I was having lunch with a group of folks very recently (like, today), and the topic of on-line journals came up. It was interesting since it was the first time I've talked to any anti-online journal types since I started keeping one myself. It reminded me of something I wanted to say.

I've heard all kinds of arguments both for and against Live Journals, or Blogs, in the past six months. (Before then, I'm not sure I knew they existed.)

I should point out that I'm against them myself. (I can hear you screaming already. "What kind of half-wit posts an anti-blog rant into her blog?" "A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds."—Albert Einstein. Okay?)

I mean, I'm against them as a medium of communication generally in fandom.

There is, I think a very valid concern that journals are going to strike a serious blow at that already shaky foundation of online fandom—the list.

First came the fandom list, then the separation of slash and het/gen fans within the fandom, then the reduction of list parameters to certain pairings or scenarios, then the splintering off of people who didn't like some kinds of discussion and who started their own lists to exclude those discussions.

Somewhere in there we also got discussion-only lists, story-only lists, critique lists, and "feedback only if you have something nice to say lists. And lists run by authors solely for the discussion of their own writing.

So—how does the online journal fit into all of that?

Well, there's a concern that instead of posting opinions to lists and having public debate about the pros and cons of ideas, people will just post their ideas to their journals and there will be no discussion beyond what might take place in the "comments" function or in e-mails.

In a lot of ways that's what's happening and fandom has no one to blame but itself.

First we got the moronic bunnyheads who insisted that no one was allowed to say anything critical of anyone else or their writing and we didn't shout them down.

Considering that ninety-five percent of all fanfiction posted is crap, that pretty much killed story discussion.

Then there were the imbeciles who insisted that any disagreement with their opinions or interpretations constituted a attack on them personally.

After a flurry of infuriated messages, the arrival of this crowd in a fandom was pretty much greeted with "stupid isn't curable" and other fans either left the list or stopped sharing their critical opinions.

What does this leave us with? Lists where people post their opinions, very carefully, and pretty much stay away from commenting on what others have to say.

The only differences between that kind of list and an on-line journal is that:
(1) people "own" their journals and consequently feel free to be more honest in them, and
(2) if some one person really annoys you, you don't have to go to their blog if you don't want to.

So, yeah, I think many people are now putting into journals ideas that they would have sent to a list previously. But I think that a lot of those fans interested in lively, intelligent discussion with a healthy percentage of disagreement mixed in shouldn't be complaining too loudly.

What did you do when the bunnyheads invaded your fandom?

When your fandom was overrun by the HHJJ fans who insisted that all authors were entitled to glowing praise and that too much emphasis on grammar and characterization stifled creativity, did you chase them around the room with a baseball bat?

How hard did you fight for your First Amendment right to discuss, critique, and flat-out criticize an actor, a show, or a story? Really hard?

Of course not. You were "nice" and the list promptly lowered its standards to accommodate these fluffy, feel-good, indiscriminate, and talentless twits.

Me, I didn't fight very hard either. I admit it. It got to the point where when I saw the "ficcie" and "ficlet" authors coming in one door, I headed out the other as fast as I could exit.

In retrospect, I feel a bit guilty about that.

I used to question people's posts until I understood why they were saying what they were saying or until we were in agreement—and, yes, it happens sometimes that people change their minds.

Gradually I came to realize that most people resent being questioned. Instead of being pleased to receive an invitation to talk at length about their point, they are annoyed, or even angered, at being, as they feel, required to "defend" their opinions.

That still confuses me. If you can't explain or defend your opinions then how are you really sure what it is that you think or believe? If you don't want to talk about what you believe, why are you posting to a discussion list?

Anyhow. A couple of years ago, I realized that what I saw as interesting discussion that I could learn from wasn't seen that way by others. I was mostly just pissing people off.

I don't subscribe to public fandom lists any more.

I've completely lost the point of what I was talking about when I started, but I'm fairly certain I was going to say that I personally am keeping an online journal for three reasons.

#1 – At the time I started it, I'd been unemployed for four months and I was bored out of my mind.

#2 – A healthy percentage of the things I think about often enough to want to write them down aren't fandom-related.

#3 – I have no intention of going back, searching out, and re-subscribing to X-Files, Sentinel, due South, or any other fandom lists on the off chance that I'll have a thought about one of the shows some day.

So, I'm saying I'm not guilty of furthering the splintering of fandom. Nothing I'm putting here would have shown up on any list anyhow.

Everyone else can defend themselves. It's dinnertime and the lasagna is on the table.