SO's on LJ?

[jay]

My primary, Pat, now has her own LJ page (see patgreene). This should be interesting... will there be entries that we don't want the other to see (say, venting about the other)? Should we be on each others' friends list? I'd be interested if anyone reading this has experience/advice... this is my first SO that has had an LJ account. Although she seems a bit unsure about the medium, so far...

Comments

[therealjae.livejournal.com]

Iain and I both have livejournals, and are not on each other's friends lists.

It's a bit of a weird situation because livejournal started out as something quite different to me than it tends to be to my wombat/alt.poly friends, and I still want to preserve what it was meant to be. Originally, it was a way of getting closer to a particular group of people at a particular time, and it's since become something like a mixture of that and a writing journal. When friends from other walks of life (very very other, to some extent) started adding me, I had to make a decision about who would be on my friends list if I didn't want to change the whole tone of my journal, and I finally decided on three criteria: people who a) are friends of mine, b) are readers of mine, and c) keep their own livejournals get added once they add me.

I've found myself really wishing the livejournal folks had decided to call the "friends" list something more neutral, because I'm certainly better friends with some of the people who aren't on my friends list than I am with some of the people who are. I'm not snubbing people; I'm simply trying to preserve the journal as the particular tool it was supposed to be rather than remaking it entirely.

-J

[geekchick]

I've found myself really wishing the livejournal folks had decided to call the "friends" list something more neutral

*vigorous nod of agreement* Yeah, what you said.

[brian1789.livejournal.com]

Hmm.. well, a given tool can be used in lots of different ways by different users. But in the original spirit, the livejournal "friends" list might have been better called a "participant's list" or "reader's list" since it really describes a quality other than the emotional ties to others online. Access-pressure has never been an issue for me, per se (grin), but I can see that in your position(s) straddling several online communities, it could be quite awkward at times.

By the way, do you have a title yet?

My title?

[therealjae.livejournal.com]

My title is "assistant professor". Though some of my friends refer to me as the Queen of Plot, and I think I prefer that one. ;-)

-J

Re: My title?

[brian1789.livejournal.com]

(pictures Jae as a Jane-Bondian secret agent...)

[geekchick]

But in the original spirit, the livejournal "friends" list might have been better called a "participant's list" or "reader's list" since it really describes a quality other than the emotional ties to others online.

A friend of someone on my friends list phrased it as "People whose journals I want to have automagically pop up in a big interspersed wodge because they've nearly always got something interesting to say" or PWJIWTHAPUIABIWBTNAGSITS for, er, short.

[brian1789.livejournal.com]

*splutter* laughing... that's a good one, thanks!

And it's true... a given person might end up on someone's friends-list just because they write well, or journalistically have interesting things to say... of course, later those people might become actual friends, but that's a different issue ;-).