Remember the good ol' days?

[pride_of_erin]

So I guess y'all got that email about bribing friends back to LJ with one month of paid time - like wowee, that doesn't reek of desperation or anything. But in skimming comments about it, someone linked to this article: In Celebration of Old-School LiveJournal.

The article itself was a nice piece of nostalgia, although a lot of it I didn't connect to - I wasn't a teenager when I started using LJ, and I was always more focussed on Oz stuff rather than personal stuff - but the ending is a heartstring-tugger, talking about the people she met here:

"Most of us have never met in person or even talked on the phone, but we’ve read each others’ diaries and found ourselves there. It’s true that we’ve only ever known each other on the internet.

But still."

And it just hit me right in the gut, I suppose. I wish the dick moves by the previous site owners hadn't destroyed this place. I suppose it would have lost out to shiny new platforms anyway, but that mass exodus after all the censorship fuckery and pointless site updates makes me feel like I got cheated out of a place that truly built a sense of community, in a way that Tumblr just isn't conducive to without a decent comment function. Twitter is good for quick quips, but shit for anything meaningful. Facebook is full of RL people which means I don't feel free to actually be myself there. I guess I just miss having a place where I could post literally anything without judgement.

But I realised I still do. This place is still here, sleepy and quiet though it is. And maybe no-one is reading this. Maybe a couple of people are, but they won't bother commenting. But I think I'm okay with that. Of all the 'me's online, this place was always the 'me'-est me, and I don't want to let it go, even if it isn't what it once was. If other people want to share in that, great. If not, oh well - I've still got most of my main LJ peeps on Twitter, so it's not like I never 'see' them.

And what led to this realisation? It was the comments section on that article. They really got to me. So many people were overome with feels at the memory of LJ and what it meant to them. I had to share a few gems that really resonated with me:

"People laugh about LiveJournal but the one thing I miss the most is that every step away from that format has had more of an expectation of an audience and feels more performative, less intimate. Communities on the internet seem less tightly-knit now...I used to write about serious difficult things to nobody on LJ, and, somehow, a few people found them, and that more or less implied friendship. Now I say nothing to my actual friends on Facebook."

"I lived in the tiniest rural Belgian town and 'knowing' all these people was amazing to me. Everyone's lives were fascinating to me and somehow my posts about myself seemed interesting to them."

"LJ was so important to me and to fandom and oh god I miss it so much. And I miss my friends--not that I don't still interact with them, which I do, but there was a sense of being involved in their lives in a deep and tangible way. "

"I love the immediacy of Twitter, the chattiness of Facebook, the prettiness of Tumblr, but none of them really allow for the slow development of real friendships in the way that LJ has."

"But last fall I was going through a thing and went and poured my heart out on LJ and it felt so good, even though there were only 4-5 people still around to read it. I definitely no longer have the interest/energy to keep up with it the way I did back in 2003, with as many as 5 posts a day, but I mourn that sense of community it fostered. So many of my closest friends are LJ friends from back in the day. I wonder how different my life would be, and how different a person I would be, if I had never stumbled on LJ and the amazing group of women I found there."

"Certainly as there are more platforms to share your life - instagram, tumblr, they don't feel like safe spaces in the way LJ did. It was a like one big sleepover, to this lonely girl living in rural Ireland - friends in large cities, all over the world. I miss it!"

"I actually still use LJ, but instead of whispering at a slumber party, it's more like shouting into a void most days. "

"I've found that even though all but...maybe three? of my friends have stopped posting, there are a lot of us who still read our (barren) friends pages. And you'll see occasional posts asking if anyone is still out there reading, and they are! They're just not writing. It's like we're all just waiting and hoping for it to become what it once was, but are too scared/apathetic/who knows to actually try to make it happen ourselves."

I guess this is my attempt at 'making it happen'. Like I said, I don't expect anyone to join me, as our lives are so different and busy these days. This is mostly just for me. And in small part to honour the friends I made here - those who are still around, those who are long gone, those who disappeared into the void, and those who are no longer of this Earth (of which there are far, FAR too many - FUCK CANCER). I thank the universe for having known each and every one of you.

And if you'd like to be able to touch base with me elsewhere online, I'm on Twitter, Tumblr, and Instagram, although I mainly use them for following other people, rather than posting stuff of my own.

Comments

[stargazer60.livejournal.com]

I didn't read the email LJ sent, I guess that says something.

But despite that, I don't plan on leaving LJ. It's not the same as when I came here 10 years ago, but I still feel it's a nice place to keep track of events in my life.

