About LJ etiquette

[jlh]

Over the past few months, there have been a few times when folks on my friends list asked other folks on their friends list to do/not do this-or-that. Often it involves the proper use of the cut tag.

Now, I think we all know the value of the cut tag for photos and quizzes (those pics take forever to load) and memes and long entries of all sorts (because, hey, they take up a lot of space). And spoilers--that's just polite. After all, most of us here are in one fandom or another, and would like to enjoy things as they come. The war is a special case, I think; Cassie made a good case for why cut tags on war-related entries is a good thing to do.

BUT.

I'm concerned about the "please cut your entries about things I don't care about" request. Hey, we all have varied interests. But the scroll bar is also your friend. Skim, people. Kissaki and Rhysenn have been talking about almost nothing but LOTR for months. I couldn't care less about LOTR. So, I skim. I read the first sentence and then scoll on by. It really doesn't take very long.

Also, I think that if someone is saying something that you don't want to read, it is likely more effective to TELL THEM DIRECTLY than to make vague posts to your entire friends list about it. It is always true that the people you were actually scolding are clueless enough not to know you mean them (after all, they were clueless enough to do whatever it was in the first place) and the people you didn't mean get freaked out and wonder if you are mad at THEM. It just causes confusion.

And before you say that I am guilty of this--I mean this entry to be an advisory to everyone, but it is a direct response to something Alex said. Which I replied to in HIS LJ, and which I am not going to go into here.

Basically, I do reserve the right to talk about things I am involved in, especially if I make it short. Which I will do in my next entry.

Thanks.

Comments

[altricial.livejournal.com]

ALL ABOUT THE ASS-KICKING CLIO!!!

*impressed*

[kissaki.livejournal.com]

Ha! That is true. It's what I've always said. Although I will say one thing. I have a filter for people that I game with, and the majority of those entries are various squeeing about LoTR and LoTRPS.

I don't filter everything because, well, I don't know. But I do believe in the cut tag for large pictures and quizzes for the most part.

I have friends listed from various fandoms, and I know next to NOTHING about DS9, but I follow the same thing that you do. It's not too much trouble to scroll.

[queerasjohn.livejournal.com]

Yeah, and like, if you hit the space bar, it goes past the WHOLE PAGE! It's like there's TWO whole buttons for the "Page Down" button.

[ivyblossom.livejournal.com]

I don't know at what point people became contributors other people's friends lists and not journallers in their own right. I think the lj cut can be courteous in the right contexts, but I can't really imagine a situation where I would demand its use. I mean, in the end, I have my friends list as it is because I want to see what these people are saying. If I no longer want to see what someone is saying, I will unfriend them. So the onous as I see it is really on me. I control my friends list. The friends list is a technical advantage that lets me see all those entries on one page instead of going from page to page to page. On some level it disturbs me that anyone actually tailors their posting to the fact of the friends page.

But on the other hand, lj is more about communities than about individual journals at this point, so I guess thinking about other people while preparing your content makes sense. To a degree. As a commited blogger, I would seriously hesitate to tell anyone what to post in their own journal, or where to stick a tag. I stick by my contention that it's my problem for syndicating it in the first place if I don't like the content.

Here's another two Canadian pennies you didn't ask for.

[mmichelle.livejournal.com]

Clio! *gasp* You couldn't care less about LOTR? You sinner..... (Kidding! I'm kidding!)
Anyway....I do not understand why it would be so hard to just skip a paragraph you don't want to read... people are so whiney these days!

[legomymalfoy.livejournal.com]

I am really glad you said that, Clio. I personally request the cut for things such as OOTP spoilers, but nothing else. So *applauds*

~jen

[phoenixsong]

Having just had words the other day with someone who not only had a problem with something I posted, but apparently also had issue with supportive comments left by friends who were more familiar with the situation in question, I can definitely back both you and jlh on this.

[titanic-days.livejournal.com]

Well, I deleted my post that sparked this because, frankly, I have never had so many responses that made me feel like a complete worm.

What I think I was trying to say, in a rather inarticulate and stupid way, is that I find it disheartening to come online and see so many of my friends on Yahoo with little messages saying 'NA Only' ... it makes me go, 'Oh, I won't come say hi and ask how your day's going, then, because clearly this game is very important to you.' So I respect the messages and leave well alone. It makes me feel isolated and wibbly and that's when I get stupid and make fucking stupid posts that I never meant to make. Also, as an ex-player, there's probably a certain amount of residual bitterness that I was sort of chucked off. I mean, there's totally no bad feeling about that, I wasn't able to keep up and it wasn't fair on the other players (you in particular) and I'd already tried to resign and been pressured into staying on, but I was kicked.

Sorry.