Sitting in Anchorage airport

[stormkeeper_lovedoris]

Coming home from a wonderful cruise to Alaska, with my partner, BFF, and BFF's family. I know I should post pictures and stuff but they are all on Doris's camera. And what I really want to write about is...

...I am sad that LJ feels like a ghost town. I like journals. I like LJ. Are people just not in the mood to write long journal entries? Are FB and Twitter just easier? I know a lot of folks use Dreamwidth and wordpress now instead...are they better populated than LJ? And if so, why?

In any case, I've kept this journal for nearly 9 years and I don't plan to leave LJ. I also want to thank the folks who are on here and do comment.

Comments

[denisia.livejournal.com]

oops, the anon comment is me!

Welcome back!!! :)

I'm not inclined to use LJ as much since I have such a small audience here. Also, I don't like the way LJ is run and the way they treat their customers so they will never get another dime out of me. I do have a Dreamwidth and I just cross-post all my entries from there; the only reason I haven't deleted my LJ altogether is because there are about four people who won't go to DW.

I write a lot of private posts on my DW and I email and Facebook message with friend so I'm just as interested in talking and interacting. It's just that LJ no longer seems like a good venue for that.

I do think it's a vicious circle though: Smaller audience ---> Lack of interest in posting ---> Less interest in reading b/c there's nothing to read ---> Leaving for other places online ---> Smaller audience. I also think that some of LJ's actions, such as the Great Fanfic Purge a few years back, have also turned a lot of people off to the site and prompted them to leave.

[stormkpr.livejournal.com]

So do you think LJ has evaporated because people got pissed at how they are run, they found other venues, and then the vicious circle began? Also, do you think that DW and wordpress are more popular and more used?

[denisia.livejournal.com]

Yep. I know that when the Great Fanfic Purge happened the DW sign-ups went sky-high, and the same has happened when LJ has introduced boneheaded stuff like cross-posting to Facebook.

I do think Dreamwidth is probably more popular for fan stuff right now, but because a lot of people won't decamp from LJ, it is still picking up steam. A lot of people do what I do, which is to post on DW and then cross-post to LJ, and delete the LJ posts later. Wordpress is super popular (I have a journal there, anonymously) but I think the difference is that it's public and it's harder to customize a friends-only experience over there. So I think it's popular for those who want to rant or make a public journal but perhaps not so much for those who want to make a personal one.

[stormkpr.livejournal.com]

Interesting. I checked out DW a while ago but I will take another look at it. I know LJ has had its issues but they never really bothered me that much.

Thanks for explaining Wordpress too. I guess my main purposes for journaling are fandom and personal, so maybe Wordpress wouldn't make sense for me. But I should look at it too.

[denisia.livejournal.com]

You can always do what I do, if you don't want to leave LJ completely - you can cross-post from DW. You can set DW to respect your friends filter groups, so whatever you post on DW will show up exactly the same way on LJ.

I import my comments from LJ to DW and then delete my posts here - because I don't trust LJ enough to leave anything archived here - but you don't have to do that, of course.

If you do decide you want to try out DW and you need an invite code, please let me know, I have plenty to share.

DW invite code

[stormkpr.livejournal.com]

What the heck, if you have an extra DW invite code, I will take it. I likely won't have time to play around in DW till next weekend and I don't know whether or not I'll get into it, but I'd like to try. For some reason, I am really really missing LJ being active so I'm going to go ahead and give DW a try.

I'm not sure where I'll start with DW because it looks like they don't have an active Drag Race comm, and I tend to connect LJ with fandom, but it's still worth me investigating.


Thank you.

Re: DW invite code

[denisia.livejournal.com]

I went to generate an invite code and it turns out...I don't need to give you one, because they're having open enrollment right now! So you can just go on over and sign up for an account at any time. :)

I'm denisia over there too, so look for me if you decide to jump in.

And I do agree with you - it is sad to see how much LJ has fallen off. Even four or five years ago, the communities were hopping, people posted every day, and there were a lot of great discussions happening. It's a shame that isn't the case now.

Re: DW invite code

[stormkpr.livejournal.com]

Thanks! That is good to know.

And thanks for sharing that you, too, are sad to see LJ falling off. Despite its faults, I like it and I don't feel like anything else out there offers all it does. But maybe I will fall in love with DW?

[maddiec24.livejournal.com]

yay! Glad you had a good time, but missed you here.

I'm sad that so few people are on LJ, too. Back, say, 7 or 8 years ago, I had so many friends on here, and everyone was posting... but I'm not leaving. I haven't gone over to Dreamwidth, either. I don't want to get used to another new journal. I don't like Facebook as much as LJ. I have family on Facebook and how can I complain about them on FB? LOL

I have a Twitter account. I haven't bee on there in a year, and I never posted an original tweet, it was all retweeting.

[stormkpr.livejournal.com]

Just as you said - we used to have so many friends on here, it was really fun! Sad to see it is almost gone.