i. I love you madly. and not just because you used the word "paramatized."
ii. you need to friend cyborganize, yo. because I just gave a whole lecture all about this which is phoneposted and annotated with links, and then tonight I just posted again about fandom politics. and it's going to be a fucking dissertation someday.
iii. I think it's inaccurate to celebrate LJ as "centralized" -- the incredible dynamism of LJ fandom is possible precisely because it's decentralized (perhaps even distributed -- for the moment I'm not going to quibble about network diagrams). boards and listservs have a robust capacity for centralization -- take ASCEML and its archive trekiverse.org, where one can find almost all the treksmut ever written. the genius of LJ is in its swarms and eddies, its friends and friendsfriends and multiple ways of connecting things up and splitting them apart (as you say, a virtual city). it's a tremendously flexible organizational system, and I'm interested in mapping out the specific technical characteristics that have encouraged this mass fannish migration. and the limitations and drawbacks (that lead some to stick with boards or listservs or blogs or archives) as well as the undeniably vast advantages.
iv. why oh why did it take me so long to move here? it's not like you didn't TELL me. it (the great fandom hiatus of '00-'04) is a mystery. a developmental process, because I suppose I had to be READY. I really couldn't overstate the impact that LJ has had on my life, and not just its fannish aspects.
v. I still have wetheaudience.org. I still don't know what to do with it. viva the nonspecific fannish revolution!
this is itemized
ii. you need to friend
iii. I think it's inaccurate to celebrate LJ as "centralized" -- the incredible dynamism of LJ fandom is possible precisely because it's decentralized (perhaps even distributed -- for the moment I'm not going to quibble about network diagrams). boards and listservs have a robust capacity for centralization -- take ASCEML and its archive trekiverse.org, where one can find almost all the treksmut ever written. the genius of LJ is in its swarms and eddies, its friends and friendsfriends and multiple ways of connecting things up and splitting them apart (as you say, a virtual city). it's a tremendously flexible organizational system, and I'm interested in mapping out the specific technical characteristics that have encouraged this mass fannish migration. and the limitations and drawbacks (that lead some to stick with boards or listservs or blogs or archives) as well as the undeniably vast advantages.
iv. why oh why did it take me so long to move here? it's not like you didn't TELL me. it (the great fandom hiatus of '00-'04) is a mystery. a developmental process, because I suppose I had to be READY. I really couldn't overstate the impact that LJ has had on my life, and not just its fannish aspects.
v. I still have wetheaudience.org. I still don't know what to do with it. viva the nonspecific fannish revolution!
vi. I'm going to try to find you on IM. yes I am.