Why Blogging Services Suck
I almost never link to LiveJournal sites, because they aren’t really public internet resources; a random surfer usually doesn’t have commenting privileges, and the service makes it easy to hide certain posts, password them, and play other little “it’s my treehouse and you aren’t invited” kiddie games. And it’s also been my experience that blogs hosted on blog services are much more likely to go *poof* and vanish.
I reluctantly made an exception for Vintage Sex, which was (note the past tense) a wonderful resource for vintage dirty pictures. Alas, the folks who run LiveJournal just made Vintage Sex delete essentially its entire archive and turn the site into a “closed adults community” where new posts will apparently be visible only to select LiveJournal members (“select” meaning “willing to lie about their age”). In other words, Vintage Sex has been gutted, and the steaming carcass has been evicted from the public internet.
The reason? Apparently someone sent LiveJournal an email alleging that teenagers might have viewed the site.
Vintage Sex will be missed. Moral: Anything worth doing on the internet is worth doing at your own domain that you control.
Similar Sex Blogging:
Shorter URL for sharing: https://www.erosblog.com/?p=923
yeah I just found that out about vintage sex today. really sucks.
on the other hand, I’m an avid livejournal user, and I like livejournal for a number of reasons I don’t feel the need to go into.
the point is, I don’t blame livejournal for forcing vintage_sex to close up — they’re just watching their backs. I blame the stick-in-the-muds who make public access to erotic material a crime in the first place.
I’ll bet that wouldn’t happen in some other parts of the world. american’s have got it so backwards. violence is socially accepted entertainment for young children, and sexual matters are only legal if you’re 18, but even then they’re still taboo. can’t even sell someone a dildo without lying about what it’s for. it’s rediculous.
anyhow. I sort of feel like livejournal is equivalent to AIM. you don’t use it because it’s better, you use it because everyone else uses it too so it’s easy to find connections.
The other thing that makes it a lot like AIM is I think the bulk of the users are highschool age or perhaps younger, so as a buisness, I imagine they’re extra cautious.
sure does suck though.
If you prefer to remain free, why not just use the blogger/blogspot combo and toss in some haloscan for comments? It’s worked beautifully for me and they don’t appear to censor anything.
Kinky, I think the livejournal users like the community aspects of things so much (basically, computerized clique management) that they won’t consider going elsewhere. Since cliques are all about exclusion, and I consider a “real” internet resource to be one that’s linkable by anyone, anywhere, without permission, I don’t much like live journal sites.
Nor is blogger/blogspot is so hot. Lately I’ve noticed a blogger message asking me to register before I can leave comments on many blogs — which is one of the things I hate about livejournal.
Also, just because they haven’t been “censoring” (not really the right word for a private service, but I know what you mean) anything doesn’t mean that they won’t in the future. That’s where your own domain can’t be beat. That way, even if somebody pressures your hosting provider, you can always move to a provider in Russia or Cyprus or Gaza. Although for basic adult stuff, there are plenty of U.S. and European hosting providers who are more than willing to tell busybodies to go pound sand.
I disagree that the communities are organized clique management.*some* are, yes, definitely. but it depends on the community and the people that started it. a lot of them are open to everyone and can be watched and commented on by non members.
in my experience, the only people/communities I know who have restricted posting access to members, or commenting access to users, did so because there were people spamming the community/blog, and it was as a last resort. however, there do seem to be a fair number of communities/people who are exclusive just for the sake of what you describe (pretty well)as “computerized clique management”. and that, if you ask me, is missing the point of being online in the first place. isn’t the whole point that it’s public? anyway, I still maintain that a lot of communities aren’t like that.
When blogger finally integraded blogging, we were thrilled. Except that we had the choice between allowing anonymous comments or requiring registration. I just wanted to require someone fill in the “name” field with a handle of some kind, but that wasn’t an option.
Even though I’m having some hiccups with our host, I’m so much happier having our own space. I’m sure Bacchus pays a lot more with his greater traffic, but we’re paying under $10/month, and it’s well worth it.
This post is the reason I moved -both- my blogs to my own account, where if anyone screws with me, then I have a bit of pull in the argument.
Neither of my sites are very high traffic, so I’m able to pay under $10 a month for both sites to be up. It’s nice.
It may not be for everyone, but I’m glad I made the extra effort to move everything to my own place instead of sticking to Blogger.
I agree 100% with the “master/mistress of your own domain” thing, with apologies for the multiple plays on words contained therein. :)
I’ve also never really understood Livejournal, both from a UX perspective [shudder] and the fact that I have to register. We’re slapped in the face with enough registrations online as it is, for no good purpose or value.
The loss of Vintage Sex sucks. Thank God for Retro Raunch, although it’s a paid service. Are there anyother free/blog type vintage porn sites out there that are any good?
The problem I have with using my own site is that I have limited knowledge of the internet. I had never even used HTML until I started up my blog. I learnt only what I needed to make it look the way I wanted it to look and then forgot it all again. I can’t exactly ask any of my computer knowlegeable friends to help me out. That would destroy the anonymity I need to be as open as I am.
I went looking for a host and soon got lost in gigs and megs and uploads and mySQLs, something called perl and god knows how many other words I didn’t know, then I had a very nice lady tell me I would need moveable type!
So how do us without any computer knowledge even start? Is there a ‘Set up your own blog for dummies’ out there?
I was never so glad as the day we took Sweetness Follows off blogger and bought our own domain.
Wow! *scanning all the negative comments about Blogger* Well, I’m not having a problem with Blogger/Haloscan. Sometimes they’ve been wonky, but what isn’t? They are free and I don’t to worry about anything. I suppose if Blogspot decides to shut me down for content, I can move to a private account then.
I’m with you on the cliquey-clubby aspect of certain blog-groups. “Members only!” “Private blog!” “You must use a password!” etc., etc…blecchhh…
I’ve always hated elitism and I’m not about to start with that crap now.
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