(no subject)

[green_amber]

Am I alone in thinking that the kind of people who inhabit LJ, are not the same cohort of people whose sole ambition in life is to find out what Spotty Ginge from me old school St Veruka's is up to these days? Personally, I kept in touch with the 5 or 6 people from school I even vaguely liked, and I don't even want *them* to know I have an LJ let alone random former class mates... I think Schools should have stayed on Friends Reunited where they belong - but mostly I don't care, and am surprised so many people care enough to grouse (OK, knowing LJ, maybe not so surprised :-)

Stil pretty tired. Lots to do. First real class this afternoon. Wish me luck :-)

Comments

[hawkida.livejournal.com]

*Most* of the people who inhabit LJ are still *at* school or just out of it and probably are interested in groupings by that category.

I'm not sure why so many people care enough to gripe about it: I think mood icons are pointless and having hundred of user icons is baffling but it keeps some people happy so why should I care?

[surliminal.livejournal.com]

*Most* of the people who inhabit LJ are still *at* school

Yeh Andy said that - but surely if you're still AT school, you don't need LJ to keep in touch with people??

I quite like mood icosns and user pics myself - surprised you don't as you sem to hav an interest in weird design/visual stuff going by recent fanzines.

[hawkida.livejournal.com]

Well surely if you're not in school any more you've got much more freedom. Why do you need to keep in touch with people on the internet? There are all kinds of perspectives on things like this. Right after you leave school you might accidentally lose people you didn't mean to when you all go separate ways, and while you're at school you might want to rant about some school policy with other kids who'll understand, or ask about tests or gossip about your teachers or just get to know that girl who sits across the room in maths via her LJ before making the move in person or any one of hundreds of things I could make up. Doesn't seem that baffling to me. In fact it makes more sense to me that you might want to find people via their location and shared interests than by knowing they like the same book or band as you do.

As for mood icons and their ilk - I hope my text tells you my mood. User icons are something I see as a visual label, not something artistic. Mostly I have images switched off when I view LJ. In fact, I use opera in "emulate a text browser" mode and see very little of the pretties people put in. I'm here for the content, not the decor. LJ isn't really a work of art.

[greengolux.livejournal.com]

Right after you leave school you might accidentally lose people you didn't mean to when you all go separate ways,

That was one of the reasons I got an LJ in the first place: as a way to make sure I kept in touch with friends from university as we were all leaving. It worked.

[andrewducker]

I used to run a mailing list for exactly that reason. It pretty much vanished when I got an LJ.

[surliminal.livejournal.com]

I'm here for both. NOwadays my interest in such things is slightly worn out but I remeber originally it was the toolbox/lego kit aspect of Lj - moods, icons, pix etc - that really captivated me - so much more to play with then just text.

Hm.

[libertango.livejournal.com]

"Most of the people who inhabit LJ are still at school..."

Unproven. All that can be said is that many people on LJ report they're at school. Not the same thing, at all. :)

[blue-condition.livejournal.com]

> you don't need LJ to keep in touch with people??

Isn't the point of it so teenage girls can extend their clique-building and who's in/who's out activities to a more permanent medium? After all, what else are custom friends groups for?

:-)

[surliminal.livejournal.com]

chatting up people without your current S.O. knowing???

Re: :-)

[blue-condition.livejournal.com]

Probably, I don't see that sort of journal apart from steer's ;)

[the-gardener.livejournal.com]

When I left school, umpty-ump years ago, there were people in my class who I thought I'd miss, and vice versa, and we made all the usual promises to keep in touch, etc. etc.. Needless to say, I'd forgotten all about them within a few months, and probably vice versa, and other than anthropological curiosity ("so that's what they look like now") I haven't the faintest interest is finding them again.

I did meet up with one former schoolfriend, six years later, and we spent a bit of time hanging out together. But it was soon apparent that our interests had diverged to such an extent (I was getting into fandom, for one thing) that it was difficult to find mutual topics of conversation. So we soon drifted apart again -- this time without making empty promises to keep in touch.

[supergee.livejournal.com]

Good luck. Swarthmore, my undergrad alma mater, like fandom, has a significantly higher concentration of my kind of people than the world in general, so I'm glad to identify with them. (I joined a Swarthmore apa 15 years after I graduated, and some of the people from there are on my friends list here.)

[coalescent.livejournal.com]

I'm mostly intrigued as to whether anyone who went to either of my schools is on/would get a livejournal. Also, I did like my schools, even if I made better and longer-lasting friends at university, and I have a certain amount of interest in how the people I knew there have done. And since my lj is fairly public anyway, I don't mind putting the information there, although I agree that the implementation of the feature has been shoddy.

(So far, I'm the only one who's admitted to going to either. :)

[surliminal.livejournal.com]

You almost tempt me to put my schhol up, just so I can prove my deeply felt suspiciion that I am the only prson who ever went there who would have an LJ..

[orangemike.livejournal.com]

Where is this feature, anyway?

[the-gardener.livejournal.com]

Check your user info -- there should be a new header for "Schools" just below your "Friends" list.

[the-gardener.livejournal.com]

Whoops -- sorry, just above your "Friends" list.

[andrewducker]

I should probably note that "school" in this case includes University...

[surliminal.livejournal.com]

Yes which is another weirdism - do they mean US schools or UK schools?

Shouldn't you be doing some work anyway ?-)

[andrewducker]

do they mean US schools or UK schools?

Where is the site based? The US or the UK?

And shoul;dn't you be doing some work anyway?

[surliminal.livejournal.com]

I HAVE! *preen*

Where

[libertango.livejournal.com]

"...do they mean US schools or UK schools?"

Well, actually going to http://www.livejournal.com/schools/ shows they mean schools globally. Which makes a fair amount of sense, given the large number of non-anglophone LJ users (especially in Slavic countries).

Re: Where

[surliminal.livejournal.com]

No in the US you use school to mean university as well as, well, high school. We don't.

Re: Where

[libertango.livejournal.com]

Ah. Well, since the lists seem to mostly be built by users, one would expect UK lists to fit UK usage, and US lists to fit US usage. Either that, or UK usage isn't as uniform as you describe.

I'm somewhat surprised the Koreans and the Japanese haven't made more entries so far. My understanding is that school ties are very important in both cultures. But, again, {shrug}.

[moosedevil.livejournal.com]

Most of the people I went to school with were arseholes! My LJ is friends only, and that's the way I like it!! None of the plebs from back then can read it, even if they did accidentally stumble across it :D

Schools

[libertango.livejournal.com]

The main reason use it is because I know my LJ is the number one hit one gets when Googling me. Hardly surprising, given all the blog comments I've posted that point to it, and the way Google gives page rank to blogs. {shrug}

But I see it as a disambiguation thing. For all I know, I could be easily confused with other "Hal O'Brien"s out there. Let alone, once they finally post it, I actually am proud/interested/whatever of my days at Midland School (http://www.midland-school.org/) -- and I'm willing to post the other schools. There were only 15 in my graduating class at Midland -- I wouldn't mind hearing from any of the others. (And I know there are other Midland alums/students on LJ, anyway.)

I suspect the design reason, from an LJ developer point-of-view, was to shear off school listings from interests lists, so it opens slots up for people maxed out at 150.