LJ Background Meme

[aadler]

 
Saw this one yesterday (here) from slaymesoftly:

How did you come to start your LJ?
Back in 2005, I had become increasingly aware that a lot of the Buffyfic stories I was following, through various recs, were showing up on LiveJournal rather than elsewhere. Opening an account of my own, for posting fic, fic recs, and general events in my life (I was doing an Afghanistan deployment at the time) just seemed like a reasonable next step for me.

How did you find your first friends?
Used my new account to comment on a story by someone I already knew from outside LJ, and she immediately friended me. (It was liz_marcs, who would defriend me less than a year later. I still miss her.)

Are those first friends still on your FL?
I’m fairly sure some of them still are, but — past liz_marcs — I can no longer remember who the first ones were, so I can’t say for sure.

How long have you been on LJ?
Since about September 2005 (so nearly seven and a half years), though I’d been seeing LiveJournal stuff for a year or two before that.

Do you have more friends or communities on your FL?
Friends. I follow a certain number of communities, but those are substantially outnumbered by friends.

Do you do a lot of friends cuts?
Every now and then I’ll take out someone whose interests have so far diverged from mine that the reason for following them in the first place has disappeared. It tends to be piecemeal; in seven years, I’ve done actual culls of the list — and then only to a limited extent — maybe three times.

What do you like in an LJ friend?
Someone who writes, reads, and comments on fanfiction. Preferably Buffyfic, preferably a non-slasher, and preferably someone who writes/recs genfic. And, it helps if it’s someone whose politics don’t disagree so passionately with mine that we can’t discuss without argument.

What do you dislike in an LJ friend?
Pretty much the obverse of the things named above. The major occasion of former favorites fading from preference, however, is when someone I friended for their involvement in the Buffy fanfic community shifts to another that has no resonance for me. (That started with wholesale migration to Dr Who; Supernatural was another major contributor. More recently, a LOT of my flist was suddenly doing Avengers fic … but those actually interested me, so there was no conflict.)

What would make you un-friend someone immediately?
No single thing has ever made me do that. I’m sure it could happen, but it’s mainly not a personal thing for me. I friend someone if I have some indication that they post things I want to read; I unfriend them if that situation changes.

Have you been caught up in a lot of LJ drama?
A few times. The biggest, of course, would be the kerfuffle resulting from my post on the second WriterCon (Atlanta, 2006). Even now, six and a half years later, I still suspect that a lot of the negative reaction was from what some people thought I meant by what I said, rather than what I said.

Do real-life friends and family members know you have a journal on LJ?
My wife and kids know. I haven’t had any reason to spread the word any farther than that. Except for attending the first two WriterCons, I’ve never attempted to extend my fanfic activities into real-life, so there just isn’t much intersection.

Do you also have Facebook and if so, what do you prefer — LJ or FB?
I had a Facebook page for awhile, but I got so sick of FB constantly changing their interface that I check it only every other month now. Besides, the two venues have totally different purposes. My LJ is under a non-me name, and I go to some lengths to not make my RL identity apparent. (Not secret, just not for public dispensation.) My Facebook is under my own name, and … well, I lost interest after less than a year. Most of what people post on Facebook is eye-bleedingly boring.


What about Twitter?
My wife has an account. I never saw the point.

Do you blog on any other sites?
I mirror my LJ on Dreamwidth. That’s it.

How often do you check in on LJ?
Normally, several times a day. Less when circumstances don’t allow.

What do you rarely or never post about?
Mm. Not a lot of job stuff. Nothing at all about my love life (which, since I’m married, wouldn’t thrill anyone anyhow, but even during the years I was single that wasn’t a matter for online revelation). Rarely observations on books or movies, never on music, never any observations about this or that actor.

Why don’t you post about that?
The personal stuff because it’s personal. The other stuff because it doesn’t interest me, or I’m not interested in posting about it.

Have you ever thought about deleting your journal?
No. Never saw any reason to.

Have you ever changed your username?
Sorta-semi. When I first started up, aadler was already taken, so I did aadler_ (with an underscore, get it?). Then after a few years the name came up for auction, since the original user had let his account lapse, so I bought that and made it my own. Technically a change, but most people never even noticed.

Why did you choose your current username?
Back when I first started putting together a collection of Buffyfic that I wanted to post, my primary reading site was the Slayer Fanfic Archive. There were a lot of authors there, and I wanted to be listed first alphabetically, or at least near the top of the list. Hence a name that started with two A’s. Once Aadler had occurred to me, I liked it and kept it.

If you’re looking for new friends, how do you find them?
Usually either by following recs from people already on my flist, or from comments by new people on some post I’ve made.

Are you taking new people on to your Friends List just now?
Less than I used to, but that’s not a matter of policy. There just doesn’t seem to be as much call for it as when I first began.

Finally, tell us the reasons why you keep an online journal.
More habit, by now, than anything else. The original reason, however, still holds: posting, reading, and finding out about fanfiction, mostly Buffyfic, and maintaining links to the people I met through LJ.

Comments

[velvetwhip.livejournal.com]

You know, I was at the first WriterCon, but I don't think we met.


Gabrielle

[aadler]

My memory for faces is appalling, so if we DID meet I might well not remember you. To give some examples: agilebrit remembered meeting and talking with me at the first WriterCon (and we talked about that at length at the second), but there is nothing in my memory regarding the meeting; I believe spiralleds said something to the same effect; and, when I went to seek out liz_marcs at the second ’Con (because I did remember meeting her at the first, and talking, and sharing a table with her, and participating in a writing exercise with her), I found myself ‘remembering’ an entirely different face. From someone in my youngest brother’s high school class. In 1975.

[velvetwhip.livejournal.com]

First, random thing - love that icon!

Second, I think I'd probably remember you and I don't, so I am pretty sure we somehow managed to never encounter each other. Sad thing.


Gabrielle

[aadler]

… we somehow managed to never encounter each other. Sad thing.

Or possibly not. I’m eminently capable of rubbing people the wrong way in person, and we’re getting along okay in the way our acquaintance actually did take place, so I’m willing to call that a win.