LJ Crossposting still down, use the feed.

[penk]

I'm beginning to think that LiveJournal is losing much of it's appeal and, frankly, community - being steadily replaced with sites that are more than just journal posts (such as Facebook). I will likely continue to use LJ for private / locked postings if I need to, but I'm not going to put a lot of energy into integration.

Livejournal has an 'adequate' RSS feed mechanism, and Planet Geek has an active feed. If you've been reading my journal and reading my posts, and want to continue seeing the, please add the Livejournal RSS feed for Planet-Geek to your friends list, and you won't miss a post.

Comments

[metahacker.livejournal.com]

Wow. I'm surprised to hear you say that. The more I use Facebook, the more I realize that it has a completely different purpose than LJ. It's like the difference between chewing bubble gum and eating food.

[penk.livejournal.com]

Oh i agree. There's different deliverables. But Facebook has taken the idea of "lets put a cute page up for me, and connect with friends" and run with it - they add things, keep the interface clean and useable, and I find it pleasant to check into and peruse.

Livejournal has remained static. It is a journal. People post stuff. That's really about it. Nothing new has happened to LJ in 6 years?

The one function that LJ does for me I can get in my blog software (better in many ways, IMHO). I'm not saying LJ doesn't have a purpose - it does - and I'll continue to fiddle with it, but I find myself less and less interested in what's going on here.

Soon I'll likely set up my friends feed into reader.google.com and basically stop visiting LJ except to post comments, and then what makes LJ any different than every other blog on the planet?

re: and then what makes LJ any different than every other blog on the planet

[etherial.livejournal.com]

The fact that all my friends are here.

[frobzwiththingz.livejournal.com]

Livejournal has remained static. It is a journal. People post stuff. That's really about it. Nothing new has happened to LJ in 6 years?

Nothing other than, well, 6 years of things your friends have thought interesting enough to take the time to post.

How can you possibly say "nothing" has happened here? Are hypothetical flashy dancing web bears written by Russian developers you (a) don't know and (b) probably couldn't hold a real conversation with (i'm assuming you don't speak fluent Russian; correct me if i have guessed wrong) really more important than ideas from your actual community of friends?

"The media is *is* the message", i guess. Feh!

Marshall says..

[sarahshevett.livejournal.com]

""The media is *is* the message", i guess. Feh!"

I thought that was obvious...

[qwrrty.livejournal.com]

I've never been interested in "what's going on" with LiveJournal itself. I agree that Facebook has a crisper interface and shinier toys, and I wouldn't mind the LiveJournal gang taking a page from them and applying some of the same techniques here.

But Facebook is an atrocious example of site design. My "news feed" seems to be constructed out of a purely random sampling of things my friends have been doing in the last ten minutes. The modes for navigating to a particular information node - a status update, a photo, an event -- seem to differ from one thing to another, and once you're there it's hard to figure out how to get somewhere else you're interested.

Facebook is glitzier and more exciting in some ways but there's precious little community there. Kind of like with blogs, in fact.

[blk]

I cannot stand the Facebook news feed, probably because I don't understand how it's composed. I can't figure out how to make a "read only" friends group there; I don't get timestamps to see when something was posted or added; the order of the feed seems random (events I know I've already seen appear near the top, while 'newer' ones are further down).

Plus, the "shinier toys" aspect means things change (and occasionally break) daily. I realize this is a good thing for some folks, but it just makes it more annoying for me, because it's one more thing I have to figure out. Change is BAD.

re: but there's precious little community there

[etherial.livejournal.com]

That's it exactly. I use livejournal to show my friends what I'm thinking and then talk to them about it. Nothing else can hold a candle to it for that.

[metahacker.livejournal.com]

Friends groups.

[blk]

LJ has comment threading, which encourages social interaction and conversation.