(no subject)

[galadhir]

It occurs to me this morning that I no longer have any social media. No one I used to talk to on Tumblr is still active on Tumblr, so all I use it for now is to reblog things. As the people I follow fall for new media that I haven't seen, the feed becomes more and more incomprehensible, and I feel very isolated.

I also feel like we tried a lot of things and we found out that the old ways are better. You know? Streaming was great but then suddenly we didn't own anything, so it's good to go back to buying DVDs. 'Social media' was great but then suddenly we didn't know anyone, so it's good to go back to a platform where you can actually speak to people.

Anyway, this is me feeling like I really want my Dreamwidth again because there are things here I can't do elsewhere, like *journal* and *talk to people.*

Exciting news for today is that it snowed overnight. Only a light powdering of icing-sugar snow, but that's remarkable enough for this far south in England in these days of climate change.

Comments

[vriddy]

Welcome back! :)

Although I recognise there are things that can only or better be done on the other platforms, for deep and interesting conversations I continue to find Dreamwidth truly suits me best! Hope you find a good balance too.

And wow that picture is incredible, the snow together with the holiday lights!!

[galadhir]

Thank you! Yes, sometimes you just want to scroll through funny pictures or videos, but I think it's important to find some kind of community out there. That was what was so special about the internet when when I first got it - finding people who were interested in the same things as me. I don't want to just be a consumer!

The light is so amazingly clear here at the moment, with the snow and sunshine. I couldn't believe how good the Christmas lights look atm - so much more colour than normal :)

[malinaldarose]

Dreamwidth is the Place To Be! =)

Also, I really like the colors in your photo.

[galadhir]

I think it is! :) And thank you, it's a nice purple due to the lights, but in real life it's a fairly ugly terracotta. I might think of painting it to match :)

[desecrets]

What a mood. I've always p much just used my tumblr to reblog things and found some connection elsewhere, but when I'm not active in a fandom and not in a Discord server or anything like that, it really gets noticeably quiet!

That's a gorgeous photo btw, you captured the colours and that particular cold light so well!

[galadhir]

I do think that a lot of the problem is that I'm between fandoms at the moment, which is always an alienating experience - as you say, it gets very quiet. And then most of my old fandom friends have stopped being involved with media fandom at all. I need to make some new ones :)

Thank you so much! My phone died over Christmas, and the new one has a much better camera. I've been amazed at the difference.

Thoughts

[ysabetwordsmith]

>>As the people I follow fall for new media that I haven't seen, the feed becomes more and more incomprehensible, and I feel very isolated.<<

Bummer.

What makes me feel isolated is that almost all recs on Dreamwidth -- my primary online venue -- point to other sites, most of which are members only or have other restrictions or are heinous. :/

So I'm encouraging people to post full content on Dreamwidth, where folks here can see it.

>> I also feel like we tried a lot of things and we found out that the old ways are better. <<

Aaaaand that is why I shop in Amish territory. I can buy lamp oil for when the power goes out. I can get a wooden spoon that doesn't break a week later. I want a hand-operated kitchen gadget? They have it.

>> You know? Streaming was great but then suddenly we didn't own anything, so it's good to go back to buying DVDs.<<

Support Right to Own and Right to Repair.

>> 'Social media' was great but then suddenly we didn't know anyone, so it's good to go back to a platform where you can actually speak to people.<<

Absolutely. snowflake_challenge is running now. friending_memes has a New Year Friendzy. newcomers has the Dreamwidth Welcommittee.

>> Anyway, this is me feeling like I really want my Dreamwidth again because there are things here I can't do elsewhere, like *journal* and *talk to people.* <<

I'm happy to have you back! :D

My next Poetry Fishbowl is Jan. 6 with a theme of "Short Forms." Feel free to drop by, throw me some prompts, and watch the fun crosstalk among the audience.

>>Exciting news for today is that it snowed overnight. Only a light powdering of icing-sugar snow, but that's remarkable enough for this far south in England in these days of climate change.<<

Light snow is pretty! :D I got some snow pictures in December.

Re: Thoughts

[galadhir]

What makes me feel isolated is that almost all recs on Dreamwidth -- my primary online venue -- point to other sites, most of which are members only or have other restrictions or are heinous. :/

Good point! I find that DW is a good place to talk about fandom, but not a good place for comments on specific fanfic, so it feels like it's not worth posting everything here. And discoverability is great, but it also means you're more at risk of being scalped by AI.

(OTOH, I do wonder whether leaving my voice to be absorbed by AI might be a good thing to do. It'll just be amalgamated into something that isn't me anyway.) I'll think about it, but I'm writing original fic at the moment, so that's likely to be even less popular!

Thank you for the welcome back :) It does feel like coming home. And I love your snow pictures. Those icicles are amazing. We hardly ever get snow that deep or a hard enough frost for icicles, but it's more to be celebrated the rarer it becomes :)

[the_siobhan]

Most of my friends are still people I first met on Usenet. :-p

Now we are scattered to the winds and I have all kinds of accounts with social media sites I hate just to keep track of people.

[galadhir]

I admire you for keeping up with them all! I wish I hadn't lost touch with so many of mine when they moved to different platforms. I should have done what you did and moved with them :(

[mistressofmuses]

I also feel like we tried a lot of things and we found out that the old ways are better.
Ain't that the truth. Streaming means we're at best renting access to the things we want, which can be removed at any point. Social media means our info is being stolen and ads are being shoveled at us, with algorithms actively trying to prevent you seeing posts from people you're friended to...

But yay for some snow! Typically my state gets a lot of snow by now, but we've had almost none. It's been record-breakingly warm.

[galadhir]

Ugh, the algorithms! It's so frustrating when what you want is just a simple chronological display of what your friends are up to. It's why I can't spend time on Facebook or Instagram. Why would I want you to order my feed according to what you think is 'most interesting'? Gah! Horrible.

I was listening to a debate on BBC4 recently in which a climate scientist was saying that these are probably the coldest winters we will experience for the rest of our lives (as it continues to get warmer.) And then everyone was very depressed about that, so he quickly finished up by saying that that didn't mean that we wouldn't get cold years again, it just meant that we should appreciate them more when they came.

You will probably have an ordinary level of snow next year, and it will be more precious when it arrives. (Even though it only took me a day to be annoyed with it because it's now too slippery to go out on my bicycle.

[mistressofmuses]

I appreciate tumblr for not forcing an algorithmic feed, and same I guess for bsky, but I've never really found my footing (beyond reblogging a lot on tumblr) on those sites. It absolutely keeps me from wanting to do anything with FB or insta... I don't want a random assortment of what the site *wants* me to see; and at least on FB, it's often many, many "suggested" or "sponsored" posts to every actual post by someone/something you deliberately follow.
(And the algorithm is often USELESS. I'd resent it anyway, but I extra resent it for being so bad at telling what I want to see. "Oh, you interact with a lot of local weather pages? How about we show you some local weather... from somewhere 500 miles away from you." "Ah, I see that you liked someone's post about about a today-only book sale. Would you like a dozen posts about sales that have already expired?")

It's true. There will be cold winters in the future, most likely, but the general pattern is an upward trend in temperatures. (We're expecting some snow tomorrow into Friday, but no one can agree on how much, haha. But our weather has been bizarrely warm and dry all season.)

I don't love or enjoy snow, but I do know we need it to fend off the "everything is on fire now" season. I don't *miss* the snow, but it's still not good that we haven't gotten much at all.