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yes and no
First - hey paid members, this is for you.
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Next - I have been thinking tonight of things that I like and do not like on LJ.
I generally like most people I come across. There are good ideas, interesting thoughts, and so on to be seen here. I don't know how to say this without it sounding trite - it's no great revelation.
However, there are things that I notice and either look askance at, or think are just plain...
weird.
One thing that I dislike is snobbery and politicking. This creeps in in a lot of ways... whether it's stuff I've been feeling lately about a former friend cozening up to someone on my friends list (something I really want to stay out of - I like the person involved & don't want to create a political issue out of it), or debating whether to add a controversial figure to mine, or seeing other people fight about silly things... that sort of thing. I think the usual appropriate response is to do nothing in either direction. Throw my hands up in the air and either ignore whatever is going on, or, if I am involved, try to behave like a grownup rather than a junior high school girl. I don't like cliques, cabals, or most cults of personality.
One of my utmost dislikes is the rather posturing debate about what differentiates a "journal" from a "mere diary". Don't try so fucking hard. I'm here because I want to know how your day was, not read your little prefab essay that is supposed to prove how brilliant and talented you are. "jour" is the french word for "day" - both "diary" and "journal" refer to daily records. I like to read people's commentary about things they've watched or seen, and I like to see the occasional photo. I do not like to feel like someone is putting on a show. (I keep people like that off my list, usually... I just can't deal with the pretentions.)
Speaking of prefab - yes, in most cases, it bothers me when I feel that someone has written an entire entry (not fiction or poetry or anything, that's a little different) in a notebook first and then rewritten it to put up here on LJ, usually turning absolutely every sentence into a metaphor. And speaking of metaphor, poetry is not entirely comprised thereof. There has to be an idea behind it... or more often, several. Bad poetry makes my teeth hurt. (especially when i'm the perp.)
I'm really not ragging on anyone in particular... in fact, if you're reading this, it's a pretty safe bet that I'm not referring to you. More just... journals I've stumbled on and run from while choking on my screams, and debates I see either in my friends' comment areas, or referred to in their entries or in the public forums relating to LJ.
This is a good place, and still a very good thing in spite of its problems.
-
Next - I have been thinking tonight of things that I like and do not like on LJ.
I generally like most people I come across. There are good ideas, interesting thoughts, and so on to be seen here. I don't know how to say this without it sounding trite - it's no great revelation.
However, there are things that I notice and either look askance at, or think are just plain...
weird.
One thing that I dislike is snobbery and politicking. This creeps in in a lot of ways... whether it's stuff I've been feeling lately about a former friend cozening up to someone on my friends list (something I really want to stay out of - I like the person involved & don't want to create a political issue out of it), or debating whether to add a controversial figure to mine, or seeing other people fight about silly things... that sort of thing. I think the usual appropriate response is to do nothing in either direction. Throw my hands up in the air and either ignore whatever is going on, or, if I am involved, try to behave like a grownup rather than a junior high school girl. I don't like cliques, cabals, or most cults of personality.
One of my utmost dislikes is the rather posturing debate about what differentiates a "journal" from a "mere diary". Don't try so fucking hard. I'm here because I want to know how your day was, not read your little prefab essay that is supposed to prove how brilliant and talented you are. "jour" is the french word for "day" - both "diary" and "journal" refer to daily records. I like to read people's commentary about things they've watched or seen, and I like to see the occasional photo. I do not like to feel like someone is putting on a show. (I keep people like that off my list, usually... I just can't deal with the pretentions.)
Speaking of prefab - yes, in most cases, it bothers me when I feel that someone has written an entire entry (not fiction or poetry or anything, that's a little different) in a notebook first and then rewritten it to put up here on LJ, usually turning absolutely every sentence into a metaphor. And speaking of metaphor, poetry is not entirely comprised thereof. There has to be an idea behind it... or more often, several. Bad poetry makes my teeth hurt. (especially when i'm the perp.)
I'm really not ragging on anyone in particular... in fact, if you're reading this, it's a pretty safe bet that I'm not referring to you. More just... journals I've stumbled on and run from while choking on my screams, and debates I see either in my friends' comment areas, or referred to in their entries or in the public forums relating to LJ.
This is a good place, and still a very good thing in spite of its problems.
no subject
My journal would probably fall more into the pretentious/overwrought category than most, but then I always expected it to be seen that way. And those are also the journals I tend to enjoy reading the most. I like to write, and that's what my journal's for. You've got a different perspective.
A matter of taste, perhaps?
The literal definition of a word like journal or diary or art for that matter, usually doesn't mean much to people who fancy themselves artists...
I agree about the politics - though I think that's something that any community or (sub) culture has to deal with.
no subject
but... I think there is a fine line. Of course people should do what they want to do... I just think... there should be some humility involved, I guess. If a person wants to be known as "the best writer", via what is supposed to be a record of their life and thoughts... it seems kind of skewed to me, the motives seem questionable (whereas, wanting to be known as a fantastic writer via one's own fiction, poetry, etc, posted on one's own webpage or on themestream or something is different). I suppose it's the idea that people are writing and rewriting and getting into some... dishonesty (about spontaneity, or even about events themselves)... that bothers me... if it appears to me that they're doing it to get attention or to try to impress people. Specifically, if someone writes an entry, cool, that's how it came out. If someone writes an entry on paper, attacks it with a thesaurus, rewrites, etc, before finally posting it... that's not "real". It's an artificial process. & fiction & poetry & essays are fine if ppl want to post them, but there is a difference between the daily record and such. (& if you remember certain scandals about fake journals, you'll understand what i mean, i think.)
specifically with the "literal definition" bit, I was thinking of the apocryphal person who says "I don't keep a [*sniff*] diary, I keep a journal" - as if a diary is a simple matter of "I bought beans today" and a journal is something far, far more honorable and lofty and above all that. I think... they're the same thing. They're "what you make of it", not a definition in themselves. There is nothing "more special" about keeping something that you call a "journal" vs keeping something that you call a "diary".
(of course, not "you personally", i mean the "general you, one, etc"! :)
no subject
I don't like bad writing either, but, unfortunately or not, 'bad' is pretty hard to define. :)
nope...