"Off Topic"
Oct. 14th, 2003 01:45 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
jducoeurJust a thought (probably far from novel) that struck me, apropos of last week's observations about Usenet, LiveJournal and communities. LJ is much more effective for community-building than either Usenet or most mailing lists for an interesting and subtle reason: there is no such concept as "off topic".
Most lists are topically focused, and while most interesting ones also have a community aspect, pure community-oriented discussion is usually at least somewhat apologetic. On lists that understand the concept of community, off-topic posts are tolerated, but there tend to be "OT:" subject lines and stuff like that. On many other lists, pure community-oriented discussion simply isn't tolerated, which weakens their utility. Of course, the inverse problem is that, if the community-oriented discussion completely drowns out the topical stuff, the list can lose focus and drift into irrelevance.
That's not the case on LJ. Since the "topic" for any given blog is the person writing it, there just isn't the sense of shame at speaking about whatever matters to you. And that often comes much closer to the definition of the community (or communities) that the author is in...
Most lists are topically focused, and while most interesting ones also have a community aspect, pure community-oriented discussion is usually at least somewhat apologetic. On lists that understand the concept of community, off-topic posts are tolerated, but there tend to be "OT:" subject lines and stuff like that. On many other lists, pure community-oriented discussion simply isn't tolerated, which weakens their utility. Of course, the inverse problem is that, if the community-oriented discussion completely drowns out the topical stuff, the list can lose focus and drift into irrelevance.
That's not the case on LJ. Since the "topic" for any given blog is the person writing it, there just isn't the sense of shame at speaking about whatever matters to you. And that often comes much closer to the definition of the community (or communities) that the author is in...
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(no subject)
Date: 2003-10-14 10:53 am (UTC)For the community journals, though, there's still a notion of a topic or theme for the community, and there are still people who violate that. It's less frustrating than on mailing lists, because the OT posts on mailing lists generate lots of followup email (while on LJ the thread just collects comments that you can ignore), but it's still an issue.
Yes and no
Date: 2003-10-14 11:02 am (UTC)The medium is a seperate layer from the community-building efforts placed on top of it, generally speaking. LJ imposes no topicality in the same way that email, instant messaging, and the telephone do not. However, IRC channels and mailing lists do impose that kind of structure, and so too do LJ communities.
The advantage to LJ as a medium in which to build communities is that it fosters persistent, fluid many-to-many communication in a way that's easy for most people to deal with. The actual communities set up on top of it wind up getting in the way instead of helping because the medium is adequate in and of itself.
(no subject)
Date: 2003-10-14 04:07 pm (UTC)I don't think you can cite one's own journal as an example of a community free from "off topic" posts--the old-tool equivalent would be sending notes about things that amused you to your personal mailing list. (Or collating them into a newsletter. It's been a long time since Desperado...wonder if it's still going somewhere?)
You can't separate the topical and social aspects of community in any medium without draconian measures--and even then, you're probably doomed to failure or a parallel method will be needed.
(no subject)
NOTES PERFECTION ACHIEVED AT DEC |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||| From: VISUAL::SHIMKIN To: CLOSET::T_PARMENTER Subj: Perhaps some desperado readers would like to subscribe <<< TAKEA::FLYING_LEAP:[INTHEMUD]WRITE_LOCKED.NOTE;1 >>> ================================================================================ Note 1.0 Introduction No replies TAKEA::HIKE "Inspiring Message" 19 lines 31-JUN-1991 24:49 -< Bug off! >- -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Welcome to the WRITE_LOCKED conference. Nothing is inappropriate for this conference, it's write locked. Every note is write locked, every reply is hidden, the conference is write locked. Finally, you don't have to be tolerant, value differences, or be a team player. Just be yourself. And be paid for your performance. All conferences have rules, and this one is no exception. We simply ask: 1. Be kind; rewind. 2. Close cover before striking. 3. Although this conference is write locked, we ask that you use mixed case. Using all capital letters is annoying, even if it's an intention. |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||| I don't often have this information, but the above is an original by the sender, Brian Shimkin. Non-DEC readers may not know that the free flow of information in DEC notes files is frequently interrupted by the tweet-tweet-tweet of the self-appointed notes police, who prefer that no one say anything that could be interpreted as being rude, off-the-subject, or even above-average interesting.(no subject)
Date: 2003-10-14 05:22 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2003-10-15 08:25 am (UTC)