- Joined
- Apr 26, 2007
- Messages
- 8,087
I used to love blogging. I was active on LiveJournal (I know, I know!) all throughout grad school, and loved the medium - longform, everybody I knew IRL was on it, and it had a good population of like-minded people/excellent filters for weeding out the ones who bored you (not to mention tight security - since this was around the point where I got myself a kind-of stalker, I was very big on keeping all personal info on the lock-down, and bigger social essays, wry general observations, humorous memes, whatever, were the only things that went public). But these days, LJ is a ghost-town, except for a few die-hards. That's what prompted this topic, actually.
I really want to get back to blogging regularly. I miss the interaction, and the mental gymnastics of working out detailed arguments - PS fills some of that for me, but it's not quite the same. Buuuuuuuut ... since this time I'm going into it cold, without a built-in audience of RL acquaintances, I got curious and started thinking about what distinguishes the blogs I LOVE. Some are picture-heavy and informative about a larger topic - holla, Diamonds in the Library! - and some are navel-gazing but hilariously funny (coughforksplitcoughcoughizzlepfaffcough). Some are themed, some are just people mentioning stuff about their lives ... do you guys see any common elements between the ones you love and check in on regularly, and the ones where you're like ... eeeeehhhh?
There's one poster whose prose I love from back in the day, but whose only topic for nigh-on a decade now is, a) himself, and, b) specifically his desire for inclusion and popularity in the Great Internet Community/Fandom, and, c) lo, his depression, because nobody ever responds. Vicious cycle, dude! Talk about something other than yourself to give people an in that doesn't make them shuffle their feet and wonder if they know you well enough to even remark on the cross-section of your psyche that you just provided! Or, if it is about yourself ... do it in a way people can identify with, that makes them want to tell their stories back to you, or provide additional perspective, or whatever.
I'm also trying to figure out what the best current long-form blogging platform is: I can't do FaceBook or Twitter, 'cause writing those things is like doing haiku, and I've always been more of an epic kinda gal. But between Blogger and Tumblr and Instagram and Dreamwidth and god only knows what other new cool things I'm too old to know about ... anybody got any favorites?
That got a little ramblier than I'd planned - you see, I need an outlet! - but, yeah, just consider this an open thread on blogging. Dying art? Threat or menace? You tell me!
I really want to get back to blogging regularly. I miss the interaction, and the mental gymnastics of working out detailed arguments - PS fills some of that for me, but it's not quite the same. Buuuuuuuut ... since this time I'm going into it cold, without a built-in audience of RL acquaintances, I got curious and started thinking about what distinguishes the blogs I LOVE. Some are picture-heavy and informative about a larger topic - holla, Diamonds in the Library! - and some are navel-gazing but hilariously funny (coughforksplitcoughcoughizzlepfaffcough). Some are themed, some are just people mentioning stuff about their lives ... do you guys see any common elements between the ones you love and check in on regularly, and the ones where you're like ... eeeeehhhh?
There's one poster whose prose I love from back in the day, but whose only topic for nigh-on a decade now is, a) himself, and, b) specifically his desire for inclusion and popularity in the Great Internet Community/Fandom, and, c) lo, his depression, because nobody ever responds. Vicious cycle, dude! Talk about something other than yourself to give people an in that doesn't make them shuffle their feet and wonder if they know you well enough to even remark on the cross-section of your psyche that you just provided! Or, if it is about yourself ... do it in a way people can identify with, that makes them want to tell their stories back to you, or provide additional perspective, or whatever.
I'm also trying to figure out what the best current long-form blogging platform is: I can't do FaceBook or Twitter, 'cause writing those things is like doing haiku, and I've always been more of an epic kinda gal. But between Blogger and Tumblr and Instagram and Dreamwidth and god only knows what other new cool things I'm too old to know about ... anybody got any favorites?
That got a little ramblier than I'd planned - you see, I need an outlet! - but, yeah, just consider this an open thread on blogging. Dying art? Threat or menace? You tell me!
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