An end of an era, but a new beginning.

[rogueslayer452]

Well, I did it. I finally deleted my LJ account.

It's bittersweet, to say the least, but I cannot lie to say that there's a bit of a relief to it. I think I was holding on as I was because LJ was the first online website I ever joined. I created it in 2003 when I was still in high school, so it was a huge part of my life. But of course it's less about the place in particular and more of the people and community that it had, and once that started dwindling away I was deluding myself that somehow people would find their way back, and some did trickle in here and there but mostly the sense of community that I loved was no longer active. And, well, with everything going on there is a sense of unease of staying, something I've been contemplating for a while, too, just in a general sense.

So it is sad in a way, like an end of an era, but I don't regret it.

I guess I mourn what could eventually be lost in the process, should anything happen, because there's so much fandom history stored on LJ that the possibility of those things not being preserved and archived would be a shame. I know some are trying to find ways of archiving certain communities, but there's so much and so little time to do so. Even I tried to save some of the things I had in my memories, but there was so much content that it was impossible to do so.

But I have my entries/comments imported, I have followed my fellow ljfriends who have also migrated to DW, and I'm finding newer friends along the way. So that's good. It's just a continuation of what I was already doing, but like a fresh start in a sense.

(On a random note: I'm still amazed that for all the years I was on LJ I was able to maintain the "Dystopia" skin for entirety of the site, even when they tried to get me to the newest site updates I never did. So I had the "old LJ" layout despite them attempting to look and have additions similar to other social media platforms. I guess that was by pure luck. Heh.)

Comments

[silverusagi]

For some reason, this really feels like this is it this time, just because you left the site. It's just that you were one of the ones on my flist who was always sticking with LJ, and honestly, one of the ones I kept posting there for.

That said, I just don't want to delete my journal. I like having it as a backup, an archive. Also, that said, I do hope the whole site doesn't disappear behind a firewall, because I would like the time to delete my RL entries. But I just can't bring myself to push the button and delete all of mine.

And maybe the whole thing will disappear tomorrow. Or maybe it will take longer. Or maybe it won't at all. (Though, I suppose even if we can't access it it, LJ would still be there?)

[rogueslayer452]

Oh wow, that's really sweet, I honestly don't know what to say.

I had previously thought about moving to DW over the years, more as a passing thought than anything else since many people have either already moved here permanently or were here but still crossposting to LJ and keeping tabs on post sites, but I truly think that this whole situation, as unfortunate as it is, kind of pushed me to finally take action. It really kind of forced me to really look at LJ and see that, while I'll miss it, it's definitely not what it used to be, and I was just holding onto the nostalgia while everyone else had already moved on. I did initially intend on just leaving my LJ as an archive, but with everything imported to DW I didn't really see much of the point, to be honest (aside from losing my memories/bookmarks, which I tried to salvage the best I could but there was just so much and many links were broken anyway, so). I just wish that I had started importing things sooner than this, is all, would have saved a huge amount of stress.

Though, I suppose even if we can't access it it, LJ would still be there?

Yeah, most think the site will just disappear but, from my understanding, it's just that non-Russian users probably won't have access. Probably. I don't know what's going to happen, if anything happens at all.

[autumndaze]

I was never really part of communities on LJ so I know my experience is different than a lot of folks who had communities there, but I made the jump a while back, and I remember how scary it was, especially with so many years to move. May the move continue to be okay!

[rogueslayer452]

Thank you. It is kind of scary since, well, it is a massive change, but it's going pretty smoothly, I'd say.

[kissapentu]

I need to delete my account... still. It's just memories and all that jazz, but you're right the communities that were once there are gone, people have moved on. I will delete it, I just need time, time I don't have.

I maintained the Dystopia LJ, too!

[rogueslayer452]

I initially was going to leave mine up as an archive, but after a long self-debate about it I decided to finally take the final leap and purge it entirely.

[kissapentu]

I still haven't been able to import all my entries. So I guess what I have is good enough. Right?

I'm happy that a lot of people did make the move to DW. There are a few that I wish still would but I don't think they will.

May I ask, what was your reasoning for purging?

[rogueslayer452]

If you're happy with what you already have imported, that should be good, yeah?

A good chunk of my LJ flist was inactive anyway, sadly, I just never had the heart to defriend any of them in case they came back even after years of being away. I tried to see if any of them even left contact links or if they were on DW, but not many (and the ones that are here haven't updated in years, which again is sad). But a good portion of those who were active I managed to friend here on DW, so that's good. I just hope that whoever I didn't catch and who are going to be migrating here I'll find again.

