Why is that chair there? Because Draco is anatomically correct. That’s why. And we don’t have an age statement thing yet. And don’t forget that the fic exchange starts IN TWO DAYS!!! Click on the pic above to learn more! Anyway. And now, for something completely different, because I’ve been thinking about this…
Hey all,
A few years ago, there were lots and lots of predictions that blogs were somehow “done.” Well, they clearly aren’t– 20% of the entire internet is run on a WP platform, for one thing. But I think it’s worth looking at why, because it has a lot to do with how information about FIA gets around, and how people are able to respond to it. I think that the blogs-are-gone misconception happened through a basic misunderstanding of how people like to communicate online. Pure social media does one thing. Blogs and forums do another. It is just not possible to use Facebook/tumblr/twitter/whatever to do the things you can do on blogs and forums. I really wish that Mailchimp had kept their forums, and so do a LOT… I mean a LOT… of other users. Their FB page is not useful at all if you’re trying to find out info. (IMHO, of course.) Social media is for quick, short, frequent communications. At best, it works great for that. At worst, well… a lot of bandwidth on Facebook is pretty much taken up by stretching the truth about how interesting our lives are, and putting up pix of our cats. 
It’s not that there’s anything WRONG with that. But it’s why I’m starting to really use social media for basic announcements about FIA, and linking to longer and more substantive posts on the blog. Eventually, we’re going to have the ofic forums, and I’ll link to those. (The most active D/G forums now are on the ffnet group.) But it’s a WHOLE lot easier to comment, respond to comments, and join a community on FB.
So where are the community blogging platforms?
(crickets chirp)
(tumbleweeds roll by
We need a blog platform that is part of a larger community, that allows users to easily contact each other. Insane as it seems, I haven’t been able to find anything like that which is really large or well-known. (We also have a Dreamwidth account, and more fandom groups are actually going there… but the critical mass hasn’t exactly happened yet. I’m trying to get the link into the blogroll. Until then, here it is. Our Dreamwidth Blog, yay!) I am really going to work to integrate the main FIA site with this blog, but it honestly SHOULD be easier. I wish that LJ had really done the work to keep current, because they could fill that need, that barren empty spot in the blog landscape. But they haven’t. The Fic Exchange will be on there– it would be too insanely difficult to do it anywhere else, even *I* don’t want to do that much work, and that’s saying a lot!!But I think it might be the last time it is.
Anyway… thoughts? Opinions? Comments? And if you haven’t joined this blog yet, please do! The signup form is on the right.