an interesting point or three..

[scottobear]

swerve mentioned this in her journal, and I think it bears spreading around.

why web journals suck

the bits about saying things about people other than yourself is especially pointed. I've seen other folks 'outed' here, without their knowledge, and it had no real bearing on the entry, and even worse invasions of a person's privacy here and there.

Just so you know, I don't follow many of the Elements Of Excellent And Good Journals listed...

the reason I started a journal here was for a personal journal, and ease of use... before there was such a thing as private entries. now, I can mix and match my eye's only and 'sure, you can read it' quite a lot. that's mutated a bit, I like sharing lots of stuff with you out there now. I've met quite a few nice folks, and I wanted to take a moment to say thank you. For the vast majority, I've received a great number of positive strokes, and I think I've gotten a few real friends out of this. Thanks, gang.

Why do you folks journal?

Another question is, how do you stay on top of all your friend's? I try to read all of them, but I cannot. Some days they all post at once, or I have a hard work day, or the net goes down, and they all fly past, like jet fighters at an airshow... I hear some noise, but the physicality is long gone.

Comments

Re: why i journal

[scottobear.livejournal.com]

wow....

do your family and friends ofte post to your journal? I have very few 'meatspace' folk who visit mine...does it make some privacy issues difficult?

thanks again for being a friend for so long here... you've really helped make it worth sticking around.

journal stuff

[burgundy.livejournal.com]

I originally got my account because my best friend disabled anonymous posting. I hadn't planned on actually starting a journal. But it had a lot of appeal, and I tend to essay and narrate in my head anyway, so it was just a matter of typing out what was already there. I think it's possibly an ego thing - people are voluntarily seeking out my mental spew. That's fun. I like reading other people's. I like making new friends, and even if journal friendships are nothing like real-life friendships, they're still satisfying in their own way. But I don't think I could ever explain to someone why I like posting relatively private stuff on the internet. I've tried, and never succeeded.

I don't have all that many friends yet - not even 20. So it's relatively easy for me to keep up, and I check compulsively (meaning several times a day). It's only been overwhelming once, when I was out of town for a few days and had to catch up.

[maus.livejournal.com]

Sometimes I feel guilty for not keeping up with all my friends, but I have a life and a job and I do what I can to keep up, but to be honest, I miss a lot of posts and I end up piecing things back together from latter posts. I wish that I could keep up. I wish I always had the motivation to read LJs, but sometimes I just don't. I work with a computer all day long and when I get off work sometimes I just need a nice long break from a computer.

Why do I journal? I journal for several reasons. I journal because it's fun - I like the interaction. I journal to keep friends informed of goings on in my life. I journal to help get other people's perspectives on the things that go on in my life. I journal to help clear out my head.

I have other journals too, which almost no one knows about. Because of the 'public' nature of LJ, I tend to leave out a LOT of personal information in my posts - like about me and myself and what's really going on in my life. My anonymous journals are very helpful for that because I can still put my thoughts out for comments or criticism, but without fearing negative results from real-life friends who read it.

[luckyme.livejournal.com]

hrm. i keep a journal because i have a horrible memory.. i want to keep things close to my heart forever. plus, its a good way to keep those far away from me in tune with my life.

as for the friends thing, i just sit down every day and read through the list, no matter how long it takes. it normally takes about an hour for me to read, post, and reply.

and that is that.

[moonmama.livejournal.com]

Why do I journal? I think I tried to cover that here. (http://www.livejournal.com/talkread.bml?itemid=968581) (gee I hope that link works.)
As for handling the Friends page, I have a relatively low number. (I suppose 30 something is low) I just muddle through as best I can. If an entry is too long, or doesn't interest me at the moment then I'll skip it and go back to read it later.

[daizee.livejournal.com]

how incredibly funny that i answered this very question today in my journal BEFORE reading this! WoO HoO!! (and you responded so i know you know my answer already)

anyways: i'll answer the second part... how do i keep up on all my friends (especially having the wee one) -- well i'll tell ya.. its not easy!!

i wait til chris comes home and then i start reading. there's about 15 people's pages i go to everyday (you're one of those) to make sure i didn't miss anything... thats why my replies are sometimes really late (like the NEXT day late)

but usually i just skim back a 100 or so replies... its hard work... but i'm not willing to give any of my *kids* the friends page boot.

