LJ nuttiness

[jawnbc]

So how do you respond to LJ phreaks?

Not the phun, kewl, make-a-me-smile-but-really-quite-OK types . . . the scary, obsessed, cutting, mean-spirited, belligerent ones?

Is LJ for you about debate and forensics, keep things light and airy, making connections, filling voids, wasting time, using bandwith.

Why are you here? Why am <I>I</I> here?

Is anybody there, does anybody care, does anybody see what I see?

Comments

[sfharetik.livejournal.com]

I usually start by asking them to stop whatever it is that they are doing that makes me feel uncomfortable and if that does not work I remove them from my friends list. If that does not work I call up the spirits of the underworld and have them changed into a frog even if only in my mind

[shashin.livejournal.com]

To me... LJ's about memories and connections. Serious stuff and really annoying whinewhinewhineselfishselfishbitchbitchbitch stuff I like to leave private ;)

Dunno... I try to leave real freaks alone and avoid them as much as possible... but if they're beating one someone, contact the victim privately and give them support that way. Usually I put off those crazy people to be ignoramouses that just have a case keyboard courage :p

[bleppo.livejournal.com]

I'm here to write and to read and to be read.

Some people are here to let out there anger at their mother, father, whoever has wronged them... I usually just ignore them, as tempting as it sometimes is to scream back. They scream at you because you're safe -- a stranger, not a "real person".

[that-dang-otter.livejournal.com]

Ah, the tangled ball of existential anxiety that is LJ.

This really is a new medium. The rules are so different from anything else I've seen that I often ask myself these same questions.

My current attitude is that I'm "along for the ride". LJ "freaks" are particularly freaky because I think this environment exposes parts of us that are mutually irreconcilable, and we aren't used to facing that in other people so directly.

I have no idea of what it's "about" but it's always interesting. ;-)

[danbearnyc.livejournal.com]

Well, as an Oirishman, I only over-emote when I'm in a bar, drunk, and singing "Danny Boy" off key. Otherwise, it's repression city. And interestingly, through repression one reveals so much...

[querrelle.livejournal.com]

John, give up the fight.

[bitterlawngnome.livejournal.com]

phreaks

IMO there's a certain value in seeing "what you wrote was really hurtful". Not to say it's your duty to go around correcting the uncorrected, but sometimes when it's the right person at the right moment, it gets through, and you make a postive difference. Works for me, anyway.

I filter them

[kosseferal.livejournal.com]

People like you describe get filtered. I'll have a debate with someone if I know them from prior contact in some way first, but if someone descends like a bolt out of the blue just to attack me, they're gone.

I've seen too many trolls to want to play that game.

[art-thirst.livejournal.com]

For all the blogging I've done since 2000 I get very few responses. Is that because I'm so dull and bland? I like to be honest and introspective and, considerate of more than one point of view. I need to put more emotionally wrenching, belligerent, holier-than-thou, ripping stuff on my blogs. However, that's not the real me and I couldn't do it with honesty. I certainly couldn't do it to you.

[cachondo.livejournal.com]

I don't think LJ is about anything at all.

While it's a nice place to read what's happening in others' lives, it's hardly journalistic in the sense that my wirebound journals are private and I have an ethical duty to protect my sources. LJ kind of flaunts that paradigm by opening your thoughts up to remarks and criticism. Hence the excitement of participating in a novel forum. But as I read more into it I find that, sometimes, and not most of the time, little flames erupt, anonymous posters make snide comments, and an otherwise congenial discourse becomes unruly.

Is LJ necessary? No. Is it fun, yes.

On the why-are-you-here topic: Friendships that began long ago continue, new nodes connected. Ugliness happens occasionally.

[beardoc.livejournal.com]

In typical style, here's an answer that's a question - why did you start an LJ, and what did you think it was going to be for you? What did you hope to get out of it? And how has it changed for you?