puppetmaker (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
puppetmaker) wrote2008-01-14 10:27 pm
puppetmaker) wrote2008-01-14 10:27 pm
LJ Idol 4.10 : Whose Live Journal is it anyway?
The Topic for the week:
Whose LJ is it anyway? Balancing personal expression and friends-list sensibilities in determining content.
Which I am putting behind a cut to save my friends list.
This is a topic I have been thinking about for a while now for a number of reasons. I have a pretty extensive list of people that I keep up with via their web log and they keep up with me through mine.
I started by web log to keep my parents and close friends apprised of what I was up to and what Caroline was doing since she was changing from day to day. The place where my original web log was and still is runs off my husband's site. He started his web log while I was still pregnant with Caroline. He even had a contest for the readers as to when she would be born and how much she would weigh and her gender (which we did not know beforehand).
I knew early on that my web log was going to be read by people I have never met or only knew from my encounters with them on the Internet. Because of my husband's regular column in Comic Buyers Guide, I had gotten use to the fact that people remember things he wrote about that concerned our lives. And I knew what I wrote would also be remembered by people that I might met at a convention or other social situations. So I have always been a self-censor while typing things that go out into the Internet. I know that whatever I put here could come back and bite me on the rump.
I got on Live Journal because my younger sister (my only sister) had one and it was an easy way to keep up with her. I found out that other friends were here as well and pretty soon I had a friends list made up of people I knew. Then I started adding friends of friends that I liked to read. And friends of friends added me to their list. I have never hid who I was and who I was married to nor did I make a big deal about it. And eventually some people who were fans of his added me usually after asking me it was OK. I added people I met in communities that I enjoyed reading and it blossomed from there.
Now I had hit a point where I had quite a number of people reading me that I didn't know. And I made a decision to put a couple of layers on my live journal. I don't have too many entries that are friends only. A lot of those are memes that I just want to share with people who have taken the time to add me to their reading list. But there is not much I have put out here that I don't mind that others know. I do have a private list for things that I need to put out of my head. I also have a paper journal that I use for my "brain dumps".
Things I try to avoid are profanity (I tend to use slang or fake words), offending the various religions of the people who read this (which can be walking a tightrope), and politics (because I have seen what it does to my husband's board). But those who know me probably have a pretty good feel where I stand on things. Most people know I am an ardent defender of the 1st amendment along with my husband. They know that I am an old school Whovian along with a number of other fandoms. People know my love of puppetry and doll making and costuming.
I have adjusted to being a rather public person. I can even speak to a large group and not feel uncomfortable which was not always true. I look at my web log as speaking to a large group of people and adjust what I say accordingly. So it's my spot on the web and I'll say what I want to. I don't force anyone to read it nor do I get upset if someone decides that my web log is not their cuppa and so far that has worked well for me.
Whose LJ is it anyway? Balancing personal expression and friends-list sensibilities in determining content.
Which I am putting behind a cut to save my friends list.
This is a topic I have been thinking about for a while now for a number of reasons. I have a pretty extensive list of people that I keep up with via their web log and they keep up with me through mine.
I started by web log to keep my parents and close friends apprised of what I was up to and what Caroline was doing since she was changing from day to day. The place where my original web log was and still is runs off my husband's site. He started his web log while I was still pregnant with Caroline. He even had a contest for the readers as to when she would be born and how much she would weigh and her gender (which we did not know beforehand).
I knew early on that my web log was going to be read by people I have never met or only knew from my encounters with them on the Internet. Because of my husband's regular column in Comic Buyers Guide, I had gotten use to the fact that people remember things he wrote about that concerned our lives. And I knew what I wrote would also be remembered by people that I might met at a convention or other social situations. So I have always been a self-censor while typing things that go out into the Internet. I know that whatever I put here could come back and bite me on the rump.
I got on Live Journal because my younger sister (my only sister) had one and it was an easy way to keep up with her. I found out that other friends were here as well and pretty soon I had a friends list made up of people I knew. Then I started adding friends of friends that I liked to read. And friends of friends added me to their list. I have never hid who I was and who I was married to nor did I make a big deal about it. And eventually some people who were fans of his added me usually after asking me it was OK. I added people I met in communities that I enjoyed reading and it blossomed from there.
Now I had hit a point where I had quite a number of people reading me that I didn't know. And I made a decision to put a couple of layers on my live journal. I don't have too many entries that are friends only. A lot of those are memes that I just want to share with people who have taken the time to add me to their reading list. But there is not much I have put out here that I don't mind that others know. I do have a private list for things that I need to put out of my head. I also have a paper journal that I use for my "brain dumps".
Things I try to avoid are profanity (I tend to use slang or fake words), offending the various religions of the people who read this (which can be walking a tightrope), and politics (because I have seen what it does to my husband's board). But those who know me probably have a pretty good feel where I stand on things. Most people know I am an ardent defender of the 1st amendment along with my husband. They know that I am an old school Whovian along with a number of other fandoms. People know my love of puppetry and doll making and costuming.
I have adjusted to being a rather public person. I can even speak to a large group and not feel uncomfortable which was not always true. I look at my web log as speaking to a large group of people and adjust what I say accordingly. So it's my spot on the web and I'll say what I want to. I don't force anyone to read it nor do I get upset if someone decides that my web log is not their cuppa and so far that has worked well for me.
no subject
And thanks for the kind words about the writing - much appreciated.
I need to get back to fiction writing - that thriller ain't going anywhere on its own.