preserving the LJ emergency network
Mar. 7th, 2011 06:57 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
rmCan we talk about something?
I don't want to be all, "LJ is dying" but it's certainly slowing down/transmuting/something.
There's the splintering/relocating/mirroring to Dreamwidth and other services; the increased popularity of Twitter and FB amongst LJ people who used to say they didn't care for such; the fandom focus on Tumblr and A03; and people like me fleeing for their own domains.
Yet, one thing LJ has been remarkable for is the people helping people thing, because it engenders (and has engendered over time) relationships that make need and veracity somewhat easier to verify.
So how and how much we use LJ is changing. In the face of that, how do we preserve the "help solve a scary problem" factor in a way that's meaningful, decentralized, participatory, and based on networks of trust and expertise?
I don't want to be all, "LJ is dying" but it's certainly slowing down/transmuting/something.
There's the splintering/relocating/mirroring to Dreamwidth and other services; the increased popularity of Twitter and FB amongst LJ people who used to say they didn't care for such; the fandom focus on Tumblr and A03; and people like me fleeing for their own domains.
Yet, one thing LJ has been remarkable for is the people helping people thing, because it engenders (and has engendered over time) relationships that make need and veracity somewhat easier to verify.
So how and how much we use LJ is changing. In the face of that, how do we preserve the "help solve a scary problem" factor in a way that's meaningful, decentralized, participatory, and based on networks of trust and expertise?
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2011-03-08 12:04 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-03-08 01:05 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-03-08 12:14 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-03-08 12:19 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-03-08 12:24 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-03-08 12:32 am (UTC)I hate how DW ruined a lot of friendships though because I never went over so a lot of people don't read me anymore and if they don't crosspost, I don't read them.
no subject
Date: 2011-03-08 12:36 am (UTC)I definitely lost a few friends by staying here instead of moving/crossposting to DW, which is sad.
no subject
Date: 2011-03-08 01:25 am (UTC)My Twitter and FB are connected to each other and are strictly for nonsense and keeping in touch with some people.
LJ is where I pretty much live, everyone I care about is here, and here is where I'm staying.
no subject
Date: 2011-03-08 02:46 am (UTC)re: fb- I agree w/tsgeisel below:
"If I have something I want to say, or something long to write, I say it on LJ. If I have nothing to say, I say it on Facebook."
no subject
Date: 2011-03-08 04:53 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-03-08 03:43 am (UTC)I do wish that those of us who are active (English) users had more of an active say, but it is what it is. Of course, I suspect most of my apathy has to do with the fact that I'm a permanent user[1] and somewhat shielded from the company, as such.
I still have FB and Twitter and a half-dozen empty domains and a tumblr and everything else. But LJ is its own thing, and short of trying to rebuild the community I have elsewhere, I'm okay with just staying.
[1] I feel odd that I've had a permanent account for so long that it's paid for itself multiple times over. It also makes me miss BradFitz and his innate understanding of what LJ is.
[2] Can't we just start a cooperative corporation, buy out whoever owns LJ these days, and run LJ that way?
no subject
Date: 2011-03-08 06:55 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-03-10 01:03 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-03-08 12:28 am (UTC)I will say, I'm so glad that web browsers have tabs now. I just keep a ton of them open and go between the various websites, keeping my log ins. So if someone posts to LJ and lets it show on Facebook, I click on the LJ link and I'm here reading their post.
And I use Google Reader to consolidate some the blogs that my friends have all over the place.
Nice thing, it does mean that everyone can create a blogging space that works for them.
I just have to figure out how to follow them.
Yes, it is fragmented, BUT everything is accessible through ONE internet web browser. Beats the Bad Old Days, when everything was fragmented into its own space and you had to join several different services to follow all your friends.
So it's annoying but workable.
no subject
Date: 2011-03-08 12:32 am (UTC)I tried Dreamwidth, but so few people bothered to join me there that I let it drift off into oblivion.
There is nothing like LiveJournal, in my own opinion, that works as well to reach so many and to make them feel a part of something good in the "help-solve-a-scary-problem" manner you address. Vox didn't do it, Bebo didn't do it.
