A welcome to new people.
Sep. 24th, 2004 08:49 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
xiphiasSo, my friend JillLaurie posted a couple questions about how LJ works, and what I do with it. And I thought I could answer it out here in a new journal entry, instead of just doing a reply to her comment.
So, hi, JillLaurie!
How do I create a blog like this for myself? How do I become a livejournal member rather than anonymous?
I'm treating these two questions as just one question, because it's one answer for both. Creating a blog like this is becoming a livejournal member, and becoming a livejournal member is creating a blog like this.
Creating a blog like this, which is a Livejournal account, is very simple. Go here. Fill out the form. And that's it, then you've got your account, and your livejournal blog.
It used to be that you needed an "invite code" to get a LJ account, which you would get from someone who was already a user, but they don't do that anymore. (There were good things about invite codes: it meant that you couldn't make up a "disposable account" just to harrass people with. But it also made things more exclusive.)
Lis's blog, at www.ribarambles.org, is a Blogger blog rather than a Livejournal blog. It's a different kind of blog, a different company hosting it, and there's a different "feel" for Livejournals and Blogger blogs. Livejournals tend to be a little more personal, a little more community-driven, a little chattier. Blogger tends to be a little more serious, a little more news-driven. But there's no hard-and-fast line on that, and you can do either sort of thing with either. I find LJ stuff much easier to use. It's less flexible -- Lis has more control over her blog and can do stuff that I can't, but she's more techie than I am, so that's worth it for her, but not for me. I'm happy with LJ.
Are there social rules for blogging?
Yeah, I guess so -- tons, really. But you'll pick most of it up pretty quickly.
One of the biggest sources of social awkwardness on Livejournal is the "friends list." One of the things which LJ allows you to do is to make "friends locked" posts, which only certain users can see. For me, I "friends lock" posts which I don't want Mom and Dad to see. Mom, Dad, Lis's parents, and Lis's grandparents all read my LJ and her blog, at least sometimes, and there are things that our family just doesn't need to know about our lives.
Okay, maybe it's weird that there are people in Australia who I've never met who get to read things about my life that I don't want Mom and Dad to know, but, maybe it's not all that weird, either. It makes sense to me. If, for instance, I'm bitching about my family, I don't want them to know, but it's not a problem if people in England, Wales, Australia, Texas, and California know.
The thing is, the "friends list" is used for two different things. It's the list of who can read your "friends locked" posts, but it's ALSO the list of people who's livejournals YOU read. And then, of course, there's the problem that it's called a "friends list". So, if you decide that you don't have time to read someone's stuff all the time, and you take them off your "friends list", well, some people get all worried that it means that you think you're not friends anymore. . .
Other than that whole awkwardness: if you post something that's fairly long, like this, it's polite to use an lj-cut tag. You write <lj-cut>, and then, when people are looking at the list of your posts, they don't see the whole thing until they click on the "Read More" thingy.
Also, if you post a picture, it's a good idea to put it behind a cut tag. Because pictures are big, and they take a long time to load.
I think that's most of it.
So, hi, JillLaurie!
How do I create a blog like this for myself? How do I become a livejournal member rather than anonymous?
I'm treating these two questions as just one question, because it's one answer for both. Creating a blog like this is becoming a livejournal member, and becoming a livejournal member is creating a blog like this.
Creating a blog like this, which is a Livejournal account, is very simple. Go here. Fill out the form. And that's it, then you've got your account, and your livejournal blog.
It used to be that you needed an "invite code" to get a LJ account, which you would get from someone who was already a user, but they don't do that anymore. (There were good things about invite codes: it meant that you couldn't make up a "disposable account" just to harrass people with. But it also made things more exclusive.)
Lis's blog, at www.ribarambles.org, is a Blogger blog rather than a Livejournal blog. It's a different kind of blog, a different company hosting it, and there's a different "feel" for Livejournals and Blogger blogs. Livejournals tend to be a little more personal, a little more community-driven, a little chattier. Blogger tends to be a little more serious, a little more news-driven. But there's no hard-and-fast line on that, and you can do either sort of thing with either. I find LJ stuff much easier to use. It's less flexible -- Lis has more control over her blog and can do stuff that I can't, but she's more techie than I am, so that's worth it for her, but not for me. I'm happy with LJ.
Are there social rules for blogging?
Yeah, I guess so -- tons, really. But you'll pick most of it up pretty quickly.
One of the biggest sources of social awkwardness on Livejournal is the "friends list." One of the things which LJ allows you to do is to make "friends locked" posts, which only certain users can see. For me, I "friends lock" posts which I don't want Mom and Dad to see. Mom, Dad, Lis's parents, and Lis's grandparents all read my LJ and her blog, at least sometimes, and there are things that our family just doesn't need to know about our lives.
Okay, maybe it's weird that there are people in Australia who I've never met who get to read things about my life that I don't want Mom and Dad to know, but, maybe it's not all that weird, either. It makes sense to me. If, for instance, I'm bitching about my family, I don't want them to know, but it's not a problem if people in England, Wales, Australia, Texas, and California know.
The thing is, the "friends list" is used for two different things. It's the list of who can read your "friends locked" posts, but it's ALSO the list of people who's livejournals YOU read. And then, of course, there's the problem that it's called a "friends list". So, if you decide that you don't have time to read someone's stuff all the time, and you take them off your "friends list", well, some people get all worried that it means that you think you're not friends anymore. . .
