Adam Tinworth's online journal

Hello. Me again.

Yes, I'm still here. Yes, I'm still reading (and commenting sometimes) on LJ. But no, I'm not using it very much. And that bothers me. Why?

Well, while I was at Le Web 3 in Paris at the tail end of last year, I had the chance to catch up with the CEO of Six Apart, as we're enterprise customers of theirs. One of the things he talked about was the sale of LJ to SUP, and Chris prefaced the discussion with "I know you're a Livejournal user, but…"

And that left me thinking: am I really a Livejournal user any more? I mean, I rarely ever post here, and most of the time it's just a push from my Vox. And it's not as if I'm short on blogs to maintain:

One Man & His Blog
Tincan Alley
Leafshine: Lust for Flower
Coffee & Complexity
Fishnets & Fedoras

As you can see, the last two are a little under-maintained right now. :)

So, sensibly speaking, I should just give up on LJ. But I can't quite bring myself to do so, and here's why…
( Read more... )

Incidentally, you can now follow my WoW blog here on good ol'LJ by friending leafshine.

I spoil you, I do.

What are the positive and negative associations that you and those around you have with blogging?  Have attitudes changed over time?

Ah, good question, given that my day job* is getting a whole company's worth of journalists up and blogging. And, to be frank, the major problem is negative associations. Journalists' pre-conceived ideas of blogging tend to fall into two schools:

1. Lonely losers blogging in their underpants in their bedrooms
2. Rabid, opinionated ranting.

The reasons for those views are pretty clear to me: those are the versions of blogging that have seen the most exposure in the mainstream press, and hence have penetratrated journalists' busy minds. However, I do find it more than a little worrying that so many people who are, by nature, publishing professionals have been happy to just accept the recieved wisdom from another source, rather than exploring the issue for themselves.

As I've pointed out on more than one occasion saying "blogging is all losers ranting in their bedrooms" is a bit like picking up a copy of Horse & Pony and going "not sure I like this magazine business, it's all about teenagers and their horse obsession. It's confusing the medium with the message.

The positive side is the unbridled enthusiasm I see in some journalists' eyes when the idea of connecting directly through to their readers via the blog becomes clear to them. These are the journalists who genuinely care about providing the best information for their readers and want to interact with them. And that's just cool.

*Yes, I did have an evening job in the past, writing game stuff for White Wolf. But I no longer have the time, and they no longer seem to have the money (pay rates down, author comps cut?) to make that worthwhile part of my life.

Originally posted on adam.vox.com

Here's a little experiment. I hope it will solve a little problem.

You see, my number of blogs has been proliferating rather stupidly of late, but it's settled down to this Vox blog and One Man & His Blog as my main two. And I'm pretty happy with that set-up. I love Vox and find it a pleasure to use.

But I really don't want to lose touch with my Livejournal friends, either.

Now, I though the problem had been solved when Vox added the ability to cross-post to Livejournal. But, no. All that got posted was a nasty little extract that was nothing more than an advert for the content on Vox. Not very fair on my LJ flist.

However, as of today's Vox release, I should be able to post the whole shooting match across onto Livejournal, even as I post to Vox. Will it work? I hope so.

Originally posted on adam.vox.com

Seeing how Windows Live Writer and Livejournal work together.

 

I'm having quite a lot of fun with Vox at the moment. Doctor Who fans with a long memory might be suitably horrified by this, for example.

And I trust my last post goes some way to explaining why I have so many blogs and have experimented with so many different platforms. :)

Incidentally, if anyone wants an invite to Vox's starter level (lets you comment and read friends-locked posts, but not create your own blog), just holler.

Apple's web-authing app, iWeb, got a significant upgrade last night with the release of version 1.1.

Most significant for me were two features that the earlier version lacked: comments on the blogging pages and decent photo optimisation for the web.

I've just given the new version a go, and so far, I'm impressed. My first blog effort is here. I don't really need somewhere new to blog, as I'm using or participating in about half a dozen different ones right now, but it might make a useful tool for sharing certain media with close family and friends, which is cool.

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