The cycles of LJ.
Jul. 14th, 2006 03:08 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
valis2So I'm just about caught up on the flist, which kind of surprised me, I must admit. I did what I've been doing all year long; I open up all 150+ friends' LJs in new tabs, and read each journal backwards individually, until the date I left off at. Then I do the same with comms.
Well, part of the reason it didn't take so long is that it's summer here in the Northern Hemisphere, so most LJers aren't as active, it seems. And there aren't any seasonal challenges happening right now, either, so the comms aren't too overflowing, as well.
There is one thing I noticed, though. LJ has cycles, just like everything in life, and I'm noticing that despite having such a large flist, a lot of the friends on it aren't exactly active any longer. Some people jump into LJ and just go bananas for awhile, and then disappear into the night. Some people start fandom-intense journals and then, as their interest wanes, their journal turns into more of a personal journal, or they jump into another fandom altogether. Some people only update occasionally. It seems like I have a lot of not-as-active journals on the flist right now. I've been wondering for awhile what the average activity span is for new LJers; I've been thinking it's a year or two for most people.
I used to think that![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
iibnf's list was gargantuan, but now I'm really starting to understand the nature of LJ. We're not all active at once, and whole segments of our flist rotate. I keep thinking that there's no way that I can fit more friends into the mix, and I cut back sometimes, but then I do end up friending new people and finding new interesting conversations, which, for me, is what it's all about. When whole segments of the flist are quiet, I feel no problem about adding new voices. Sometimes flisters come back and start posting again (yay, scarah2! yay,chocolate_limes!), and sometimes promising flisters fall off the face of the internet relatively quickly (ozymannedias? elddonnemar?). But in the end, there are always new people to talk to, and new conversations to explore.
Yeah, I still love LJ.
Well, part of the reason it didn't take so long is that it's summer here in the Northern Hemisphere, so most LJers aren't as active, it seems. And there aren't any seasonal challenges happening right now, either, so the comms aren't too overflowing, as well.
There is one thing I noticed, though. LJ has cycles, just like everything in life, and I'm noticing that despite having such a large flist, a lot of the friends on it aren't exactly active any longer. Some people jump into LJ and just go bananas for awhile, and then disappear into the night. Some people start fandom-intense journals and then, as their interest wanes, their journal turns into more of a personal journal, or they jump into another fandom altogether. Some people only update occasionally. It seems like I have a lot of not-as-active journals on the flist right now. I've been wondering for awhile what the average activity span is for new LJers; I've been thinking it's a year or two for most people.
I used to think that
iibnf's list was gargantuan, but now I'm really starting to understand the nature of LJ. We're not all active at once, and whole segments of our flist rotate. I keep thinking that there's no way that I can fit more friends into the mix, and I cut back sometimes, but then I do end up friending new people and finding new interesting conversations, which, for me, is what it's all about. When whole segments of the flist are quiet, I feel no problem about adding new voices. Sometimes flisters come back and start posting again (yay, scarah2! yay,chocolate_limes!), and sometimes promising flisters fall off the face of the internet relatively quickly (ozymannedias? elddonnemar?). But in the end, there are always new people to talk to, and new conversations to explore.Yeah, I still love LJ.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
(no subject)
Date: 2006-07-14 09:29 pm (UTC)Also, I forgot to mention that I am so in awe of your devotion to keeping up with the flist after you've been away. The amount of time it takes to even catch up after a week is beyond me, but you manage to keep up so well after a much longer period of time and with many more friends. Color me amazed (and pink)!
(no subject)
Date: 2006-07-14 09:31 pm (UTC)Thing is, I get everything pretty mixed up in my head, which is why I have to read one LJer at a time. And even so, you'll nearly always have to refresh my memory. It's there, it's just all sloshing around with Snape stuff, y'know? heh.
I really love to keep up, though. I like reading everything.