I don’t understand why there seems to be so much angst over what people choose to post in their Live Journals recently.  Specifically I’m referring to the complaints about those of us who post our twitter feeds here, but this would also include anxiety over long posts that aren’t behind cut tags.

I just don’t get it.

Ok, let’s start with the Twitter thing.  I get that many Tweets are replies to other Tweets and that reading them is like hearing half of a conversation.  I understand that complaint.  But what about those that aren’t?  There seems to be some kind of misconception out there that because of the fact that a Tweet is limited to 140 characters it is somehow less valid than a Live Journal post.  I’ve got news for you, folks.  I made posts that were 140 characters or less long before there was a Twitter, and there’s very few people on my friends list who can say that they haven’t.  I suppose if the Tweets were posted every time someone made a new one I could see how that would get to be a bit much, but they aren’t.  At least, none of the feeders I’ve seen so far work that way.  It’s one digest post made daily, and a good number of people who I know that are posting them now are even putting them behind cuts.

So why the anxiety?

What’s more, if you don’t want to read them…er…don’t?  Which then leads into my not understanding why there is anxiety when someone chooses to put a long post up without a cut tag.  I fail to see why the act of scrolling a mouse wheel past a long post you don’t wish to read is such a hardship.  Or, for that matter, why it’s so difficult to scroll past something that, perhaps, is talking about a subject you don’t care to read about. 

I have a lot of people on my friends list.  I do not read every post that comes across it.  There is no rule stating that if you have someone on their friends list you are required to read everything they write, and I think it’s foolish to assume that your words are so important that everyone who has you on their friends list is going to do so.  I can pretty much assure you that longer posts, cut tagged or not, end up getting skimmed anyway.  Why?  Because, as I have said many times in the past, I see more comments on live journal when the post is short than I do on the epic length, well written and thoughtful ones.

So yeah.  I skim.  You skim.  We all skim.  As such, I don’t understand why skimming past something you don’t care to read is a reason to get angry. 

I have one exception to the above statements.  Outlandish font sizes (especially when used in conjunction with profanity).  Images are no problem.  If you are afraid you’re going to see an image that might get you in trouble or be offensive you can change your LJ settings to automatically put all images behind a thumbnail.  That’s easy.  But big fonts you really can’t do anything about, and those always tend to pop up right as your boss is walking past your desk or someone at home is looking over your shoulder.  That is pretty much the only time I’ll ask someone to put something behind a cut tag, and if they choose not to?  No skin off my back, really, but I’ll likely take them off of my friends list (I don’t use reading filters…too much work.  My friends list IS my reading list.  As I’ve ranted about before, being on my “friends list” is no indicator at all of whether or not you are actually my friend).

The other thing I don’t get (that is completely unrelated but is already cropping up with the announcement that Blizzard is going to release Diablo III) is people that seem to get offended when you aren’t as excited about something as they are.  Blizzard in particular seems to evoke this kind of fanatical fan base.  The fact that I am not interested in something is by no means a criticism of you if you are, and my reasons for not being so are mine.  I don’t need to be convinced that I’m wrong, nor if I explain my reasons do I think you are if you disagree with me.  It’s an opinion, and it’s a matter of taste.  That’s it. 

Of course, I also don’t understand why the above things bugged me enough to take the time to write about them.  But they did, and hey…it’s not a tweet.  Hell, I might even put this behind a cut tag.