Do we need a secondary venue?

[feliciakw]

With the wonkiness of LJ in the past week, a lot of us have been really frustrated with not being able to post, to communicate with one another, to contact peeps we only contact through LJ.

It seems a viable alternative might be prudent.

I know several of my LJ peeps really have no interest in Dreamwidth. I've also seen it indicated that DW users don't want DW to be inundated by LJ users.

It occurs to me that there is another alternative.

Long before I was talked into joining LJ, I was active on a number of Yahoo Groups. For those unfamiliar with YahooGroups, they act in a very similar manner to an LJ comm. I'm not sure about posting vids, and photos are posted in a photo folder available to the group.

Groups can be open or moderated, membership required or not. I spent many, MANY hours on my YahooGroups list. Too many. It's simple, convenient, and serves most of the purposes we use LJ for.

If anyone is interested, let me know. Perhaps a couple of us could start a group and co-mod or something.

Comments

[ficwriter1966.livejournal.com]

I'm thinking that people's lack of interest in Dreamwidth is because there's literally nothing over there. I searched for SPN comms and found only 2 or 3 (and 1 was a slash comm). But if people went over there and built things up, it could be a nice place to hang out.

The elitist DW users who don't want us unwashed LJ-ers over there can seriously go scratch.

I was a member of several Yahoo groups about 6-7 years ago. I find it VERY annoying to use. Cluttered and difficult to keep up with. From my POV Dreamwidth is a much better option.

[feliciakw.livejournal.com]

Interesting. I actually found YahooGroups to be more concise and consolidated than LJ, because all the conversation took place on one board. My lists also had very strict rules about not top-posting, and cutting the extra from the previous post(s) and only quoting the portion you were responding to.

[izhilzha.livejournal.com]

I'm not interested in Dreamwidth, and I think we/fandom/etc have mostly moved on from Yahoo Groups (my writer's group still uses it to communicate, but some of the members are lobbying for a move to Google +).

But as I am not quite as fandom-active (or LJ-active, really) at the moment, my opinion may not be very useful to you. Mostly, I just balk at the idea of adding YET ANOTHER social media type site to my already overloaded internet brain. I can barely remember to back up my LJ, much less copy it over somewhere every time I post, or multi-post things. And I tend to always wonder who I'm going to leave behind when/if I move to new social media....

(I need to make a post about this, perhaps.)

[ficwriter1966.livejournal.com]

Mostly, I just balk at the idea of adding YET ANOTHER social media type site to my already overloaded internet brain.

This.

People keep prodding me to join Facebook and/or Twitter, and while I do have a little bit of curiosity about the whole thing, it's just...too much. I think I'm OK with DW because I'm viewing it as an adjunct to LJ, sort of like checking my Friends page, and then opening someone's post to read more. DW's basically just a backup plan for me right now.

I was very present with the Yahoo groups when I was doing my Planet of the Apes fic about 6-7 years ago, but it was very...messy. People didn't seem to have a handle on how to reply to a post, so I would have to wade through a lot of copied material and weird codes to find someone's 5-word comment. LJ is much, much cleaner (and has more pictures).

Really, I think the problem is that LJ just got way too big for its britches. They keep trying to add new stuff that people mostly hate, and because it's gigantic and very visible, it's an obvious target for people with political grudges. I'm guessing that what DW is now, LJ used to be, back in the day. So I definitely lean in that direction.

[sarcasticval.livejournal.com]

and because it's gigantic and very visible, it's an obvious target for people with political grudges

I really don't get what all the fuss is about. For starters, it's not lj's fault that a group of idiots decided to ruin things for everyone. I mean, when hasn't that happened on the internet? Lj is not alone in that capacity. And secondly, the site didn't just go down for no reason--they were attacked because they were providing people a place to speak freely when they were otherwise denied the ability to do so. Call me crazy, but I can deal with it going down for a few days if that is indeed the reason why.

[ficwriter1966.livejournal.com]

From what I've read - I get the feeling that it's more than a bunch of bored hackers deciding to cause trouble for somebody they don't agree with. Each new wave of attack is bigger and harder to defeat, so it seems to me that they're determined to keep at it until they achieve their goal. It wouldn't surprise me at all, if with the next try, or the next, they manage to create a lot of irreparable damage.

No, I don't think it's LJ's "fault," but I've always been of the opinion that if you make yourself visible, you're more likely to get whacked. This particular outage is what, more than a week old now? How much longer until we can post something that's more than a few hundred words long? I got tired of waiting, so I shifted over to DW, which allows me to do what I want to do. I'm paying for both accounts, so I don't feel like I'm doing anything wrong. We had a major highway/bridge closure here for a couple of weeks, and I didn't stop going to work because my normal route was closed - I found another route. Same deal here.

