A thought.

[hackthis_archive]

My issue with The Great Dreamwidth Migration Or Something Like It, is not that people are going, or not going. If you go, have at it, i've got an OpenID, I'll stop by -- if you stay, I'll see you around. It's not that I've been offered a code or haven't been offered a code. I do think there is something a little Supply and Demandish about it, in that the fewer codes there are the more people want them and the more it becomes almost a status symbol, and then other people want them because they see other people wanting them. But that's not my point either. I am neither pro-Dreamwidth nor picking up the pitchforks. I haven't done the homework, I haven't tested the application. It could be the best thing since the Notes App on my IPhone, I dunno. I am not making any call or pissing in somebody's sandbox.

The issue I have is that there seems to be this immense pressure, not from one person or even one direction, but just a overall press that 'Everyone Must Go!' like the house is going to burn down around us if we don't get out now. Like if you don't get out of LJ now you're going to be left behind, and that, to me, that's just not cool. That, to me, takes a lot of fun out of something that indeed might be great. But, you know, that's just my opinion.




And on a wholy unrelated Southland note: HOLY FUCKING COW, JOHN COOPER + REGINA KING FOR THE MOTHERFUCKING WIN. *\o/*

Comments

[zoniduck.livejournal.com]

You're not the first person I've seen who feels this way about the whole thing, but I haven't gotten that sense about it from the people who have posted about it on my Flist. In my experience, most people seem to be excited about having a viable choice other than LJ, and they're letting people know about their Dreamwidth accounts, but I haven't noticed any demands that everyone move. Is it overt pressure you're seeing, or is it more subtle?

[lazulus]

On an utterly shallow note... YOUR ICON OMG!

[wolkendunst.livejournal.com]

HOLY FUCKING COW, JOHN COOPER + REGINA KING FOR THE MOTHERFUCKING WIN.

God, yes! I loved how Lydia was fighting to get mother and son reunited. And John Cooper! He was actually hitting on his new partner. I wonder where TPTB will take this.

[inkandchocolate.livejournal.com]

I kind of agree, though it does remind me of the Great LJ Migration of Ought When The Hell Ever. Which is not to say I don't want a code, because I do. I hate to miss the train, hate to be out of the circle, whatever you want to fill in that particular blank.

I don't think everyone will haul ass out of LJ completely for two simple reasons:

1. It's too hard to start over again somewhere new and retain the hardcore warm and fuzzy they have established here in LJ-land.

2. DW is still an unknown and some folks are just not willing to pick up and go somewhere that hasn't got history. LJ might have massively bad spots on their record but they do have a well established record to rely on.

In conclusion, it's Friday, sunny and warm. I do not want to be at work. Hence LJ reading. Also? HI! Miss you!

[runpunkrun]

Sigh. I kind of feel like that, too. The site isn't even in open beta yet, and it's like I've already missed the boat because I'm not over there. That's not fun at all.

[parthenia14.livejournal.com]

I know I'm grumpy, but from what I can see, it feels like being on Dreamwidth right now would be a lot of work. I can't be arsed to hunt down an account and work out how to copy over my LJ when, I know it's nice people and everything, it's basically just another version of LJ. But much much smaller.

But I know there's a group of people who are fundamentally unhappy with LJ after 6 Apart, and they actively do want to move. Maybe. Everyone else, I don't know. I don't feel like that; I don't feel that I have any particularly good reasons to want an alternative or even a backup to LJ, but folk are indeed flocking to get invite codes and there is some weird anxiety about missing out, to the point where I have to take myself firmly in hand. I think my f-list is about one-quarter yay!, another quarter grabbing the invites and the rest going bzuh?

[musesfool.livejournal.com]

I agree that the OMG YOU MUST DO THIS vibe is off-putting, and we'll see how the whole thing shakes out, but I saw someone on my flist compare it to someone pimping out a new fandom to everyone, except that the first three episodes are only available from some supersekrit source so only people who have the password have seen them, but they're super-excited and are already writing fic and making icons and setting up communities for their OMG SO AWESOME new fandom, and everybody else is like, "WTF?"

