darkemeralds: A round magical sigil of mysterious meaning, in bright colors with black outlines. A pen nib is suggested by the intersection of the cryptic forms. (Default)
Happy LJ-versary to me. On this date in 2004 I made my first bewildered post on LiveJournal. The online world has changed a lot since then, hasn't it?

Like, in 2004, LiveJournal was still owned by Brad Fitzpatrick, and I think they still had an office in Portland (I remember seeing it; I'm sure that's not my imagination. It was down by the river near the Broadway Bridge. I cannot find corroboration of this memory online). MySpace and Facebook were just getting started, and Tumblr wasn't quite yet a gleam in the eye of whoever founded Tumblr.

FastCompany wrote about a LiveJournal "comeback" last year, and got some good comments from current (presumably US-based) users saying that LJ's comeback plans have nothing in common with what the core US user base wants--to wit, the journal world as it has always been, with threaded comments, screening, privacy, security, adult content allowed, no advertising. In other words, Dreamwidth.

I'm six days/posts behind in my big September 30/30 plan. Whoops.
darkemeralds: DarkEm self portrait in magenta cowl, left profile, against a black wall (Silver Magenta)
I still like it here best.

Dunbar's Number says that our brains evolved to manage a maximum of about 150 social connections.

Apparently Dunbar's number isn't just a maximum, though: it may also be a kind of optimum; we feel a need for 100 to 200 social connections. Since most of us don't live in extended families, tribes or small villages anymore, we fill our Dunbar vacancies with virtual social connections.

At least a couple dozen golden social connections of mine for the last nine years have been right here on Dreamwidth and LiveJournal, and you know what? I'd like to try to keep it that way.

Getting email notifications about comments on LJ and DW is still really sweet. I like the kinds of personal conversations that can happen in comments here, that I've never found anywhere else. It's not all fandom all the time, but it's fandom-adjacent, the conversations of enthusiasts and believers and people who make stuff and care about meaning and love a good shared squee.

So, I'm challenging myself to post, read, and comment daily during June. Maybe even read and comment outside my list/circle. I might crosspost from other services. I might do the kind of abbreviated drive-by that's become the province of Twitter. I might post about knitting, or cats, or my bike, or work. Or Dylan O'Brien, what the hell.

Yeah, thirty posts in thirty days, APAD, PEDFAM--it's nothing new. But I'm just so hungry, you know? I'm tired of the fragmentation. Google+ and Facebook and Twitter do very little for my Dunbar quotient.

I still like it here best.
darkemeralds: Baby picture of DarkEm with title 'Interstellar Losers Club' and caption 'Proud Member' (Proud Member)
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.
darkemeralds: A round magical sigil of mysterious meaning, in bright colors with black outlines. A pen nib is suggested by the intersection of the cryptic forms. (Default)
Is anyone else trying to re-figure out how to have an online life? Is anyone else feeling that Google+ is cool but how many more social networks do I need? Does anyone else wonder if there's still a place for a journaling site like Dreamwidth and LiveJournal in their life?

I'm finding G+ very homey--more succinct than here, not quite as flighty as Twitter. Less conversational than here, but more interactive than Tumblr. It feels like a comfortable stream of connection.

Of course, it's new. Not many people are on it yet. Everyone's behaving like early guests at a nice party, so it's also much less contentious than here tends to be sometimes. (I have invites, by the way, if anyone wants one.)

Journaling/blogging has been a mostly wonderful experience for me for the past six years or so, but I feel it slipping away as a concept. I hate to let it go, but fighting the flow seems futile. Does anyone else feel that way?
darkemeralds: A round magical sigil of mysterious meaning, in bright colors with black outlines. A pen nib is suggested by the intersection of the cryptic forms. (Default)
Lots of people are pushing the reactivate button on their dormant Dreamwidth accounts these last couple of days. If you're considering moving more of your journaling operations to DW, may I recommend this post as a little helpful nudge:

So You Wanna Move to Dreamwidth.

Also, check out the Latest Things page, my new favorite place to find interesting journals and get a feel for what DW is all about in any given hour.

It really IS very nice at Dreamwidth, for all the reasons [personal profile] such_heights mentions, and because there's a fresh, wonderful, "pleased to meet you" feel to the place that's very welcoming. I'm glad I made the switch, and I'd love to see more of my LJ friends using DW as their base of operations.
darkemeralds: A round magical sigil of mysterious meaning, in bright colors with black outlines. A pen nib is suggested by the intersection of the cryptic forms. (Default)
I'm starting to be glad I've transferred my base of operations to Dreamwidth.

Okay, break's over. Back to writing porn.
darkemeralds: A round magical sigil of mysterious meaning, in bright colors with black outlines. A pen nib is suggested by the intersection of the cryptic forms. (Default)
I decided to buy a Dreamwidth paid account today--to support the people who've offered a really responsive fan-friendly blogging community, and so I could join in more fully with the zillions of icons and pretty styles.

When DW reported that the Trolls of Moral Outrage were trying to shut them down, they weren't kidding: Paypal, their merchant processor, will not accept a payment from me for Dreamwidth.

It seems that the pearl-clutchers, having failed to ruffle the DW team with threats, have successfully escalated their campaign to the money-funnel.

For this, I will go buy a money order, put a stamp on it, and stick it in the mail. And if you know me at all, you know how very, very extraordinary that will be.

EDITED TO ADD: I've just come from the post office. Money order purchased, addressed, stamped and mailed. Good luck, Dreamwidth team!
darkemeralds: A round magical sigil of mysterious meaning, in bright colors with black outlines. A pen nib is suggested by the intersection of the cryptic forms. (Default)
This is a test of Dreamwidth cross-posting. I'm giving some thought to moving all operations over there, and I want to see what crossposting looks like on LJ.

If you're on LJ, and in my flist, and if you feel like it, would you try leaving me a comment--particularly, how you feel about leaving a comment on DW via OpenID?

Thank you!

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darkemeralds: A round magical sigil of mysterious meaning, in bright colors with black outlines. A pen nib is suggested by the intersection of the cryptic forms. (Default)
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