As insomnia likes to point out, LiveJournal is shrinking. Many blame SixApart and SUP for this decline, and it true that the actions of those corporations have contributed to the slow bleed of users. However, I believe the root cause is much deeper.

The tone of the LiveJournal community has changed. It has become more vicious, more snark-centric, more hateful and cliquish. There has always been drama on LiveJournal, but it has not always been like it is now. Often now one misspoken word in a community or the mention of a viewpoint out of the mainstream will be taken out of context and a flood of mean-spirited attacks will flood the comments of a post from users mobbing in from any one of the countless snark communities that have cropped up.

I've been on LiveJournal almost 7 years at this point, and this increasing ugliness has me more concerned for LiveJournal than anything SixApart did or SUP is doing. Neither SixApart nor SUP are LiveJournal, LiveJournal is the community that inhabits this virtual place and that community is decaying. I'm sure I'm far from the only long-time user who is disenchanted by the current LiveJournal environment and I don't see what the motivation would be for many new users to become part of it.

I have not been involved in any drama around here recently, so this post hasn't been triggered by a specific event. The problem is that LiveJournal doesn't seem like a community anymore, at least not a communities that I want to consider myself part of. I don't intend on leaving completely, but I've been spending a lot less time here. I've got other things to do.

I'm back as maintainer of naturesbeauty.

This comment in the most recent post in lj_policy may be right on the money. If these censorship maneuvers by LiveJournal have been in response to behind the scenes legal action against them, then their lack of communication with users makes sense. If this is the case, it is likely going to effect any site that gains sufficient notoriety. A lot of these alternative sites may be able to get away with looser restrictions only because they're still flying under the radar screen.

I don't want to leave LiveJournal, but SUP has yet to even address the censored interest search fiasco and tags are still capped at 1000. I'm far from happy with things around here at LiveJournal right now. I'm not sure what to do.

Poll #1105617 departure poll
Open to: All, results viewable to: All

I should...

Who wants to come play in associationword with me?

I am addicted to matchgamelj.

I'm strongly considering deleting the house_of_clocks community. It's been a while since the demise of the second House of Clocks and there will not be a third. The community dates back to the first House of Clocks, but there doesn't seem to be much in the way of nostalgia in the community and I doubt that anyone will ever have use for it in the future.

from purplesquirrel in squirrellovers:

From a post by jeywolf in without_meds:

My friend type_40, who I had a late meal with at Denny's tonight, has been dismayed about the lack of a decent forum dedicated to the old Doctor Who series. To rectify this, I created classic_who and set up the profile for her. I then handed her the reigns. Not much there yet; but if you are interested – go ahead and check it out.

Poll #879992
Open to: All, results viewable to: All

I've used the tracking feature to...

Poll #834788
Open to: All, results viewable to: All

Sponsored Communities (0 - absolutely wretched; 10 - brilliantly superb)

I made _retarded_icons again! (You have to be a member to see the newest entry, as they've gone friends only). Four times I rock their world! However, it's really only three – as this time is for something I already made it for (having userpics of myself), and so it is not quite as exciting as it would be otherwise.

I've been mentioned in _retarded_icons at least three times now! Here, here, and here. Go me!

Note: This is not a call for anyone to defend or affirm me. I am simply amused by my notoriety and wanted to show off.

I don't really use my MySpace account, but I seem to get plenty of spam there. Livejournal does a very good job at policing spam, it is very rare that I get any spam comments here. I used to run a couple communities that were prone to spam, but moderating membership pretty much ended that. But, on MySpace simply having a profile seems enough to get spammed on a regular basis. What is more, you have to go to the site and log in to even see the spam. MySpace will not email the text of the messages to you. I've gone ahead an disabled emails from MySpace, and therefore will not see any actual comments or people attempting to add me until I deign to go to the site and check.

I originally planned to get icon_geekery up and running in January, but it got shoved onto the back burner for a while. It is up and running now, so if you are a geek or nerd and either want to find icons or want to create them, go check it out.

Poll #685629
Open to: All, results viewable to: All

When you have been involved in online drama, which of the following has been true (check as many as apply):

Do you find online drama entertaining when you and those you consider friends are not involved?

Do other people at times take online drama too seriously?

Do you at times take online drama too seriously?

Is online drama inevitable if one spends enough in time virtual communities and online forums?

I have finally gotten all of 2005 tagged. I had planned to have my entire journal tagged by this point, but I am still far from that goal. I want to tag all the entries in memories then go to go back to the beginning of my journal and tag the entries going forward. However, first I'm going to clean up the tags I already have. There are errors caused both by typos and LiveJournal cropping the tag field.

Unlike a government, I believe an online forum is best run with a heavy handed rule, as there will always be those who will test and push blurry lines into uselessness and a place such as a LiveJournal community is too small a thing to put such a large effort into keeping that balance. I have seen many people burn out in running online groups for that very reason.

Regardless of that, I am pleased by the reaction to and distrust of any authority that I saw in davis_square, even the rejection of mine. While I may not agree with the outcomes there, I am happy the events transpired in the way they did in December. The rejection and questioning that was shown is the heart of the idea of the United States, and it gives me some hope for the future to see it so strong in Davis Square .

Overstylization predominates in the LiveJournal icon communities, yet it does not predominate the icons people actually use. In my opinion this is because overstylization reduces the impact and meaning of the image in the icon and rarely adds a significant about of value. The idea that the overstylization somehow goes better with a user's journal layout is flawed in that your icons will most likely not be primarily viewed with your layout.

Another pet peeve of mine is illegible icon text. This can occur with and be made worse by overstylization, but it can also occur independently. I, and I imagine most people, don't spend the time to squint at every illegible icon in an attempt to discern the text. If you're going to use the text as a style element, as I did on the icon I made for eroticpoetry, fine. But, if the text is not primarily for stylistic purposes and it is illegible it is better not to include it at all.

Yes, I'm anal about graphics. Very anal. When I used to have over a thousand textures I made up on my site for general use, they were all anally seamless, and I carry the same principle to animations. I've been called obsessive compulsive about my graphics by those who know me in real life, and in a way it's true. I may not be anal about things like keeping my bedroom clean, but when it comes to my creations I am incredibly picky.