What I like about my flist
Jun. 2nd, 2005 08:49 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
shadowkatRealized today how much I like my friendslist journals (note how I phrased that). I know, every once and a while people will come out and gush about their livejournal flist - never really say why though, just go on about a few people's entries on it, mention those folks by name, or the responses they happened to get to their own posts - which isn't really liking one's flist so much as just those folks who responded to your posts.
My definition of Flist - the other journals online that one has decided for whatever reason to read, not the people necessarily reading yours (unless of course you friends lock all the time and everyone on your flist reads you - which if you have people on your flist like I do (ie. people with over 100 friends). Honestly I wonder sometimes how these people find the time to read everyone, I assume they don't read everyone, but I could be wrong about that.) I've deliberately cut my flist down to 54 - so I can attempt to read all of the entries, a task I'm still struggling with.
How did I choose my flist? Ah dicey question. No way of answering it without offending some poor soul. Okay, I'll take a shot. At first, I just friended whomever friended me. Seemed the polite thing to do. Then when I got a little more confidence, I began friending journals that I found on my own, basically whomever I enjoyed reading. Now it's cut back down to the folks who respond to my journal, who I enjoy reading, and who have friended me back. I'm going to stop while I'm ahead.
What I like about mine is the following:
1. The people on it *never* spoil me for movies or TV shows. They always hide spoilers behind a cut tag. If they review a book, movie or TV show, they don't reveal everything, just enough to intrigue or interest me.
I have never been spoiled by anyone on my flist. (Case in point? With all the spoilers floating about on Serenity? I'm still completely unspoiled.)
2. The diversity in posting. No one posts about the same things. There's the sci-fi/fantasy experts, the fashion experts, the book reviewers, the movie reviewers, the TV reviewers, the fanfic writers, the "I don't watch TV at all thank you very much, I only read books" group, comics, politics, drawing, poetry, everything but the kitchen sink. For a culture junkie this is lovely.
3. The diversity in cultural, economic, gender, age, race, geographic, religious, social, sexual orientation, philosophical backgrounds.
4. No one is rude. Snarky maybe. But no rudeness, no outright mean posts. A few rants. But nothing directed at anyone. Yet honest, frank and up front.
5. Supportive
6. Laid back and informative - I learn a lot from some of these posts.
7. Not too critical of others interests or tastes, bewildered maybe, ranty yes, but accepting. There's a sense of tolerance here. Even amongst the most critical and judgemental (ie. yours truly).
8. Generous (sometimes I think beyond logic - honestly folks sending stuff to people you've never spoken to or know the real names of, is risky by anyone's standards. Yet, people do it without thinking twice and seem to be fine. Everytime I think the world has become too paranoid and cynical and self-absorbed to stand, I go to lj flist and realize, okay maybe not so much.)
9. Gregarious (or Friendly) (for a bunch of self-proclaimed introverts, you people certainly socialize a lot. Speaking of which, what in the heck was WisCon? Did I miss something?)
10. Opinonated (in a good way - you guys do not mind letting folks know what you think about any given topic. Perhaps I should just say open instead.)
No wonder I keep wasting time on my livejournal when I need to be working on my writing and *cough*other*cough* things. People have written reams on what livejournal means to them and what it is. For me, it can be summed up in two simple words: "correspondence club". We basically meet and read each others online correspondence, whether or not it is directed to us or relates to us, which is why it is more fun than email or letter writting.
Tonight's Resolutions:
1. Don't go on internet until written at least two pages
2. Don't share what I've written with anyone until the story is complete - don't do anything to trip myself up. (I write these down so I will remember them.)
My definition of Flist - the other journals online that one has decided for whatever reason to read, not the people necessarily reading yours (unless of course you friends lock all the time and everyone on your flist reads you - which if you have people on your flist like I do (ie. people with over 100 friends). Honestly I wonder sometimes how these people find the time to read everyone, I assume they don't read everyone, but I could be wrong about that.) I've deliberately cut my flist down to 54 - so I can attempt to read all of the entries, a task I'm still struggling with.
How did I choose my flist? Ah dicey question. No way of answering it without offending some poor soul. Okay, I'll take a shot. At first, I just friended whomever friended me. Seemed the polite thing to do. Then when I got a little more confidence, I began friending journals that I found on my own, basically whomever I enjoyed reading. Now it's cut back down to the folks who respond to my journal, who I enjoy reading, and who have friended me back. I'm going to stop while I'm ahead.