:)

eerie!

[scottobear.livejournal.com]

heh... and here I was thinknig that you just responded to my entry. :)

great minds.

I fear I'm going to have to do another 'purge' for the folks that post more than 10x a day. :)

Why?

[chicky.livejournal.com]

I have two journals - one with the name chicky, and one as chicky2 (I know, how original!). The first journal is just a straight journal. It allows me to keep my cam-watchers and my mother updated on what's going on in my life as well as give a healthy rant once in a while. If there's something that I want to keep semi-private, I'll post it as friends-only, so I can still get some feedback from it. The second journal is one that I've had for a while, rarely post in, and is a very frank look at what I'm feeling. I can post there without worrying about my mother reading it and calling the men with white coats to come pick me up.

This brings up privacy issues. A lot of people ask me stuff like "how can you expect privacy when you have webcams in your bedroom?" Simple - it's difficult to read my thoughts from just looking at me on camera. Some people have access to viewing the more personal entries of my journal from my page; I've set up a couple of my friends that I've met through my page with LJ accounts so they can read my entires. I'm not worried about keeping things private from most people on the web, but I do feel that there are some things in my life that my mom (who is currently my only family member who knows about my page) does not need to learn about.

On another note, why do people seem so hesitant to make a comment on an entry marked as friends-only?

Re: Why?

[scottobear.livejournal.com]

chicky2 electric boogaloo. :) two journals is a great idea... I keep two, but one is for fiction, the other is this one here, my life, loves, etc.

you know, you're right... very few folks have posted to my friends only remarks, too. I'm not sure why that is.

Re: Why?

[altered.livejournal.com]

Hi,

Would you mind letting me in on your fiction journal (maybe you've already shared this with all, but I'm fairly new to livejournal...)? My only journal is for a fiction project, and I'd like to check out others in a similar vein.

Thanks,
catherine

Re: Why?

[scottobear.livejournal.com]

oh, sure... jackhammer.livejournal.com

:)

[applelard.livejournal.com]

Hmm...I enjoy LJ because I'm nosy. I like reading about other people's lives and finding out what their little quirks are....their idiosyncrasies. I like knowing that there are people out there who like the weird things I do. :) I've kept up with it because I've developed relationships with these people. I honestly care about what is going on in their lives. Hell, they don't even have to be blatant about it...any links or pictures that get posted are insights (of sorts) into their minds and lives.

The reason I post is because I like to share things with others. I'm not philisophical. I'm not political. I'm just me. I post things that I find interesting/funny/outrageous and that I think someone else might enjoy. I share things that are going on in my life. It also gives me a chance to keep up with people I've known for several years....people who I don't get a chance to talk to very often. It's not always instantaneous feedback and it's not always frequent feedback. But, it's there.

Why do I journal...

[swerve.livejournal.com]

Good question. And maybe one which bears answering in my journal. :)

The primary reason why I journal is to get perspective on my life. For reasons unknown to me, my "default" mode is depression. Without any checks on my attitude, I can find myself getting upset over minor inconveniences and trivialities. When writing, I have an equally natural bent toward humor, and writing about my life reminds me to laugh about it.

The public nature of web publishing, especially the feedback and community I've found in LJ, is why I keep writing. (Pay attention to me! Pay attention to me!)

Re: Why do I journal...

[scottobear.livejournal.com]

certainly. I noticed you'd said to feel freen to pass the link around, so I felt free. I hope I didn't overstep?

I know, the feedback can be quite a rush. :)

Re: Why do I journal...

[swerve.livejournal.com]

Oh no, you didn't overstep. I loved that essay. Feel free. :)

Re: Why do I journal...

[scottobear.livejournal.com]

thanks!

always a pleasure to have you by, too.:)

Hmmm...

