Chris Boyle ([info]shortcipher) wrote,
@ 2008-03-19 16:56:00
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Current mood: confused
Current music:Melotron - Wunsch mich nicht zuruck
Entry tags:geek, migration

Four days ago, I moved to InsaneJournal. To clarify that a bit: I'll continue to read my friends page here and comment on entries, but I don't plan to post to this journal in future. Some possible options for reading my journal are:

  • Read it on LiveJournal: just add [info]chris_boyle (same as shortcipher_ij) and my entries will appear on your friends page almost exactly as before. Public posts only, but that's nearly everything.
  • Read it on InsaneJournal: add [info]shortcipher. You can do this either by using OpenID (enter yourusername.livejournal.com) or by creating an InsaneJournal account.
  • Read in an RSS reader: use this feed (again, public posts only).
If you haven't done one of these (looking at the new readership vs. the old, that's most of you), I'd appreciate it if you'd tell me why: Poll #1156896 Migration post-mortem
Open to: All, detailed results viewable to: None, participants: 15

I'm not reading your journal because:

I just don't want to read it anymore
0 (0.0%)

I didn't notice your previous post; I'm now set up to read it, or will be soon
4 (26.7%)

I haven't got around to sorting out some complicated prerequisite for my chosen reading method (creating an IJ / writing some crazy RSS script / etc.)
4 (26.7%)

I have some problem (technical or otherwise) with [info]shortcipher_ij that I didn't have with [info]shortcipher (please comment/email)
2 (13.3%)

I object to your objections to LiveJournal and am making some kind of protest
2 (13.3%)

I have a completely different reason that you haven't thought of (please comment/email)
2 (13.3%)

Tickybox
3 (20.0%)

(If applicable) If you were to set up some kind of IJ-to-email script, I'd prefer to receive your posts by email at the following address:


(23 comments) - (Post a new comment)


[info]senji
2008-03-19 05:02 pm UTC (link)
I have subscribed your RSS feed. You can't tell this at all.

Although I'm bemused as to why so many people who are like "OMG adverts" are moving to the advert-covered-IJ. (I know your reasoning is a little more complex than "OMG adverts", so don't feel you have to explain why you aren't in this group).

(Reply to this) (Thread)

[info]shortcipher
2008-03-19 05:07 pm UTC (link)
I have subscribed your RSS feed. You can't tell this at all.

Thank you, and indeed, I can't. My assertion "most of you" is based on an assumption that most of these people don't use RSS directly.

(Reply to this) (Parent)

[info]wildeabandon
2008-03-19 05:12 pm UTC (link)
I've added it now, and it was half ditziness and half the "some kind of protest" answer that I've ticked. I do think that the objections are very silly indeed.

(Reply to this)


[info]meihua
2008-03-19 05:19 pm UTC (link)
I don't understand the options you've listed. I'm not on IJ, so all I can do is read your public posts here on LJ by adding a RSS feed, right? I want to read all my friends' posts in the same place.

(Reply to this) (Thread)

[info]shortcipher
2008-03-19 05:34 pm UTC (link)
Yes, friending [info]shortcipher_ij is probably your best bet; it'll show up on your friends page almost exactly as before.

Unfortunately LJ friends pages can only contain journals, communities and feeds that are retrieved in an unauthenticated way. The only way this could include my IJ locked entries would be if I set up some kind of periodic reverse run of ljmigrate.py, which would be fraught with problems.

LJ-ish sites, such as IJ, do provide locked entries in RSS feeds if you retrieve them in an authenticated way, so what you're after is possible by reading all friends posts in an RSS reader that supports authentication rather than your LJ friends page. One way to do that is to use something like Sage, an RSS reader in the form of a Firefox extension.

(Reply to this) (Parent)(Thread)

[info]meihua
2008-03-19 05:38 pm UTC (link)
Ok - subscribed to feed. :)

I don't really get the point of RSS readers, I just want to look at normal websites...

(Reply to this) (Parent)

[info]linamishima
2008-03-19 05:51 pm UTC (link)
I'm similar. I want to read all your posts, so RSS via LJ is insufficient. I've already got enough sites I check, so to sign up to IJ or a web-based RSS reader as well does not appeal.

This entire thing sucks, but it has been blown out of all proportion by both sides (one full of panic, the other failing to have good community management).

(Reply to this) (Parent)(Thread)

[info]meihua
2008-03-19 05:58 pm UTC (link)
I'm happy that there are people who panic. Their existence makes "community management" a desirable skill for big companies - and I like companies who interact well with their communities. However, I also like not being one of the panickers. ^.^

(Reply to this) (Parent)(Thread)

[info]linamishima
2008-03-19 06:03 pm UTC (link)
Panic is useful, without it companies will never learn the need to create independent community management roles.

Community managers are amazing people when done right. If you're interested in the area, have a read of Sanya Weathers' (né Thomas) blog. It's MMO community management focused, but the same principles apply, especially to community-based websites *coughcough*

(Reply to this) (Parent)(Thread)

[info]meihua
2008-03-19 06:41 pm UTC (link)
Thank you, I definitely will do! Online communities fascinate me especially.

