Considering LJ As Virtual Community and Performative Writing
Considering LJ As Virtual Community and Performative Writing
I've been entertaining the idea of reopening my LJ or at least blogging elsewhere. I've been writing regularly in my paper journal which is...a little bland and feels a little isolated. Bland in the sense that my entries read more like notes than any sort of narrative and isolated in that I'm the only one who reads it. My paper journal is also not multi-media enough. I'm having a hard time expressing myself fully with out the use of video, hypertext and pictures. Pictures can be included but the LOE makes it difficult to do quickly. Further more, the kind of writing that I was doing in this journal before I somewhat impulsively closed it was useful to me in that it provoked the kind of critical thinking that I find I'm not doing in my paper journal.
I made a case in my class last year that blogging was a form of performative writing, in fact, I think it's writing that actually performs as opposed to writing that is attempting to perform writing about performance or visual art. Anyway, I'm too tired and lonely to enter into the academic undulations of this argument right now. My point is that performance of the self in writing in the format of the blog was a contributing factor fo my motivation to chronicle my the ins and outs of my experience. To me, this white box is stage and screen. I can be seen with in it's confines, with all that that entails.
The desire to be seen in this particular way, or to believe that I am seen, even if the posts are almost entirely friends-only was also a contributing factor. This is not about 'comment' orgies' (my journal has never been a nexus for that sort of pleasure) but rather existing and exchanging in a small community of people who provide a window into each other's lives. To be among others who are also performing this reflexive dance of self and other because being among them was in an of itself reflexive. It referred back to me, no matter how personal, and my posts to them. Others writing about themselves created the desire in myself to write myself. To provide this window into my own life for others. The writing becomes a form of reflexive criticism, at least for me.
I''ve been considering the particulars of this relationship and for me it's not as simple as 'I just do this for me'. I think that is dismissive of the form and is patently not true in my case. I'm all about the sharing and exchanging. I'm an idea person and a people person in equal measure. Blogging is an ideal format for some one like me. It is not about 'comment orgies' and never has been.
If blogging is such an ideal format then why leave after blogging here in LJ for the past 10 years?
Well, hop in the way back machine and take a look at what LJ was and what it is now. THe story goes that LiveJournal was started in 1999 by Brad Fitzpatrick as a way of keeping his high school friends updated on his activities. (The source for this is mute on why Fitzpatricks started LJ. I'd be curious to hear an actual quote from him on it.)
From September 2, 2001, until December 12, 2003, the growth of LiveJournal was checked by an "invite code" system. This curbing of membership was necessitated by a rate of growth faster than the server architecture could handle. New users were required to either obtain an invite code from an existing user or buy a paid account (which reverted to a free account at the expiration of the period of time paid for). The invite code system serendipitously reduced abuse on the site by deterring people from creating multiple throw-away accounts. The invite code system was lifted after a number of major improvements to the overall site architecture.
I joined LJ in 2002. I got an invite from either forcemequeen or intralimina I don't recall which. LJ was already a thing with in the lives of my community as most of the folks involved with the PDX OTO were using it as a way to keep in touch with each other. I think that must have been how it spread to Austin and Seattle but I don't have any documentation for that besides contentlove's first entry being in Jan. of 2002 (which predates mine). I can only assume that this is the case b/c LJ was largely a Portland, OR phenomenon for long time and didn't really go nation wide till later. I remember resisting the whole thing because it just seemed like a way for folks to have emotional and sexual drama with one an other. At the time as I folks were experimenting with polyamory and everyone was sleeping with everyone and since I was queer there was very little desire for me to join in as it was mostly straight folks doing the amoring. At that time I was preparing for a 3 month journey through Central America and I created the journal (and the name) as a way for my friends (so far) and family all over the country to read, comment and enjoy my adventures (so close) as well as keep in touch with them back home. It was a great format for that sort of thing. Much better than emails or the Yahoo log contentlove kept of her travels through India.
After I got back I didn't update much. My last post was in May 2002 and I didn't post again until March of 2003. As I recall, when I got back from C.America the medicine I'd been on to help with the digestive issues I'd contracted down there made me unmotivated to post about the rest of my journey. I'm not sure what prompted me to start again. I don't even recall reading anyone else's entries while I was in C.America or after. I didn't join LJ as a community member in earnest until 2003.
