LJ dead or dying?

[mik3cap]

I've noticed that most of my friends (and myself included) are much more interested in posting stuff to Facebook now. I think this is for several reasons:

1) Lots and lots of people are using it (stronger network).
2) The interface is easier to use - you can post links and photos and so forth with no HTML needed (LJ always makes you go through a couple gyrations to do stuff like that, FB makes it painless and prettier)
3) It's shorter attention span; less content, and updated much more frequently.

I don't think LJ can do anything about 1 and 3, but they could at least be trying to make their product slightly easier to use. All they have to do is replicate the Post Links and Post Photos features the way they have them set up on Facebook, and then make the Friends page smaller and more wall-like, the way Facebook does it. It's the interface, stupid!!

Comments

[purly.livejournal.com]

It was trendy for a time, which I think is the only reason that many people were on here. Some people have been using it because they want a journaling platform and these people will probably stay. LJ is supposed to notify Facebook when I post something new, so that's what I've been doing to interface with the facebook people.

Actually I have wordpress up and running now that I have my domain back and I really love it. So much more versatile than LJ.

[mikecap.livejournal.com]

I just have to wonder if the overall value I once had in LJ still exists. All the stuff I care to do in LJ I can do more easily in FB, and to a wider audience. The only thing really keeping me here is that my eight years of content is not easy enough to transition to elsewhere.

[purly.livejournal.com]

If your value is found in reaching a larger audience and the number of people posting is decreasing, then LJ probably isn't for you.

[mikecap.livejournal.com]

It seems that way. My friends page on LJ just doesn't update that often.

[purly.livejournal.com]

Have you considered moving beyond the LJ community? Most of what I take part in lately socially is on forums or on other blogging platforms. I keep track of everything using bloglines, but any rss reader works.

[purple-dj.livejournal.com]

I actually despise the wall-like short-attention-span interface of Facebook. I prefer to sit down once every few days and read everything my friends have been up to as though it were a book or news site.

I don't like having to check multiple times a day to catch stuff or find things that appear low on my page below things I've already read.

Similarly, while I agree that FB makes links and photo posting painless, I disagree that it is prettier. It's not ugly, but it's also not prettier.

[mikecap.livejournal.com]

Prettier in the sense that when I post a link, it takes an image from the site I'm posting from and lays it out nicely. FB is supposed to make some general interface changes soon too that will overall make it easier to use.

[rovanda.livejournal.com]

I just started using facebook, and so far its only value to me is in being a point of contact with people I don't want to share my livejournal with...

And I think the interface is clunky and ugly. That may be partly because I'm not used to it, but I don't know that I'll bother using it enough to *get* used to it.

Like with google, I think it's a question of what your purpose is, and what features you value - for you, it does sound like facebook may provide more value.

[lil-laurel.livejournal.com]

i'm with you that facebook is a perfectly good medium for people i don't want reading my LJ (and as most of my coworkers have found me on FB, i'd like to keep it that way). FB is clunky and hard to read for me, but LJ is slower and the posting methods, particularly from the web, are annoying and less pretty. I'd like it easier to post pictures or links without HTML writing or futzing with slow multi-stepped processes.

[rovanda.livejournal.com]

I can see that

[antryg-windrose.livejournal.com]

Problem I have with FB is the 5 second attention span it provides. I can go back on LJ and see what you said 3 years ago, FB not so easy in that regard.

[mikecap.livejournal.com]

That is definitely a problem; it's very difficult to find past posts when you want them.

[jessnut.livejournal.com]

I agree with people here that I like the simpler model of Live Journal. I like that my friends page is a long list of posts in order by date that I can smoothly scroll through and read.

Facebook annoys me in the same way that MySpace does with putting a ton of crap all over the page and only a small portion of the site is for what I want. When I'm reading my friends page on LJ there's now flashing images on one side and lists of links all over the place. Just my options at the top and the posts on the page. Simple.

[xinie.livejournal.com]

The things I prefer about LJ, though, make it still useful: longer posts, filtered posts, and filtered reading. There are people I can't be FB friends with because they post every twenty seconds; there are people I am friends with who I don't want to read certain things, and I like the option of putting things behind a cut.

I do like the extended network of FB, but I have to watch my language!

[gunthersdncemix.livejournal.com]

ZOMG I hate facebook, although it has it's place.

I can't filter like I can here, or not use my real name.

So, LJ is for personal real stuff. Facebook is for fluffy crap that I don't care if anyone reads.

I like to think that if social networking sites had personalities, Facebook would be the obnoxious cheerleader who brags about how many friends she has and has to tell all the details of her personal life and gossip to everyone.

LJ is for the more reserved loner type who prefers a smaller circle of friends and doesn't have to tell everyone everything all the time. Also, their privacy policies and filtering suck a lot less.