What kind of online presence do I want to have?

[darkemeralds]

I've been in a bit of a blog-crisis for the last several months. Is this happening for others?

I'm getting my fandom fix mostly from Tumblr and Twitter; most of my clothes-and-style stuff ends up on Pinterest; and my little everyday illustrated posts start on my phone and end up automagically on Google+.

What's more, it's incredibly easy to share links on those platforms. They're more mobile-friendly. They're more there when I'm out and about.

As a consequence, some of the emotional needs I've fulfilled for years here on LJ/DW are being spread out over several platforms.

But! But...

But I just don't feel a sense of community in those places. Tumblr is a read-only experience for me (and when I say "read only" I mean "look at the pretty pictures of Tyler Hoechlin," mostly) where the local population seems to have an average age of about 18. I'm frankly terrified to post. It's insane.

Google Plus is gorgeous. It has every level of privacy control you could want. It has Hangouts. It has Ripples. It has all the power of Google behind it. But so far, I haven't managed to make it feel like a community. And I can't find that it's fannish at all. (If you know differently, tell me.)

So I'm neither here nor there, and it's causing me to have no consistent online presence at all.

All of which is a long way of saying that I'm still around, and sorry for not being around here more, and a bit bewildered.

Comments

[alexseanchai]

Hugs?

I believe Google+ is actively antifannish. I do not think it is deliberate, except insofar as Google's side of nymwars was (is?) deliberate. If they don't want anyone using Google+ who isn't under a wallet name or a convincing imitation thereof, well, we who prefer our handles to our wallet names (which is most of fandom, at least while engaged in fannish pursuits) or who want separate accounts of which only one has our wallet name (sometimes an absolute necessity for reasons up to and including physical safety) or etc etc will just stay away from Google+.

+1

[lamentables]

This.

(And I've just invested in domain names so that I can move further away from gmail/google.)

Re: +1

[darkemeralds]

I'm struck by the anti-Google feeling in several comments on this post. Not surprised--I know the nym wars on G+ really put a lot of people off, and I can understand why people wouldn't want to put all their eggs in the Google basket.

It's just, well, me? I'm incredibly lazy and Google makes it so easy, and yeah, road to hell and all that, but I'm very comfy in my dangerous little Google nest.

You can say ITYS (assuming you can ever find me) when Google pulls the plug and my whole identity, being, persona and record-of-my-life disappear.

Re: +1

[lamentables]

The nym wars did put me off, but I'm leary of all the data mining too.

That's compounded by the bubble effect if you use Google as a search engine. I switched to DuckDuckGo some time ago, but every now and again have cause to compare and am disturbed by the difference in results.

And finally, there was the news - I don't know if it's something that is actually going ahead - that they were going to start including one's own gmails in any google search. What could possibly go wrong there...

Re: +1

[darkemeralds]

Yeah, I saw that development. And in fact I opted in. I'm reasonably confident that nobody else can search my gmail, but then, as said above, I'm kind of a Google fangirl.

It's quite possible that I've been over-persuaded by the arguments Jeff Jarvis makes in Public Parts and will regret my decision not to care about my personal privacy (or rather, to redefine it radically). Meanwhile, though, I'm finding it interesting to explore a more public presence online. It could be an age thing. Big Brother loses interest in people over 50. Especially women.

Re: +1

[lamentables]

Part of my wariness is about the concepts, rather than the specifics of my own security or privacy. That said, I know various clients have done google searches on me, and I feel pretty strongly that they shouldn't be finding information that I would be reluctant share in person, and I emphatically do not want them reading any pr0n that I may or may not have written.

Re: +1

[darkemeralds]

It really is down to the pr0n that one may or may not have written--at least, it is for me. That, i can relate to completely.

[darkemeralds]

You make a good point about Google's wallet name policy vs fandom. It's true that most people active in fandom, including me, prefer to keep a wall between that life and other parts of their lives. I see signs that the need to do so is diminishing--that "fandom" is becoming more mainstream--but as long as there are still active fan-shaming efforts like the weekly column recently announced on iO9, I guess pseudonymity will remain important.

(As to the other issues around pseudonymity--the ones involving an individual's personal safety and so forth--thankfully those aren't problems that hit me personally.)

It is possible to create a pseudonymous account on G+--some kind of business or marketing account, and I don't know what the requirements are--but even so, Google will tend to create links between it and The Real You.

So yeah, that's a problem. All that said, it's still a very nice interface. Especially the mobile part.

[helenajust.livejournal.com]

I don't have any right to comment, because we've never communicated, but I do so as a fan of your writing. I stumbled across Restraint, really liked it, and friended you so as not to miss any further writing you might do. So it occurs to me that one factor in your decision about on-line presence could be that I don't think any of the other platforms you've mentioned could be used for posting fics, if you decide to do more.

