Arstechnica Article on LJ (and DW, in a small way)

[brokenmnemonic]

I saw this article on Twitter, and spent an amiable few minutes reading through it. I was fairly late to LJ - I think I joined in or around 2004, having been led there by someone in a Battlestar Galatica RP forum. I started using LJ less when work soft-blocked it, by making it impossible to connect to the page that indicated a successful login, and then gave up completely when the new Russian owners changed the ToS to allow them to block LGBTQIA+ content, because to hell with that.

Arstechnica - "The Linux of social media" — How LiveJournal pioneered (then lost) blogging

I remember trying InsaneJournal for a while, but I've always been a bit slow to adapt to new social things/platforms/experiences/etc, but I liked LJ. I was comfortable with it, I knew nice people there, I liked the community. I don't miss the drama that erupted at times...

I'm lucky; a few of the people I got to know on LJ are still around and talking to me via various means, but I have the feeling that I'll never again have the experience that being part of a big BSG shipper community on LJ was. While there are reasons I should maybe be glad of that, they're nowhere near as important as the reasons that I'm sad about it; the people I got to know on LJ made a huge impact on my life, who I am, and what I did/do.

Thanks for all the fish?

Comments

[yourlibrarian]

One of the things that surprised me in the comments were people who had never heard of the site. I get not having used it but for a while it was a major space online.

[brokenmnemonic]

That did make me wonder if the LJ's decline as a focus of attention started earlier than I thought it did... although it was also a faintly uncomfortable reminder that I got started on LJ almost 15 years ago, which doesn't seem possible.

[goodbyebird]

Yeah, it's been sad to lose a big part of that community when people moved on, and the whole thing fragmented. Still grateful for the time spent there, and the people and communities I got to know. (SO thankful for VidUKon in my life *clings*)

And now I'm making a home here on dreamwidth, so you could say I'm still fishing ;)
*throws another bait onto twitter and cackles maniacly*

Communities seem to be experiencing a resurgence at the moment here, so I'm hoping that will stick!

[brokenmnemonic]

Did I ... not reply to this? I was sure I did. I remember typing the message out, and everything.

I may be going a bit loopy...

[goodbyebird]

lol no worries ♥

[anr]

Interesting read! I was surprised by how much I actually remembered happening, though for me it was obviously from the "general user" perspective.