Keep in mind, these sorts of social-network generational transitions aren't new, even if the term "social network" is. The first I went through this was in the mid-90s, when Usenet went through much the same experience. In the late 80s, *every* geek with an Internet connection was active on Usenet; ten years later, it was a ghost world.
My sense is that geekdom has fragmented, especially into two camps that can be roughly described as "FB sucks, but it's where everyone is" and "FB is EvilDieDieDie". A lot of the latter are using G+ and other platforms, and some are still here; the former, by and large (and I do think that even among geeks it's the majority) have given in and are mostly using FB.
As for what they do with in-depth, LJ-style postings -- well, most folks just don't. Really, that sort of writing is a learned behaviour, and many folks were never entirely comfortable with it. The ones who *need* to write are, again, either still here, or have drifted to other blogging platforms. (Of which, heaven knows, there are scads.)
And that cuts to the heart of it: LJ *as a social network* has largely collapsed. It's still a better-than-average blogging platform, which is why I not only still write my own stuff here but host the Querki Dev Blog here. But note that the latter will be moving to Querki itself sometime in the next year -- I fully expect that I'm gradually going to push the system to the point where it is *better* for discussion than LJ. And I cross-post all my LJ posts to FB, to notify people that I've posted.
Basically, LJ stood still. Aside from twiddling at the edges, it hasn't evolved much over the past decade, while the rest of the world has moved on. Facebook got much, much better at being a social network than LJ ever was, and other blogging platforms are beginning to slowly lap it in that regard. And so the community has fragmented.
Frankly, I mourn it mostly because the *correct* replacement hasn't arrived yet. What I want is a properly open social network that isn't owned by anybody -- an Internet to Facebook's Prodigy. And then I want an excellent, open blogging service built on *top* of that. That combination ought to provide the best of both worlds, but somebody has to build it. (Frankly, one of my top motivations to get Very Very Rich from Querki is to be able to do so...)
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
branchandroot
no subject
Date: 2014-05-15 07:11 pm (UTC)My sense is that geekdom has fragmented, especially into two camps that can be roughly described as "FB sucks, but it's where everyone is" and "FB is EvilDieDieDie". A lot of the latter are using G+ and other platforms, and some are still here; the former, by and large (and I do think that even among geeks it's the majority) have given in and are mostly using FB.
As for what they do with in-depth, LJ-style postings -- well, most folks just don't. Really, that sort of writing is a learned behaviour, and many folks were never entirely comfortable with it. The ones who *need* to write are, again, either still here, or have drifted to other blogging platforms. (Of which, heaven knows, there are scads.)
And that cuts to the heart of it: LJ *as a social network* has largely collapsed. It's still a better-than-average blogging platform, which is why I not only still write my own stuff here but host the Querki Dev Blog here. But note that the latter will be moving to Querki itself sometime in the next year -- I fully expect that I'm gradually going to push the system to the point where it is *better* for discussion than LJ. And I cross-post all my LJ posts to FB, to notify people that I've posted.
Basically, LJ stood still. Aside from twiddling at the edges, it hasn't evolved much over the past decade, while the rest of the world has moved on. Facebook got much, much better at being a social network than LJ ever was, and other blogging platforms are beginning to slowly lap it in that regard. And so the community has fragmented.
Frankly, I mourn it mostly because the *correct* replacement hasn't arrived yet. What I want is a properly open social network that isn't owned by anybody -- an Internet to Facebook's Prodigy. And then I want an excellent, open blogging service built on *top* of that. That combination ought to provide the best of both worlds, but somebody has to build it. (Frankly, one of my top motivations to get Very Very Rich from Querki is to be able to do so...)