[darkemeralds]

Hi! You have every right to comment--LOL! That's why I post publicly. It's so nice to know you're here.

Though I don't post fic per se on my journals, I do use them to announce those extremely rare occasions when I've posted fic on the AO3.

Tumblr certainly allows long text posts--people do post fic there--but it's not really the kind of place where most people go to read long text (for one thing, good lord, so many of the blog styles there involve tiny gray fonts on non-white backgrounds--no wonder, since it's a very young userbase).

Similarly, you can post long text on Google+, no problem, but people generally don't. So far, G+ acts mostly like a kind of long-form Twitter, and the "important" people I follow there blog elsewhere and just post links to their blogs.

It's weird and unsettled. I think it's just the churn and change that's inherent to the internet--you get used to a platform, then something slicker comes along and people bail, and communities re-form in the new place, and it just keeps happening faster and faster.

But, bottom line, I'm comfortable here.

Thanks for commenting!

[sffan]

"look at the pretty pictures of Tyler Hoechlin," mostly)

Me, too! OMG that man is gorgeous. I'm having a really hard time finding a square inch of him I wouldn't lick, given the opportunity.

Does this mean you can tell Google+ to stop suggesting people to friend/articles to read, etc.? Because that's what had me fleeing for the hills.

[darkemeralds]

He's really unbelievably, illegally beautiful. (I don't personally find him "hot" or particularly sexy though--vampirefan thinks I'm crazy!) I can look and look and look--I find him just fascinating.

You can turn down "What's Hot on Google+" so that nothing comes up in your feed. I'm not sure about recommendations. I think I must just ignore them--as I usually do on Twitter. But, you know, it's Google. They're in the connecting business. In a massively Skynet-y way.

But if you have a G+ account, I'd love to add you to my Fandom circle. Who knows? Maybe I'll get some fannish action going over there.

[sffan]

He's really unbelievably, illegally beautiful.
Yes. So much yes. And I'm absolutely fascinated how he went from slightly spotty, sorta cute to OMFGPANTIESONFIRE so fast. But UNF. (obviously, I'm on vampirefan's side on this one).

I do have a Google+ account - I'm the Red Devil Bunny that's following you :D

(sorry, I've been too lazy to go find how to do the little head thing on DW...)

[ranunculus]

I've just moved pretty much all my e-mail off of Google because I don't care to be part of their data mining and I don't really trust them as a company, no matter how many surface levels of control they give you. Being me I have't gotten into any of the other communication avenues. :)

Otherwise I've been much more absent from even DW due to RL being extreemly busy, and because I'm spending a lot of my available time typing in reams of correspondance that my mother and grandmother wrote. There is absolutely no sense in leaving piles of yellowing letters in a box, unsorted. Either read/transcribe them or give them to someone who cares. So I'm working on it.

I find the differences between DW and LJ very interesting. I vastly prefer DW as a platform, however I find that many of the people I'm interested in are sticking with LJ, in part because of the community there. Most of them are a little older.

[darkemeralds]

I feel the same way about the LJ/DW differences and communities, and as soon as I have a chance, I'm planning to fix my cross-posting parameters to allow comments on the LJ side, because I find I really do miss the community there.

I'm less worried than you are about Our Google Overlords (in fact, "I, for one, welcome..." etc.) because I made a personal decision to be less private. Also, I'm irresistibly attracted to new technology, and have been all my life. It's not gonna change, so I decided (after reading Jeff Jarvis's Public Parts, not to fight it.

Your family-documentation project sounds wonderful. Will you image-scan some of the letters, too? Handwriting itself will become a thing of the past soon, too.

[ranunculus]

I'm photographing some of the letters, especially those that have little drawings. I'm also posting a lot of them in a DW journal for family and friends.

[dine]

echoing alexseanchai - the nymwar drove LOTS of fen from google+. I still use google search and have (but rarely use) gmail, but I don't really trust them, and I know many folks feel the same, so a fannish community there isn't like to grow large.

I've been thinking it's long past time to get together - any room in your schedule in the next month or two?

[darkemeralds]

Hi here!

You know, I must confess: I went to my yahoo mail account one day not very long ago and found about a zillion messages flying--or rather, that had flown long before--between you and the gang, about a get-together. I...deleted them out of guilt. Ack! Sorry! I've since begun using that account more regularly.

In short, yes! Let's have dinner again. I've got no great plans over the holiday season. Maybe we could go scarf down on some barbecue one evening after work between now and New Years?

RE: Google +. I'm kind of a Google fangirl. Unapologetically, really (though I don't proselytize--I recognize that it's problematic). Mainly, I'm the laziest person in creation, and whoever makes it easiest for me gets my eyeballs. There may be a price to pay for that someday but hey, in the long run we're all dead, right?