From 2003 to 2005 was in my opinion the golden age of LJ. I began working at XO again so I was chained to a computer desk for hours on end. I couldn't help but to post all the time. So did everyone else.
Friendster and Myspace anticipated the launch of Facebook is launched in 2004. In January 2005, blogging software company Six Apart purchased Danga Interactive, the company that operated LiveJournal, from Fitzpatrick. Meanwhile, Facebook opened it's high school platform in September 2005. At that time, high school networks required an invitation to join. Facebook later expanded membership eligibility to employees of several companies, including Apple Inc. and Microsoft. On September 26, 2006, to everyone of ages 13 and older with a valid e-mail address. Social Networking has become a household name. Even your mom is on Facebook. Myspace was purchased, Friendster was purchased, Tribe was purchased and Facebook went global and got real funding. It was a corporate scandal to suss a business and try to wring a profit out of social networking sites. Your mom is now on Facebook and LJ was yet an other casualty.
On December 2, 2007, Six Apart announced it was selling LiveJournal to SUP, a Russian media company that had been licensing the LiveJournal brand and software for use in Russia.
You remember when we were getting all those friend requests, troll posts and puppet accounts from Russia? Wasn't that great?
The new owners unveiled a plan to upgrade the service, engage with the LiveJournal community and launch new products for advertisers.
So now we have Russian trolls AND ads to contend with. Personally I was less bitter about paying
for an account than I was about the fact that the ad revenue was being spent on shitty interface changes and crappy graphic design.
People began to stop posting. This happened, I think, a bit slower on my friends list b/c of the nature of the posts tended to be longer and more epistolary as opposed to shorter, pop oriented posts. Most of us were writers or artists of one sort or an other. As I stated before, I felt that we were writing for ourselves to each other, for each other (so far so close). Facebook drew people away but Six Apart drove them away. Crappy customer service, mixed with privacy issues, new features (which were mostly awful), outrages fan fic scandals, cconstantly changing interface mixed with a series of controversies lead to further bad feelings towards the site. Why pour your intimate thoughts and fan fiction here when they might be confused as child pornography? As I recall, in 2006 or so there was a general panic across the internet as the Feds began to crack down on the smut. Not just the illegal stuff but ALL the smut. Swedish twins, hairy bears, Brazilian bi, sexy TS Precious. It didn't matter. Correct me if I'm wrong but the crack down was part of the Patriot Act? I remember b/c concurrently Tribe.net, which was (and still is) a veritable repository of smut, got heavily censored by the new owners. I remember all the Burning Man Hippies were pissing about their freedom of speech. I thought it was funny b/c while I agree in principal, Tribe.net doesn't care about your speech rights. It cares about ad dollars and not getting shut down by the government. Plus, they own it so they can do whatever they want like corporations always do. I don't mean to sound cynical I do agree, I just don't expect the tiger to change it's stripes. I remember morimur was constantly at war with first, 6 Apart and then SUP over one issue with his paid account.
LJ today is now covered virtual chotchke, memes and terrible clip art and ads obstruct the view of content. It's not a pretty place to log into. People get nostalgic for the past, for younger days. They say, things were better before, when really they weren't. With the exception of a few, very basic features (deletion of comments, friends filters, tags) LJ really was better before Six Apart purchased them. My case is made every time I look at some huge eyed, cute thing with a rainbow behind that can be purchased for 99 cents.
So that is how it developed, but what is it?
The wiki article on LJ describes it as a virtual community as opposed to Facebook or Myspace which are described as social networking. I think this is the main reason why I adopted the use of LJ as opposed to Facebook or Myspace. I never really used Myspace other than to promote my band or keep up to date with the times as it were. Having a Myspace account was more about existing with in the network rather than socializing. My participation was mainly based on presence.
LJ says LJ is:
LiveJournal is an online journal service with an emphasis on user interaction. A basic, fully-functional account is free, while Paid accounts receive access to premium features.
and
LiveJournal.com, a web site and online community built around personal journals, was created by computer science major Brad Fitzpatrick in March 1999. Since then, it has grown into a user-supported, open-source service used worldwide. LiveJournal Inc. is owned by SUP and is based in the USA, operating out of San Francisco, California.