My roundabout answer to your question, therefore, is "I just don't know".
no subject
Date: 2011-03-08 12:40 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-03-08 12:42 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-03-08 12:46 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-03-08 12:50 am (UTC)Seriously, I waste so much time (well, I enjoy it so maybe I shouldn't say waste) just looking at pretty pictures on Tumblr. (Sexisnottheenemy has a good mix of usually-queer-in-some-way content. ETA: Definitely NSFW, in case other people are reading.)
no subject
Date: 2011-03-08 12:59 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-03-08 02:24 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-03-09 01:48 am (UTC)Unrelated-yet-related synchronicity
Date: 2011-03-08 07:20 am (UTC)http://p-m-cryan.livejournal.com/49031.html
no subject
Date: 2011-03-08 01:18 am (UTC)Regarding AO3, I don't see it replacing lj or even being competition. It's like ff.net but better (in terms of function as the content is still lacking). I haven't heard of anyone moving only to AO3. It's just a place to crosspost. Maybe that will change someday, but it won't be anytime soon.
In regards to dreamwidth, while there are some major things over there (kink bingo, porn battles), it doesn't seem like there is much traffic of any sort there, at least not that I've found.
I personally haven't seen anyone moving to fb or twitter since the option was enabled.
And I'm going to admit that I don't really even know what Tumblr (outside of a place with pictures) is.
Idk, it's like anything else, people will always come and go. I'm personally not seeing a problem.
no subject
Date: 2011-03-08 01:19 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-03-08 01:27 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-03-08 01:40 am (UTC)ETA: I also don't read comms that post more than once in a blue moon on my flist, so that total excludes communities.
no subject
Date: 2011-03-08 02:59 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-03-08 03:30 am (UTC)As for me, I'm not going anywhere. LJ suits my purposes just fine. I post less than in my blogging heyday, but mainly because I'm much busier than I was in grad school.
no subject
Date: 2011-03-08 08:27 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-03-08 09:50 pm (UTC)Havihng watched this for ten years and counting, I feel like I have a good perspective when I say my view of LJ shows decay.
no subject
Date: 2011-03-08 01:52 am (UTC)If I have something I want to say, or something long to write, I say it on LJ. If I have nothing to say, I say it on Facebook.
That said, the ubiquitousness of Facebook makes it good for generalized calls for help, where I don't mind the whole world knowing that I'm looking, as opposed to more generalized ones, where I would need to be truly desperate.
no subject
Date: 2011-03-08 03:07 am (UTC)I do see calls for action via Twitter, though they usually link to LJ/DW/other blog pages with more detail. I haven't seen this nearly so much on Facebook, though, and I think some of it is linked to Facebook's "real name" policy. At least on LJ/DW, the community is supportive and doesn't as a whole demand realname details before sharing what they can - the web of trust mostly just works. (The kinds of fundraisers I see on FB are more like, "I'm running this 5k for charity." I ... honestly can't think of a time I've seen somebody post something to their FB along the lines of "I have a friend with $issue who wishes to remain anonymous; if you can, please help?")
no subject
Date: 2011-03-08 03:57 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-03-08 06:58 am (UTC)There have been a couple calls-for-action/help that I've seen on DW too.
no subject
Date: 2011-03-08 03:56 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-03-08 04:03 am (UTC)...
Date: 2011-03-08 04:17 am (UTC)Linketies
Date: 2011-03-08 04:29 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-03-08 04:48 am (UTC)There's no reason we can't build those networks of trust, reliance, and expertise on any combination of FB, DW, Twitter, etc.
no subject
Date: 2011-03-08 04:50 am (UTC)140 characters has limitations.
Real-name identities on FB lead to more trust in some regards, but also less in others.
DW totally works, but is part of the divided population problem.
no subject
Date: 2011-03-08 04:56 am (UTC)My new fandom is full of people who never, ever post their lj's and only use them so they can join comms and read the fic/comment. I still have a hard time friending people who do that, but it's actually very common now.
I have an AO3 account I haven't used. I need to use it. Splintering is going to happen, and I might lose people. I just don't know.
no subject
Date: 2011-03-08 11:56 am (UTC)I fear Tumblr, but will have to break down sooner or later and jump on that bandwagon.
It's less centralized, but I seem to have little pockets of community in all of them, some of which cross over. I think we're probably getting into an era where the precise site/medium is becoming less important. I don't know the solution, though I hope it's something like people picking things up from one medium and sharing them in others with links back to the original.
no subject
Date: 2011-03-08 10:37 pm (UTC)I have moved to Dreamwidth for all paid-type services, because I cannot countenance giving LJ any money at this point. Most of my content is echoed on LJ because I don't want to be a gated community. (Paid polls - which are mostly humor bits anyway - can't be.)
