrose.livejournal.com]

Wait.

We're NOT supposed to throw things at Gary?

[xo-kizzy-xo.livejournal.com]

Well, there are filters where you can, say, put Great Aunt Edna in one and little Timmy in another. FB keeps changing them around, though, and doesn't tell you that you have go into your settings and filter every single person manually. It's a giant PITA, so I suspect most people don't bother.

It serves a purpose for people with a lot of far-flung friends and/or family that is all over the place, but that's it IMO.

I'm not fond of the "product" aspect either.

[clauderainsrm.livejournal.com]

I did some thinking on the bus ride home (always dangerous) about the "what did you expect"?

The original plan was to use the Project Runway "pairing people up" to do what they accomplished: People griped about it as first, but they ended up going in different directions than they would have done on their own and most of them came out grateful for the experience. People getting to know each other, making friends with people they may never have before and in general having a good time.

You know what they say about what happens to plans when they hit the battlefield though.

From my perspective, it seems like we never left the griping (or to use your word "wanking") stage, and it just shifted from one thing to another for several months, and things like having to throw out a poll here toward the end certainly didn't help matters... combine that with that the "making new friends" part didn't really seem to work either, with established groups just getting tighter. This mini season definitely shook out to be it's own thing, which is good - and I don't think anyone could fault the quality of writing.


Different people are going to have different "takes" on how things have felt to them. Maybe this is someone's all time favorite! This just happens to be mine.

[clauderainsrm.livejournal.com]

I'm pretty sure no one would pay attention to that regardless of how many signs I put up.

[kathrynrose.livejournal.com]

Project Runway didn't start with eighty people. The PR people didn't have to pair themselves up like 5th grade gym class. The PR people LIVED TOGETHER and worked together all day. We had people in different hemispheres, let alone time zones.

And you can't make people be friends. People become friends organically, and it happens a lot easier if they're not under crazy pressure. (and if they're not wondering if that person is really who they say they are)

And, FWIW, I think friend-making did happen. Certainly friendship-strengthening did. Maybe it wasn't the friendships you were looking for, or maybe it wasn't as obvious as you expected.

[clauderainsrm.livejournal.com]

I just had one of those 'Well, there's that too" moments... a huge difference is that any shit that happened in previous seasons wasn't really taking me away from anything important.

Now, *everything that I do* that isn't involved with my new family is... which means that things that would have been "Man, what the hell" in Season 6 are "I want to tear off someone's head" now!

The life improvement means I have less tolerance for stuff that distracts me from it! :)

[kathrynrose.livejournal.com]

Wait. Did you guys hear something?

I thought I... nevermind.

[kathrynrose.livejournal.com]

AH HAH!

I think you're on to something there.

That's what happens when you go and get a "real life" and get "happy" and stuff.

[clauderainsrm.livejournal.com]

It doesn't change my perspective on grap though. It just makes me feel like dealing with less of it.

[kathrynrose.livejournal.com]

It does increase the comment count.

[clauderainsrm.livejournal.com]

Which is never a bad thing.

[porn-this-way.livejournal.com]

The best laid plans of mousetraps and men...

Or perhaps simply, "in Soviet Russia, Idol twists you."

The thing with the poll...okay, I'd be lying if I said it was a bummer from my POV, because it played out to be a demon of mercy (damn them for their methods, but please forgive me for being grateful for the results), but I can definitely see how some shit like that would be a real cockroach in your Happy Meal.

The intersection stuff....IDK if it's entirely accurate (or at all accurate, really) to say that nobody made new friends this season, within *or* outside of the intersections. Intersections are genuinely stressful for a lot of people, in that they literally take a huge chomp out of your life - fuck with travel plans, create a real damn mess with work schedules if both partners work (ESPECIALLY if they work different shifts or are in different timezones) and just all sorts of other stuff. So yeah, people grumbled, and a lot of times were thrown together when both of them were already stressed to fuck because "UGH not another goddamn intersection, I've got ____ to do!" and cue tense situation. So, honestly? It makes sense that people would want to team up with people they already knew, because "X is my friend, and they already know me, and I know we can possibly lock horns and still come out of it as friends, and I know we work just fine with each others quirks." It's not about being clique-ish or exclusive at all, it's about getting through to the next round with your sanity intact (or as intact as it can ever possibly be around here). And as it's already been said - you can't force friendships! Force cooperation and collaboration, perhaps, sure. But friendships? Those are going to happen on their own terms, and assigned seating at Idol lunch time ain't gonna change that. And I DO think they happened this season. I think they happened plenty, or at least plenty of seeds were sown.