Wiki says LJ is:
LiveJournal (LJ) is a virtual community where Internet users can keep a blog, journal or diary. LiveJournal is also the name of the free and open source server software that was designed to run the LiveJournal virtual community. LiveJournal's blogging features include those found in similar blogging sites (multiple authors, commenting, calendars, and polls).[5] However, LiveJournal differentiates itself from other blogging sites by its WELL-like features of a self-contained community and some social networking features similar to other social networking sites.
The site is an open source software development project, so anyone can use the same software that powers the site and suggest improvements. Over the years, LiveJournal's improvements have included easy creation and management of journals, weblogs, and even interest-based online communities.
Yeah. Uh huh. Sell it, LJ.
Since being purchased by 6A the platform has had problems because it dosen't fit neatly into either blog software or social networking software because ultimately, its neither. 6A is a new media publishing company. They understand things in terms of distribution rather than community building. It was a very poor match. Having been considering this for the better part of the day, the only thing that I can think of that comes close to being similar is The Well. LJ allows for the creation of communities, either by interest or by the journals themselves. Livejournals have the option to be communities in an of themselves.
On Facebook you have a friends list. Some friends are friends with other friends and we can all comment on each other's OMG status updates. The difference is the commenting generally doesn't lead to much because it's not designed to. It's designed for you to click the 'like' button or at most, post an OMG back. This isn't a polemic against Facebook. I like Facebook as much as the next guy, actually I like it less, but I like it enough to use it. Very rarely am I impressed enough to 'friend' someone on Facebook based off these comments. Communication via the comments on LJ however lead to this happening on a fairly regular basis. I'd say over half of my friends list I have either met in person a handful of times or not at all and the other half are people I, at one point, saw regularly at one point, but now largely interact with via LJ. This is how a journal becomes a community. It's interesting because I've met a few out-of-state LJers when I've visited the cities they live in and consider them friends. There is a level of familiarity that comes with being privy to the kind of personal discourse LJ can inspire because this discourse is in an of itself reflexive. With Facebook, I must have over 600 'friends' many of whom I have hidden b/c I could care less. Some are old high school classmates, others are folks I knew in Oregon who I mostly knew from Sissyboy and going out. Regardless, I'm not as protective of my Facebook 'inner circle' as it were, as I am of this particular community because Facebook is again, participation by presence, rather than interaction. I'm there more because I have to be not because I particularly want to be.
LJ is an other matter. It's not cool to blog here. I gain very little social benefit from it. I don't promote my businesses or network socially here. Not that you can't do any of those things here, you can certainly but it's just much easier to do it on Facebook because that is what Facebook is set up to do. Facebook isn't really a community or if it is, it's a community like a country is or like a state or city is, which in a sense, isn't really a community it's a population. LJ or at least my journal is a community in the sense that it's organized around a common value. So in answer to the question, I think that Virtual Community is a more apt description of what LJ is rather than social networking, but the reason it troubles this term is because the communities are nebulous because they are organized by shared value rather than whether or not we know someone. This is why it was impossible for 6A to understand LJ and why it continues to fail to commercialize and 'catch on' like Facebook, Twitter or Myspace.
So, we've defined (sort of) what LJ is and why I used it. I stopped using it because it stopped being a community based on shared values and started being a listserv for blogs that I happen to follow. As I said before, it was the sense of community that drove me to post. It wasn't vanity or insecurity but the sense that I was writing for myself to someone else which is to me what makes blogging a kind of performative writing.
Having written for the last couple of weeks in my paper journal (which is adorable) and found it unsatisfactory I've returned to LJ for the moment because I found I missed the multimedia capabilities that internet writing has to offer. I also found that I desired that little community I have left. Facebook does not satisfy me. It does not allow me to think and be thought about. It does not allow me to write for myself to someone else. It does not allow me to think about myself to others. There are things that I dislike about LJ and were we to take our blogging elsewhere, I'd be happy, but I'm not sure at this point where elsewhere is. Perhaps we should make our own? Until then, I guess I'm here. Anyone want to start a blogging company?
