Monday, July 09, 2007

And No, I Won't Join Your Fruity Little Club

BadFaggot, whose weblog I love, is selling many Monty Python episodes on VHS tapes. Although some episodes are missing, he reports that among the included Python segments will be the Spanish Inquisition.

I quickly clicked on Post A Comment so I could wittily add, "Why... I wasn't expecting the Spanish Inquisition..."

I had forgotten, although I was quickly reminded, that BadFaggot maintains his weblog courtesy of LiveJournal, and LiveJournal is a Fruity Little Club.

I hate LiveJournal!

For the most part, unless you're LiveJournal user, you can't post to a LiveJournal weblog. And some LiveJournal users even limit posts to people who they have deemed to be their LiveJournal "friends."

At times, I've considered just opening up a LiveJournal account so that I'd be able to post comments to LiveJournal weblogs, and have my sole entry in my LiveJournal be "Go here now."

But not. I'm not going to do that because... I don't want to join your fruity little club!

I hate LiveJournal.

Way back in the day, when I started SingleTails, for a while it seemed to me that I was the only leatherperson who was blogging. There were a lot of other homos who were blogging way back then, but I sometimes felt like I was treated as an interloper--the Cool Kids Table In The Cafeteria kind of thing--because I was kinky. And I was thrilledThrilledTHRILLED when I happened upon the previous incarnation of Forge Lives because it meant I wasn't the only one. And Forge devised this whole 100 Leather Bloggers thing, whereby if you were kinky and had a 'blog, you could put this little symbol thing on your front page so we would Know One Another, and the goal was to have as many as 100 kinky bloggers out there on the Internets. girlfag still has the 100 Bloggers thing on her excellent (Not LiveJournal) weblog. And when someone would send me email or post a comment along the lines of "Wow! Great blog! It's great to read someone kinky on the web" (yeah, this was a long time ago), I'd encourage them to start their own weblog, dangling the promise of the 100 Bloggers Project before them. Most of them went by the wayside after an initial "Well gosh, I'm not quite sure what to write here, but this is what I had for breakfast this morning..." kind of post, but many live on and thrive and I love to read them still.

And then along came LiveJournal. Sucking all that budding talent into their Fruity Little Club.

So fine.

You all go off and enjoy yourselves. And it's not even like I won't ready your weblogs anymore. But since I can't post a comment, you'll never know whether or not I'm reading you or not, will you?

But let's be clear about one thing: I won't join your Fruity Little Club.

10 comments:

riot said...

AMEN!!!

Unfortunately, I have a weaker constitution, and a firm belief that every little comment which comes to my mind must be published somewhere. I opened a LJ which contains a single post directing all to my blog.

Yet another complaint I have about LJ is that the "only friends allowed" lists completely screw with my RSS feed reader. Google Reader has revolutionized my life by pulling the 50 blogs I read into one place where I can keep track of everything without opening a zillion web pages. But LJ's system won't allow me to use Reader for those posts which are locked. It's patently ridiculous.

A defensive LJ friend points out that all LJs are, by definition, blogs. He couldn't be more wrong--an LJ is simply the result of brainwashing by the agents of that Fruity Little Club.

Lolita said...

My LJ is enabled to receive comments from unregistered users like you.

mhg said...

Guess what?

After months of agonizing, I joined Livejournal a few years back. (girlfagpnw.livejournal.com) But those tend to all (given an exception for the rare specific work related entry which remains locked) link back to blogger with a short line. Blogger is my first love.

I always saw LJ as the aol of the blogging community - too much high school type drama. I never saw it as a forum for serious bloggers.

Since then, not only have I connected with serious bloggers on LJ, but a few of them have become near and dear to my heart. So much so that my life has been dramatically changed from getting to know a handful of these folks and meeting them in person.

The networking of LJ is what did it.

But even with that...I still have a bad taste in my mouth for LJ. Very conflicted.

By the way...expect an email from me.

