An annoyance and a new statement of policy
A friend kindly brought to my attention that someone syndicated my blog as a LiveJournal account. This means that all posts appear there as well as here and that people can leave comments in both places. I ask you all not to do so. I do not consider this to be acceptable conduct. I am already giving this away for free (without even text-based ads): I just want to be able to decide the terms on which that happens.
By all means, use the Atom feed or a Bloglines account. You can even read it, along with the others I read, from my Bloglines account. Just do not re-post what is on this site wholesale somewhere else on the internet. I reserve the right to change what is written here when necessary and do not want large amounts of content on other servers. Likewise, it really diminishes the value of the time I put into building the site in this way to have it regurgitated in full elsewhere.
The choice of LiveJournal is particularly jarring, as I've long considered it an unhealthy component of the blogosphere. The 'friends list' system encourages a high school spirit of petty jealousies while the commenting system seems designed to spread malicious gossip. The only worse blogging services that I can think of are Xanga, which seems to focus on really ugly templates, and MSN spaces.
In short, do not syndicate this blog. I appreciate your cooperation.
3 Comments
I concur with your dislike of LJ, but not with your reasons.
The friends list feature has a utility that I can appreciate, especially in dealing with some of the privacy issues with which you have wrestled here. As for malicious gossip, that comes with a certain type of blog, not a certain type of provider.
My dislike of LJ, Xanga, MSN Spaces, and the like comes from their fundamental immaturity: of design and structure. This is the origin of the stereotypical depressed teenager blog, full of bad poetry.
On the positive side, there is a degree of community on LJ that is higher than on most more stand-alone blogs.
I've had an irrational dislike of LiveJournal, Xanga and MSN spaces for longer than I can remember - if only because the users of these platforms are, in my experience, the bloggers most likely to hotlink. And I hate hotlinkers...
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