Quick note to LJers (Updated)

It’s been brought to my attention by someone who reads my blog via the lj feed that I am a very rude bad blogger. Why? Because I don’t respond to the comments over there.

In my defence, I wasn’t aware people were commenting in the land of livejournal, and so did not know to respond to them. I did check a while ago when I was first told of the lj feed but as there were no comments I forgot all about it.

I have now gone over for a squiz and seen some of the recent comments. Wow! Thanks for all the kind words. Much appreciated.

However, I still won’t be commenting there on account of the way the lj feed works. Only a handful of posts (the most recent ones) are on the feed. So every time a new post goes up an old one disappears and its comments with it. Oblivion is what awaits the comments on an lj feed.

As I am an (ex) historian it goes deeply against my grain to write words that will disappear and I admit I’m horrified at all your lovely comments dissapearing as well. If you ljers want me to respond to your comments please post them over here. The added bonus is that you get to be part of the lively convo with my regular readers. It’s fun, honest.

Of course, if you don’t want to leave ljworld—no worries—just know that my non-response is not because I’m a rude bad blogger.

Update: Some ljers seem to be under the misapprehension that the ljfeed is my livejournal. It isn’t. It’s a feed of my real blog that some kind soul set up for the convenience of interested ljers.

So, no, I can’t turn comments off. That’s not how a feed works. Thanks!

Posted by Justine at 0:07, 22 November 2006 under Bloggery | 12 Comments »

Comments

jennifer, aka literaticat Says:

did someone actually call you “bad” and “rude”?

if you need someone to vouch for your goodness and politeness, i’ve got your back.

November 22nd, 2006 at 12:59 AM
anghara Says:

If you wanted to avoid the problem you could always set turn off the comment option on your LJ – thereby making people, if they wanted to comment on something you said, actually click on the feed URL and coming over here to do it.

Um, that is to say, now I”m not sure – can you fiddle with LJ setup when it’s being used as a “feed mechanism” rather than an actual journal…? Someone more versed in the techie magic than I will know…

November 22nd, 2006 at 2:34 AM
nalo Says:

My solution was to put up only one post on my LJ (well, two, when I was protesting their breastfeeding pic boycott). The post basically says that I don’t post there, and people should go to my blog: http://nnaloh.livejournal.com/

p.s. I can totally believe that someone called you “bad” and “rude.”

November 22nd, 2006 at 4:02 AM
josh Says:

anghara, syndicated feeds on LJ such as Justine’s blog can’t be configured at all. LJ lets you add syndicated RSS feeds as a convenience but they’re not actually LJ accounts. It seems that the comment option is always there by default. All it’s really useful for is discussing the post with other LJ users. Justine doesn’t have any control over the comment option since she’s not actually using a livejournal account. The fault, if there is one at all, lies with lj.

November 22nd, 2006 at 5:28 AM
5. Justine Says:

Thanks, Josh!

To reiterate the lj feed has absolutely nothing to do with me. I did not set it up.

November 22nd, 2006 at 8:17 AM
Rebecca Says:

“it goes deeply against my grain to write words that will disappear”

my grandmother once threw away whole diaries that she’d written. i nearly died.

November 22nd, 2006 at 8:45 AM
7. Justine Says:

That’s horrible! But then I get upset by people who don’t save all their emails. “What about future historians?!” I scream at them. “You’re stealing from history!”

November 22nd, 2006 at 9:21 AM
Rebecca Says:

i know! i save all my emails, and when i found out that yahoo had deactivated one of my old accounts, i was so mad, ’cause i hadn’t finished backing it all up yet. i still have every notebook i ever owned since childhood and all the drafts of everything i’ve written. i even save schoolwork.

November 22nd, 2006 at 9:29 AM
9. Justine Says:

And future historians beam.

November 22nd, 2006 at 9:33 AM
Peter Says:

Anyone who tells you off for not replying to comments on your LJ feed is an idiot.
I regularly attempt to stop people posting comments on the LJ feed for my blog, but people will continue to get the wrong idea. It’s a stupid implementation of feed reading by LiveGerbil. They should just show the post or an excerpt, but link it to the original location of the post, so people will comment there (if they can).

November 22nd, 2006 at 2:56 PM
josh Says:

Actually, there’s a link to the original location before the body of the post on rss feeds on lj. It’s really just a matter of thinking “hey, I wonder what this link is all about?” and clicking on it once. Whether the lj-specific comment link is above or below the link to the original location depends on the page style the LJ user has selected. On most styles the lj comment link is below and much smaller than the main link.

Of course, not all justine-lj interaction goes wrong. I first found this blog when someone on LJ posted a link to justine’s “How to write a novel” post. I didn’t even know who she was at the time, but I kept reading because I liked what she had to say. Then I read both the Magic or Madness books and I’m hooked. Anxiously awaiting Magic’s Child now. All thanks to livejournal.

November 22nd, 2006 at 11:37 PM
Peter Says:

Yes, thanks Josh – after whinging I then went and looked at my friends page (I actually use a different RSS reader to read my LJ friends rather than the other way round) and noticed the link now. So probably the only way to post a comment on the feed entry is from your friends page direct.
Oh well, people will continue to do so…

Yay LiveJournal for new Justine fans

November 24th, 2006 at 6:48 AM