Where do people post?

[watervole]

 I've noticed a definite pattern in people who are now posting on Google + (or who at least have a presence there).

People I know from Eastercons are over there in droves.

People I know from Blake's 7 fandom are almost totally absent (apart from a couple who also go to Eastercons).

I don't know how long LJ is going to be down, but I'm missing it.  Google+ is great for conferences, quick comments and posting photos, but it's not good for the longer, more thoughtful postings that Livejournal and Dreamwidth are more suited to.

Things fly by on Google+.  There's usually something to read, but I could easily miss a long, interesting post in the stream.

Dreamwidth is at present free from the DDOS attacks that LJ if plagued with.  It's not guaranteed that this will always be the case (though I hope for both services to be free from such assaults).

What worries me is that I'm seeing less and less on LJ as time goes by.  (partly, but not totally compensated for by more on DW)

I feel as though a community of friends is slowly bleeding away. 

I know many people went to Facebook - that was when the posting rate on LJ started to fall.  Facebook isn't a place that works well for me.  It's suited to the fleeting, even more so than G+

I don't know how to find people when they post the long, thoughtful posts - if indeed they still post them at all.  LJ is down and I miss the B7 people.  (it's not that I ever talk about B7 any more, it's just that I made some very good friends via that show)

Comments

[keris]

Geeks are on Google+, and some friends-of-geeks. It's pretty unfriendly to non-geeks (the use of the old *bold*, _italic_, -strikeout-, for instance, is decidedly unfriendly to people used to ^B, ^U, ^S and to buttons to do that sort of thing), and few people have really got the hang of circles (I leave it looking at the whole stream and I gather so do most people).

I've commented there about the fragmentation and the reduction in LJ posts. There is now nowhere I can go to contact "all online UK filkers" (a load no longer seem to look at the filk_uk mailing list even), I'd have to post the same thing on several LJ communities plus Facebook plus Twitter plus Google+ (thus guaranteeing that I'd annoy some people who see the same thing several times and still miss others).

I also know several people who seem to have abandoned the "long thoughtful posts" in favour of twitterings and other snippets, most of which are copies from somewhere else (re-tweets or G+ shares or whatever).

It seems to me that the so-called 'social' sites have actually made people less social, breaking up groups, especially those with Real World(tm) connections. Yes, they may now have followers around the world but their local circles are breaking apart.

[watervole]

You're bang on the nail when you talk about the filkers.

There are other communities getting fragmented too and I don't know what to do about it.

I don't want to be able to see posts from lots and lots of people. I want to be able to read the people I really like and see them commenting on one another's posts.

[keris]

I don't know what can be done about it. They are all grown adults and it's their choice if they don't want to talk to their friends.

Actually, what I want is Usenet, where people could join 'communities' as they wished (no registration etc.), and could filter properly (for instance I only want to read X's posts when they are replies to Y or to a thread where I've posted, and want to see Z's posts except when they are in a thread I've blocked, etc.). And where it was visible when someone commented, and posts or threads could be sorted. But that was back when people all had to use the same system (because that's all there was), and before it all became about "MY circle" and "MY journal" and the egotrip of having "followers". I think it's a disease of the society, connected to things like 'entitlement' (internet access is a "human right"? However did the monkey-people survive for so many thousand years without it?).

[watervole]

I think some places got killed by trolls.

I've lost too many friends as the internet has changed. I don't want to lose more. But I think it's going to happen.

[lexin]

Actually, what I want is Usenet

Oh, yes, so do I! So, so much.

[thebobby]

Seconded! Though I don't think it much would replace blogs, Google+ maybe, but all those different web forums that are out there should just be front ends to usenet, because that's all they're really doing.

[inamac]

What Keris says. I'm in the process of fragmenting my journal (because I have a lot of interlocking fandoms, and not all of them want to talk to each other.

Increasingly I'm seeing social networking sites used to set up real-life meetups - which is a Good Thing - rather than as meeting places in their own right.

I don't use Twitter, or facebook or Google+ because of the 'real names' thing - and that seems to be the case with most of my online fannish contacts. (Though my sister really can't understand why I won't facebook just for her.)

And the cat world is still using Yahoo, which is scarily basic!

