Once a Stranger

delicious seems very intent on keep on failing and - I've been very patient with it - has anyone found a good, not paying alternative for it? I mostly use it for my own links bookkeeping, barely ever used the networking aspect. Is there a program or a firefox plug in that could do that?

Lately it feels like more and more people are leaving LJ. It's been getting to me a lot. I really hate this. I hate people saying they're leaving and deleting their journals, I hate realising that people have just vanished out and not updated their journals for months or years, too. It feels like most of the life out of LJ (or DW for that matter) has been extinguished, I don't think I see enthusiasm much anymore elsewhere than in kink memes and other forms of anonymous memes (which frankly, I was never very fond of). I think a big part of it is, fandom has spread itself in other places, across different dimensions. Tumblr is great for fanart, gifs and more stream of consciousness squeeing (despite how much I hate the tumblr interface as well as the way people socialize on it and that is A WHOLE FUCKING LOT, and the more I use tumblr - I made an account a couple of months ago - the more I hate it :p); more in depth text based meta, reviews etc. are on various blogs, I guess. Fics are more simple to post on archives. Recs are handled via delicious (yes, despite the last debacle). And - what I miss most - the networking and befriending people based upon fandom, I guess maybe it's happening elsewhere too, on facebook or twitter or somewhere else I don't know about. But, and it's funny, that was one thing I used to criticise LJ for - the way it was mixing a whole lot of different things in the same place, the way it made us have to jungle all those things at the same time, the intersection of those spheres - which was sometimes unwieldy - but in retrospect feels like it was very productive in social interaction. Conversations bouncing from one journal to another, filled with ideas and joy and depth and silliness and resonance - when's the last I've seen that?

These days it doesn't feel like we get much into great conversations anymore. I dunno, maybe it happens elsewhere that what I pay attention to. I've been through a lot of fandoms - maybe too many - and at the same time I've always refused to follow the bandwagon of the next Big Fandom everyone else was following unless I was, you know, genuinely interesting in that big fandom (and most often I wasn't so much, instead I was more into skipping to another media/genre altogether!), which doesn't help keeping ties. And the biggest problem, I've really sucked about keeping my journal lively either, and I've deeply sucked at keeping lively conversation with others on their journals as well. Oh, I've done a lot of perfunctionary updating, so to speak, quick, shallow comments; and silly memes and I've tried to keep talking about fannish stuff - but... I haven't put in it a lot of myself into it. Big part of that was just depression, and not knowing how to deal with situation in life. I don't want to talk about this much. I don't like talking about it. It feels too shameful, and too vulnerable, and too embarrassing all at the same time. And as far as commenting, I have felt way too out of my depth as well as too numb often enough to have anything to say to people. And I always try to escape spirals of self loathing the same way, with avoidance and escapism; which hasn't ended very profitable for social interaction.

But I still treasure all those things. The friendships I have here - brittle and narrow though some of them may be - and the potential for fannish interactions. I depend on it so much. Maybe that is where I err wrong. Of course, things fall apart. Of course, people drift apart - that's not even a specifically fannish thing. Of course, people jump into the newest thing, and sometimes the newest thing isn't the newest fandom, or the newest kind of fanwork exchange, or the newest meme - sometimes it's the newest platform. What do you gonna do. Heh, it's not like I'm unlikely to jump onto the newest thing when it is to my taste, either.

Not sure where I am going with that. I guess I'd just like to have a reason to be hopeful about fannish networking, here or elsewhere, in a way that isn't just about clinging after past glories. Tell me there is some?

The Delicious change has finally caught up with me!! And holy shit is it ugly and impractical indeed! o_o

Though, really I'm still utterly amazed I had this weird 10 days respite somehow. XD

Also if people want DW invites, I'll just lay down some here. Tell me if you take one (so I can strike it from the list).