What I like about mine is the following:
1. The people on it *never* spoil me for movies or TV shows. They always hide spoilers behind a cut tag. If they review a book, movie or TV show, they don't reveal everything, just enough to intrigue or interest me.
I have never been spoiled by anyone on my flist. (Case in point? With all the spoilers floating about on Serenity? I'm still completely unspoiled.)
2. The diversity in posting. No one posts about the same things. There's the sci-fi/fantasy experts, the fashion experts, the book reviewers, the movie reviewers, the TV reviewers, the fanfic writers, the "I don't watch TV at all thank you very much, I only read books" group, comics, politics, drawing, poetry, everything but the kitchen sink. For a culture junkie this is lovely.
3. The diversity in cultural, economic, gender, age, race, geographic, religious, social, sexual orientation, philosophical backgrounds.
4. No one is rude. Snarky maybe. But no rudeness, no outright mean posts. A few rants. But nothing directed at anyone. Yet honest, frank and up front.
5. Supportive
6. Laid back and informative - I learn a lot from some of these posts.
7. Not too critical of others interests or tastes, bewildered maybe, ranty yes, but accepting. There's a sense of tolerance here. Even amongst the most critical and judgemental (ie. yours truly).
8. Generous (sometimes I think beyond logic - honestly folks sending stuff to people you've never spoken to or know the real names of, is risky by anyone's standards. Yet, people do it without thinking twice and seem to be fine. Everytime I think the world has become too paranoid and cynical and self-absorbed to stand, I go to lj flist and realize, okay maybe not so much.)
9. Gregarious (or Friendly) (for a bunch of self-proclaimed introverts, you people certainly socialize a lot. Speaking of which, what in the heck was WisCon? Did I miss something?)
10. Opinonated (in a good way - you guys do not mind letting folks know what you think about any given topic. Perhaps I should just say open instead.)
No wonder I keep wasting time on my livejournal when I need to be working on my writing and *cough*other*cough* things. People have written reams on what livejournal means to them and what it is. For me, it can be summed up in two simple words: "correspondence club". We basically meet and read each others online correspondence, whether or not it is directed to us or relates to us, which is why it is more fun than email or letter writting.
Tonight's Resolutions:
1. Don't go on internet until written at least two pages
2. Don't share what I've written with anyone until the story is complete - don't do anything to trip myself up. (I write these down so I will remember them.)
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2005-06-03 09:50 pm (UTC)And LJ is great, if a bit hard to keep up with. We've had a regime change this year and I can't read from work anymore. That and Buffy I miss, a lot.
I don't think that people migrated as much as the shows ended conjubcing with people discovering blogging?
Which reminds me.. are you coming to the Meet at all?
no subject
Date: 2005-06-04 08:02 am (UTC)Do you mean the NY thingy that cjl has worked so hard these past six months to arrange and everyone keeps posting on? Oh uh, I'm planning on attending at some point. Just a Little nervous about the whole thing. No correct that. VERY, if not extremely nervous about it. For numerous reasons.
Have no idea when I should go to it either - I know cjl isn't available Friday (he's at a Mets game), so I'm thinking Sunday might be the best day for me. Maybe Sunday or Monday. Unless there's a group activity in the city on Sat, and I'll go to that. At the moment I'm working Friday and Tuesday, haven't decided whether to take time off or not. Have doc appointment at 4pm on Tues, so figure might as well work that day. (As you can see, I've spent some time worrying over it...LOL!)
no subject
Date: 2005-06-04 08:09 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-06-04 08:16 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-06-04 08:09 am (UTC)Have exactly the same problem you do. I can't read or write from work anymore. Most I can do is read personal emails - but even that is stretching things a bit. My company is paranoid about information leaks and security leaks. I can't go to discussion boards or lj during working hours.
I miss the ability to jump around the internet during the days. Just a few moments, to break things up. It made the work day go faster somehow and would often cheer me up. But can't do it anymore. Also, I miss Buffy. The tv show, the writing, the characters - haven't really found anything on tv or elsewhere to replace it.
no subject
Date: 2005-06-04 12:18 pm (UTC)I have a different opinion on the whole issue than most of my colleagues. I actually am more productive and ceratinly happier with frequent (like hourly) small breaks, a lot of which are conversational. I just haven't been able to sell this idea.
And yes, me too on B. I sort of suspected it would be the case. I didn't watch much TV before the show. And I miss that speculation and then the weekly deconstruction and chat. I thought it was pretty lucky that people discovered LJ about that time though.