Migrants to IJ, 2007

Well, I didn't mean they're all delusional but I guess I should've spelled that out.

I came here from LJ and the difference is just like night and day. People on LJ were unfriendly, rude, snarky, cliquey, trollish, stalkers, troublemakers, immature, meddling, harsh, rash, stupid, and that's just the short list of the mob's overwhelming qualities. I was there for two years and one week and for two years and one week I hated it. I don't know why I stayed. The people on IJ are pretty awesome so far; that's one thing that's helped me to like it here.

GJ seems to have LJ's bad attitude spread amongst most of its users. I read the comments to the last two news posts on GJ; so many people there are so snarky and trollish, just like on LJ, but unlike on LJ where many trolls and insults are simply ignored, on GJ they get into a lot of childish fights with each other, get nasty, lose their tempers, and it all gets so ugly so fast. I dislike it intensely.

When they insult IJ because it has a color-scheme they don't like I just shake my head. Others complain that on IJ you can't change your journal style without a paid account; that's totally and completely untrue. You just can't edit the theme layer without paying - that's no different than how LJ works! We have so many features even for free users that GJ users no longer have, I wonder what part of the deal here they don't understand. I wonder why they are so harsh.

Another thing that impressed me about IJ is the news page, which as you probably know you can read right from the login page. Judging by the News page, squeaky is always on top of things, he always lets users know what's going on right away, he always gives an ETA for when issues will get fixed and he always updates once issues are taken care of. That's mad impressive considering I was in the class of 60,000-70,000 users when I joined, and is even more impressive now that the site is already over 130,000 users in little over one month.

Not only that, he's responsive, which is a rare quality, and very hard to find in most site admins/owners. He really cares and even replies to everyone who thanks him for doing a good job. He probably takes a lot of time just to keep up with those comments in News, posting repsonses and answering people's questions. And he answers questions! All the time. Every time. Now compare that to system. Enough said.

He even listens to suggestions in comments in his own journal, in News and probably in other communities as well. For instance, the other day I suggested there should be a press area on IJ; squeaky created press just a few minutes later. Now that's a site admin who knows how to listen and knows how to respond.

I know I sound terribly harsh on system at times, but there is a world of difference between him and a good site admin, and anyone who can't see that is just pain blind. Sorry.

I love this site, no doubt. The site scheme is supposed to change soon, and even if it doesn't, it doesn't bother me. I'm here to write and hang out, not worry about what color the pages are. I couldn't care less. But I'll never trust any blogging site again after the way LJ went the "broken-promise-about-no-ads/broken-promise-about-no-censorship/bannation/sellout-to-Russians" route, and I don't make any secret of my flightiness or distrust anymore. It's not IJ's or anyone's fault, I just can't do it.