It's the end of the blog as we know it?

[captainsblog]

It's getting kinda lonely around here.

If you're one of the couple dozen or so friends who regularly update, share, comment? Move along, nothing here to see. Yet that's the problem; those "couple dozen" are down from a relative buttload who were way more active in the heyday of LJ. Back then, I'd routinely cut longer entries or ones with lots of pictures, both for people with low-bandwidth issues and for those who would have their friends feeds slowed down by something big. Now, on my end at least, I appreciate the bloggers with lots of text or plenty of pics. They head off the otherwise inevitable deja vu that sets in, often, long before "previous 20."

Yes, LJ is annoying in many ways, but it's not just this one site. Many bloggers I found elsewhere, and imported through RSS feeds, have gone just as quiet. And another specialized form seems to be dying off: I've followed two blogs which have been excellent sources on local politics- one affiliated with Buffalo's primary print alt-weekly, one decidedly different from the print alt-weekly covering Rochester political news The former has been deathly quiet more often than not for weeks now; all I get in my morning update, most days, is an automatic post by an automotive blogger who posts cool car pics from around town. (I enjoy these, but when that's all there is, it's a bit sad.) Down the 90, the primary independent blogging site has called it quits after almost seven years of online publishing. It presented multiple political viewpoints, insisted on commenters revealing their true identities, and often broke stories or angles on stories that the daily Gannett organ and the staider print alt-weekly wouldn't.

I fear- and to a significant extent, I know- that a large segment of it has gone to the snappier Short Attention Span Theater venues of social media. I've joined that exodus to a limited extent with Facebook, refusing so far to get into the even more limited playpens of Tumblr and Twitter. Yet I've managed a public post here on all but seven days of 2014, and I plan to keep that up as long as I have the words, the will and at least some sense that someone is out there reading this drivel. It's helped that I've added several of Eleanor's friends to my own list, but I'm still always on the lookout for interesting writers who don't focus on Buzzfeed shares and 140-character blasts. If it takes more to make your point, I'm far more interested in what your point is.

So recommendations are welcome- and I hope that despite the end of the blog as we knew it, I'll still feel fine:)

Comments

[uninvitedcat.livejournal.com]

I'm very conscious that I'm reading a lot more than I'm posting - comments (and my own blog updates) have become very thin on the ground from me. And I know that's not fair to the people who I am reading (but not communicating with)...

I shall resolve to do better.

[captainsblog.livejournal.com]

And you did!

It was nice seeing things this morning from a few of my favourite people here:)

[ecosopher.livejournal.com]

I've been a bit quieter than usual of late--things got quite busy here at home and then I also want to finish this manuscript by the 3rd October deadline. I must be one of the few LJ people who finds I don't have enough time to read all the folks on my list! I find I have several people who post everyday.

You want I could hold a friendzy for you? Or promote one, if you hold one? Or promote YOU, just to my flisters?

[captainsblog.livejournal.com]

I've never done, even been in, one of those frenzied things. Anything you want to do, signalboosty wisey, is just fine:)

[ecosopher.livejournal.com]

Okey dokey!

Does that mean if I did a friendzy you'd be interested in participating? Because I'm happy to hold one, otherwise I can just send friends your way (whichever is easiest and with which you feel the most comfortable).

[captainsblog.livejournal.com]

I'd love to participate in one, but the next few days are going to be utter craziness if a case goes the way I suspect it's going to go tomorrow. Maybe hold off, or just send some folks over.

[ecosopher.livejournal.com]

That's fine. This week is full on for me too, and a lot of people seem to be finishing up their holidays and having their children go back to school.

Hope your Thursday doesn't end up too mad! I'll put something up next week.

[thanatos-kalos.livejournal.com]

Sorry-- too short a window between now & my diss deadline for anything substantive. Will try to do more stuff after I submit the thing. :(

[greenquotebook.livejournal.com]

I've been so busy trying to keep my life together that I haven't been blogging much about it. So much of what is going on right now is stuff I'd rather forget than immortalize and, like you, most of my old, reliable LJ friends aren't reading any more so I feel like I'm talking to myself rather than sharing stories with people I care about, who offer good advice, and help me see things in a different way. I still try to update at least once a week, even if it is only my attitude adjustment "Thankful Thursday" entry. Once James is back to school, I'll have more time to think and blog. I hope.

[warriorsavant.livejournal.com]

Some is increasingly shorter attention spans. Some is that all social media has an arc to it, rather faddishly. Some is that ppl run out of things to say/not that much happens in one's life.

[digitalemur.livejournal.com]

I'm writing in other places a little more, and getting busier at work, but I am reading! And I posted a long thing today, yay. I don't feel I can say a majority of the things I'm interested in saying on Facebook because I'm involved in it so much for work.

[likethewatch.livejournal.com]

With the destruction of mainstream journalism and its replacement by the blogosphere, we've outsourced the jobs of finding a) active, b) engaging content from c) trustworthy sources. But this is evolution, the way things are moving, so I guess we have to figure out how to do that, then.

Recently I've noticed a grammatical construction that has gone viral. It's "Because [X]" where X could be "Reasons," "Science," "Nom," or whatever is important. The meaning of the construction seems to be, "Prepositions are for chumps. If you can't tell how this subject and object relate, you are not cool enough to be reading this." A headline that was very popular (and the article, very good, IMO) was "Things White People Can Do Because Ferguson." As a descriptive (more than prescriptive) grammarian, I find this construction effective. I can see it lingering.

So that was slightly more than a comment, but I appreciate your blog and like knowing that you're at least scrolling past mine occasionally. I'm going to stick around and while the neighborhood is definitely changing, maybe you'll stay, too. Sticking around and continuing to do things the way we always have, because it works, is the necessary countervailing force against doing things "because reasons."