LJ is still a little relevant

[sabotabby]

I'm consciously avoiding Facebook these days. I don't even want to look at it. I gather there are probably some features on it that I need to disable.

Facebook's effect on social networking reminds me of what happened with Chapters-Indigo in Canada. All of the small publishers and bookstores went out of business, and everyone had to go to Chindigo, and then Chindigo realized that it was much more profitable to sell a small number of popular books and lots of diaries and scented candles. So everyone ditched and started buying books on Amazon. I don't know what the SNS equivalent of Amazon is.

I'm avoiding G+ because nymwars have resulted in practically no one I know using it for anything other than posting about nymwars.

I'm trying to like Tumblr but there is not a convenient way to comment. It doesn't feel very social or interactive to just click a heart. And I'm not sure that there is a big audience for pictures of pulp sci-fi covers that look like they have dicks on them, which appears to be the theme I've fallen into.

So I'm glad LJ is still here.

And also because I love you guys.

Comments

[radiumhead.livejournal.com]

Me too.

If i knock out a hooker, i cant really post about it on facebook.

Not with my mom and neice on there!

[khalinche.livejournal.com]

I'm glad you're still posting. I'm kind of trying to think of ways to get back in the habit, since I still read LJ every day. I would miss you quite a lot if either of us stopped using LJ.

[sabotabby]

You friended your mom on FB?

[sabotabby]

Ah, just post well-written, in-depth political analysis about overlooked human rights issues.

Then every so often post about pink beer for women so that you get a lot of comments.

(I would miss you too! I mean, there are other ways to keep in touch, but like I said, most of them are lacking a certain something.)

[radiumhead.livejournal.com]

Yeah. I dont post anything real on there, its just for me to keep up with people whove moved out of state/out of the country.

[eumelia.livejournal.com]

LJ is still my main place for a lot of interaction and content. I hate FB and am mostly on twitter for microblogging.

All the people I care about irl are either on email or phone. I find FB less and less relevant to my life.

Yay for old "obsolete" blogging platforms!

[sabotabby]

See, I have that phone handicap, so FB can be useful in that way. But basically I go on, and it's either people posting about how happy they are (which, when one is not in a happy space, is not wonderful), or people writing these long political diatribes that get excerpted to two sentences on my newsfeed. I feel guilty not reading them, so now I'm avoiding my news feed.

[sabotabby]

I don't post anything real on there either, but people tag me. So it's awkward, because there are work people, and some family, and now I'm mostly just avoiding it.

[radiumhead.livejournal.com]

I put all my relatives on their, its the only contact i have with them! Better than seeing them in person!

[radiumhead.livejournal.com]

I never add work people.

[sabotabby]

In fairness, I only have two non-estranged family members that I'm actually related to. So it's not a difficult decision.

Yes, I did notice the scare-quotes

[dglenn.livejournal.com]

"Yay for old 'obsolete' blogging platforms!"

Well that's the thing, isn't it? Twitter is, just as you described it, a micro-blogging platform ... and FB really isn't a "blogging platform" at all: it's a social networking site with some trivial blogging features tacked on, not quite complementary to LJ (which is a blogging platform, with some social-networking features stirred in that distinguish it from most other real blogging platforms). So FB isn't the new thing that renders LJ obsolete; it's a different type of thing, with complementary strengths. (Like how helicopters did not make fixed-wing aircraft obsolete.)

The thing that updates LJ and replaces it in the same niche, the new to LJ's old is not FB or Tumblr or Twitter; it's Dreamwidth. And DW is (intentionally) very, very LJ-like -- it's not so groundbreakingly different that it makes LJ obsolete; just an alternative with some different features (which I personally consider to all be improvements, but again, not enough so to make LJ obsolete) and a different business model (which is a big deal for some of us).

LJ will become obsolete when (a) it stops keeping up with the most important-to-users aspects of the other platforms in its niche (definitely DW, arguably Wordpress, Blogger, etc.[1]), or (b) when blogging itself becomes a quaint, mostly-ignored backwater (which, despite the attitudes of many FB users, doesn't look like it's going to happen any time soon -- AFAICT, one of the things FB is used for is sharing interesting blog entries you've seen with friends who don't read the same blogs you do, without having your own blog, so FB is (again) complementary to blogs). The equivalent of (b) in my plane/helicopter analogy would be Zeppelins -- blimps are still used, mostly for advertising and special-purpose lifting; there's ongoing research in dirigibles and blimps; but airship passenger lines are a thing of the past. There's still too much active participation in blogging for it to fall into the Zeppelins/buggy-whips/horse-drawn delivery cart category.

