weblogworld

Blogdex 6 January 2005 - LiveJournal

Blogdex # 2 =

Zephoria cuts up a storm on LJ take over by SA, with a monumental comments section rolling down and down and down. ...Reminds me of my first visit to LJ over the poor girl Rachelle Waterman. Wonder what happened to her Lj and, more importantly, her. Are they discussing her in the LJ community? Was not overly impressed with the trolling on her site after she was arrested.

It didn't take long to get a general feel of Lj, seeing what it had over something as rigid as Blogger. I certainly have no desire to join a community where it seems de rigeur to list everything detail of one'slikes and dislikes. Is this worth the effort, since the next guy may just be making his list up to make it match yours?

The ephemeral nature of these communities (business is business when all the hippy stuff is said and done?) is highlighted by the gripes over Geocities by Nicole

Kate Raynes-Goldie
points to an article she had published in First Monday which does Lj vs. Blog. The introduction fills me with a certain foreboding - being a believer in Plain English in the style of George Orwell's essays - but am pleasantly surprised by the middle section dealing with Lj, which has a series of graphics and is geared at any intelligent general reader. The explanation of what Lj offers is sandwiched between an academic treatise on information/knowledge and how knowledge can be "created" in a community like Lj. It don't worry me none, I can even hack some Derrida on a good day, with a good red, downhill, with a following wind....

What I always say is there are facts, ideas and values. Facts joined by ideas = knowledge. What you do with it is your business.

Though hating to spoil a good party, the bits I have read in Lj, as a whole, in no way suggest knowledge is being created in these communities. Instead there is everything that one might get in all teenage (18-25 ?) interactions: a heady mix of testosterone, drugs and rock and roll, a dash of angst and confusion, mostly in a language that seems to go beep, zog, dwip....but then I'm old and past it. Certainly the place to do meme-ology.

The impressive bit in Lj-like communites are the compedious profiles/biogs which list great mountains of music, films, books. I have a mountain of music, books and DVDs myself, but would be hard pressed to come up with the perfect list that personifies me...I'd keep painting, scratching off the paint and painting again, wondering whether I was giving a fair description of myself through my likes and dislikes.

Notice how Americans in their weblogs say exactly what they are on the socio-political divide down to the last branch of libertarianism (say) and the type of weapon they would use to kill various types of individuals or groups in different situations? The British are far more circumspect.

A study of writing styles of UK and US weblogs might be interesting. Because there are more US than any others, these are the ones we tend to read most. Having tried to find British ones recently, I find an immediate affinity with the means of expression. This is probably a lot to do with the age group they come from too, putting aside the subject matter.

posted by Adfero Affero @ Thursday, January 06, 2005