[lrig-rorrim.livejournal.com]

For what it's worth - the intersections were amazingly hard for me, mostly due to timing and scheduling issues; but yes, I absolutely did make great friends through them, AND strengthened existing friendships. I hadn't interacted with kathrynrose at all outside the GR and comments on entries - she is now what I consider a dear friend. I knew halfshellvenus a little tiny bit better, but we'd only exchanged a couple of messages outside of Idol. I feel like we bonded through trial by fire, and I'm delighted to have her as a regular beta reader and I definitely call her a friend now rather than an acquaintance. I had no idea who thegrimms were when I agreed to work with them - and I was thrilled to get to know both of them better. I really had no lousy intersection experiences, and I got to the point where I was trying to reach out to people and arrange partnerships in advance if I could (though perhaps that made things feel less welcoming? After being hit with a pie in the face once or twice one starts to think defensively).

Anyway. I still don't think of writing as a team sport, but I do like bouncing around ideas and seeing the magic that happens from new mixes.

[xo-kizzy-xo.livejournal.com]

Ah, the rest period I've been advocating, you mean?

:D

Time and perspective can do wondrous things. In all honesty, I think you need that more than any of us do, and I mean that as a friend.

[kathrynrose.livejournal.com]

she is now what I consider a dear friend.

::hug::

Anyway. I still don't think of writing as a team sport,

It definitely isn't.

[anyonesghost.livejournal.com]

Just playing the devil's advocate for a second (since I don't disagree with you): I (mostly) knew no one coming in. (And there are a few people here who still don't know they know me.) So, as a relative "outsider" to the process, I sort of found myself on the outskirts of the lunch room pretty quickly.

Now, that worked out for me. While 3 of 4 of my intersection partners were separated from me by a minimum of 6 hours (12 in one case), I had a blast with each of them, and I think we produced some solid material. But while I know I've worked hard (at least, as much as I can) to get to know folks, there's still that nagging sensation that I'm trying to insert myself into a preexisting community / group of friends.

Which I'm not gonna get butt-hurt about; I knew this going in. I remember Season 3, and I chose to be an Alt, and I know my time limits, and I know it's a competition. But it's possible I'm more self-aware than others.

In conclusion: man, I could go for some tacos.

[kathrynrose.livejournal.com]

It's been said that the GR didn't have the "community" feel this time as much as it has in the past. And I think HSV is right that a big part of that is the percentage of alts we had this time.

I know that I have personally had issues with wondering who people *really* were, and that has to do with bad experiences I've had in the past, which I won't go into. We all have baggage.

I knew you had a main LJ, but I didn't know you had been in Idol before under another name. But certainly you can't expect people to be as open to you as if they knew you if they don't KNOW they know you. (Extra points to anyone who can follow that sentence.)

After leaving season 5 in a brouhaha, I came back in season 8 under an alt, but I couldn't stand it after a few weeks. I dropped the alt and entered the competition during SCI as myself (which was bad tactically, because I was out soon after because people didn't know who I was because they had gotten to know me under the alt.)

Rambly not-making-point summary.
1. There were fewer people than a normal season. Fewer relationships and less GR chatter is expected.
2. There were more alts than usual, in a smaller pool. A bunch of people were either hiding or doubling their presence, which meant there were fewer people than we even thought there were.
3. People who are alting aren't as open as they would be normally because they're alting.
4. If people know you, but don't know you by this name, then they don't know you. You're starting from zero, just like Exhibit B counts for zero weeks in Idol.

The last couple of weeks I've been thinking you were someone I'd like to get to know better, of course now I wonder if I already know you, which makes it weird again.