I've been entertaining the idea of reopening my LJ or at least blogging elsewhere. I've been writing regularly in my paper journal which is...a little bland and feels a little isolated. Bland in the sense that my entries read more like notes than any sort of narrative and isolated in that I'm the only one who reads it. My paper journal is also not multi-media enough. I'm having a hard time expressing myself fully with out the use of video, hypertext and pictures. Pictures can be included but the LOE makes it difficult to do quickly. Further more, the kind of writing that I was doing in this journal before I somewhat impulsively closed it was useful to me in that it provoked the kind of critical thinking that I find I'm not doing in my paper journal.
I made a case in my class last year that blogging was a form of performative writing, in fact, I think it's writing that actually performs as opposed to writing that is attempting to perform writing about performance or visual art. Anyway, I'm too tired and lonely to enter into the academic undulations of this argument right now. My point is that performance of the self in writing in the format of the blog was a contributing factor fo my motivation to chronicle my the ins and outs of my experience. To me, this white box is stage and screen. I can be seen with in it's confines, with all that that entails.
The desire to be seen in this particular way, or to believe that I am seen, even if the posts are almost entirely friends-only was also a contributing factor. This is not about 'comment' orgies' (my journal has never been a nexus for that sort of pleasure) but rather existing and exchanging in a small community of people who provide a window into each other's lives. To be among others who are also performing this reflexive dance of self and other because being among them was in an of itself reflexive. It referred back to me, no matter how personal, and my posts to them. Others writing about themselves created the desire in myself to write myself. To provide this window into my own life for others. The writing becomes a form of reflexive criticism, at least for me.
I''ve been considering the particulars of this relationship and for me it's not as simple as 'I just do this for me'. I think that is dismissive of the form and is patently not true in my case. I'm all about the sharing and exchanging. I'm an idea person and a people person in equal measure. Blogging is an ideal format for some one like me. It is not about 'comment orgies' and never has been.
If blogging is such an ideal format then why leave after blogging here in LJ for the past 10 years?
Well, hop in the way back machine and take a look at what LJ was and what it is now. THe story goes that LiveJournal was started in 1999 by Brad Fitzpatrick as a way of keeping his high school friends updated on his activities. (The source for this is mute on why Fitzpatricks started LJ. I'd be curious to hear an actual quote from him on it.)
From September 2, 2001, until December 12, 2003, the growth of LiveJournal was checked by an "invite code" system. This curbing of membership was necessitated by a rate of growth faster than the server architecture could handle. New users were required to either obtain an invite code from an existing user or buy a paid account (which reverted to a free account at the expiration of the period of time paid for). The invite code system serendipitously reduced abuse on the site by deterring people from creating multiple throw-away accounts. The invite code system was lifted after a number of major improvements to the overall site architecture.
I joined LJ in 2002. I got an invite from either forcemequeen or intralimina I don't recall which. LJ was already a thing with in the lives of my community as most of the folks involved with the PDX OTO were using it as a way to keep in touch with each other. I think that must have been how it spread to Austin and Seattle but I don't have any documentation for that besides contentlove's first entry being in Jan. of 2002 (which predates mine). I can only assume that this is the case b/c LJ was largely a Portland, OR phenomenon for long time and didn't really go nation wide till later. I remember resisting the whole thing because it just seemed like a way for folks to have emotional and sexual drama with one an other. At the time as I folks were experimenting with polyamory and everyone was sleeping with everyone and since I was queer there was very little desire for me to join in as it was mostly straight folks doing the amoring. At that time I was preparing for a 3 month journey through Central America and I created the journal (and the name) as a way for my friends (so far) and family all over the country to read, comment and enjoy my adventures (so close) as well as keep in touch with them back home. It was a great format for that sort of thing. Much better than emails or the Yahoo log contentlove kept of her travels through India.
After I got back I didn't update much. My last post was in May 2002 and I didn't post again until March of 2003. As I recall, when I got back from C.America the medicine I'd been on to help with the digestive issues I'd contracted down there made me unmotivated to post about the rest of my journey. I'm not sure what prompted me to start again. I don't even recall reading anyone else's entries while I was in C.America or after. I didn't join LJ as a community member in earnest until 2003.
