If you’ve been paying attention to my Twitter feed over the last few days you may have picked up on the fact that I have purchased a new domain name and have been making not-so-subtle noise about creating a blog there. The decision to do so is something I’ve been considering for a while now, and recently I’ve just decided to get off my ass and get it done.
In short, I’m “leaving” Live Journal.
Now, I put “leaving” up there in quotes for several reasons. For one, I’m not deleting my account and I’m likely going to leave all of the content that is currently here alone. I’m not taking any kind of “salt the earth” attitude with all of this. I’m also still going to be reading live journal, although I’m planning to do so with the use of an RSS feeder in the future. I’m also going to set up a syndicated feed for my new blog here so that those of you who wish to simply add that to your friends list instead of browsing to my new site can do so.
But as far as new content posted in this blog? Don’t expect much. I’m even removing the Twitter updates from my feed. My new site has a Twitter sidebar on it, and if you’re really that interested in my tweets you can set up an account for yourself.
There are many reasons why I’ve decided to do this. If you’re really interested in them you can click the cut tag below.
While I appreciate the fact that you just clicked on the cut tag to read more of my post, you’ve touched on one of the reasons I’ve decided to move from Live Journal. I’m no longer content to have to consider the social responsibility of friends lists when posting to my blog. If I decide to write a 5000 word dissertation on how satisfying it is to take a dump in the morning I want to do so without having to worry about cut tags, images, or having someone leave a “too long; didn’t read” snark. We all go through our “this is my LJ and I’ll post what I want here” periods, but regardless of how often you say that you’re always going to have that little nag in the back of your head and I no longer wish to be restricted in that manner. I truly believe that one of the reasons I do not write as much in my journal as I used to is because I always wonder if the sheer FORMAT of my words is going to cause someone to go all postal on me.
When you’re self-censoring because you’re more worried about offending someone with your layout over your content it’s seriously time to take a step back and re-evaluate the medium you’re presenting your words in.
Another big factor in my decision to leave Live Journal is the fact that I no longer feel that the internet is an anonymous place and as such I am making an effort to adopt a “if you wouldn’t say it to someone’s face, don’t say it online” attitude. If there is something I need to say to only a few people, I should probably say it to them directly. If there’s something I want to say ABOUT someone that I don’t want them to hear, I should probably keep it to myself. I believe that the days of it being “safe” to bitch about someone or something behind the “security” of a friends tag are gone. I have seen far too many examples of “private” content getting leaked out beyond the audience it was intended for to have that kind of trust any more.
That being said, if there IS any new content in this blog it is very likely to be of the type I described above and am attempting to move away from. Nobody is perfect, and I’m sure there will be occasions when I just need to write about something I don’t want out for public consumption. I’m going to do my best to resist those urges, but I can be just as catty and petty as everyone else and won’t always win that struggle with myself.
In the end, though, the main reason I’m leaving LJ is because I want my words to matter. I want them to mean something. If someone is reading my blog I want them to do so because they WANT to read it, not because there is some kind of artifice of me being their “friend.” If you choose to follow my syndicated feed or not I’ll never know unless you comment on my site. There is no way for me to track who is or isn’t watching that feed, so there is no need to feel “obligated” to read what I write. I’m going 100% opt-in. Beyond that, though, I’ve noticed that when it comes to search engines, links, and generally having your words branch out beyond those who you already know Live Journal really doesn’t cut it. There are so many users here that you get lost in the crowd, and I want to stand out.
I will be a unique snowflake, darn it.
I’d also like to, potentially, make a little money off of what I write. That’s a pretty minor factor in all of this, but it’s there. If I get a decent readership I can perhaps do some advertising or maybe put a few more products into my Cafe Press store. Like I said, this is a pretty small factor my decision but it’s there.
I truly appreciate all the comments that you, gentle readers, have left me over the years and I truly hope that you make the decision to add my new blog to your daily browsing list. I have genuinely made a lot of friends here over the years, and when
convinced me that I needed to start my own LJ it was absolutely the place I needed to be. I don’t think it is any more, though.
As I said on my new blog – onward and upward.
My new domain is https://michaelcmcgreevy.com
To add my blog feed to your RSS reader you can use the following link : https://michaelcmcgreevy.com/rss.cfm
If you want to follow my blog using Live Journal syndication you can add the following to your friends list –
![[info]](https://i0.wp.com/p-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif?resize=17%2C17){kind=small}
![[info]](https://i0.wp.com/p-stat.livejournal.com/img/syndicated.gif?resize=16%2C16){kind=small}