cosmolinguist | [119/365] Dreamwidth questionnaire

How did you find Dreamwidth? What attracted you to this platform? Why did you start blogging?

I don't remember which particular LiveJournal outrage drove me over here, but I'd been blogging there for nine years before I started this account. I was attracted to this platform for having the features I liked from LJ: music/moods, icons, communities, threaded comments, and of course most of all the social aspect: making it so easy to follow people and get to know them.
How long have you been blogging on Dreamwidth? What has changed here, or in your life, over that timespan?

Created on 2011-03-30 21:30:55, my account says. So much has changed. I was living in the terrible flat then. I don't think I was working. Didn't even have Gary yet!
What are your favorite things about Dreamwidth? What do you dislike about it? What do you wish it had, or had more of?

I love the possibility of longform. I like how thoughtful it can make people, and all the other stuff it makes easy -- you can quote a whole song/poem easily, or qoute things at length and comment on them, practically every Twitter thread should be a blog post.

I like cut tags. I'm glad social media like Mastodon is starting to get around to adopting them now; it's long overdue.

And I love how easy it is to comment and get to know people.

I don't like that people can subscribe to you without you getting a say. That is one thing I like about subsequent social media, getting to approve or deny people's follow requests.

I wish there was an app too, becuase I write so many posts on my phone. But it's not too bad as it is.
Do you think people should crosspost the same or similar things in more than one place on Dreamwidth? Why or why not? Are there conditions that influence whether or not it's a good idea?

I think it's fine to post stuff in your journal and communities; I follow people who do that (and I have in the past; I just don't really belong to any active communities now). This sounds like a fannish schism, and I've never been into fandom.
Do you have a free account or a paid account on Dreamwidth? What features or other factors made you choose that option? Would you recommend your option to other bloggers? Why or why not?

I have a paid account. diffrentcolours bought it for me. I love being able to search my blog archives. That alone is worth the cost for me.
What is your blog metaphor? Where are you, when you are in your blog?

I guess to some extent I am still a teenager in my bedroom. Alone or lonely, introspective or desperate for connection.

7 - What tools do you use for blogging? Laptop, desktop computer, or other device? Paper notebook for jotting down ideas? Color palettes, accessibility gauges, or other guides for making it look good?

Like I said I write way too much on my phone. Ideally I write on my laptop plugged into my nice big monitor and keyboard and stuff, but that probably happens the least of anything. I'm writing this on my laptop balanced on my knees as I sit cross-legged in the big armchair while D reads silly things about the Savannah Bananas.

8 - How often do you post in your blog? Do you like reading blogs that are high or low in traffic?

I post every day, more or less. I don't pay attention to the traffic on blogs I read here. I do read some more popular ones, but they're all Substacks now.

9 - What are the top ten topics in your blog? You can use the Manage Tags function to sort by usage and see which ones you use most often, or just think about what you consider important subjects.

Ooh excellent question! Not all my entries are tagged, because tags weren't a thing for the first however-many years I was here. Also, I just learned from this that you can sort tags by usage!

So my top ten are:
1. diary
2. the universe is always this amazing - used for good things
3. mutti & vati - they're named in German because I read Angus, Thongs and Full Frontal Snogging a year or so into this blog and that has the parents referred to in...I don't even remember which foreign language the main character was studying, but anyway for me it was German, so even at twice the age I was at the time this tag is still called that! it just occurred to me how weird this is!
4. turn the wireless up - this is for depression; it's from a Victoria Wood quote I had on my profile for a long time: it went something like "In my day, we'd just keep quiet and turn up the wireless." That's how it was in my day too, that's how I was raised.
5. Andrew - 16 years together means he got talked about a lot!
6. food
7. work - I've never had separate tags for separate work; this is just all of it smushed together
8. politics
9. school - again, anything to do with college, uni, memories of school, all together
10. blindy mcblindface - these days I use this for my own experiences, but I think in the past I wasn't defining it so narrowly so it probably has stuff that's just about blindness in general

10 - What types or topics of posts get the most enthusiastic responses from your readership? What do you think makes those so engaging?

Could be anything - silly ones can get a lot of comments from people chatting back and forth. Depressive ones used to get a ton of support when I really needed that. But a lot of the time I remember being surprised at a lot of comments hanging off underneath a quick sentence or a half-thought-through idea.

11 - Do you use any recurring posts, and if so, what kinds? Do you enjoy reading those in other people's blogs? Why or why not?

I don't use any, though I like other people's. I love reading people's Reading Wednesday (or whatever day) posts, and keep meaning to start making them, and then never doing it. I wish I could document every week at work, every movie I'd seen, but things like that just stress me out.

12 - Do you ever go back to reread older entries on your blog, or other blogs? Do you get or give comments on older entries? What kind of posts do you put in your Memories?

I absolutely re-read old posts. Usually now when I've searched for one to link to it in a new post. But in the old days I would re-read stuff just to see what my life was like then. It's one reason I'm so committed to writing down my boring days now.

13 - Where do you find ideas for blog posts? What inspires you?

Heh, just the other day I was musing on social media that I need to do more blogging, because I have a lot of thoughts and feelings that are all tangled up and one of the best ways I know to fix that is to write them down. ljwrites marveled, saying "Aren't you already blogging every day? Im in awe of that level of commitment and found myself wondering how many more unblogged thoughts could remain." I explained that I'm not really blogging about my thoughts lately, just making short lists of tihngs that happen to me in a day. So I get ideas from that.

And also things I've read/heard, online or in books or podcasts or whatever.

14 - Do you use your blog for personal, hobby, or professional purposes? Do you mix those or keep them separate, and why? Do you like to talk about yourself in your blog, or do you prefer to post about other people and events instead?

Personal. I don't have hobbies -- I was asked about this the other day by a healthcare professional, "what are your hobbies and interests?", and I panicked because I don't have those. She, luckily, said a lot of people freeze whne they're asked this so hopefully I didn't seem too weird.

I do try to keep my current job separate from this blog.

15 - Do you follow any blogging guidelines? What do you make a point of doing, or not doing, in your blog?

I describe images on the rare occasion I include them (oh there's another thing I dislike about DW: it's too hard to include images...again I've been spoiled by social media!). I try to hide triggering stuff and very long posts but I am not as good about that as I'd like to be.

16 - What are some things that you haven't tried in your blog, but would like to try? What cool things have you seen in other blogs that you haven't done yourself? What things have you tried that totally flopped? Try something new today!

I would like to have more of a record of what I've read. I can be so perfectionist/completist though, it's ridiculous. Like "Well I'll still have all these decades of unrecorded book thoughts, why bother starting now?" I know why. But I still don't do it.

17 - What do you consider the traits of a successful blog? What are the traits of an unsuccessful blog?

I think people define success so differently. These days, Substack is basically blogs and they're defined by how many subsribers they have and how much money they make. Some do also value the community they foster and the discussions that go on -- which can spin off to their own Discord or local get-togethers or political organizing or whatever.

I'd like to say that success for me just looks like writing something down every day and to an extent that's true but i'm clearly not just here for me. I spent my teen years thinking I should have a diary/journal but I rarely got past a couple of days before being mortified at my own imperfect thoughts (or, sometimes, just handwriting) and throwing the pages away. As soon as I had an audience it stuck. So I suppose I need readers too, to feel like I am a success here. Thanks for reading!

18 - Which blogs or communities do you read most often? What makes these your favorites?

I read every day so I read all your blogs. I love reading about your lives and your thoughts.

[119/365] Dreamwidth questionnaire

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