From 2003 to 2005 was in my opinion the golden age of LJ. I began working at XO again so I was chained to a computer desk for hours on end. I couldn't help but to post all the time. So did everyone else.
Friendster and Myspace anticipated the launch of Facebook is launched in 2004. In January 2005, blogging software company Six Apart purchased Danga Interactive, the company that operated LiveJournal, from Fitzpatrick. Meanwhile, Facebook opened it's high school platform in September 2005. At that time, high school networks required an invitation to join. Facebook later expanded membership eligibility to employees of several companies, including Apple Inc. and Microsoft. On September 26, 2006, to everyone of ages 13 and older with a valid e-mail address. Social Networking has become a household name. Even your mom is on Facebook. Myspace was purchased, Friendster was purchased, Tribe was purchased and Facebook went global and got real funding. It was a corporate scandal to suss a business and try to wring a profit out of social networking sites. Your mom is now on Facebook and LJ was yet an other casualty.
On December 2, 2007, Six Apart announced it was selling LiveJournal to SUP, a Russian media company that had been licensing the LiveJournal brand and software for use in Russia.
You remember when we were getting all those friend requests, troll posts and puppet accounts from Russia? Wasn't that great?
The new owners unveiled a plan to upgrade the service, engage with the LiveJournal community and launch new products for advertisers.
So now we have Russian trolls AND ads to contend with. Personally I was less bitter about paying
for an account than I was about the fact that the ad revenue was being spent on shitty interface changes and crappy graphic design.
People began to stop posting. This happened, I think, a bit slower on my friends list b/c of the nature of the posts tended to be longer and more epistolary as opposed to shorter, pop oriented posts. Most of us were writers or artists of one sort or an other. As I stated before, I felt that we were writing for ourselves to each other, for each other (so far so close). Facebook drew people away but Six Apart drove them away. Crappy customer service, mixed with privacy issues, new features (which were mostly awful), outrages fan fic scandals, cconstantly changing interface mixed with a series of controversies lead to further bad feelings towards the site. Why pour your intimate thoughts and fan fiction here when they might be confused as child pornography? As I recall, in 2006 or so there was a general panic across the internet as the Feds began to crack down on the smut. Not just the illegal stuff but ALL the smut. Swedish twins, hairy bears, Brazilian bi, sexy TS Precious. It didn't matter. Correct me if I'm wrong but the crack down was part of the Patriot Act? I remember b/c concurrently Tribe.net, which was (and still is) a veritable repository of smut, got heavily censored by the new owners. I remember all the Burning Man Hippies were pissing about their freedom of speech. I thought it was funny b/c while I agree in principal, Tribe.net doesn't care about your speech rights. It cares about ad dollars and not getting shut down by the government. Plus, they own it so they can do whatever they want like corporations always do. I don't mean to sound cynical I do agree, I just don't expect the tiger to change it's stripes. I remember morimur was constantly at war with first, 6 Apart and then SUP over one issue with his paid account.
LJ today is now covered virtual chotchke, memes and terrible clip art and ads obstruct the view of content. It's not a pretty place to log into. People get nostalgic for the past, for younger days. They say, things were better before, when really they weren't. With the exception of a few, very basic features (deletion of comments, friends filters, tags) LJ really was better before Six Apart purchased them. My case is made every time I look at some huge eyed, cute thing with a rainbow behind that can be purchased for 99 cents.
So that is how it developed, but what is it?
The wiki article on LJ describes it as a virtual community as opposed to Facebook or Myspace which are described as social networking. I think this is the main reason why I adopted the use of LJ as opposed to Facebook or Myspace. I never really used Myspace other than to promote my band or keep up to date with the times as it were. Having a Myspace account was more about existing with in the network rather than socializing. My participation was mainly based on presence.
LJ says LJ is:
LiveJournal is an online journal service with an emphasis on user interaction. A basic, fully-functional account is free, while Paid accounts receive access to premium features.
and
LiveJournal.com, a web site and online community built around personal journals, was created by computer science major Brad Fitzpatrick in March 1999. Since then, it has grown into a user-supported, open-source service used worldwide. LiveJournal Inc. is owned by SUP and is based in the USA, operating out of San Francisco, California.
