fandom blog service or not?
Tuesday, April 21st, 2009 06:33 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
charmianIs Sabina correct that DW should in fact not combat the "it's a fandom blog service" perception?
So, essentially the LJ software is so bad and out of date that anyone who wasn't in some group like Fandom wouldn't want to use it. It's deprecated. I have no idea if there is any way to make it undeprecated though.
Well, I think the problem is that there isn't really a site that does what LJ does very well in terms of privacy. I've tried to modify Wordpress to do it, and it can't really be done without a bunch of plugins that don't work very well together. and some problems don't seem to be solvable at all. Wordpress MU currently doesn't work very well for the purpose (and costs too much for an me to run), and for these kinds of persistent logins, you probably need everything on one site. Facebook doesn't allow anonymity and blogging. I'm not sure I buy that the only people who want to be anonymous are fans. Certainly people who discuss aspects of their intimate lives or controversial political opinions could also benefit from anonymity?
However, I think, regardless of whether it is wise for DW to mostly focus its development on features that will make LJ media fandom happy, it provokes a negative reaction among the fandom audience itself if DW is portrayed in its communications as being "for fans," especially because of what happened with Journalfen and the general negative reputation of fandom projects within fandom.
Also, the crossposter has appeared. It has some issues, though. (As expected). I see google analytics is not in the bug list of blocking open beta any more, also... does that mean we can now use it? If so, how?
There is also flapping of hands re: how to get the message out that this is not a Fandom-specific project, to which I say nonsense. XD At this point, anything based on LJ's code base is a dinosaur, but that's okay because Fandom loves, wants to use the deprecated tech, so sticking with the deprecated tech is the only way to get Fandom to move its butt. If you're not in Fandom and don't LJ, you have better options. If you're not in Fandom but already on LJ, LJ probably hasn't done anything to offend you. It's called serving a niche, and a great strategy as long as you don't fall prey to the temptation of being everything to everyone.
So, essentially the LJ software is so bad and out of date that anyone who wasn't in some group like Fandom wouldn't want to use it. It's deprecated. I have no idea if there is any way to make it undeprecated though.
Well, I think the problem is that there isn't really a site that does what LJ does very well in terms of privacy. I've tried to modify Wordpress to do it, and it can't really be done without a bunch of plugins that don't work very well together. and some problems don't seem to be solvable at all. Wordpress MU currently doesn't work very well for the purpose (and costs too much for an me to run), and for these kinds of persistent logins, you probably need everything on one site. Facebook doesn't allow anonymity and blogging. I'm not sure I buy that the only people who want to be anonymous are fans. Certainly people who discuss aspects of their intimate lives or controversial political opinions could also benefit from anonymity?
However, I think, regardless of whether it is wise for DW to mostly focus its development on features that will make LJ media fandom happy, it provokes a negative reaction among the fandom audience itself if DW is portrayed in its communications as being "for fans," especially because of what happened with Journalfen and the general negative reputation of fandom projects within fandom.
Also, the crossposter has appeared. It has some issues, though. (As expected). I see google analytics is not in the bug list of blocking open beta any more, also... does that mean we can now use it? If so, how?
no subject
Date: 2009-04-20 09:59 pm (UTC)