So I think looking at it in terms of it being some people's new fandom makes it slightly more palatable.

I have tried not to be a proselytizer, mostly because I hate when people do it to me, and I have no plans to leave LJ completely, despite my unease with them, mostly because I don't want to lose anybody who chooses to stay. And also because dreamwidth *is* really new and still in closed beta and who knows if it will even live up to 50% of the hype?

[thisisbone.livejournal.com]

Hey, doll.

The main reason I wanted to get on DW wagon early was so I could get my name. I came to LJ too late to get plain old "bone", and I've been twitching in vague discomfort here the entire time, trying to fit into "thisisbone" and not really feeling it, you know?

I may have to go see if Hulu has Southland...you haven't been wrong yet. ;)

[hackthis.livejournal.com]

I've very much gotten a two pronged vibe from my reading list.

Prong 1 Seems to be: HAH, I GOT ONE! I DON'T GOTS ONE, WHY DON'T I GOTS ONE? DOES NOBODY LOVE ME? I IZ SAD

Prong 2 seems to be: Sometimes subtle sometimes not so much so tinge that this is where everybody has to go because LJ is the devil.

I, uh, you know, LJ is a business, it runs like a business. It has it's problems, I do not deny that at all, but I've been working on this account for a good long while. I've invested. I'm not interested in relocating at this moment.

[hackthis.livejournal.com]

I know, right?

[hackthis.livejournal.com]

He was actually hitting on his new partner. I wonder where TPTB will take this.

You think so? I dunno that he was hitting on Ben, but I think Ben was hitting on that girl officer. If I am wrong, hopefully it goes somewhere that ends with SEXXOR. I'm just saying.

[lazulus]

I loff Drama. *pets him*

I have no idea why I am suddenly driven to dragging out my Brad icons.

[hackthis.livejournal.com]

I know what it's like to not feel like you fit your name, yes.

SOUTHLAND is like... oh, baby. It is the BOMB. It's bad fucking ass. Or as bad ass as you can get on network TV. If it were on HBO, it'd be GK in Copland. *sighs moonily* Go on, get to Hulu.

[hackthis.livejournal.com]

I kind of agree, though it does remind me of the Great LJ Migration of Ought When The Hell Ever.

Oh my god, we've been doing this too long. I remember when it was all mailing lists and you gave me my first blog. *is old*

I do think a lot of it has to do with the 'fandom mentality.' Like people think of fandom as one whole, but fandom isn't a whole, it's made up of lost of little itty bitty fandoms with their shows and their wank and their peeps, you know? And everyone's worried that their fandom is going to be the one to leave them behind if they don't get on the train. That... that's not healthy.

I... do not want to relocate. At least not now. My relationship with LJ is a business relationship, my relationship with fandom... a bit more undefinable, but, you know it is what it is.

[gweneiriol.livejournal.com]

And on a wholy unrelated Southland note: HOLY FUCKING COW, JOHN COOPER + REGINA KING FOR THE MOTHERFUCKING WIN. *\o/*

I totally Quadruple this! Did you see last night's ep? So good!

[hackthis.livejournal.com]

Exactly. And to me that's not conducive of a good fannish experience.

[hackthis.livejournal.com]

Exactly, I undestand that there are people who are unhappy with LJ and that they've been seeking alternatives... Greatest Journal... Insane Journal... shit I don't even remember. And that is their right, more power to them, because that's what you do when you're unhappy, you move on. And you know, if I was unhappy I'd actively be looking to move too, none of this is my issue. My issue is the way it's turned into this almost snowball of 'I have one! I don't have one! Am I going to be left behind? Will I be the last one? I don't want to be last!' That sense of anxiety makes ME anxious and I don't want to be anxious, I have enough shit to deal with.

[hackthis.livejournal.com]

You bring that infidel up in here?!

