Notes from a Fiery Nest

Here are a couple of experimental results from FaceBook: one person Liked(tm) everything for 2 days; another person didn't Like(tm) anything for 2 weeks.

LJ doesn't have a Like(tm), +1(tm), or other such general-purpose one-click response option, so we have to, brace yourself, use our words here. This is rather likelier to involve thought, but it takes more effort--effort which people hooked on FB/G+/etc. are unused to putting in. As a result, we get less feedback here than we get on other shiny social media (even though the feedback there is ultimately less genuinely connected), so we post less here.

It's frustrating. The marketers are winning, because we are, more than we like to admit, creatures of reflex and habit, and those things are very manipulable. The only defense is mindfulness: awareness of ourselves, our instincts, reflexes, and habits, and claiming our power of choice.

I've stuck with LJ for a lot of years now; I don't really do much on GooglePlus or LinkedIn, and I'm not even on FaceBook, Tumblr, or Twitter. Yesterday was the Church's " 48th World Day of Social Communications", celebrated on the occasion of the memorial of St. Francis of Sales, patron saint of communicators. Pope Francis' message has a paragraph which expresses what I want to see more of again here in LJ-land:

It is not enough to be passers-by on the digital highways, simply 'connected'; connections need to grow into true encounters. We cannot live apart, closed in on ourselves. We need to love and to be loved. We need tenderness. Media strategies do not ensure beauty, goodness and truth in communication. The world of media also has to be concerned with humanity, it too is called to show tenderness. The digital world can be an environment rich in humanity; a network not of wires but of people. The impartiality of media is merely an appearance; only those who go out of themselves in their communication can become a true point of reference for others. Personal engagement is the basis of the trustworthiness of a communicator.

Most social media encourage shallowness; I hope to keep more depth here.

...the poor service quality on LJ due to the DDOS attack is exactly the wrong reason to leave LJ. Not that there aren't good reasons why folks might want to leave, but now is not, in my view, the time. Here's a good explanation of what the DDOS attack seems to be about. In brief:

[P]eople who grumble about "the Russians" taking over LJ should remember that in Russia, LiveJournal isn't just the top blogging platform, it's the blogging platform. It is Russia's free press. It is the tool being used to fight corruption and advance the cause of democracy. And, more practically to LJ users, the Russian-speaking sector of LJ is the reason LJ is still there at all.

I don't want to send the message that thugs can encourage me to help screw LJ over for them.

(Fairestcat's DW post is here.)

ETA: Another good article linked by shyska!

Okay, I now exist on DreamWidth; my claim to my username is staked.

I haven't really done much more than that with it, mind you; if you're there, give me a poke.

So I did a bit of digging into this company, SUP, that has taken over LJ. The executive team looks fine, but the owner, not so much. (He's listed as the owner here.)

Do I expect to be poisoned anytime soon? No, but I will be aware that if I go to Russia, the government there may be monitoring what I write here.

LJ Notify has been flaky lately.

If there's something I haven't answered, it may be because I don't know about it.