(Reply to this) (Parent)

[info]shortcipher
2008-03-19 06:04 pm UTC (link)
I've already got enough sites…

It's a common problem. My solution is to use an RSS reader for everything, hence only one place to check. Zero, in fact, since an icon lights up in my system tray when there are new entries, so I never go anywhere just to check whether there are new posts. One of these days, in my copious free time, I shall post the details of how I achieve this (such as my cunning Perl script to do change notification on sites that don't have feeds, by generating a one-item feed with the MD5 of the page).

(Reply to this) (Parent)

[info]dreamfracture
2008-03-19 05:23 pm UTC (link)
The completely different reason is basically that I'm very, very lazy.

(Reply to this) (Thread)

[info]mas90
2008-03-20 12:36 am UTC (link)
Likewise. :-) (I've now subscribed to the syndicated RSS on LJ, pending enough other people deserting LJ to make this option worthwhile myself. I too dislike the direction in which LJ is heading.)

(Reply to this) (Parent)

[info]woodpijn
2008-03-19 05:32 pm UTC (link)
Kind of in between #3 and #5. I don't agree with your objections to LJ, and if you're not going to post on LJ any more then I'm more inclined to shrug and say "OK, bye" than go out of my way to find some other way to read your journal, because I'm lazy.

I expect for most people the reason is some variant on inertia.

(Reply to this)


[info]emperor
2008-03-19 10:51 pm UTC (link)
I don't think public-only-rss-feeds are the answer to cross-site blog syndication, which is why I've not subscribed to your IJ feed.

(Reply to this) (Thread)

[info]mas90
2008-03-20 12:41 am UTC (link)
I'm tempted to agree, but what alternative would you suggest?

(Reply to this) (Parent)

[info]shortcipher
2008-03-20 09:22 am UTC (link)
Well, authenticated feeds exist, and in fact my feed includes locked items iff you've already authenticated or use the digest-authenticated version. But no, they don't help you with cross-site syndication, as in to a friends page, because LJ doesn't have a concept of private feeds. LJ doesn't support anything non-public on your friends page except people who post to LJ, so if you're only going to read your friends page then they're the only people who can share private content with you (which is just how LJ likes it, of course).

(Reply to this) (Parent)

[info]lizzip
2008-03-20 12:20 am UTC (link)
[x] I'm likely to head over to IJ every now and again to see what you're up to, but ISTM that we don't actually have much meaningful interaction via LJ, and so on and so forth...

(Reply to this) (Thread)

[info]shortcipher
2008-03-20 09:29 am UTC (link)
Fair enough. If you're going to log in with something when you do head over there, I'm happy to friend it (but an OpenID can't be friended until you've logged in once and somehow given me its ext-number, such as by friending me with it). In your case, I'd probably email you anything private and earth-shatteringly important anyway.

(Reply to this) (Parent)(Thread)

[info]lizzip
2008-03-20 04:28 pm UTC (link)
In your case, I'd probably email you anything private and earth-shatteringly important anyway.

Well, quite.

... well, if you remembered. :)

*hugs*

('dave has agreed to come and visit me and is threatening me with Ribena wine; Watch This Space for more details...)

(Reply to this) (Parent)

[info]atreic
2008-03-20 08:23 am UTC (link)
I think everyone else has said what I want to say, but for clarity:

I'm lazy - keeping track of two websites or working out how open id works, or remembering to go to IJ is too much faff. Also, occassionally RSS feeds dump three years worth of stuff all over my friends page and it's really annoying.

But basically, all my 'easy' options involve me losing your friends-only posts. And it doesn't matter if they're only 0.1% of the content, a) they're likely to be most interesting and private (yes, I'm nosey) and b) it is a true fact that 'friending' and 'defriending' is over-loaded and prone to drama, and some bit of my subconscious that I hadn't even noticed before I tried to write this comment is going "well, Chris has defriended us all, and said we can only be his friends if we jump through some complicated hoops and set up an IJ, and didn't talk to us about it before he did it*, and is it really worth all the effort?"

*This amuses me because "LJ didn't talk to us before doing this" is one of the things listed as why they are most evil. In comparison others of my friends list have been doing lots of "I think I want to move, where should I move to, would you follow me if I did" polls.

(Reply to this) (Thread)

[info]shortcipher
2008-03-20 10:03 am UTC (link)
'friending' and 'defriending' is over-loaded and prone to drama

This is very true: most of my friends-only posts aren't that important, and for the ones that are, I think I've reached a tipping point where I wouldn't trust LJ with them anyway. This is why I didn't do a poll: I don't really see remaining on LJ as an acceptable option, and I knew most people wouldn't follow me fully. This is not to say that I don't care about conversation with people who mostly just read a friends page, but I have people's email addresses; I can derive the set of people who probably won't see locked posts on IJ; when it actually matters, I'm happy to find ways to talk to people without using LJ.

(Reply to this) (Parent)

[info]arnhem
2008-03-20 11:47 am UTC (link)
[v] Currently lacking brainspace to think about this.

(which probably maps most closely to "I haven't got around to ...")

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