rant: what's the point of being here?
2009-Feb-21, Saturday 12:21 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
mellowtiggerI just typed up a reply to a public post, and then LiveJournal informed me that the user has set their journal to Friends-Only posting. (Why couldn't I have been warned when I clicked the Reply button before I spent the time writing up the note?!) I may have to make a new review of my subscription list ("friends") and start removing names that are primarily non-public. I've tried to avoid adding names that do this kind of stuff, but everyone is compartmentalizing their lives so much that I consider the practice far beyond a reasonable tactic any more.
Most of the accounts I've subscribed to are queer folk, and they of all people should know how poisonous it is to sequester a part of your life into safe closet territory.
I understand wanting to make a Friends-read-only post every once in a while, to discuss something potentially illegal or otherwise harmful. But must EVERYthing that some people write fall into this category? Thought #1: You really need to consider moving to email if you want to eliminate every aspect of webpages that risks disclosure of some super-secret information that would ruin your life or someone else's. Thought #2: Maybe you shouldn't be posting stuff like that anyway, if it's really so dangerous for someone else to read. Consider reorienting your life to spend more time on productive and explorational topics instead of secretive harmful things.
I expect people to correct me if I state something that's WRONG. If the rest of the community is really so delicate that they don't want public commentary, then perhaps a static webpage would be better (or, again, consider email). It really undermines the learning opportunity of a social site to retreat into these little corners, disallowing public reading, disallowing public commenting. I have all anonymous posts screened on my journal, but I approve all the ones that seem like legitimate users (instead of spam attempts).
If what you post here could ruin your job, then attend to your livelihood and stop posting stuff that could threaten it! If what you post here could ruin your friendships, then attend to them and stop posting stuff that could threaten them!
I'm very disappointed in the LJ population ("community" would require use of quotes) at the moment. I want to live as a whole person in a whole world. I don't want to live in a world that's segmented, compartmentalized, and ghettoized. So grow some gonads and own up to the kind of world that you're actively creating. Which kind of world will you be a part of?
LiveJournal deserves writers who make public posts that are searchable by web crawlers like Google, so surfers can find other people with opinions and information on topics that concern them. LiveJournal deserves writers who open their posts to everyone, so that subscribers have an opportunity to read followup opinions by other subscribers. You never know who you'll meet online... but locking posts down is a way to ensure that people don't meet each other at all.
Most of the accounts I've subscribed to are queer folk, and they of all people should know how poisonous it is to sequester a part of your life into safe closet territory.
I understand wanting to make a Friends-read-only post every once in a while, to discuss something potentially illegal or otherwise harmful. But must EVERYthing that some people write fall into this category? Thought #1: You really need to consider moving to email if you want to eliminate every aspect of webpages that risks disclosure of some super-secret information that would ruin your life or someone else's. Thought #2: Maybe you shouldn't be posting stuff like that anyway, if it's really so dangerous for someone else to read. Consider reorienting your life to spend more time on productive and explorational topics instead of secretive harmful things.
I expect people to correct me if I state something that's WRONG. If the rest of the community is really so delicate that they don't want public commentary, then perhaps a static webpage would be better (or, again, consider email). It really undermines the learning opportunity of a social site to retreat into these little corners, disallowing public reading, disallowing public commenting. I have all anonymous posts screened on my journal, but I approve all the ones that seem like legitimate users (instead of spam attempts).
If what you post here could ruin your job, then attend to your livelihood and stop posting stuff that could threaten it! If what you post here could ruin your friendships, then attend to them and stop posting stuff that could threaten them!
I'm very disappointed in the LJ population ("community" would require use of quotes) at the moment. I want to live as a whole person in a whole world. I don't want to live in a world that's segmented, compartmentalized, and ghettoized. So grow some gonads and own up to the kind of world that you're actively creating. Which kind of world will you be a part of?
LiveJournal deserves writers who make public posts that are searchable by web crawlers like Google, so surfers can find other people with opinions and information on topics that concern them. LiveJournal deserves writers who open their posts to everyone, so that subscribers have an opportunity to read followup opinions by other subscribers. You never know who you'll meet online... but locking posts down is a way to ensure that people don't meet each other at all.