Integrity requires me to post this, to make it absolutely clear once and for all:

[hmpf]

I complained here about the unmanageability of my flist and my lack of desire and/or ability to read non-fandom-related stuff by a majority of people on said list. (You all know I've actually been complaining about that a fair bit recently.) And, it just occurred to me that whining about that kind of thing in between entries about my personal psychological crises and entries about my neighbour's cat could be seen as... just a tad hypocritical.

So, to make this quite blunt (I like being blunt, sometimes):

I can't read all of you guys, all the time. I just can't. It's not that I don't like you; I like a lot of you rather a lot, and there's no one on my flist I dislike or anything. It's a time issue, simply and depressingly.

So:

If I am aware of the problems of keeping up with hundreds' of people's personal lives on LJ, why am I still making entries about *my* personal life here? Simple: first and foremost, I'm doing it to keep a record of my own life, for my own use. I quite enjoy being able to go back to an entry from 2002 and find out what I did and felt five years ago. I also find posting here about some things helps me clear my mind. Secondly, I write in the vague hope that some friends with whom I would otherwise find it difficult to keep in contact (I'm not very good with e-mail) will occasionally drop by if they want to know how I am and what I'm doing; I'm doing the same in their LJs and blogs. It's the continuation of e-mail by different means: instead of mass-sending e-mail updates about my life I post said updates to my LJ, where people who happen to be interested can check them if they feel like it.

From this follows:

there is absolutely no reason in the world that says you have to read my personal blatherings (or anything I post here, really). I will not hold it against you if you don't. I know what it's like to be completely swamped by LJ: I *understand*. If you really *want* to read what I write here, I'm flattered, of course, but you really, really don't have to. Honestly.

(Wouldn't it be great if it were possible to subscribe only to, say, the entries in someone's LJ tagged 'fic' or 'meta'? I'm sure that would remove quite a bit of stress from many people's lives.)

Comments

[svilleficrecs.livejournal.com]

Kewl!

And there is a way to subscribe just to certain tags! :) Or even still have them on your Flist but get email notifies when X makes a post tagged heroes. (The same way you get comment notices to your mail and/or message center). I don't remember off the top of my head, but I'm doing it for a couple of people's heroes posts so I don't miss them on my Flist, and for a couple of newsletters for the same reason.

Subscribing to tags

[hmpf.livejournal.com]

Seriously? That's brilliant. That must be new (I was gone from LJ for quite a while, after all!)

I need to find out how to do that. Although, with me and most of my flist so multifannish, it may actually be impossible, really. I'd have to make a tags list as long as my arm for every one of them!

(It would be cool if it were possible to simply subscribe to any post someone from your flist made that was tagged with either something you had in your interests lists or in your own tags list... that would simplify things without narrowing them down *too* much.)

[svilleficrecs.livejournal.com]

Click on any tag, then at the bottom, click "track this"

You go to a page where you can track the screenname, all comments on the entry, or there's a drop down of that user's tags. I think you still have to subscribe to individual threads, but "shhhh" I've already got a couple of people's heroes posts subscribed, and it's nice to get notifications.

It's a really cool feature, and it makes me rethink my tagging strategy.

Um, for one of these days anyway.

[loz]

Your tags amuse the hell out of me.

That is all.

Actually, not quite. I'd say about a quarter of my friendslist actually reads my journal. I don't care. I'm not forcing anyone to read every post - they can if they want.

[tgifa.livejournal.com]

See, and I (mostly) only read your personal entries (because our fandoms differ too much nowadays), although I don't comment often (or never -_-).

But I admit, I also have phases where I just can't get myself to read my (microscopically small) flist or participate in internet life in general, and when I get back, I don't really bother much with catching up. What I missed, I missed; I only read the newest stuff.

But hey, where's the point in reading flist entries from a year ago anyway? What was last year, was last year; what's now should be more important.

And don't feel bad for making personal entries without reading others' personal stuff, I think everyone does that, more or less.

[beccatoria.livejournal.com]

My flist is pretty small and you're a higlight :)

And unlike you, I don't feel guilty if I don't manage to read every single thing. You shouldn't feel guilty about that with my journal either.

Though since I know you like my writing and I know you know about the Great Crash of 07 you should know that ultimately I only really lost one story (autobiographical; I can reconstruct) which ironically I DID have backed up but the backup was corrupted! And a slew of poetry which I'm reasonably upset about but am discovering more and more of in hardcopy form or up on various journally things anyways...

Interestingly I also managed to save a couple of things I'd totally FORGOTTEN I'd written. Always a bizarre experience. Four paragraphs of that are up on my latest journal entry if you're interested, though I'm well aware of the irony of the headsup when the problem is you're so bogged down with time issues - so don't worry - I'm not whining at you to show up ;)

Re: "fic" or "meta" tags - I'd create filters. Create a filter for people who you only read for fic or meta then just scan real quick and ignore anything that doesn't seem to be relevant.

Like you say, it's all about acknowledging you can't read everything all the time from everyone. Be willing to skip around a bit. I doubt anyone will be offended. LJ culture seems quite based around the fact that people friend others for specific content on their journals. I think... *still feels a little new to all this...*