[watervole]

Google + will allow accounts for long-established alter egos.

they disallowed Darth Tigger, but reinstated her when she set up a profile page showing more about her fannish interests and linking to other places where she has used the name for a long time.

[kerravonsen]

I'm not happy with their tendency to suspend first and ask questions afterwards.
I don't trust them, not after this: http://www.zdnet.com/blog/violetblue/google-plus-deleting-accounts-en-masse-no-clear-answers/567

[keris]

"the cat world is still using Yahoo"

All those cats talking to each other on Yahoo -- "O HAI!" *g*.

[kerravonsen]

I crosspost on DW and LJ but I know I haven't been posting much recently; a combination of RL stuff and fannish deadlines.

There is no way I will get a Facebook or Google+ account; I like my privacy.

I've been posting on Twitter; that comes and goes.

[watervole]

Must admit that I don't see much of a privacy problem on G+. You set up circles just as you do on DW - only those you admit can read what you post.

[kerravonsen]

It's the fact that they demand your real name that makes me shun them.

Besides which, why do I have to join YET ANOTHER social networking site? It's hard enough to keep up with the ones I'm on as it is.

[keris]

Demand and insist on displaying, is the point. I doubt that many people, even onews with reason to be paranoid, would be too bothered about giving their real name (after all you have to give it to your ISP and mobile and other providers anyway). It's Google's insistence that they will then display your name, with no opt-out, which is stopping a lot of people I know from going anywhere near it.

Agreed about joining yet another site. It's why people I know but keep their own site (and don't cross-post to LJ or DW) are ones I hardly ever read, I'm not going to spend the day site-hopping just in case someone has posted something somewhere on the net.

[watervole]

That's it entirely. Life is too short (and RSI too real) to hunt people down all over the web.

[undyingking]

It will only display your name to people whom you've chosen to add to your circles, though: you can make your profile and posts invisible to the general public.

(And, actually, it doesn't have to be your real name, just a plausible one: they don't ask for supporting documentation.)

[watervole]

What is the problem with real names in your case?

Is it that there are people out there who would be abusive?

Or is it something else?

(Not saying you should join G+, just trying to understand the issue)

[kerravonsen]

It's the principle of the thing. I know I've said before that I don't worry too much about hiding my real name from the net, but I don't put it up everywhere. Even though I put my full name on my fic, you'll note that on my LJ and DW my "name" is down as "Kathryn A", not my full name. My real name is discoverable, but most people won't bother to look. That's an entirely different proposition to having no choice as to whether I put my real name on things or not. Many many years ago, I had my work phone number in my .signature file when I participated on Usenet and mailing lists. Then this random stranger rang me up at work. The phone number was out of my .sig as soon as I put the phone down. Just because I haven't had trouble, doesn't mean I should go asking for it.

And I am ANGRY on behalf of the people for whom it is a life (or life-and-death) issue.

[vilakins]

I'm feeling the same way. I noticed, even before the DDOS on LJ, then people were drifting away to places like Facebook (which I find fragmentary and hard to have a conversation on) and Twitter (which I refuse to have anything to do with). As for DW, although most of my friends have accounts here, vre few of them actually post.

My on-line friends are those I share interests with, and it's hard to find people like that in RL, so I'm very worried about losing contact with those people.

[watervole]

I'm hoping that more of the people who have accounts here will start using them, but it doesn't seem to be happening.

Few people near where I live share my fannish interests. I need this contact.

[keris]

Actually, if the last couple of days are a guide, it does seem to be happening. My average (median) day sees 3-4 new threads on my reading list on DW, yesterday was about 10 and there are 6 already today, and most of them have been from people who rarely post here. I've actually made a couple of posts, which doubles my total on DW since I joined! And comment counts are up as well.

[lexin]

I dislike facebook, but use it reluctantly because my trade union contacts use it. Google+ would be better for that, but they seem slow to come over - and it can't be because of the names thing, because only a few of them are pseudonymous.

[watervole]

I've used G+ for two online meetings now and both went very well.

We've already written online meetings into the constitution of our Dupuytren's charity.

I prefer the general feel of G+ to Facebook. Hard to put my finger on why, but it may be the lack of silly aps.

[alexmc]

> Things fly by on Google+. There's usually something to read, but I could easily miss a long, interesting post in the stream.