So basically, the reason our little 'obsolete' blogging platform still looks so useful, is that the platforms other people think of as replacing it and rendering it obsolete don't even come close to replacing it in the first place. It's only folks' ability to confuse tools in completely different categories (because all "web stuff" is interchangeable, right?) that drags the conversation in that direction in the first place.

[1] I would consider those to be directly comparable to LJ/DW, but a case can be made for LJ's social networking features pushing it into a separate category ... or for WP/Blogger to be obsolete compared to LJ/DW.

[dglenn.livejournal.com]

A further thought about why FB seemed to thrive at the expense of LJ:

It's not that FB was a better LJ; it's that a lot of people may have been using LJ more for its social networking features which were not its core strength, and not because they actually wanted a blogging platform in the first place. So when FB became known as a much better social-networking site, that being its primary purpose, a lot of the "just here because LJ's social-networking afterthought features work better than some primitive social-networking sites" LJ users migrated their online presence to the site that's better at what they had really wanted in the first place. Leaving a bunch of really-did-want-a-blogging-platform users and really-like-the-hybrid users to stay here.

Maybe?

[twiin.livejournal.com]

FB isn't trying to eat Twitter's lunch at all with Timeline, they're trying to do the opposite: A comprehensive look at what you're doing, what you've done, and who you are.

[sabotabby]

Mine tried. I was like, "Lol, fuck off."

[sabotabby]

You raise a good point. Many of my favourite LJs to read from when I first got on are still here. But I'm a hybrid user, otherwise I'd blog on WordPress or something.

[sabotabby]

I'm obviously pro-nym, but are a limited amount of arguments one can make on either side, and I'm pretty sure they've all been made. There aren't enough people on G+ yet to make it an adequate FB substitute, and it's crappy for blogging. I last about a minute on FB these days, but at least I can dash off some links and have people respond.

If I did more art, Tumblr seems like a good way to go about doing so. I'd still want comments, but Disqus doesn't seem to be cooperating with my layout. Also, the tagging system sucks monkey balls. Is there no way I can just pop up the tags I've made and choose from them?

[sabotabby]

Eww. I'd delete my account but it's how I find out about stuff that's on.

[fengi.livejournal.com]

For me Facebook is basically a second email and repository for event invites.

Even before the update, the news feed being a single dynamic page of brief frequent updates means it wasn't scalable. When I had 10 or less connections, it felt useful, but now that I've got a big list, it's fragmented at best and I lost interest.

Plus it's harder to have a full on flamewar meltdown when no one post has any weight.

[twiin.livejournal.com]

It's kind of amazing in an crazy ambitious way. You should watch the F8 stream if you want to understand it.

[hopita.livejournal.com]

About 5ish years ago when LJ was having one of those sales, I bought a permanent account for myself. I'm so glad I did, because it really keeps me coming back here, permanently. I still love fb for sharing articles and links, and for checking in on the THOUSAND or so of my friends who aren't on LJ, but LJ will always be my long-form home.

[dagibbs.livejournal.com]

LJ is, still, my favourite online social/blogging site. I tolerate FB. I've been uninspired by G+. I see Dreamwidth as a desperate retreat if LJ dies.

[springheel-jack.livejournal.com]

WE MUST NEVER STOP

[symbioid.livejournal.com]

Yeah I wanna delete my fb account with what I've heard with all the new changes, but now that that's the only place I have online that my sister has (and i refuse to remind her of my LJ and how to get here/read my shit) - I only check G+ once every few days, and that's about it.

Goddamnit, I <3 LJ. Tumblr, I always forget about. Seems to be not worth my time, either. Bah.

Yes, LJ is good. Very good.

And we all love you sabs! :)

[twiin.livejournal.com]

There is for sure a big audience for pictures of pulp sci-fi covers that look like they have dicks on them, but where's the narrative?

LJ is nice. I syndicate to it from my own website, and I syndicate to Facebook from that. My own website is where the content lives, though.

Wordpress is probably the new Livejournal. Or Posterous. Community content oriented.