May I ask, what was your reasoning for purging?

Honestly, just peace of mind, really.

With the anxiety and uncertainty of the situation at hand, if the site was to be firewalled I felt much better having the control and say in what I wanted to do with my account, and if nothing actually happen, well, I was already kind of feeling disconnected from LJ as it was for quite a while and I think, after successfully importing things and adding as many people as I could (while giving people time to migrate over to DW themselves), I felt it was time to let it go.

[montmartres]

It’s hard saying goodbye and I think I stayed for the same reasons as you. But with everything going on and all the certainty it was just causing a lot of anxiety.

[rogueslayer452]

Yeah, and my initial plan was to leave my LJ up as an archive just in case any of my ljfriends who haven't been on there in some time came back and could see where I was located, but I finally decided that it was time to let it go. It is sad and it is definitely hard to say goodbye, but in truth it's also freeing in a way. It's unfortunate that it had to be underneath these circumstances, though.

[author_by_night]

But of course it's less about the place in particular and more of the people and community that it had, and once that started dwindling away I was deluding myself that somehow people would find their way back, and some did trickle in here and there but mostly the sense of community that I loved was no longer active

Yeah, same. If I'm honest with myself, I haven't really felt at home on LJ in basically a decade. DW is similar in terms of what people tend to post/read these days, if a tad more fannish - I think the bigger issue on DW is less the "fandom is ew" vibes I've gotten on LJ the last few years (which really makes me sad, all things considered*) and more that everyone's fandom is still so different, as well as how they experience fandom.

*Basically what I've said before, people complaining about the existence of fandom. You don't have to get it, but please don't bash people for their interests. I don't get sports. People are still allowed to watch games and enjoy them in my book, you know?

I agree it'll be too bad if fandom history is lost, although selfishly? There are some things I don't mind being lost. I wasn't always my best self on LJ and I'd be okay with that going away. Fannish history though, not so much.

Also, I recently saw someone quote something I said WAY out of context, but it was so long ago I doubt they'd see my request to take it down. Basically at the time I was making fun of Ron/Hermione shippers who were insulting Harry/Hermione shippers. But the sarcasm wasn't clear in the quote, making it sound like I was being one of those shippers. (I was actually shocked at how mean I was, given that I remembered hating all the snobbery. Then I realized I was actually saying it to show how stupid anti-shippers were. Keeping in mind I shipped Ron/Hermione hard, although those people had me vying for Hermione/Viktor Krum, TBH.)

Selfish feelings aside though, it would be awful for those comms to be lost. Truly. :( There are lots of happy memories.

I DO wonder why Six Apart - or maybe another company? Wasn't there briefly someone else? - sold LJ to Russia in the first place. Who thought that was a good idea? But then, I also get the impression Six Apart bought LJ without really understanding what it was (despite the original guy claiming that they did**), so they were probably all too happy getting rid of it in exchange for money.

**I was so naive at the time. I believed him. All my friends were like "you sweet summer child, literally every company says nothing will change." They were right.

To clarify for anyone who doesn't know, Six Apart is NOT the Russian company. They sold it TO the Russian company. Although I feel like it was briefly in San Fransisco? It MAY have actually ping-ponged, where they sold it to Russia, then a company in California bought it, only for it to somehow end up back in Russia, but I'm not sure if thats accurate.

[rogueslayer452]

I think the bigger issue on DW is less the "fandom is ew" vibes I've gotten on LJ the last few years (which really makes me sad, all things considered*) and more that everyone's fandom is still so different, as well as how they experience fandom.

I remember during LJ's heyday that while everyone had their own thing, their own journals and comms and such (fandom and non-fandom alike) there was kind of an overlap between the two, mostly because of how massive the place got and how popular it was, it seemed like no matter what circle you ran in there was still a sense of a united community of the fandomsphere as a whole. DW may have more fandom activity in comparison to how LJ became in recent years, something I am utterly grateful for, but it's not exactly the same as LJ was during those heyday years. And it's not necessarily bad, it's just, well, as you said different experiences.

so they were probably all too happy getting rid of it in exchange for money.

It's always down to money, in the end.