Yep. That is a problem for me. I recently spotted a browser plugin which easily enables me to store posts urls in Delicious (my normal bookmark manager) and thus I might be able to use Delicious' tagging system, but I'd prefer one built in to G+

[cobrabay]

I've had a Dreamwidth account for ages, but some reason I've never quite got used to it. Where LJ seemed pretty obvious, and Google+ clicked with me immediately, I find myself metaphorically turning over and squinting at Dreamwidth while muttering "how do you switch this thing on?"
I'm with Keris though, what I really miss is Usenet. Oddly enough one of the fastest growing circles I have on G+ is people I met through the old uk.media.tv.sf.babylon5 news group.

[watervole]

Odd. I found circles in G+ easy to use because I already used DW that way. The people who can read my private stuff may/may not be the same as those who allow me to read their private stuff.

[keris]

(Try that again!)

I like the idea of the DW separation of church and state subscription and permission-to-read, but so far I've had little reason to not do both. I believe in a couple of cases I give access but don't subscribe to the person, and in one I do the reverse (at least I did at one time, I may have given them access as well). So far the low number of people and low frequency of posting have made it unnecessary even to set up any filters.

On LJ I have removed a few people from my default flist (mainly because of abuses like posting lots of large pictures, or preformatted text which breaks the flist, or flooding the flist with lots of small twitter-like messages in a day).

[sheenaghpugh]

I only come over here when LJ's down... but then it has been for rather a long time now.

[undyingking]

LJ activity among my own friends has been slowly fading away for a few years now. Pity, but I guess it's natural for these things to have a lifetime. If it goes for good, I'll probably start a WordPress blog or sthg like that, rather than come over to DW; because only a very few of my friends are active here.

[rockwell-666.livejournal.com]

I've already commented that I don't like Google Mail.

I like Google+ even less.

Google started off as a nice idea with a philosophy of "Do no evil", but if you read The Register as I do you may start feeling more and more that the original good intentions have been slowly but surely worn away and that it is now starting to run out of control.

More and more it seems that, like Facebook, its users are simply there as a method to allow advertisers to push their products and concepts such as privacy and data security are going by the board as others have commented on your Dreamwidth posts.

[stevegreen.livejournal.com]

Facebook is a noticeboard for brief, fleeting comments on events; LiveJournal is a forum for opinion and debate. I use both, and will continue to do so.

[raspberryfool.livejournal.com]

I've commented before that I have no intention of using Google+; whilst it might be a useful tool - as you've found - for video conferencing, I've no need for that kind of interactivity. And whilst Facebook/Twitter are great for posting short, two-line updates, photos etc., I find LJ much more useful for long, reflective posts, even though I don't post much these days. I use LJ as an online 'diary' as I always did.

Some of my Facebook friends (I don't 'friend' folk I don't know in RL) post chaff about their boyfriends/girlfriends/TV shows etc that i don't even understand, or stuff about online farms. Strange days.

I guess it's inevitable that the B7 or any fan community will move on; there are other fandoms and people move on with their lives and fandoms become less important in their lives.

I too hope that LJ doesn't succumb to the DOS attacks.

[exmoor-cat.livejournal.com]

I have G+ and gmail. Trouble I am having is the way the yahoo-Lj-facebook logging in and checking is hardwired and I have to remember to check anything else. It's also why my old blogger blog fell over.

[robinbloke.livejournal.com]

The blogging mentality of people seems to have slipped away to more short term pandering to the generation of quiz's and lolcats of facebook along with it's event organising this coupled with twitters micro-blogging there's not much left for "old style" bloggers excepting those that haven't switched mediums and those who have an agenda/reviews/etc to pimp.

Sad really :(

I'm thinking I need to archive LJ in case it snuffs it, but it's still very strong in Russia so should be live for a while yet!

[davidwake.livejournal.com]

I find LiveJournal rather ephemeral too and can't find anywhere for good discussions of things. I miss CIX from way back.

[j-lj.livejournal.com]

I use Facebook for short messages and chatting with friends and acquaintances. It's the place where all my interests collide SF Fandom, Disney, 1940's events and living history & dances, aviation, military vehicles and historical railways.

I use LJ to blog with my fanish friends.

Not realy started using Google+ just yet, I'm sitting on the fence to see how many of my Facebook friends move over.