[wolkendunst.livejournal.com]

I think Ben was hitting on that girl officer

Yes I saw that too, but this and Cooper hitting on Ben are not mutually exclusive. :-) I think Cooper was oozing interest when he talked to Ben in the bar.

Anyway, I really like the girl officer (can't remember her name). I'd love to see the three of them fighting crime together, although it is probably not very likely, since to my knowledge you do not pair up police officers with two other officers. It's a bit awkward in the car, for starters. And wasn't it great, that Cooper told Ben to sit in the back seat of the car? So chivalrous!

[lazulus]

George is very sad now and I am suitably ashamed of myself.

*contrite*

[hackthis.livejournal.com]

I agree that the OMG YOU MUST DO THIS vibe is off-putting, and we'll see how the whole thing shakes out, but I saw someone on my flist compare it to someone pimping out a new fandom to everyone, except that the first three episodes are only available from some supersekrit source so only people who have the password have seen them, but they're super-excited and are already writing fic and making icons and setting up communities for their OMG SO AWESOME new fandom, and everybody else is like, "WTF?"

YES. This is a very good way of putting it. And to me it's snowballed (to use your comparison) so that it's not even about the show anymore, but about having the password to see the bloody show or just pointing out I saw the show! or that the show is clearly better than all the other shows combined. My issue is it getting tainted so that you can't make up your mind on your own, because all the fuss has made you predisposed to love it or hate it automatically.

[hackthis.livejournal.com]

It was so good I kind of almost wet myself. Cooper in that black shirt at the bar nearly had me whimpering. He's just so manly and so like... you know... not like all the feeble, scrawny guys you normally see on telly who'd break a wrist if they tried to shovel the driveway or are so boring that you're just like AS IF!.

dw

[laceymcbain.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I'm not sure about the whole migration thing. LJ works fine for me, and I do understand some people have had considerable issues with LJ, but I really haven't. It's a place to hang out, be fannish, check in with people. I do feel a certain pressure to get over to Dreamwidth and see what the fuss is about, but I honestly don't have the time or the inclination to get too wrapped up in it at the moment. Time will tell, I guess. There was a small exodus to Greatest Journal when that came up, and many people came back, so I suppose I'll wait and see. And as long as there's open ID access, that's something.

[hollyxu.livejournal.com]

If enough of my flist migrates over, I might have to get an account at DW anyway. The community is the whole reason I joined Lj and came out of lurkerdom in the first place. From what I hear, people are just really excited about the whole thing, and we'll figure something out once the dust settles.

I remember when Lj/Gmail used to be on invite-only status. That was sort of the same vibe.

[chinawolf.livejournal.com]

Hmm. Weird. I don't see pressure going on at all. Of course that might be because I can't wait to open up shop over there, and thus the many "I'm soandso on Dreamwidth" don't have any peer pressure effect at all on me.

Here's what I think will happen: some people will migrate. Lots of people will crosspost and crossread. Some people will stay on LJ. And depending on where the new communities get opened, it might eventually happen that fandom will grow bigger on DW than it is on LJ.

With that in mind, I think that I'll crosspost for as long as there are people on both platforms I want to follow. This is because despite still loving LJ architecture, I really hate the people in charge. I don't trust them at all, and have been very uncomfortable giving them my credit card number once a year, and putting my life as well as my fannish activities onto their servers. But I did, because there was no alternative. But I don't for a second think that everybody else should mistrust them, too, and thus hurry away to DW.

Even for me, it's going to be hard to leave LJ behind even a little bit, I've been here for seven years, posted 5000+ entries here, a lot of my own personal history is in my comments. But I will move, in the very least with full crossposting. I'll also be around here, though, because some of my best friends won't move, and that's okay.

As I said before, I didn't see any pressuring going on at all. Is the pressure you're talking about merely people posting their account names, or have people actually been saying that they're moving to DW and anybody who doesn't move along will be left behind? Or worse?