From my Profile:
Jul. 20th, 2003 02:04 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
libertangoI just put this on my profile, but people might have some ideas about it. So:
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Statement up front: I think one of the biggest tactical errors made when LJ was being designed was labelling journals one frequently reads, "friends". Because a lot of people seem to take that term literally when there's no practical or functional reason to do so.
My own view: LJ is basically like a newsstand. It's a public place, with journals -- magazines, periodicals -- publicly available. When I add you as a "friend", what I'm really saying is that I find your writing or photography interesting enough that I would like to read or view your journal on a regular basis, and I want the convenience of having it on my friends' page. That's it.
The more LJs I see, the more I think "Friends Only" journals are not just inconvenient, they're actively destructive to LJ as a culture. Because LJ is a community, first and foremost. A "Friends Only" journal is like a walled, gated development with a "keep out" sign out front. The Internet is a Big Place. Pretending it's your private back garden leads only to frustration for everybody.
Your Mileage May Vary, obviously. But if you're looking at this page because I just added you and you have no idea who I am... That's why. I go through LJ communities, I go through the random links, I look at friends-of-friends-of-friends... I'm just looking for bright, funny, interesting LJs to read or view (the last because I like photography).
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Statement up front: I think one of the biggest tactical errors made when LJ was being designed was labelling journals one frequently reads, "friends". Because a lot of people seem to take that term literally when there's no practical or functional reason to do so.
My own view: LJ is basically like a newsstand. It's a public place, with journals -- magazines, periodicals -- publicly available. When I add you as a "friend", what I'm really saying is that I find your writing or photography interesting enough that I would like to read or view your journal on a regular basis, and I want the convenience of having it on my friends' page. That's it.
The more LJs I see, the more I think "Friends Only" journals are not just inconvenient, they're actively destructive to LJ as a culture. Because LJ is a community, first and foremost. A "Friends Only" journal is like a walled, gated development with a "keep out" sign out front. The Internet is a Big Place. Pretending it's your private back garden leads only to frustration for everybody.
Your Mileage May Vary, obviously. But if you're looking at this page because I just added you and you have no idea who I am... That's why. I go through LJ communities, I go through the random links, I look at friends-of-friends-of-friends... I'm just looking for bright, funny, interesting LJs to read or view (the last because I like photography).
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no subject
Date: 2003-07-20 07:26 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2003-07-20 02:16 pm (UTC)Or something.
In other words, not unlike netiquette, I'd say that one of the costs should be commentary on how This Isn't Done.
no subject
Date: 2003-07-20 06:03 pm (UTC)I use LiveJournal to chronicle experiences in my life.. It is easier for me to keep an electronic copy then a written one, also I am more inclined to write if I can access and upload it to a central location at anytime. It's convenient.
Unfortunately, when one looked up "sicarii" in a search engine, my journal popped up as the second search result... (now it is the 10th in Google) which gave a lot of people access to my personal information. Also, I knew people from LJ who ran into problems when their employer found their public LJ.
So, now I lock it down. I am able to control who has access to my journal. Yes, I agree that LJ mislabeled this particular privacy option by calling it friends. Maybe "restricted" would have been a better term. ... but of course, that has an elitist and slightly negative connotation. *shrugs*
no subject
Date: 2003-07-24 06:08 pm (UTC)Yes, you are.
And I like your journal.
And I'm not going to go and so some post facto cut from my friends' list of those journals that are friends-only.
But.
But for reasons I just posted, I really am afraid of this trend in the big picture of LJ. Individuals make individual decisions, for individual reasons. If being private in the way you describe is that important for you, then mazeltov, god bless, and have at.
But in the aggregate -- meaning, not you :) -- I think most of these things are like Calvin and Hobbes' treehouse. It's secrecy not for the sake of having to protect genuinely confidential information, but to play in-group/out-group primate games.
And, mind you, it's very much a sign of the times. Most of the things classified as "national security" fall into the same category. And my original swipe at gated communities is because they're another aspect of the same trend.
To me, this is all a way for lonely people to console themselves. And it's counter-productive, even on its own terms -- the way to have a friendlier, less lonely world is to wear away at the barriers, not put up more.
As I say, this isn't directed at you specifically... But I hope it expresses my larger concern, not just for LJ but for America as a whole.
no subject
Date: 2003-08-01 01:34 pm (UTC)This is the second time in less than six months I've seen the reasons behind gated communities explored. This, after a lifetime of having them held up as the pinnacle of human habitation, is interesting.
I *hate* them.
My architecture guru, Mr. Wells, mentions that walls around communities are built out of fear. People who live in gated communities are choosing a place to live based on fear of "those people" coming in. Who are "those people"? You got me. But the inhabitants of those gated communities would rather present blank, stark walls to the world than allow it in.
There are some posts that are filtered in my journal, only because they are vents, rants aimed at someone in my life, who sometimes does read my journal, and those things, written in anger and frustration, would do more damage to my relationship than I feel like repairing. Or, they may be patently unfair, and devilishly hard to take back. Anyway, back to my regularly scheduled job.