[sarcasticval.livejournal.com]

If you aren't a fan of the visibility of lj than dreamwidth probably is a much better choice. But I think the price of belonging to a smaller community is, well, a smaller community. If people primarily enjoy online journaling because of the fannish aspect, I think this really is the best place for it.

Personally I love the interactivity that lj provides, the communities, the nested comments. And as someone who has been on lj for over ten years I've been witness to the whole "something breaks, everybody freaks out" cycle a few times now.(And, really, what form of social media HASN'T screwed the pooch in the past year? Facebook is constantly encroaching on user privacy, twitter fail whales at least once a week.) All I can say is do what makes you happy. But in response to feliciakw's initial question: this is where I've been and this is where I will always be. For me, personally, nothing else compares.

[izhilzha.livejournal.com]

This. Basically, this.

[ficwriter1966.livejournal.com]

I guess...blame it on my being a relative newbie. I've only been with LJ for 4 years, and this is the first serious outage I've experienced. As for Facebook and Twitter, I avoid those mostly because they're so huge. (There's a stubborn streak in me that balks at being told "You have to do it! Everybody else is!" - I don't even have a cell phone, and see no real reason to get one.) I guess I just *like* small and low key. I'll agree that LJ offers a lot of shiny options, but I'd happily settle for something in between - a bit more options than DW has now, but keeping its kind of low-key feeling.

But yeah. Everybody's got their preferences. :)

[kerravonsen]

I don't even have a cell phone, and see no real reason to get one.

I am not alone!

[leelust.livejournal.com]

Not a fan of FB at all but i find Twitter helpful when you can't access LJ and need to let your friends know what happened or know what happened with them.

[feliciakw.livejournal.com]

How do you back up your LJ?

[ficwriter1966.livejournal.com]

I know there's a way to back up your journal by downloading it to your computer, but that's kind beyond my pay grade. Too complicated for me to even attempt.

If your journal is relatively small, you can mirror the whole thing over at DW. A few flisties have done that, and I tried it, but I've got way too much material. Basically got an error message saying "Whoa! Whoa! Too much!" and there's no way to tell it, "Just copy *these* posts." But yours is much less extensive than mine, so you could probably do it. It's like a 3-click process.

[izhilzha.livejournal.com]

It's actually not hard at all, even for those of us who are not great at computer stuff. I'll go find the download site for the program that I use, and link you--it's just an application you install on your computer, which will then copy for you (when you tell it to) your entire journal contents and save them on your hard drive.

Very very simple. (At least the one that I've used.)

[ficwriter1966.livejournal.com]

Seriously? Wow. 'Cause the person who tried to tell me how to do it a couple years back...I had no clue what they were saying. Good to know that there's a simpler method!

[feliciakw.livejournal.com]

That would be awesome if you could send me that link. Also, we just booked our flight. Still need to look into the hotel room, though.

[kerravonsen]

I just balk at the idea of adding YET ANOTHER social media type site to my already overloaded internet brain.

Yes, THIS.

[leelust.livejournal.com]

I'm ok with that thought. I'm already a member of several Yahoo groups and thinking about joining another one so if you decide to create another one for your flist i'm in.

[feliciakw.livejournal.com]

It doesn't look like I'll be going the Groups route. I'm getting a very clear message that no one is interested.

[leelust.livejournal.com]

Well, at least if you decide to have one you know i'm in.

[feliciakw.livejournal.com]

Yes, indeedy.

[kerravonsen]

I'm on DW and I crosspost everything, and I would much prefer to not have to join something else as well.
I really don't think you should rule out DW as an option.

[feliciakw.livejournal.com]

The only way I could even think of considering DW is if there's a free option. I'm already paying for LJ. I can't afford to pay for two social networking sites.

[kerravonsen]

Er. there IS a free option. You just need to ask someone already on DW for an invite code, you use the invite code, and you get a free journal.
I'm puzzled that you thought there wasn't a free option.

[feliciakw.livejournal.com]

Well, that's what I mean. Up-thread, someone said they paid into a new DW account, and I remember when several of my f-listies had those free invite codes to give away, but it sounded like those were limited time things. (Like a person would have 5 invite codes to give away, and once they were gone, that was it.)

I didn't know if there was an option to just go to DW and sign up like I did with LJ, where I created an account, selected an option, and voila.

[kerravonsen]

Yes, people do get a finite number of invite codes, but they keep on being given more. Me, I have more invite codes than I know what to do with, I've just given up on informing people because nobody seemed to be interested.

There's also a comm on DW which is specifically for people looking for invite codes, or looking to give them away. So it really is not hard to get them! The main purpose of invite codes, IMHO, is to keep out spambots.