I can't really recall when it actually happened, but I think once LJ got bigger and more popular the more traffic it was getting and they needed more money to keep things operational, which, y'know, makes sense. But I do remember when the owner of the site promised to never sell LJ and, well, look how that turned out. I know it's the nature of the business, but transparency would've been better than the kind of mess we got and everything that followed.

[author_by_night]

DW may have more fandom activity in comparison to how LJ became in recent years, something I am utterly grateful for, but it's not exactly the same as LJ was during those heyday years.

You know what, you're exactly right. Expecting DW to be what LJ was is unrealistic particularly for that reason. I think people have tried to connect the dots a bit, but that's just not the culture. You're right that there was a lot of overlap in communities before.


I can't really recall when it actually happened, but I think once LJ got bigger and more popular the more traffic it was getting and they needed more money to keep things operational, which, y'know, makes sense. But I do remember when the owner of the site promised to never sell LJ and, well, look how that turned out. I know it's the nature of the business, but transparency would've been better than the kind of mess we got and everything that followed.

I always forget the guy promised! That's awful.

I think letting people know it was on the market would've potentially allowed someone who understood the purpose to buy it. I don't think SA had the slightest inkling of what they were getting themselves into.

[rogueslayer452]

I think letting people know it was on the market would've potentially allowed someone who understood the purpose to buy it. I don't think SA had the slightest inkling of what they were getting themselves into.

Most companies don't, unfortunately.

I'm not exactly savvy on the business side of things, but I do wonder if there was a reason why the original owner wasn't upfront about plans on selling LJ to begin with. Not, like, everything in detail, but at least let the users know that the site they were using (and even some were paying for) was going to be on the market. There was a lot of missteps that are often taken when things like this happen, not just with LJ but websites as a whole. It happened with Tumblr, too, when Yahoo bought it for millions and then ended up selling it for less some years later when they couldn't understand how to make a profit off of it, not understanding the purpose of the site itself or its userbase.

[author_by_night]

Yeah. It sucks. :/

This is why I miss fan sites, rather than sites that just happen to host a lot of fannish stuff. I currently use Facebook for a fandom I'm in, yet I'm very aware that if Facebook decided to yank fan groups, we'd be SOL. Whereas while apparently Ao3 has some imperfections (I'm not really aware of the details, I've just seen grumbling here and there), it's a fandom site for fandom, and presumably if they sold it, it would be to people who were committed to keeping it that way. Sadly even then things could change, but hopefully on a lesser scale. Anyway, whatever shit might go on behind the scenes, I really like Ao3 as a fannish platform.

(Also, not to sound cynical, but I think every organization has dirty laundry behind the scenes. Not to forgive said dirty laundry,I'm just saying, the happy people in commercials never work for the company. Jake from State Farm is an actor.) ETA: Okay, oops, apparently he really worked there, but still, he was being paid to represent it that way. Argh, you know what I'm trrying to say here.

[fred_mouse]

Commiserations. I found the leap to deleting my LJ difficult, and most of my mob had already moved here (some of us via InsaneJournal, or umm, the other one) before DW existed. I have no concept of how it must be doing that now.

[rogueslayer452]

The decision was certainly quite difficult, but it was also easy at the same time, if that makes sense. It was hard to let go of what I'd known for the longest time, and yet the excitement of moving forward, of starting anew, without actually starting over, is a bit of a relief and freeing in a way. Still, I knew I had to cut that string eventually and I'm glad that I finally did.

[fred_mouse]

"the excitement of moving forward, of starting anew, without actually starting over"

Oh, I like that thought. And yes, it did feel like that!

[megan_moonlight]

Saying goodbye to such a big part of your history is always hard.

I finally managed to import everything from my LJ, but I don't think I can bring myself to actually delete it. Not yet.

I had my LJ account since 2007, and I think I still want to hold on to it, even if it's only as a backup. Also, I now realized that some of my friends kind of left LJ abruptly and haven't left any other contact info, so I think I want to hold on to LJ in case they come back? Or something.

For personal reasons I became much more reclusive in the last few years, but I recently realized I miss the way I used to talk to people on LJ. LJ stopped being "my" place a long time ago, but also I wasn't able to find another site that could *become* my new place. I guess I'll try to be more active on DW, since sites like tumblr and TikTok aren't really my thing in the long run, even if I am more present on tumblr than on DW.

I'm kind of considering deleting my LJ, because, as you said, DW could be a continuation of what I used to do on LJ, but I'm bad at letting go. We'll see.

