Moving from blogs to lj. Why did you move to lj?

[naanima]

I abandoned my blog at pitas and moved to lj for many reasons but mainly because I was tired with all the things that went with keeping a blog. There seemed to be a constant pressure to keep writing in it, to keep on changing the layout and to keep on adding people to my blog links b'cos they linked me for one reason or another. All of it was just getting to me, and perhaps it was tempered with a lots of other things that was happening at the same time but it felt like I was in a very public sphere being scrutinised at every moment by too many people I didn't know. But perhaps the most annoying thing was that I felt like I was getting dragged into fandom even when I wasn't participating in it.

So I got up and left and after a three months break from blogging I got myself an account at lj and haven't looked back. Hell, I'm still trying to remember how so many RL people ended knowing my url anyways. But that's not the point, the point is I like lj much more, I feel safer, that only the people I want to read my journal are reading it.

This might be a very stupid and wrong assumption but it is the way I feel. I'm more relaxed and having much more fun keeping this journal than I did when I was keeping a blog at pitas. Maybe I've grown, maybe I've gotten a thicker skin, or maybe it's just that I no longer speak of the really personal things anymore, which ever, keeping an lj doesn't feel like an obligation that make me tired all the time anymore.

Beside being fun and relaxing, there seem to be less politics attached to keeping an lj. I know of the fiasco with the whole 'friending' thing but coming from keeping a blog. the pressure to friend people seem like child's play in comparison to linking people. I can't explain this very well, as I'm still trying to figure this out as well, but there is less pressure, at least for me, and all the irritation that comes with having an lj (down time, friending etc.) really does seem quite small in relation to blogs.

Mind you, this is all subjective, and if nothing else I know I might be over thinking this. People might have moved just because they were bored with blogger ^^;; But whichever, I'm rather curious as to why quite a few of you abandoned your blogs at blogger, pitas, or whatever other blogging server you were using and moved to lj? Some of you even did it without bothering to tell anyone, while others still keep an lj and a blog. Just what attracted you to lj, and what made you leave your blogs? And for those of you who keep two journals, how the hell do you have the time?

Comments

[naanima.livejournal.com]

Wow. That's a lots of moving.

Total agreement with the layouts. Sometime near the end of my Pitas stay I realised I was making layouts not b'cos I liked to but b'cos everyone else was making them. And that is just a stupid reason to do anything. Was slightly disgusted with myself.

Me too, commenting on other ppl's (or getting comments on your own journal) is so much easier. An, convenient and efficient ^^

[frogdance.livejournal.com]

In the midst of all that moving I lost a whole lot of readers. Hahahaha.

I spent a good half a year text only (oh, those were the days). The only layouts I had were very simple. I think blog layouts are way too exaggerated. Most overly decorated blogs, the text isn't even readable without highlighting (and some you can't highlight).

Commenting is the best. One of the reasons I love Lj (besides the templates and LJ icons).

[naanima.livejournal.com]

I don't think I lost that many readers, but I did lose contacts with a few people that I wish I didn't... but well, it was just taking too much effort ^^;;;

I think I spent a few months with very basic designs as well. There were a time that I went completely overboard with the designs. Then I learned what a bitch sites that were graphics intensive, used layers, and other scripts that doesn't shown on any other browser except explorer were. I stopped then.

Nowadays, I have major issues with badly made websites. I especially hate sites with small fonts, and links that isn't clear. You know the ones, where they think they're being poetic, naming links hearts of something or other, and not bothering to tell everyone what they mean. GRRR.

And everyone loves lj for the comments ^^ (i LOVE icons, I LOVE it).