Trying again for regular blog updates

[cuda]

I'm going to at least halfheartedly try blogging again.

Back in the old, busy days of Livejournal, I blogged because I needed to. I was still living with my parents, struggling to understand my sexuality, and hiding all of my interests from ridicule. I won't say I'm 100% better, but I do have different priorities. Positive encouragement has done a great job of helping me be more open about who I am and what I like. So I don't necessarily need a secret place to go pour all of my bottled-up self anymore.

But it would be nice to write every day again. Just re-establishing the habit of writing regularly could help me get past some major stumbling blocks in my fiction. Besides just sitting down and writing the damn fiction already.

So here goes. I will be checking DW more regularly while the SPN/TW kink meme is going on, which means I'll remember this is here. With any luck I'll have a little habit established again soon.

The other thing about blogging here is that content is relatively easy to lock down, in as much as anything on the internet ever is. It's more time-consuming for someone to take my posts here, add their own opinion or condemnation, and spread them. Tumblr, unfortunately, reinforced the belief that I needed to keep things hidden unless I was prepared to let everyone have a venue to come at me. Don't get me wrong, I still like Tumblr, but I'd like to have a little more control over my personal content than I do there. I'd also like to engage more in dialog rather than have people I don't know talk AT me, in a venue that makes it almost impossible to respond without feeling like I'm just trying to get more attention.

Meh.

So, blog.

Comments

[dragovianknight]

I honestly do not know how anyone manages meaningful communication on Tumblr. I'm just there for the cat macros.

And welcome back to the journalsphere. :)

[cuda]

Oh, god, I know, right? You can't. Or at least I can't. It's frustrating, especially because other people seem to have managed. I'm just deficient, I guess.

Thank you for the warm welcome! I feel pretty sheepish about abandoning Dreamwidth since I was so happy it offered me an escape from Livejournal, but then, it's social media. We all do it at some point?

[dragovianknight]

The day I gave up on Tumblr was the day I realized I had just spent 20 minutes scrolling through endless "reblogged by" and "liked by" notes, looking to see if anyone had added a single relevant comment to a post after the version that showed up on my dash. The noise to signal ratio is way too high over there.

I am definitely guilty of forgetting I have a DW for months at a time. Or I remember, but just don't have anything to say. It happens, but I'm always glad to see someone come back.

[cuda]

That's the thing with Tumblr - it's frowned on to add your own commentary to things. I can see both sides of that, because on one hand, your message gets misinterpreted and then the misinterpretation gets spread instead of your original message. On the other hand, nobody seems to be actually talking to one another. Or else we're communicating in funny soundbites because we're afraid to raise our heads. So Tumblr's become a place that's mostly noise and not a lot of thoughtful commentary.

I like blog formats like DW so much better for dialog because we can do exactly what we're doing now: trade back and forth without forcing me to make a new post for every exchange, all of which become public domain and any one exchange can be taken out of context and reblogged by anyone else at any time.

I really think people are mostly afraid to have meaningful exchanges on Tumblr BECAUSE it's such a damned public venue. And what Tumblr is now is the result of that.

[dragovianknight]

I have seen reblogs of things that are 2-3-4 person conversations. The problem is that apparently that convo happened at the start, and by the time I see the reblog, it's no longer "an interesting conversation" it's "a static meme that is just being passed around with the occasional "THIS" tacked on. (Of course, on the other hand there are just the people who get it WRONG, like the one who reblogged a - I think it was Bradbury - quote about how you don't need to be told how to think about literature, or how to write, go to a library and read and you will figure it out - with a long comment about how higher education will TEACH YOU HOW TO THINK ABOUT WHAT YOU READ and MAKE YOU A BETTER WRITER, and finished with a condescending "but if you don't want the stress of deadlines and word count, by all means just write for fun". So perhaps plain reblogs and likes are better. O HAI TUMBLR RANT.)

In conclusion, I would much rather have conversations in a format where anyone can chime in but it's still coherent, rather than any real content buried under soundbites and likes. *high fives you*

[ilyena_sylph]

It's good to see you, hon!

<3

I do not tumblr for lots of reasons, but you named most of 'em.

[cuda]

Hey! *hugs* It's good to see you too! I've missed you, you know - you and Asp both. You two always made me feel welcome here, right from the beginning.

[sharpest_asp]

+swears at the fact somehow I was unsubscribed+

HI! +snugs you tight+

[cuda]

HI! *hugs* Don't worry at all, hon. I thought it might have been because I occasionally got very angry and negative about some GLBTQ+ issues on Tumblr, and regardless I completely understood and respected needing a safe, positive space. That said, I'm glad you subscribed again!