LiveJournal: Internet exclusion at its finest
August 10, 2005 
I’ve noticed through my interaction with LiveJournal users that the community there consists of a different type of blogger than independent bloggers or even users of Blogger’s BlogSpot.com.
While there are real bloggers using the service, a large number of users have switched to password-protected “Friends Only” blogs. This segment of the community views their LJ as a way to exclude most Internet users, while allowing only a privileged few to read what they write.
It takes all the fun out of what blogs are all about. Besides the fact that most LJ users seem to not realize that they too are bloggers (and some refer to themselves as “LiveJournalers”), restricting access to one’s site defeats the “spirit” of blogging as a medium.
I mean, think about it, the Internet is the most vast and effective mass medium in the world, used by millions of people all around the Earth, but some people are posting every single day and excluding everyone but 10 or 50 people. It seems like a backwards approach to using the Net.
Of course, there are many valid reasons for protecting the content of a blog. One LJ user I recently talked to via IM refused to add me to her friends list in order to read her blog. This despite the fact that I had been regularly reading her blog before she decided to make it “Friends Only.” She’s had several problems with Internet stalkers, so she had been forced to restrict access.
I’m sure anyone else who has had similar problems would also take action to prevent them from happening again. And its a shame that people would take advantage of someone dutifully blogging about their day-to-day life, as many LJers do. But it begs the question of why she continues to write about her life online… or why she published so much personal information in the begginning (although the limit is not a definite line by any means).
The part the miffed me the most was that even though I thoughtfully presented my blog (the one you’re reading currently) as a means of “identification,” this LJ user seemed shocked that I would have an LJ username, but not blog there. Of course, the only reason I have a username there is to read my friends’ LiveJournals. The odd part is that anyone can easily glimpse my opinions by reading my blog, which in some ways has the personal approach of LiveJournal-type writing.
In addition, I’ve been writing this thing since 2001. Doesn’t that count for something? Among other real bloggers it definitely does. I consider myself an “early adopter” of the blog format and those I consider real bloggers — those people who know who invented the word weblog (or at least know that ‘blog’ is a shortened form of ‘weblog’!) get what that means.
But the LJ community by function excludes non-LJers, which probably started with all that invite code nonsense when the site was getting started.
Many bloggers write quality blogs anonymously or don’t offer up quite so much personal information in the first place, and while you can’t fault people who are forced to react, LiveJournal makes it way too easy to exclude people from interesting writing in a medium where it should be openly available.
August 10th, 2005 at 8:20 AM
well, as an lj user, i appreciate the function of making “friends only” posts. sometimes there are private things you want to talk about (and i have had this many times) that you dont want your family or non close friends to read (since i have the link to my lj in my profile, it is accessible by any aim user). it irks me that there are entirely “friends only” livejournals, though, and i understand your point. but to many people, lj is an extension of a personal diary, and it makes sense that people would not want to share their innermost thoughts with anyone who can stumble across it. i dont have so much of a problem with that, but other people do. and when there is something personal that i want my friends to know, but dont want the entire world to know, im glad i have the option of making a friends only post. i mean, you cant exactly send out a mass email everytime you want to tell your friends something personal, thats just weird. hence, a friends only lj post works just fine.
and anyway, id like to put you on my friends list! even though i dont use the friends only option frequently, it still comes up.
August 11th, 2005 at 12:58 PM
I think the key difference in the two lies in the name. Livejournals serve as journals rather than logs and though one could argue that an LJ is simply “a blog of a life” or something of the sort, the privacy feature is most likely the one that MADE it what it is.
I like to synonymize LJ’s in contrast with passing notes in gradeschool or lunch table cliques whereas blogs are equivalent to “Party at my house” fliers.
August 12th, 2005 at 3:53 AM
I actualy have a Livejournal account (under “dsng” - I’m not particuarly original) - and really it’s like an entirely different sphere. For some reason that interface really does encourage back-and-forth comments (I know Blogger and other platforms don’t have threaded comments), for one.
Lately I’ve been thinking actually about how with most other blogging platforms you have a lot of either/or: you either put your whole blog online, or you hide the whole thing. But there are clearly some things that, while you want to speak about, you don’t necessarily want random people knowing about you… which is where the LJ “friends only” posts function comes in. I agree with you on LJs that are entirely friends-only, but in fact Blogger lets you do that, actually; it’s just you don’t really see those blogs, whereas LJ lets you know a blog exists but that you can’t see it. (Neener-neener-neener.)
September 6th, 2006 at 4:05 AM
One important consideration is that many employers now use the net to research potential hires. Associating one’s professional name with a blog that may contain things that violate the “grandma rule” has ruined many job opportunities for many people. I am in the process of privatizing my entries, as I am about to enter the job market.