My LJ - a rare message to audience...

[susandennis]

spacefem always fascinates me. If you are not reading her journal, you should seriously consider changing your ways. She writes and lives on the widest variety of everything you can imagine. Sometimes it wears me out just to imagine the very little bit I know of her life. But, seriously, she's always an excellent read.

Today she talks about how she approaches Live Journal. And, as she often does, clarifies my own stance for me by explaining a different one.

I do write my journal for me. I started it in 2002 and specifically did NOT start or grow it locally on one of my own computers. Initially I did not want to be responsible for backing it up or keeping it safe. Then, as the years went on, I liked being able to always access it from anywhere.

Also along the way, I learned that having others read your words often makes them better. Having you react now and again is very interesting and then, I began to actually meet, face to face, some of the people who read it. Very very very cool.

But, I still write for me. It's my journal and I'll write what I want, how I want, how often I want regardless of what anyone else thinks. I don't do meme's. I rarely, really very rarely, ask for opinion/feedback. It's mostly a journal of what I plan to do today or what I did do today, some memories and other miscellany. I don't ask anyone to read it and I don't expect anyone to read it.

And, today, I actually do keep copies of this journal (with comments) locally and on Google Drive.

That's my cadence :) and my LJ raison d'etre.

Comments

[alesyaweimar.livejournal.com]

Ooo, I see French)))
I write in my blog first of all - for myself, statistics - the last thing.

[lookfar.livejournal.com]

How do you keep copies? You mean, you just copy-paste into a document somewhere?

[susandennis]

LJ Archive

http://sourceforge.net/projects/ljarchive/

[fbhjr.livejournal.com]

That sounds cool!

[susandennis]

It's very fiddly to get installed, set up and working correctly - there's an LJ community and some hints and tips in the the comments there. But, once you've got it, it's painless and excellent.

[spacefem.livejournal.com]

Awe, this is really nice, thank you!

[susandennis]

thank you!

[mrdreamjeans.livejournal.com]

I'm so glad that we connected here. You write so engagingly about the small moments in life. Often your words encourage me to think about a variety of topics in ways different than my own experience. Thank you. Secondly, you're in my favorite city. I began my journal while living on Mercer Island in 2003.

I do differ in that I often ask questions ... seek feedback and opinions ... It's part of the way I make decisions. I've found my friends here to be quite good at helping me see topics in new and fresh ways.

I recommended you to a friend in Florida today. Her name is katbyte. She is looking for new Lj friends and I know in the past year you've added some new folks. Kathy is retired. She's a greyhound enthusiast, plays bridge and does water aerobics.

[spacefem.livejournal.com]

so more commenting, since I wrote that really fast from my phone :)

1) I got like five new friends in the last day or two, so you say you don't write for your audience but obviously they listen and love you! you're doing something right :)

2) Also I think I formed my "audience is important" theory because back in the day I seriously had people on my livejournal list, mostly from real life, who would write SUPER controversial or flame-worthy topics, or talk about a mean/bad decision they'd made, and when anyone commented to criticize them they'd say "Hey this is my journal I don't care what you think if you don't agree then don't read it and it is not acceptable to criticize me in my own journal." and I thought well that's the wrong attitude, I want to be on the opposite side of that.

other people just like to post nice peaceful things and tell their friends here "I'm not going to go skydiving to make this interesting for you" - and that's wonderful, and really the thing I love about livejournal, we're just living our lives. that's the good way to "not care" what people think.

[susandennis]

Oh I love that 5 new people now have spacefem fever! Excellent. I do have some really wonderful people who follow my journal. Enjoy!

[luzclarita.livejournal.com]

My livejournal is for myself too. I print out a bound copy of my entries each year. Comments are nice, but not actually necessary. I like the feeling that people are reading, but it's my journal.