alias_sqbr

I definitely think active comms is a huge problem, Dreamwidth lagging behind (I think for several years) on porting communities meant a lot of RPers and stuff refused to leave in the first place, or had to go back and forth between sites, or had to abandon communities or try and restart them from scratch knowing that they had maybe 20% of their previous membership (if that)).

For me though, the people I know who complain the most about it were never active in communities. So then I think the issue is pretty solely nostalgia, and also probably missing...idk, thoughtful comments? Comment threads? I'm guessing. That's what I miss the most about LJ. But I also miss like...having more energy and having less places for that energy to go, so I had more time to be self-indulgent about blogging.

BUT, then I also think that if I got off Twitter and Facebook (and spent less time on Tumblr), I *would* have more time for blogging on Dreamwidth, and that's a factor too. Time management between social media now vs. like, time management then when people didn't have Twitter and Facebook wasn't hugely used and Instagram didn't exist or Snapchat or even Tumblr. It was possible to devote a lot more time to like, way less social media, and make it a richer place by association maybe?

There's also the fact that a lot of people who were happy enough with lj back when it was new and shiny have gotten used to the sort of easy image and post creation and sharing offered by tumblr etc, and would now feel frustrated on dreamwidth.

I feel frustrated by it too. Having to hard-code in photos for photo posts here is something that takes way more effort than the quick upload option on Tumblr, or uploading multiple photos on Instagram, or Twitter, or Facebook.

And maybe the thing I'm also complaining about is also just...the difference in attention and devotion to a site when you're spread between like, idk 5-10 social media sites vs. 1-3. When even if you're not active on those platforms, you may be reading them or following friends on them - like the people who only post on Twitter, or Instagram, or Facebook, or (insert something here). I don't have the energy to post on all those platforms, but I do visit them all to keep in touch with like, the equivalent of about 6 or 7 friendslists, and some of them are very outrage-inducing friendslists with random content that is invasive or intrusive or harmful.

So even I no longer have the energy to spend on places like Dreamwidth like I used to, even though they're quieter, gentler, more curated, and safer, and promise - generally - more engaged discussion than just about anywhere else (not exclusively though).

In that sense I miss LJ too.

Anyway this is a long incoherent rambling which is basically like 'yes I agree also the internet is harder than it used to be and maybe I need to stop getting mad at other people and just think about how I use social media' lol. <3