I've seen calls for help on FB and Twitter. While on some levels I am more likely to pay attention to ones from trusted sources, on another I am less likely to respond to things from people whose ability to sniff a scam I do not trust.
Part of this problem - possibly a big key - is that these calls for help are usually distributed within a community, one which *happens* to be primarily using LJ for its community-forming stuff. Fandoms, for instance; wherever the heart of the fandom community is, that's where the calls for help will go.
A call for help generally needs to be longer than a tweet, which is why most calls there are a link to something longer. FB is too gated to work properly for such calls. They need to be hosted on a blogging-type service. Twitter can shout, but it can't have a group conversation.
I'm part of a few communities and even actual support groups which are more cross-platform. I see and repeat calls for help from someone with my signature illness on FB, Twitter, DW, here, Second Life, and services I don't even use. (I too have no idea wtf Tumblr is and am dubious that it is going to be any good for longform content.)
But I don't want to have to read six dozen different tabs in my browser. I want two or three divided by categories, like my LJ friends' pages (which I kept divided by genre and such like: news feeds, actual people I know, comics, fan stuff, etc. had their own "friends" reading page.) This is the big problem with Wordpress blogs for me.
Also? Reposts that say "please comment over there ONLY" when "there" is a place like Wordpress and isn't set up for anonymous logins? That sucks. I am way too lazy for that stuff most of the time. A friend posts on FB every time she updated her blog. I had the nerve to reply on FB - a one-line reply, I was too lazy to go to her stupid blog - and she was a bit huffy that people did so. Of course she wants blog traffic, but I am not that interested in her content 90% of the time. (Unlike yours, which I do actually read - but don't comment on as often because I'm at my attention span limit on tabs to monitor because of that RSS feed problem, and so my comments to your blog are often late if at all.)
My main problem with net-life is the lack of a good RSS aggregator. I'd been using LJ for that, now DW, but it's still not a very good method of reading a dozen Wordpress blogs and another dozen on BLogger and LJ and DW and so on.
I try to maintain the same ID on all services, so I'm semi-findable and identifiable. (FB excepted.)
I note that a lot of the "content" I no longer see on LJ was a lot of memes and quizzes and one-line posts and "short form" content just as suited to Twitter and FB. And I think some of the longform fiction has moved to other fan archive sites and the like. The hardcore writers - folks who make longform written posts - seem to be going to blog services, Wordpress and the like, if they go, and are more likely to echo content here.
no subject
Date: 2011-03-09 02:04 am (UTC)Since I have been around for a bunch of years, even if I was never a very prolific writer, I felt a little easier about asking. Also, since I was asking for info/resources (or, you know, someone's private plane!) it didn't make me personally uncomfortable as if I had been asking for financial donations. (This is my own comfort level with what I judge to be okay for me to ask for relative to my participation in a community, and not slamming anyone else.)
I think the LJ change is partly due to the uptick of FB and Twitter, sure. (And I posted the same request on FB, and got replies from people I know from Face to Face and from LJ, long before FB, just as an info point.) The memes/the silly/the one liners go elsewhere, which is okay, but means we lose a lot of the chit-chat that makes other sorts of connections easier.
But I think the big move across the entire online world to make everything into a possibly money-maker or a brand or a *thing* that can be tied to commerce may have a big piece of this, too. What sort of piece, I'm not entirely sure, but when I have more personal bandwidth, I'll try to tease it out.
And, also, the folks who were early (to mid-20s ten years ago at the start of LJ's "golden age" are mid-30s, now. And those of us who were ten years older than those folks are, because math is like that, ten year older, now.) My online time has to be different now, as someone with a sixty hour work week than when I was in graduate school.
I'm there with the "please, may I have a good RSS solution?" being one of my online wishes. Google Reader is part of how I cobble stuff together, but it is not a good solution.
no subject
Date: 2011-03-09 09:28 pm (UTC)If it helps, the primary reason cited was the adver-bombing of LJ, as seen by non-paid, and non-permanent users. People who don't understand how to set up things like Firefox with no-script and adblock and a couple other anti-advert things will be much more likely to give up and go elsewhere, especially if they get roped into active groups on facebook or other places instead.
(I'm one of the many LJ holdouts, but then I have a perm account too, so I theoretically don't have to worry about adverts once I log in. I use firefox because it keeps the web saaaane.)