Echo Blogging

[butterflydreaming]

I have set DW to crosspost automatically to LJ. I hadn't done it before because I really like DW. I reminds me of when I had "duskyjewel" over at LJ. So easy to forget that anyone's ever reading.

The thing is, it has come up recently a few times that folks don't use this (LJ or DW) style of journaling, that they have gone on to other social networking platforms. Facebook has degenerated from its brief time of usefulness. No one knows what to do with tumblr. A smattering of folks use Google+. Wordpress, twitter, instagram, blogspot, Goodreads/Shelfari/Library Thing, and so on. Hell, Ravelry.

Dreamwidth and Twitter offer tools for crossposting across multiple sites, a kind of echo blogging. It is possible to post from Wordpress to DW to LJ, and then post from LJ to FB. There is a way to link your G+ and your FB via Twitter. (Sorry, no links. I don't have special info, so I leave the searches up to you.) I know that Flickr makes sharing to other sites easy.

There are several phone apps for smart phone users. The one I like for posting to DW is El Jay. If you use it for LJ, it works well for reading your f'list as well as posting. (Not so much for DW.)

We migrate to where our friends are, or we start using something because it suits us better. We all have so many choices, now. I like DW. That doesn't mean that my LJ friends have to move over. Because I keep who I am here separate from who I am on lower-content sites (where my family is invited), I've always had a strong compartmentalization. Yet, there are really only two compartments, since I've had the integrated-self approach to self for while. (That is why I started going by "Cristy" to everyone. I favor "Cris" again, but it doesn't feel as much as name-use is linked to different aspects of personality.) I don't even use specialized friends filters anymore. I blog so little as it is, that much falls to the wayside before it ever makes it into an update.

I want to make efforts to rejuvenate the socialization of blogging. So rather than having some content isolate over here, I'll just crosspost everything, so that those who prefer to blog on LJ, primarily or exclusively, still have the option of scrolling over my posts. ^_~

When I post something to blogspot, which I have not for a while, it's easy to share to G+ and here. I still feel disinclined to post the link to FB, because I still feel that FB is a pit. What I less often do is share G+ posts (usually photo sharing) to here. Everything can come here. If you are reading here, you are invited to ignore all of it.

My feeling is that if you blog, and want to get some of that sense of connection back, echoing your voice across multiple platforms is a way to reach your friends who have scattered. It's hard to get discussion going, that way, but discussion isn't happening now as it is. I think that some of the migration off of LJ style blogging happened because people felt uncomfortable writing, felt that they didn't have anything interesting to share. It used to be a lot of memes and quizzes, remember? It must have been more comfortable to tweet or to post short, pointless updates to Facebook. FB has become a reshare hell, pretty much. There is even less content, now.

Even though they are low content to no content, even though they are repostings of visual memes and the LOL of the moment, I think all of that can be echoed. Why not? Are we trying to retain some imagined dignity?

There maybe ways to read ALL YOUR THINGS, but I think I'm more technical than even the average social network user, and I don't use a client or have a feed reader. You may be able to read, but your friend that drifted off to social-network-of-choice may never see what you post to your primary venue, unless you echo it on.

These are my early thoughts on this. I want to tidy them up a bit and see if I can post a more general manifesto on my author-persona Wordpress, etc. Thoughts or comments?

Comments

[italiceyeball]

"Are we trying to retain some imagined dignity?"

I want this t-shirt.

Compelling subject, like to read more.

[butterflydreaming]

It would be a great slogan for a t-shirt. Cafe Press?

[the-same-andrew.livejournal.com]

Good idea.

[buhrger]

it's something i continue to [pw]onder about myself. i find FB profoundly dissatisfying, but so many folks i know like it and use it a lot. (i note that they're rolling out threaded comments in the next few months.)
making online interactions more social? sounds like a good thing. go you!

[lescritoire.livejournal.com]

I crosspost from DW to LJ all the time, but haven't expanded to include other platforms. (Well, when I check in on Foursquare, that often x-posts to FB, but that's different.)

I have kind of fallen off the DW/LJ thing of late, except for book reviews (which I do at GoodReads anyway, and which also post to Facebook, come to think of it...), but I'm trying to get back into it. I read always, but I don't always comment. (And I know that I am horribly behind on a crit for Stadium for you - forgive me, it's on my list!) And I think the instant, brief vibe of Facebook has kind of taken the time and attention away from actual blogging platforms. It's a huge time sink, and I'm often there when I should be reading, writing, working (at home or work), etc. That used to be LJ, for me - LJ was my massive time sink.

I'm not sure if I fell of writing first, or fell off blogging, but they're so closely linked for me, that they form an infinite loop now. I started writing on the weekend, and whaddya know, I started blogging again, too. Stunning stuff, I know. ;-)

[shadow-and-veil.livejournal.com]

Doing the crosspost your book reviews to/from Goodreads and to FB is great. I love to see your blog posts, though. I've been lovin' the recent activity. It does make a positive feedback loop to write and blog.

I think that a lot of people read even though they don't comment. I know that I do.

[lescritoire.livejournal.com]

Doesn't it? I miss the LJ/DW activity that used to be so integral to PCG and other friends.