[rogueslayer452]

It really is hard, even though the place was never the same as it used to be when it was lively, I was still holding onto that nostalgia, that familiarity.

Also, I now realized that some of my friends kind of left LJ abruptly and haven't left any other contact info, so I think I want to hold on to LJ in case they come back? Or something.

That's what I intended to do, as well, leaving my LJ up as just an archive, since news surely would spread about backing up LJ onto DW (or saving it somewhere, at least) which would have people returning if nothing more than to save what they could and so they would leave contact info or see mine. But I realized that I was being too much of an optimist. And after much internal debating I decided that it was time to let LJ go. Even if those did come back, they would most likely be on other social media accounts that I don't have and, unless those accounts were public, I wouldn't be able to keep in touch with them anyway, which sucks.

The only places I use are Tumblr and now DW, and they serve specific purposes for my fannish needs: Tumblr is for the pretty fanart/gifsets while DW is for writing and communicating my thoughts, of engaging with conversation with other fans. Which is why I'm kind of excited to get into swing of things on DW, it seems way more conversation and fandom-friendly than LJ had turned into over the last several years, imho, and I really missed having actual discussions with people.

[megan_moonlight]

Yeah, that makes sense. Deep down I do get that people most likely moved on to other social media sites that I don't have accounts on, but it's still difficult for me to let go. I always get too attached to things.

[violateraindrop]

For now I'm keeping my LJ since the icon community hasn't really moved over as a whole. I will also copy+paste entries and I'm happy that importing everything worked out.

I also never changed to the new design. Then not too long ago they deactivated the Flexible Squares layouts which must custom layouts are based on. At least that still worked if you didn't change your layout.

[rogueslayer452]

I'm hoping that the icon community does eventually migrate over, it would be a shame to lose all of that beautiful talent.

Yeah, the last thing I saw was a little thing at the top of page (no matter where you went on LJ) where it had a blue strip that was like, "change to new theme", which I never clicked because I knew, I knew, if I did I would lose the way the layout was already. It was the only thing that I liked that remained functional on that site for me. It was easier to navigate than whatever they did.

(It's why, even though DW isn't the same as LJ, it's near damn close to how the original layout was and what I liked about it.)

[elizalavelle]

I'm sad but trying to be open to seeing how Dreamwidth works for me. I'm not over here primarily yet but I'm very happy to have the option and to not lose the LJ friends I had who were still active over there.

[rogueslayer452]

Yeah, even though I deleted my LJ the fact that I followed those who were active/semi-active on my flist here makes me happy. Same with having all my entries imported. :)

[blackcatofmisery]

This sums up my own feelings pretty well. There's nostalgia for a certain place, but our activity and intentions haven't changed and just moved house. Not so bad, especially considering a fair number of others are making the move, too, so it's not like a totally new place with new tools and new names.

I kept the old LJ posting layout, but since I didn't use the main site page, I didn't mind the updated look. (Which is good, I suppose, because once you switched, you couldn't switch back.)

=^..^=~

[rogueslayer452]

Which is good, I suppose, because once you switched, you couldn't switch back.

Yeah, and it's why I never switched since I knew it was be irreversible, and I preferred the older layout because it was easier to navigate, imho.

[sakuraberries]

Hello!! It's been a while and I've only been lurking on LJ but thought I'd drop in and say hi now that you've moved to Dreamwidth! I think we have access to each others' journals? I'm still getting used to Dreamwidth's functionality.

Even though for years now we've all been talking about LJ's Death, this time really feels like the final nail in the coffin. I may do what you did and just delete my account there, although it feels like such a momentous thing (I signed up in 2007).

[rogueslayer452]

Hey there, glad to see you! :D

DW is pretty easy to understand once you get into the rhythm of things, which is quite quickly, at least for me. It's not LJ but it's pretty similar (at least, during its heyday) which makes things familiar and easier to navigate.

I know that LJ hasn't disappeared as it was rumored (which I suspected that might not have been the case, but I didn't want to take that chance), but I think it has been limping on for some time and I, and some others too, were just holding on for dear life. I'll miss what LJ once was, but I think we have to face reality that it'll never be the same. It'll be a good archive for the good times, should it stay up, but it's something I've had to grapple with in moving on over to here. So yeah, it really is a momentous thing on a very personal level, especially when you've been on a site like that for so long.

Either way, I'm glad that I've moved here and I'm glad that you seem to have as well! :D