That's the great thing about LJ....(gratuitous testimonial material here)..it's all about the expression and the communication, not about racking up huge numbers of "friends" within a stylistically-limited structure that you have to log into every single time you want to say something. I spend more time here than on Blogspot, MySpace and Yahell-360 put together (let alone maintaining my Geocities site), and it's really for the quality of the personal expression. My groups are almost all on Yahoo, but my genuine ranting and uncensored personal weirdness is here.
The problem with LJ communities is that they really don't get anywhere....most people (even me) will not automatically, upon joining/watching, go back to the beginning of the entries and find out what is considered "settled" in the way of topics and controversies (if indeed they ever are), and so each new post and comment brings with it a potential re-opening of cans of worms that have never been fully digested in the first place. They don't progress, and it's not easily apparent to see how (or if) attitudes and issues have been resolved, in order that one can move on from there and not keep running in circles. At least with YahooGroups you can rig up as many autosend-files as you want on how things are run and what is closed and what is open and what the basic stance of the founding/leading members is on certain matters....helps keep the trouble down, especially if someone's so daft or paranoid or unimaginative as to have nothing in their profile. I ought to start asking for blog and website URLs in group applications there, to see what people are really like before I let them in.....:-?
Enh, wandering a bit there, but it is a thought.
I really dislike the narrow and hair-splitting definitions that get foisted about as the only "real" way to go -- especially when they discount and subtly (or not) ridicule things that make the most sense to me, like reincarnation or the reality of the soul, my soul, in whose history/evolution my memories have their reason for existing. If you don't believe that your own soul really exists, fine, but leave the validity of everyone else's alone...:P
I think what I'm trying to do with the Anderen_FAQ is keep it organised as a resource by starting with the articles/essays and then letting everyone weigh in on them personally, but not making any initial entry one that's one-sided or deliberately inflammatory, just as well-supported and balanced as possible. That makes it less likely to get overtly argumentative comments, and it means that the original posts can be kept and revised as reference material for people happening on the site (and/or the culture) for the first time.
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Date: 2007-03-20 11:54 am (UTC)The problem with LJ communities is that they really don't get anywhere....most people (even me) will not automatically, upon joining/watching, go back to the beginning of the entries and find out what is considered "settled" in the way of topics and controversies (if indeed they ever are), and so each new post and comment brings with it a potential re-opening of cans of worms that have never been fully digested in the first place. They don't progress, and it's not easily apparent to see how (or if) attitudes and issues have been resolved, in order that one can move on from there and not keep running in circles. At least with YahooGroups you can rig up as many autosend-files as you want on how things are run and what is closed and what is open and what the basic stance of the founding/leading members is on certain matters....helps keep the trouble down, especially if someone's so daft or paranoid or unimaginative as to have nothing in their profile. I ought to start asking for blog and website URLs in group applications there, to see what people are really like before I let them in.....:-?
Enh, wandering a bit there, but it is a thought.
I really dislike the narrow and hair-splitting definitions that get foisted about as the only "real" way to go -- especially when they discount and subtly (or not) ridicule things that make the most sense to me, like reincarnation or the reality of the soul, my soul, in whose history/evolution my memories have their reason for existing. If you don't believe that your own soul really exists, fine, but leave the validity of everyone else's alone...:P
I think what I'm trying to do with the Anderen_FAQ is keep it organised as a resource by starting with the articles/essays and then letting everyone weigh in on them personally, but not making any initial entry one that's one-sided or deliberately inflammatory, just as well-supported and balanced as possible. That makes it less likely to get overtly argumentative comments, and it means that the original posts can be kept and revised as reference material for people happening on the site (and/or the culture) for the first time.