[destroll.livejournal.com]

"Well all the other kids were doing it mom...."
lol
Nah.
I started doing it cus it sounded like fun. It still is un so I still do it. If you havent noticed I dont do to many "real" journals though, just what ever is racing through my mind as I sit down in front of my machine.
As for your comment about friends, it seems that the more people I add to my buddies list the less people tend to post while Im online. Momling unit is on when my friends do and she'll tell me that shes gonna be off in a minute, but by the next morning Im still waiting there playing my gameboy or my nintendo. Hmmm come to think of it I just might need to get a life sometime soon....

I'm a sucker for words.

[razz.livejournal.com]

I talk to myself all the time, and sometimes, I'll hit on something I want to remember. I laugh at my own jokes. I read a poem I'll fall in love with and worry that I'll forget about it. I have friends out there who I get to see very rarely, who just want to know that I'm still kickin' and want a dose my quirkiness (go figure -- I call that quirkiness "julido" -- the art of being julie). That's why I scribble something down every day in my LJ.

Writing, in general, kinda cleans the pipes for me -- writing anything -- I'll write a three-line poem on the back of the paper IHOP menus or a line of dialogue for a story across my forearm or plot something down on the back of an ATM receipt. I make the deposit from my mind into reality, and make room for more stuff to load up in the process.

I keep two journals, too, though. The LJ is my scribble pad, and my resurgence journal is my catharsis. When I first put resurgence and the Tan Raspberry website up over a year ago, I told all my friends and family who I knew who Internet access where the site was. I only write in resurgence every few days, sometimes once a week, sometimes once a month, but everything that goes down in it is something I want to get off my chest, remember for proserity, use to check myself against in the future, and inspire other people with. I'm not afraid of it at all, and I'm not afraid of who reads it -- mostly because I'm not afraid of being judged. Maintaining that journal just builds that strength for me.

As for my LJ friends, I don't think I'll be adding any more in the near future. I don't active pursue other LJers, and I like the ones I keep now. Some post all day long, some post once a week, so it's a healthy balance. It only takes me 20 minutes to scan through, and now I have a handful of people who I can jive with pretty well. It helps to be able to multi-task -- write this post, watch High-Fidelity, eat dinner, and download on/listen to Napster all at once. =>

Re: Journaling . . .

[scottobear.livejournal.com]

have you found yourself 'snap-judging' based on Icon at all?

I sometimes wonder if cat icons turn folks off, and certain nostalgia turns them on. a good idea for an experiment!

Re: Journaling . . .

[scottobear.livejournal.com]

I sometimes worry that mine are bland or goofy. I'm not very good at the visual arts.

Re: Journaling . . .

[scottobear.livejournal.com]

thanks! I'm doing ok... just animated gifs now are my thing. want to tweak a pic to look like I'm looking around.

Re: Journaling . . .

[burgundy.livejournal.com]

The only time it bothers me is when people use other people's pictures - for instance, it was very difficult for me to keep an argument going with someone whose icon was Mel Gibson. I had to keep reminding myself that I was not in fact arguing with Mel. And lonesomedwarf does not, in fact, look like hungrybaby. I assume. Other than that, I don't think I've had much of a problem. And I wouldn't not read or not like a journal because of one. Except for something like the swastika one; that might freak me a bit.

Re: Journaling . . .

[scottobear.livejournal.com]

a fair call, I think... I don't think people take me as seriously when I use papasmurf or lorax icons.
is it harder to argue with mel, because he's known, or handsome?

Re: Journaling . . .

[burgundy.livejournal.com]

handsome, piffle. I don't even think he's that cute. It's just this odd feeling, that I'm fighting with Mel Gibson. It would be the same with anyone famous, I think.

Papa Smurf and the Lorax don't do that to me, I guess cause they're fictional. I don't think "Hey, I'm talking to the Lorax," I think, "Cool! There's a guy who likes the Lorax!"

But then, I'm weird. And not at all rational or consistent about a great many things.

Re: Journaling . . .

[scottobear.livejournal.com]

Fair enough. so it's the known-factor for you. that can be a weird thing... I view hungrybaby as fictional, just because I don't think I've seen hungrybaby anywhere else before. :)

I'm glad you're the way you are!