Give it UP, Guys

[akirlu]

Okay, anybody who was trying to pretend there's one one smidge of functional difference between an LJ and a "real" blog, as done by a "real blogger"? Hang it up, son. Hang it up, right now.

Comments

[cluefairy-j.livejournal.com]

First off, who the hell would think that KSR's "Mars" series are good anyway? ;-) Boooring. Although I love his "Antarctica" book. Go figure.

I've never seen that there's a difference between the two except the technology itself.

[jackwilliambell.livejournal.com]

Hell, I've been treating my LJ as a blog from day one. It's a continuum really; there are bloggy journals and there are journally blogs. But there are few pure examples of either form.

[spacecrab.livejournal.com]

Well, real blogs often use multi-column CSS that looks better on-screen than most LJs.

[holyoutlaw.livejournal.com]

Being able to reply directly to a comment (with the consequent thread indenting) and the email notification when one's comments and posts get replies, are two very important functional differences in LJ's favor as far as I'm concerned.

Conceptual difference is another debate, I guess. I was interested and participating in online journaling in 1997. The idea of online journaling has always appealed to me more than blogging as such.

Re: Give it UP, Guys

[pir-anha.livejournal.com]

yeah.

well. maybe. sorta.

i dislike the word "blog", but it fits alright for the sort of thing where people compete/cooperate with each other to spread various kinds of news. that's how i use it, but i know that's idiosyncratic. bah, feh, who cares.

there are LJers who do that sort of thing.

i see blogging as a subset of online journalling. LJ itself isn't a set; it's just a piece of software (and not a bad one, comparably; hey -- it can thread!). the community aspects are present in other places as well, and only people who've never hung out anywhere but LJ think that's special.

[del-c.livejournal.com]

Ken MacLeod also got tagged with the "books I own" meme, and responded in his web log (which also available as kenmacleodblog).

I think you can use your web log as a live journal, and you can use your live journal as a web log, but the technologies still have distinct strengths and weaknesses.

I will now wait for someone to be tagged and respond in their printed newspaper or magazine column.

[barondave.livejournal.com]

I'm new to LJ and tend to avoid blogs anyway, but I do see several differences. First off, a blog is updated more frequently. Some blogs get updated several times a day. I don't see that on LJ. This is not an aspect of the software, but, imrho, the mindset of the person typing. "Log" vs. "Journal" has some meaning, though not written in stone.

Second, LJ is not like Usenet because you automatically follow only your Friends (and can look at anyone else's entry). And vice-versa.

Blogs seem more like interactive press releases while LJ seems more like a series of overlapping apas. But that's just my impression.

While I think the differences are minor compared to the utter misuse of the word "meme" such as del_c above, you might as well slice your language in useful ways. We (he says nostalgically) used to have a high ol' time distinguishing between a fanzine, a genzine, a perszine, an apazine mailed to friends as well, a newszine, etc etc. Oh, the merriment.

[numbat.livejournal.com]

I assume when you use the abbreviated vomit sound you refer to those online diaries known as weblogs? I've always wondered why those who use a certain type of pre-formatted diary simply don't describe their efforts as diaries rather than calling them by the abbreviated vomit sound? Isn't it time for them to admit a diary is a diary?