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FYAAEVJCTCGXZAAAMQWY

WEE7X3A6QRJMPAAAND4X

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It's a little bit more than a month since I created abymage to post my anime reviews. I've posted 10 reviews during that time (Sukisyo, Durarara!!, Angel Beats!, Hakuouki Shinsengumi Kitan, Tatami Galaxy, Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood, House of the Five Leaves, Bakemonogatari, Toradora! and RideBack). I didn't get a lot of comments yet apart from the Tatami Galaxy entry for some reason (and probably lost of a lot of readership from simply not posting them right there in the first place), but it's nice to see a couple of people I don't know joining the com to follow it, and I just installed a counter that tracks some nice info as well. I guess I'd get more feedback if I could come up with some more discussion orientated posts... >_>;

All right, I've created a community on Dreamwidth : abymage and put all my reviews there (and started tagging them by genre but I'm not finished). If you still prefer following it from LJ I've created a syndicated feed on LJ: abymage. Note that like with all feeds on LJ, you can comment on it, but they won't be archived as the synidcated posts disappear after a while, so if you want to leave a comment that'll stay you need to comment over on DW (you don't need an actual account in order to comment on DW, you can just activate your lj as an Open ID account). Or if you prefer you could follow the RSS feed from any blog reading program/website.

Anyway I've posted my latest review there : Sukisyo.

I've got two invite code for DW. I know there are people who asked me for invite codes when I get them before, but I believe they already recieved them through other means? If not, they have, of course, priority. Anyway, if anyone still wants a Dreamwidth invite code, speak now.

Alright I've got my account invitation courtesy of misstopia (see I failed to confirm my email address with my OpenID account, which is why I never recieved anything, hah!)

However I'm still flailing trying to think of new user name for that account. So poll time it is!

[Poll #1393636]

By the way I do plan on using my DW account a lot. Basically I'm planning on splitting my livejournal. Fan-related content, reviews and fanworks and the like will go to the DW accounts. I'll keep my LJ for journaling stuff about my personal life, and I'll make it friend only. So yeah, I'll make my DW account as followable as possible even from LJ though.

I WISH LJ WOULD STOP RANDOMLY SWITCH TO A FRENCH LANGUAGE LAYOUT WITHOUT ASKING MY OPINION DRJGLDRKJGLKRJGLKSDJKLJRGKLJSDRT !!!!1!1!1!!1!!11!


I haven't posted since I went back, did I? So, d'you folks want me to try to review the movies I saw? I kinda suck at reviewing movies, but....

It's the LJPOCALYPSE lol

I'll start panicking when I'll be done laughing.

I actually really like the new user info.

LJ has done some changes of policies. And they're all for the better! Incredible isn't?

In particular :

* Our Adult Content policy has been changed to emphasize that content which is flagged as containing explicit adult content does not mean it is in violation of our Terms of Service, and will not result in other actions being taken against users who post it. The process for reporting adult content has also changed so that the system only handles reports of adult content; reports of violations of our policies should be reported as outlined here.

We have also stated within the policy that non-graphic, non-sexualized nudity is not considered explicit adult content. This includes things such as an image of a mother breastfeeding their child, or a non-sexualized work of art such as the Statue of David. We have also extended this to our policy on default userpics; non-graphic, non-sexualized nudity is no longer considered a violation of our default userpic policy.


* Our policy on Non-Photographic Images of Minors is being removed. What this means is that we will no longer be requiring the removal of this content, or suspending people who have posted it. We feel that with the introduction of the adult content flagging system, we do not need to take any further action on this type of material.

In celebration, I've reinstated my paid account, let LJ know as a customer I'm happy with the change ^_^ That means icons! Lots of icons! Damnit, I'd missed my icons ♥ ♥ ♥

atrata plans to set up a LJ clone run by fans for fans. If you want to help, contact her. If you know other who do something similar, help them contact each others.

ETA: she's created a community for this purpose : fandom_flies. Pimp it to your friends ^_^