First Post!

Hello boys and girls. Are we sitting comfortably? It's blogging time.

This is a continuation of an old online journal. Journals are the distant relative of blogs that grew into a tool for social networking. First "friends" functions were bolted onto them, then later friends-only posting, private messages and photo galleries. We use them for posting polls about what superhero we're most like, holding heated debates about Doctor Who or for filing dispatches about every minutae of our identikit lives. Previously they were useful for planning parties and finding the next "alternative" shared house but Facebook have since stolen that gauntlet.

It's oxymoronic to say most journals have readers. People don't read journals - they skim them and ogle the pictures. Consequently entries without a naked lady / lolcat / lolmugabe or more verbose than a few lines get overlooked. Because the threaded comment system (à la 1970's "usenet") is integral to the experience people will always be thinking "what can I reply with here?" instead of taking in the content of a post. The model encourages readers to bash out quick, throwaway responses instead of fostering a considered discussion and there's an unspoken suggestion that the number of comments an entry gets determines its level of success.

The mass of nerdery surrounding the journal-sphere gives it a funny smell. It attracts cliques and fucked-up subcultures and frightens away the non-nerds, who happen to be most people. LiveJournal users - disable the default filter on your friends page then imagine mom scrolling down it. Is she thinking "wow, junior sure has some cool friends" or is there a terrified look on her face? Is she weirded out by the endless polls and odd company you keep?

Journals are fine as a social tool but as a publishing platform they suck. To do more wordy articles - well-backed rants, short stories, streams of consciousness or anything else you've put some effort into you want a medium which says clearly "these words have value to me". For this we want a publishing platform and not a hybrid social network / discussion forum.

So here is mine.