How I killed my blog

Feb 04, 2013 19:27


You aren’t reading this. Once, you did. Here’s why.

In 2001 I started a LiveJournal entirely as a social networking tool. My friends were all signing up. We had a lot of fun sharing a circle of friends on LJ, and most of us ended up at least reading if not posting every day.

The social network expanded rapidly, and I made new connections. And I ( Read more... )

livejournal, failure, personalnarrative, doom, blog

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Comments 27

anaisdjuna February 5 2013, 05:24:44 UTC
I always read LJ. A lot of people are still here. Less, yes. It's what it was, but it's something and it takes folks writing here for it to ever move to the next step. One used to not be able to comment here on your posts, I thought, so I've not commented here in a while. I like what I read when it appears :-) I also like that I can comment here this time. Finicky user am I, I'd have to be super motivated to click somewhere else to comment. Ha. How spoiled and silly we are these days.

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substitute February 5 2013, 05:50:50 UTC
Yeah, I turned on comments here again partly because of the post itself, but partly because I've given up on anything like a unified comment thread. Nobody replies on the site itself, just here or on Facebook. Maybe it's just too late to do something on my own.

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anaisdjuna February 5 2013, 06:10:45 UTC
It's never too late, mate!

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gordonzola February 5 2013, 17:06:13 UTC
I too have given up on the unified comment thread. RIP.

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auntiesiannan February 5 2013, 05:24:45 UTC
Go where the day takes you.

If something is terribly wrong, it must be with me.

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maeve66 February 5 2013, 05:42:48 UTC
I still use LJ, and for the reasons you talk about. I couldn't transfer to Wordpress or Blogger or whatever, because of the lack of community. So here is an echoing chamber with a few people still reading and commenting, and I can't let it go. Facebook isn't this.

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substitute February 5 2013, 05:51:52 UTC
Oh yeah, Facebook isn't anyone's choice for conversation. I was just greedy enough to want all the conversation in one place (mine) and that was dumb.

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beaq February 5 2013, 07:26:37 UTC
I hate the fragmentation and the lack of content and conversation in social-media-of-now. I read you on LJ, but I never comment because it seems like you're one step removed, over on a blog, where ... well, I don't know you, but on LJ it feels more peer-to-peer rather than guest-in-your-domain. :-/

i hope you write every day.

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substitute February 5 2013, 08:29:34 UTC
I hear that about peer to peer vs. guest. I did that partly because I felt like a guest in LJ's house and I didn't know if the house was going to be there the next day. I guess I should leave comments open everywhere and forget about having things in one basket. Egotism fails.

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beaq February 6 2013, 09:07:44 UTC
I think your approach was fine, I just felt shy. I always worry about LJ disappearing into the hole. There's an OK archiving tool somewhere (ljarchive?) but it's not like having it all still online.

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alfaguru February 5 2013, 09:07:35 UTC
*waves*

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