Or just a log of what I watch on tv. LOL!

[pride-of-erin.livejournal.com]

LOL, I hear ya.

[rhymephile.livejournal.com]

*gets on a plane, flies all the way down there, finds your house, runs into your room to give you a big hug*

I thought the same thing when I saw that "Bring people back to LJ thing." It's true their fuckery destroyed this place. It used to be as important to me as breathing! None of the other platforms allow us to connect to people the way LJ does. The teenagers think Tumblr does that, but you can't even have a goddamn meaningful conversation there! It's impossible. And when people add comments after they reblog, no one sees them unless you go into the notes and actually click! It's so dumb.

I just use it for reblogging fandom stuff or whatever, and it's funny, I always add some of my own text when I reblog which is like bad etiquette or something. But how else will people know what I think? It's dumb.

I miss the good ol' days here. I never would have kept any of the people who follow me on Twitter if not for LJ. I mourn its loss, and all our friends who have passed too soon as well.

♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥

[pride-of-erin.livejournal.com]

*hugs you right back*

I agree 100% about Tumblr - it's good for sharing pretty pictures, but having an actual conversation? Forget it. Still, feel free to look me up over there, as I'll take my connections anywhere I can get them.

I'm so sick of being lazy and apathetic. I'll see a million things that I think I should share with you guys, and think, "Yep, I'll definitely do that later." And I never do. Reading that article yesterday was the first thing that has inspired me to post, just post, without over-thinking it, or feeling like I'm making a huge effort, in literally years. It felt easy, the way it did back in '06. And it felt good. So I'mma try to keep that going - for my own sake if no-one elses.

[aswanargent.livejournal.com]

Hi, Erin. Just wanted to wave and say I'm still around, even though my LJ is mostly used for private writing with a friend.

[pride-of-erin.livejournal.com]

Hi Karen! Nice to 'see' you :-) Hope life is treating you well.

[aswanargent.livejournal.com]

Busy at work as usual, and January/February (my busiest time) were especially bad this year. I had a stretch from Jan. 12 - Mar. 6 where I was in the office every single day, weekends and holidays included. Hopefully I will NOT have that happen again....

I'm actually enjoying being able to stay home now on a Saturday and/or Sunday and do chores. :-)

[rileyc.livejournal.com]

That email made me all nostalgia too, Erin. I have to confess, there is a part of me that prefers Tumblr--the procrastinating part that always struggles to keep up with comments and gets easily overwhelmed. It's so much easier to click "like," or reblog something, and leave it at that.

On the other hand, sometimes there is that itch to actually discuss something, and Tumblr is not the platform for that, for oh so many reasons. The aggravating mechanics of it over there is the least of it, really.

I'd like to give it a go here again, though. I keep thinking about it--maybe it's time to stop thinking and do it. That will strike one blow against procrastination anyway. :)

[pride-of-erin.livejournal.com]

Your feelings regarding Tumblr are exactly my own! I would like to start following more LJ peeps over there though - even if we're not all following the same fandom anymore, it would be still nice to keep an eye on where everyone is and what they're doing these days.

I'd like to give it a go here again, though. I keep thinking about it--maybe it's time to stop thinking and do it.

I'm exactly the same. And for me, my travels about social media have reinforced just how good this place can be. I actually watched that little video they have on the LJ homepage now, explaining how the site works, and I realised that if I was a complete newcomer watching that, and had no knowledge of the past bullshit that went on here with the previous owners - I'd think, 'Whoa, this is so much better than Facebook or Tumblr' and sign up immediately.

I feel like LJ has so much potential for a great renaissance, like maybe it could be re-discovered by a new generation of fangirls and brought back to life again. I hope so anyway.

[maddiec24.livejournal.com]

*hugs* I miss LJ so much, the way it used to be. I've had such good times on here! I miss everyone, and I hate that LJ itself fucked that up. I will be staying here.

[pride-of-erin.livejournal.com]

*hugs you back*. I'm so glad you're still here and still posting your good things everyday. I want you to know I read every one of them even if I rarely comment. I really want to start making more of an effort around here like you do. Too many people are disappearing and I want to re-connect again before they're all gone for good. I'm too old to start making new friends again, lol.

[lisacali.livejournal.com]

I'm so sick of being lazy and apathetic. I'll see a million things that I think I should share with you guys, and think, "Yep, I'll definitely do that later." And I never do.

Yep, yep, yep...that's me!

I'm going to try and post, like you said, without overthinking...just do it!

*hugs you*

[pride-of-erin.livejournal.com]

*hugs back!*