What I've learned about LJ in 2 months

[billeyler]

- Random LJ searches turns up:

a) an enormous number of bored sounding teenagers saying nothing, or a lot of people of indeterminate age that have some mental illness or are suicidal. I understand from the ultra-1000s of users database analysis that the average age here is 16.5. That would make ME the average age of a grandfather.
b) a surprising number of entries are in Russian which are a hoot to translate in an online translator. HUGELY difficult to get the sense of what they're saying, but the original cyrillic looks pretty.
c) it's a definite cult thing to be a square dancer, gay or not. I haven't stumbled on a straight square dancer yet, but probably because I haven't looked! The gay square dancers I see are all people I know as acquaintances (with the exception of excessor who I saw at convention and looks yummy, but haven't met.) For most of the folks, we've never really made a commitment to know each other well in person.
d) a lot of people strive to get LJ get-togethers live and in person and often. Reminds me of the days of BBSing in the late 80s and early 90s before the internet, when we REALLY longed to socialize with all the theoretically like-minded people we could find online but not in our everyday circle. BUT the caveat of item a) makes me a tad leery of that anymore.

- After about four days of being on LJ, the 'friends' list gets pretty much locked in after the initial rush. I've looked at the friends list of a lot of folks I know personally and there's never anyone new on their lists either.

- It's much easier to use than the AOL version, which I used almost exclusively for updates on my gardening and the renovations. The thought of leaving personal comments for the whole world to read was something my mind didn't want to wrap around.

- The 'friends' concepts leaves room for miscontrued feelings and emotions. What's that all about? I see a lot of really interesting people on LJ that I'd like to keep up with, but their comments in their profile "I'd really like to friend you back if you friended me, but I have way too many friends already to read about you, too" leaves me a little perplexed. I have to keep in mind what dr_scott suggested and not use the word FRIEND in its traditional sense, but just consider it 'linkage for lurking' :-)

Comments

[fuzzygruf.livejournal.com]

I think that using the word FRIEND is one of the first things the LJ gods regretted doing. One April Fools Day, they changed "FRIEND OF" to "STALKERS." They got so much flak, that they changed it back before the end of the day. I wish they would have kept it!

Now if you heard otterpop58 sing "Poor Lonesome Me" at the LJ Tip, then the lyrics "I've de-friended everyone from A to Z" make more sense now, yes? ;-)

[billeyler.livejournal.com]

It does...it does. I'm all for lurking. But I talk too much to be a real lurker. ;-)

[dr-scott.livejournal.com]

I talk too much to be a real lurker. ;-)

We've noticed. [HEH! <-- Neil Heather laugh]

As for excessor, he is yummy.

friends list ever changing

[fuzzygruf.livejournal.com]

As far as the friends list getting locked in, check out this link and enter a user name. Check mine and you'll see there are often lots of changes. (Note: It only updates since the last time its database was queried.)

Most of my recent changes though were due to lots more contact with certain LJ'ers at Hairrison and because I offloaded a bunch to RSS feeds. (Or at least I'm letting them think that. My list was way out of control.)

Re: friends list ever changing

[billeyler.livejournal.com]

Since I'm light years behind in the LJ world, I don't know what an "RSS Feed" is, but yours wasn't one of the ones I was looking at when seeing of a 'friends' list had changed...

Re: friends list ever changing

[billeyler.livejournal.com]

Popping your name in that link was kinda interesting, especially the 7/11 and 8/12 add/deletes! (knowing chuckle)

[billeyler.livejournal.com]

OMG...you are truly evil. Now I'll have his laugh echoing around in my skull all day! Maybe I'll just listen to some Hawaiian square dance music...

[billeyler.livejournal.com]

I heard about that tip at convention, but since I had only been on LJ for a week or so by then, and didn't know what all the fuss was about, abqdan and I opted for some other activities. Was glad to hear it was so well attended! I don't know any of our local dancers on LJ.