lettered | Dynamics of LJ

JB. I was going to say how much I loved lj's "save draft" thing for posts, but I retract because I lost half the post and apparently it wasn't saved.
O. speaking of lj, is there a way to mark posts on your friends page? I usually scan the list through to the last entry I read, taking note of the posts with fic, posts I want to read more thoroughly, and posts I want to reply to. Then sometime later when I feel like it I go back, but then I have to scroll so much and can't find/remember the things that were of particular interest. I'm a lazy bint who wants a system.
R. speaking of all that I don't know about lj, what's this "skip 20" or "skip 50" people sometimes mention as regards their friends pages?
G. speaking of "friends," that whole thing is distinctly odd. I mean, it's been said before, but I'll say it again. But even if the system wasn't called "friends", I think it would still have that weirdness attached to it. And I myself can't help feeling all weird about it. I fancy that the way I use the ole flist is objective; I use it as a reading list. But I'm starting to realize that the way I FEEL about it (and the way I feel about those of others) is still strangely emotional and sensitive, as *logical* as I've always tried to be about it.
E. speaking of that whole weirdness thing, what're y'all's thoughts about filtering the flist posts that you read? I know some people are way against it. I suppose others secretly do it. I personally feel like I would use them--not to completely knock anyone off and secretly not read them, but if I had a list I had trouble keeping up with, I'd probably have a filter for the people I'm most interested in, so if I'm really busy I can fly through very quickly. Then I'd have a filter for the others to zoom through periodically as well. Most of the time I'd just go through the whole list, but in really busy times it seems like the filter thing would be handy. It's not like I need it, though. I'm just wondering if there're angles of it I haven't considered. What do you do and how do you do it?
S. speaking of discussions about how you use your lj, I'm also wondering about locked posts. Some people are against using them. Some are against using them except for personal matters. Some seem to use them completely arbitrarily. Some, I guess, might use them for more...sinister reasons. And some feel the need to explain every time they flock. Anyway, I personally see nothing wrong with flocking something you're just not interested in discussing with everyone, either because you're feeling introverted or lazy, but again, I'm wondering if there're other things to consider? What do you do and how do you do it?

*

I feel the need to point out that this isn't in response to anything--people are always trimming or locking or skipping or what have you. Actually, it is in response to something. 3 things, actually.

1.

imnotacommittee informed me that there's such a thing as a rich text editor for when you post. I had no idea. Beats the shit out of typing out all that freakin' code, and made me wonder what other little treats lj has I'm too lazy to suss out.
2. I'm going to Austin tomorrow and will be gone for two days. I'm wondering what'll be up with the ole flist when I get back and how I'll ever manage.
3. Which really just made me wonder how everyone manages, and how all this crap works, and while everyone is always discussing it I'm interested in having stuff to discuss with everyone on my lj when I get back. Yay!

Look at the color of this text, yay!

P.S. I've discovered I hate the rich text thing. I've discovered that this post contains massive frippery and the title of the cut is misleading. It's much more difficult to edit such a thing when one is using this do-hickey. I throw up my hands I say, I throw up my...ouch, ceiling. And ew, throw up.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

It is odd, the "friends" thing. I find that I have a variety of kinds of "relationships" with people on my flist and that's just fine with me.

There are some people where it's purely a reading list thing--they make icons, vids or fic that I read. Then there's some where it's like a colleague thing--we talk about meta or writing but I don't necessarily know much about their lives. Then there are people who I'm really friends with--who I talk on the phone with or have met in RL, who i exchange emails with, who know about the ups and downs of my life and all the non-fandom stuff. And then there are people somewhere in between.

I'll admit right here and now to using many, many filters both to read my flist and to post and I do this as a result of the variety of kinds of connections that I have on el jay. And when I look at people who have flists MUCH larger than mine I'm quite incredulous at the idea that they don't use filters.

One of the main things I filter my flist for is communities because I can't handle that much spam but I sometimes post on comms (links to fic, etc.) or want to be able to access them easily via my user page so I want to keep them friended. In fact, the only comms I usually have on the flist that I generally look at are the Herald, the Cortex (the Firefly version of the Herald), Metafandom, and Fanthropology. I have Writercon on there now and sometimes I'll have topicals like

wildphotos while that was happening or

seasonal_spuffy during the posting time.

I admit to getting very confused about the whole friending etiquette thing. When I first started my LJ I used to friend back everyone that friended me but I just can't do that any more and it does feel weird. I can't do it because I don't have time to read that many journals or my head will explode. And there is this kind of producer/reader imbalance that occurs I guess. i.e. I'm a producer of fannish content so some people friend me to read my fic but either have "lurker journals" or mostly just post memes or rambling about their first year at Uni (which is fine and perfectly acceptable way to use your LJ but...) And since I don't lock fic or fandom stuff, my not friending them back won't affect their ability to read that stuff. So yeah, I have a "short flist" filter and a "short short flist" filter for when I have NO time but I want to keep up with the people that I'm really close with, etc.

As for my posting filters, I do that because I don't want to spam people with things they don't want to see and as I said I have a variety of kinds of relationships with people on my flist. I have very short filters for when I'm say freaking the fuck out about personal stuff, and I also have other broader filters for when I'm being "real" but it's not really, really private. I also have various fandom specific filters but I don't use those much really so I don't know why I have them.

Sometimes I also generally flock entries such as all of my discussion of my grad school process because I don't want that stuff to show up in google searches. I also do that if I don't feel like having the post linked for whatever reason, and sometimes that's just because I'm tired and I don't feel like fielding assloads of comments from strangers.

Does all of this make me a bitch? Because it helps me keep sane and tailor my LJ use to a variety of purposes.

And good lord that was long. *head pillow*

With the way I ramble in your journal, it's only fair.

I love that icon.

Yeah, I see what you're saying about having filters for the different ways in which you interact with people. My problem has been lately that I have trouble distinguishing. I started the journal to be fannish--even if not about Jossverse specifically, to do things like meta and have lively and/or intelligent discussion. But I've found that a few of the people I've met through that are really people I consider friends, and I find that I care about many of the other people I've met, or am at least interested in them. And even the people I consider friends I still talk about MOSTLY fannish stuff with. Anyway, I was going somewhere with this, but I forgot where.

I still tend to friend most people back when they leave a comment, and most the time even when they don't. Part of it is massive arrogance--if they're somehow interested in me they must have good taste, and perhaps other good qualities follow? Seriously, that's part of what goes through my head.

Does all of this make me a bitch?

No. Well, to some extent this was my question. From what I understand, some people think there's something...deceptive? immoral? unfair? unkind? in filtering flists, and something underhanded or sinister or cowardly in filtering posts. It just doesn't strike me that way at all. Frankly, if you don't want to see it, I don't want you to look at it, and if someone else doesn't want me to see something, I don't want to see it either.

I really can't figure out what's bitchy about locking posts...unless you're doing something bitchy "behind" the screen of the flock. I mean, how can people get on you for maintaining your own sense of privacy or "speaking" to whom you choose?

The filtering flist viewing thing is...more confusing. Admittedly, I "should" probably defriend some people if I'm going to filter them most of the time but it feels so unnecessarily harsh especially if for some reason they want to read the more innocuous things that I flock. I don't know. Besides I do periodically check the whole list. *throws up hands*

I'll probably end up having to do some kind of friends-cut when I start school. *feels the angst*

Dynamics of LJ

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