Anonymous said...

alternately, with the new features on blogger/google, i can't even comment sing my bloger addy's. so i'm wondering whose club is fruitier??? it's frustrating me to no end!

-alterboy
(unless i use anonymity, which is SO weird!)

Anonymous said...

oops, typo's strike again. i think that was "sign in with my blogger addy's"
-alterboy

Anonymous said...

Well, I suppose I should thank you for your compliment on my blog, however backhanded.

I started blogging on LiveJournal in October 2003 because a friend gave me an invite (back when you still needed them). I have thought of migrating since then but have not, mainly because I have an established readership there now, and because LJ allows me considerable facility in managing the blogs I read, including RSS feeds from sites like Blogger.

I have chosen to disallow comments from folks who are not LJ members because I've had a problem with stalkers (both on LJ and off) leaving really nasty, unpleasant comments in the past. Unfortunately, that's been the only way to circumvent the problem.

One very simple way around that is to create your own LJ account. It's free and takes about ten seconds. Log in and you can read and comment on all my entries, including those that are not public.

Or you can send an email to badfaggot [at] hotmail [dot] com, something I specifically encourage my readers to do on my info page.

Remember that if you don't like the way my blog is configured, you're under no obligation to read it. But please don't use me as an excuse for bashing the service, or imply that I see myself as part of a "fruity little club" that won't have you as a member. Because frankly, from one faggot to another, I find that pretty damn offensive, and if you were in my position I expect you would also.

Drew said...

Oh jeez.

Please don't take offense, Matt, as truly none was intended.

True enough, I don't like LiveJournal, for reasons I explained. And being as objective as I can, I think those reasons are valid. Thus, I don't think I'm "bashing" LiveJournal. Rather, I'm criticizing LiveJournal.

As to my characterization of LiveJournal as a "Fruity Little Club," that is a reference to an episode of South Park wherein the beloved character Chef joins the (something) Adventurer's Club, thus bringing about his downfall and death. At one point, Kyle (I think it was Kyle) is offered membership and replies, "No! I don't want to be part of your fruity little club!" This was all a reference to Isaac Hayes, who voiced Chef, and his decision to leave the show after an episode lambasting Scientology, and Isaac Hayes was a Scientologist. By invoking "fruity little club," I was alluding to the cultish nature of Scientology and the habit of scientologists to be awfully thin-skinned (ahem), which to a *much* lesser degree has been my experience with LiveJournal. That and the missionary zeal with which I've been encouraged by LiveJournal members to join up over the years.

But truly, nothing but love and admiration for you and your weblog.

Anonymous said...

the habit of scientologists to be awfully thin-skinned (ahem), which to a *much* lesser degree has been my experience with LiveJournal

I'm sure your blog means as much to you as mine does to me. If someone effectively told you that your "budding talent" were wasted on Blogger, I don't think you'd be feeling any more conciliatory than I am right now. I also don't think you'd appreciate hearing that your offense was unjustified because you were overly sensitive.

Your dislike of LJ's technical features is justifiable. Your sweeping judgments about participation in the community are not. And your use of my blog as a whipping boy for your unfounded arguments is particularly unfair. If you don't mean to give offense, don't call me out next time you choose to rant.

Drew said...

Okay.

Although at no point did I say that your considerable talents, which I admire and enjoy, were"wasted."

I like your weblog, I like you, I'll continue to read and enjoy your weblog.

I'm sorry to cite your weblog in a post critical of LiveJournal. In doing so, I did not intend to be critical of you or your weblog, or your choice to use that service. Only of LiveJournal.

In deference to you, I will delete the reference to your weblog in my post or delete the post altogether. You need only ask.

Anonymous said...

In deference to you, I will delete the reference to your weblog in my post or delete the post altogether.

No, I don't play that way.

What's said is said. I've had the opportunity to respond to it, and you've responded to me, which I appreciate. I would never ask you to alter your post when the record of our conversation is also available for everyone to see.