[dine]

if there's a better addy, just let me know and I'll update my address book (which means you'll at least get my e-mails and all the reply alls!

I'd love to meet you - I'm in town and working until the 22nd or 23rd, then back from the folks' probably around the 27th, at which point I'm off work until the 2nd. So, my availability for a meet up for dinner most of those evenings is fairly high, and I'd probably be free for lunch (or something) the 29th & 30th if that works better for you

I'm good with lazy - lazy works for me *g*

[branchandroot]

I find myself a lot quieter on DW than I was, also. Part of it is just being busy, but part of it is definitely the split in attention with Tumblr. It's an odd in-between sort of feeling.

[darkemeralds]

Yes, that's it. I long for that unified, all-my-needs-met feeling that LJ provided for several years. DW is a much better interface than LJ, but the schism really began here. Everyone's comments on this post have given me some food for thought about how I want to proceed. I want to believe that my personal commitment to a place, a community, a platform, will cause what I need to coalesce.

Sadly, my attention span is such that that commitment just keeps slipping away.

Sigh. Life on the internet, huh?

[ruric]

LJ/DW still mostly meet all my needs for community and fannish interaction. And Twitter for the faster and more immediate chat.

My Tumblr is all about reblogging pretty pictures of Tyler Hoechlin, Jeremy Renner and cute animals. *G*

The interface doesn't appeal to me for posting and you can't have a discussion so it;s all about the pretty and the cute!

As far as I know I don't have a Google+ I backed the hell away with their insistence that you have to have real name presences and their wanting to link everything together.

There are reasons I don't want streams crossed which is why I have three separate gmail accounts (must make sure they aren't linked), 3 separate twitter accounts and another blog on a non DW/LJ platform. *G*

[darkemeralds]

It's the lack of conversation that puts me off Tumblr. That, and the weird, kind of cracky, addictive feeling I get scrolling and scrolling. It's like a bad online game I keep going back to.

(I remember answering this comment while at the coast, but who the hell knows what happens with a mobile interface, an intermittent internet connection and a small screen?)

I'm not mentally capable of tracking separate gmail accounts, so I admire anyone who can. I just lazily let Our Google Overlords tell me the best way and I go along. I'll probably regret it someday. I'm kind of banking on the apocalypse coming first.

[azurelunatic]

I've started to bridge the divide that I've been feeling by gluing together my Dreamwidth and Twitter a little more -- I'm already importing my Twitter for posterity, and now for the longer-form stuff that I want my twitterfolks to see, I've started cross-linking the entries there.

It took a bit of doing to set up, but I have it down to a science now. (I set up If This Then That to monitor the feed from my "crosspost" tag (so it would pick only the entries that I tagged thus) and then post anything in there to Twitter. Also to the subset of my Facebook who know my real name, since Facebook is set up in my wallet name and all the rest of my internet presence is in my real name.)

[darkemeralds]

If This Then That! OMG Thank you!

It took me a minute to realize that ITTT was a thing, an actual internet thing. I'm exploring it now. It's like...IDK, Locale or Tasker. Conditions, situations, actions. I love it. This is so up my alley.

Awesome! Going to play with it now. Thank you!

[azurelunatic]

There are a few more things I wish it had (like a programmable delay), but it's amazing.

[greghatcher]

Well, *I* appreciate it when you update, because I like hearing about what you're doing. I check in once a week or so to see what's new, and was delighted to actually SEE something new... felt strongly enough about saying so that I created a damn account to do it, even though I doubt I'll ever use DreamWidth for anything else.

[darkemeralds]

Aww, thanks, Greg! Dreamwidth is a nice platform, one I still like well enough to pay for. I had no idea you were reading me here, and i'm ridiculously flattered.

This whole conversation has made me realize how mucvg I enjoy blogging here in a community setting, and the collective awareness of my particular community has led me to do some reading about data mining. My reading hasn't changed my stance--I still see more personal benefit in being data mined than in opting out--but I'm beginning to feel better informed on the subject.

Am spending my birthday in a beachy tow as you and Julie did a week or so ago. Rockaway, to be precise. Gorgeous. So lucky to be living in the PNW!

[scribblemoose]

I have very similar feelings. I wish all my friends (mostly rl ones) would shift to Google+ and all my online ones to DW! That would make my life soooo much easier! But alas, not to be.

It does lead to a very fragmented existence. I don't like it!

[darkemeralds]

Yeah! Why can't other people just cooperate with my plan for simplification?

Sigh. The fragmented feeling is hard to deal with. I guess I hold out hope for technological solutions--better crossposting (which Dreamwidth really pioneered and which G+ has started to implement), better ways of selective linking, something.