What would all you Bloggers do…
If I redesigned my LJ to look like a Blogspot page?!?
You’d all be really conflicted and go like “OH NO, there goes our trendiness! LJ does everything that Blogspot does, and it also adds friend lists! The only thing that separated the two were the cool designs that Blogspot has! Why, Jeffrey, why?!?”
Seriously, I think the only thing that makes LJ different from Blogspot is that most people read your LJ from their friends page, while you have to be coaxed into visiting the person’s site to read their Blogspot – but that’s not really true anymore, since both places offer RSS. Excuse me while I syndicate all your Blogspot pages so they’re back on LJ whether you like it or not! I’m reading all your Blogger blogs from LJ, suckas. You’ve been one-upped!
Now, someone find the post I made back in 2001 or 2002 when I was back on Blogger where I talk about why LJ is so dumb for the same exact reason.
Speaking about Blogger, here’s the Midgar Swamp, with Blogger posts from 2001 to 2003, now on Blogspot:
http://midgarswamp.blogspot.com/
The embarrassment will never cease!
The real difference is a matter of prestige. Livejournal is kind of like an old version of myspace, where kids got to bitch about how shitty their parents are or how much in love with their ex they still are. Political scientists use blogs to make big, educated posts. Thus: LJ is for whiny kids, blogs are for the upper-class of the Internets
Okay, but look at my website:
http://www.jeffreyatw.com
It looks like any other site. Links to other parts of the site, etc. The only thing that points out that it’s based upon LiveJournal is the link to the Friends page, and the fact that I mention LJ in the small description.
Just because it’s based on LJ skews the distinction so much? It’s still available through RSS like any other blog, so I still don’t see how it’s any different from those who aren’t on LJ in the first place.
I think Livejournal is a great medium, personally. And you have certainly tapped into its capabilities. But, like everything, a certain amount of elitism is involved in blogging online–which may or may not be warranted. I mean, you can’t really deny that most LJers (at least, before Myspace rolled around) were whiny little emo kids.
It’s not different at all. But, like your post seems to point to, people would still like to think that one thing is inherently better than the other for whatever “prestigious” reasons.
Don’t forget when you go to comment on the posts. When you do that it’s vanilla Livejournal through it all.
Yes, I know. But you can always completely change that as well, with an S2 style system.
What’s this crap
Well great, somebody moved Upstate New York to live journal and NYC to blogspot. You know what? I have a prestigious amount of hair on my nutsack, does it really matter what form of e-correspondence I use to educate the masses? As I see it, using a blog informs a slightly more sophisticated brand of asshole as opposed to LJ’s white breaded version.
Hell, I didn’t even know or care about the difference until Jeffrey explained this shit to me. I thought LJ WAS a blog. Yeah, 36 hours without sleep. I’ll go peacefully now. WITH MY NUTSACK.
Re: What’s this crap
I think he was sort of being sarcastic.
Re: oh okay
Well, I think I’ll just e-defenstrate, then. *closes window*
Re: oh okay
Only somewhat sarcastic. I mean, I’m posting this shit on my own Livejournal, which I post in whenever I have something worthwhile to say. But that’s honestly been the general feel I get from most people when it comes to comparing the two–it’s not a matter of technical difference, but just a newer form of peer pressure that’s migrated to the online world. You haven’t noticed this sort of stigma?
Doesn’t change the fact that it’s equally as ridiculous as wearing the wrong length of sock or some shit, though.
Re: 10 hours of sleep later..
Yes, better now.
I’ve never been too deeply involved in online journal communities before – I’ve sporadically updated mine on and off since 2003ish – but even then I have noticed a little bit of the stigma you mention. I got the same vibe off of (now very retarded) art communities like dA and sheezy that were just as foolish – brings to mind ‘before you remove the mote from your neighbor’s eye, remove the 2 by 4 from your own’.
I apologize for postin’ comments on little sleep, bombastic, and I hope I didn’t come off the wrong way. You is alright.
Re: 10 hours of sleep later..
Get in a few more conversations with me–you’ll probably begin to find your anger more justified in the future 😛
I dont know anyone who puts half as much thought into this kind of thing as you do.
i wouldn’t care ’cause i read it from my friend’s page 🙂 also i wouldn’t care
*waves* got here from fantasygoat. you sound fun. 😉
Helloe
The reason I stopped using Blogspot was exactly the reason stated: no one read my stuff. :((
I did! 😀
You and two other people!
I must’ve been one of ’em! (Because I syndicated your feed.)
I read all youse ljs and bloggers from google reader. Ummm it’s easier to do every website all in one place. especially when I’m at work so it looks less like I’m surfing the internet since it’s all on one page. that’s it
I just add syndicated feeds to LJ to achieve the same result…
good idea! but it’s a lot of feeds i have 121 feeds now…
wait does google reader allow password protectiness through the livejournal yet? because i want to read friends only things.
and it’s only a little better than the lj friends page anyway..
It looks even less like you’re surfing the internet when you use an RSS reader.
It even sounds important to the brainless pointy-haired-boss types. “What are you doing?” “I’m utilizing my content aggregator to view a wide variety of e-commerce media!” “Carry on!”