Other than that whole awkwardness: if you post something that's fairly long, like this, it's polite to use an lj-cut tag. You write <lj-cut>, and then, when people are looking at the list of your posts, they don't see the whole thing until they click on the "Read More" thingy.
Also, if you post a picture, it's a good idea to put it behind a cut tag. Because pictures are big, and they take a long time to load.
I think that's most of it.
I'm In
Date: 2004-09-24 07:59 am (UTC)If you put me on your friends list I will of course keep confidentiality, even though your folks are my best and oldest friends. : > }
To get the word out about my blog would people find it because it is listing in your blog? In addition to the people I e-mail to annouce it?
Another nice thing about having a blog is that I don't have to be politically neutral like I do in my astrology newsletter.
I am so psyched about this!
Jillaurie
Re: I'm In
Date: 2004-09-24 08:33 am (UTC)One thing Ian didn't mentioned that besides personal journals there are also communities, groups of people centered around a specific interest on LJ who post discussions within them as well as their own journal posts.
There are several writer oriented communities on LJ (I'm in several of them) and there are a number of writers, including many successful professionals, that can be found here on LJ.
Re: I'm In
Date: 2004-09-24 04:53 pm (UTC)Re: I'm In
Date: 2004-09-24 07:12 pm (UTC)Re: I'm In
Date: 2004-09-25 03:35 am (UTC)Re: I'm In
Date: 2004-09-25 02:44 pm (UTC)Log in.
Go to your journal.
There should be on the Screen a visible link to 'User Info'. Click on it.
In the Selection Bar there should be an option to 'Manage' and under that a second row with the option 'Friends'.
This should bring up the Friends Tools Page. Follow the info there.
To Make an entry, use tool bar to go to 'Manage' and 'Entries'. It will bring up another page.
Pretty much all the online stuff can be handled with the various selections in this manner, depending on what you want to do.
I did it
Date: 2004-09-25 03:01 pm (UTC)If I understand setting this up sends the entry directly to them? I am really having fun with all of this
Re: I did it
Date: 2004-09-25 03:06 pm (UTC)It has a bit of a learning curve to it, but isn't as complicated as first glance looks. The little toolbar with the management tools makes it easy. Just take your time, don't be afraid of experimenting and you can get really nice results.
Congrats!
Re: I'm In
Date: 2004-09-26 06:38 am (UTC)Anyplace you see a username, you will see the little head figurine followed by their username, like this:
[Communities and syndicated feeds have different icons,
If you click on the name, it takes you to that user's page.
If you click onto the icon, it takes you to their userinfo.
On the userinfo page, there's an icon with the head figurine and a plus sign. Click that to add that person/feed/community to your friendslist.
One other setting I'd recommend. The Personal Info settings page has a checkbox for "Get message board replies" This will email you whenever somebody posts a reply to your journal, or a direct response to a comment you make someplace else (like here in Ian's) Very useful, in my opinion.
Re: I'm In
Date: 2004-09-26 07:04 am (UTC)the other thing Ian told me about was how to have a short version with read more for longer blogs. I couldn't find the thing he said to check.
Thanks so much for all of this. I am only a little computer savy and the help from you and your friends is really getting me on my feet!
Re: I'm In
Date: 2004-09-26 09:35 am (UTC)Friends means you have a special page where you can see an aggregated view of all your friends' posts. For you, that's http://www.livejournal.com/users/deerdancer22/friends, though it isn't terribly exciting until you friend more people. Here, look at mine or Ian's for better examples.
Receive comments will show you direct responses to things you post -- anywhere. In your journal, friends' journals, strangers' journals. There's a tool LJ recently added: http://www.livejournal.com/tools/recent_comments.bml that can give you an idea. Latest Received is every comment that you've received in your journal. If you turn on the email notification, you would be informed of those via email every time you receive one. Latest Posted are comments you post elsewhere. If you turn on the email notification, you will also get and replies anybody posts to any of those. Such as this comment I'm writing in response to your comment, even though it's in Ian's journal.
how to have a short version with read more for longer blogs
That's known as a cut tag. Preceed the part you don't want to show with <lj-cut> and use </lj-cut> and the end. Here's the FAQ: How do I use an lj-cut? What are the other LiveJournal-specific tags? that explains it in more detail.
Good luck!
Re: I'm In
Date: 2004-09-26 10:10 am (UTC)I guess the one I was interested in was that Ian says he uses it for stuff he'd rather not have parental units see. I already went back and edited my first post to take out a few things. But even the way I live my life aligned with spirit's messages is not necessarily something I;d like the whole world to know but I feel cdomfortable with people like you and your friends. Is that the filter?
Just answer when you have time. I'm keeping posts a little less personal for now.
I think I will end up moving up to a regular blog like you have. I am already thinking of having an info section on different healing modalities and practitioners I would recommend. And also a section on spiritual happenings by religion. Maybe a question and answer section for people who want to learn how to do the Perelandra techniques.
The LJ is a good way to get my feet wet!
Re: I'm In
Date: 2004-09-26 03:22 pm (UTC)Whoops sorry; forgot about that part. When you create a post, you have 3 choices for security level:
I think I will end up moving up to a regular blog like you have.
I don't think that LJ isn't a blog. I'm just using a different tool (Here's the Blogger tutorial if you want to compare). I did that partly because I wanted to host the blog on my website, rather than make people look multiple places for things about me. But even if you're using LJ you can still host your blog/journal on your website. Go to osmond-riba.org and check Ian's side of the site; you can view his LJ through http://www.osmond-riba.org/ian/livejournal.htm.