stephbg | Social networking roundup

I'm feeling a bit scattered on the net these days. Bits of me here, bits of me there, and every move I make I feel I lose people rather than gain them. Flists, followers, friends, connections... it's all getting a bit messy. When I feel like this I take stock, so here we are.

In approximate order of takeup:

User groups and mailing lists

Not tonight.

Orkut

An early attempt at social networking, hopefully dead and buried. Never really useful.

Friends Re-united (formerly Schoolfriends Re-united I think)

I get the occasional spam begging me to update my profile. While it was kind of interesting leading up to the school reunion, and a useful online resource for people to link my maiden name to my married name, the site made the mistake of trying to charge for messaging services. I was never *that* keen on my schoolmates. I let my entry sit there.

LinkedIn

A professional networking service with irritating limitations on how one can make contact. On the bright side, it's got irritating limitations on how one can make contact. Have used it to check on former colleagues and the odd potential co-worker. I haven't invested hugely in my online CV or collecting contacts for the sake of it, although as a self-employed writer I probably should. When the available work outruns my capacity to do it I'll start here. In the meantime, it's just there, and a reasonable representation of myself with some links to published work.

Livejournal

I first came to lj to find out what continent

doctor_k_ was on, and then discovered a land of continuous Swancon activity. Wow, I could stay in touch with people I usually only had contact with once per year. It remains my first true Internet love, and one for which I am happy to pay. I discovered the joy of the rant, the handiness of a medical journal, and the general companionship of the blogosphere. I became a slave to the comment, the hit, and the stats. I felt significantly less alone in the world and it kept me nominally sane through some troubled times.

But not everyone I wanted to connect with was on lj, which eventually forced me to join Facebook (see below). And over time people I wish to keep have left the evils of lj for the sanctuary of Dreamwidth (see below). I have a big investment in lj; much bigger than any trouble it's caused me personally. It may do evil corporate things (see Facebook, below), but so do Coles and Coca Cola. Why I stay is a post all its own (see below).

Dreamwidth

I have a Dreamwidth account because there was no way to subscribe to locked DW posts on Livejournal (see above), and the main reason people seemed to be getting DW accounts was to have fresh new locked journals. Some people cross-post entries from DW to lj, so I see their entries on my lj reading page. If someone doesn't cross-post, or the security arrangements of friending/subscribing/accessing/enabling/circling/hunting/flirting/locking/blocking/whatever are too complex, I'll read them on my "Posted in Dreamwidth only" filter in DW. I did miss a few posts before DW enabled reading filters, because it was too much trouble to wade through the 99% of common content to find that unique 1%, but that's sorted now in theory.

I can't help but feel some people have fallen through the cracks somewhere along the line. It's a work in progress. Thus far I believe that everyone who's moved to DW and who read my lj journal before they moved, still reads lj content, so I haven't felt the urge to cross-post. I will occasionally add a pointer to an lj post from Facebook (see below) but that's as close to broadcasting as I get.

Facebook

So I joined FB to hook up with some old friends who staunchly refused to be on Livejournal. Slowly but surely I connected with more people on FB than lj, including quite a few relatives in distant lands. Awesome. I grew accumstomed to writing about myself in the third person, and learned to use status updates as mini blog entries. Which in hindsight is actually a bad thing because FB is not introspective-friendly, and I've been unable to retrace some important events and shifts in moods the way I can in lj.

To its advantage, FB has made it easier to build up an online presence, and I've found the process of fanning, liking and group-joining the easiest way to digitise my personality yet.

And then, some of my friends announced that they would be spending more of their online presence on Twitter (see below), and although a lot of Tweets were appearing in both lj (see above) and FB (see right here) I started to feel I was losing some people and missing out on important conversations.

At this point in time, I have the greatest number of friends/contacts on Facebook, so that's my best resource for contacting people.

Twitter
When Twitter first became popular I checked to see if my username was available, but it had been taken by someone in the US. I was not sufficiently interested to take a new name, and left it there. I found most cross-posted Tweets deeply annoying for only reflecting halves of conversations.

When it seemed I was in danger of losing some people to Twitter I checked again and discover that my username was available so I joined and have started to follow and be followed by the usual suspects. Not very many yet, but I find myself unenthused in listening to the background chatter. I have learned to dip into the flow and follow what's going on, but I find it too much like listening in real life. It's possible to circulate and dip into various public conversations, but it's *work*. Posting my own Tweets feels too much like standing alone in a crowded party and shouting to myself.

I do like the 140 character limit as an occasional challenge, but it's not enough to make me a fan. Maybe if I used a mobile device and had some decent conversation threading tools I'd like it more, but it hasn't yet found a niche in my life. I'm sure I'll find a hook eventually.

--

There's more I need to say about the functionality that I use (and miss) on each site, and the various (alleged) evils of doing business in personal spaces on the Internet, but I've been on the (evil) corporate side of the fence myself and don't tend to see myself as a victim. Nothing's for free: I see the trade in personal habits or preferences as part of the cost of living.

As long as nothing flashes at me. If they make things jump out of the screen I'll get all civil liberties on their asses.

~~See~~ Sea Below
I'm a land-based oxygen breather. The sea is generally below me.