Wiki says LJ is:
LiveJournal (LJ) is a virtual community where Internet users can keep a blog, journal or diary. LiveJournal is also the name of the free and open source server software that was designed to run the LiveJournal virtual community. LiveJournal's blogging features include those found in similar blogging sites (multiple authors, commenting, calendars, and polls).[5] However, LiveJournal differentiates itself from other blogging sites by its WELL-like features of a self-contained community and some social networking features similar to other social networking sites.
The site is an open source software development project, so anyone can use the same software that powers the site and suggest improvements. Over the years, LiveJournal's improvements have included easy creation and management of journals, weblogs, and even interest-based online communities.
Yeah. Uh huh. Sell it, LJ.
Since being purchased by 6A the platform has had problems because it dosen't fit neatly into either blog software or social networking software because ultimately, its neither. 6A is a new media publishing company. They understand things in terms of distribution rather than community building. It was a very poor match. Having been considering this for the better part of the day, the only thing that I can think of that comes close to being similar is The Well. LJ allows for the creation of communities, either by interest or by the journals themselves. Livejournals have the option to be communities in an of themselves.
On Facebook you have a friends list. Some friends are friends with other friends and we can all comment on each other's OMG status updates. The difference is the commenting generally doesn't lead to much because it's not designed to. It's designed for you to click the 'like' button or at most, post an OMG back. This isn't a polemic against Facebook. I like Facebook as much as the next guy, actually I like it less, but I like it enough to use it. Very rarely am I impressed enough to 'friend' someone on Facebook based off these comments. Communication via the comments on LJ however lead to this happening on a fairly regular basis. I'd say over half of my friends list I have either met in person a handful of times or not at all and the other half are people I, at one point, saw regularly at one point, but now largely interact with via LJ. This is how a journal becomes a community. It's interesting because I've met a few out-of-state LJers when I've visited the cities they live in and consider them friends. There is a level of familiarity that comes with being privy to the kind of personal discourse LJ can inspire because this discourse is in an of itself reflexive. With Facebook, I must have over 600 'friends' many of whom I have hidden b/c I could care less. Some are old high school classmates, others are folks I knew in Oregon who I mostly knew from Sissyboy and going out. Regardless, I'm not as protective of my Facebook 'inner circle' as it were, as I am of this particular community because Facebook is again, participation by presence, rather than interaction. I'm there more because I have to be not because I particularly want to be.
LJ is an other matter. It's not cool to blog here. I gain very little social benefit from it. I don't promote my businesses or network socially here. Not that you can't do any of those things here, you can certainly but it's just much easier to do it on Facebook because that is what Facebook is set up to do. Facebook isn't really a community or if it is, it's a community like a country is or like a state or city is, which in a sense, isn't really a community it's a population. LJ or at least my journal is a community in the sense that it's organized around a common value. So in answer to the question, I think that Virtual Community is a more apt description of what LJ is rather than social networking, but the reason it troubles this term is because the communities are nebulous because they are organized by shared value rather than whether or not we know someone. This is why it was impossible for 6A to understand LJ and why it continues to fail to commercialize and 'catch on' like Facebook, Twitter or Myspace.
So, we've defined (sort of) what LJ is and why I used it. I stopped using it because it stopped being a community based on shared values and started being a listserv for blogs that I happen to follow. As I said before, it was the sense of community that drove me to post. It wasn't vanity or insecurity but the sense that I was writing for myself to someone else which is to me what makes blogging a kind of performative writing.
Having written for the last couple of weeks in my paper journal (which is adorable) and found it unsatisfactory I've returned to LJ for the moment because I found I missed the multimedia capabilities that internet writing has to offer. I also found that I desired that little community I have left. Facebook does not satisfy me. It does not allow me to think and be thought about. It does not allow me to write for myself to someone else. It does not allow me to think about myself to others. There are things that I dislike about LJ and were we to take our blogging elsewhere, I'd be happy, but I'm not sure at this point where elsewhere is. Perhaps we should make our own? Until then, I guess I'm here. Anyone want to start a blogging company?