NNNNOOOOO don't fall to the pointless journal actions! It shall comsume thee! XD

You are correct in that some journals do just seem to be tweets in another form, I knew there was yet another reason to avoid Twitter ^^

     Hmmm. Out of fulminations comes insight. And general agreement re. one of FA's
more irritating unintended consequences.

     Back in the Stone Age when FA was designed--ie, 2005-ish--the journals were intended as a
blog-like feature (and before blogs took over the world too). Ideally people would use 'em
as such. Meaning they'd post some content worthy of their watcher's time and attention.

     But this is FA. Odd how that always come out like an epithet. The TL;DR virus infects us all
the instant we logon. AND we all now have the paradigm of Twitter and Facebook in our pointy
little heads (a la a matched set of Futurama's brain slugs :- ) )



     Upshot: A helluva lot of furs have gotten used to deploying their journal as if it was a
'mass-shout' and sent to everybody, not just one other user. If the journal title line was
longer we'd likely see people using only that. TL;CBBTTS: Too Long, Can't Be Bothered
To Type Squat.

     Short journals may or may not be an legitimate use of the thing, but it does look like
one such yanked your tail smartly. When the enraged bull bellows, ya hear it.



     I'll offer a semi-anodyne. I scored a little add-on that lets me open a batch of links at
once. I open the journal page in a new window, then use the tool. Ping! Twenty or so open
journals. And only a few of them of any interest.

     But: With a keystroke I can now page through the lot and whip them past eyeballs at
speed-read speed, closing as I go with another keystroke. Astonishing how little
there is left to read sometimes.

     Try it, practice, might save you some bellowing. Sure saves me some time.



     The FA 'interface' re. journals was never intended to handle a mega-flood of the puppies,
which is what you get for watching a megaton of people. But there's now a megaton of
people on FA to watch, right? This shrt jrnl problem wasn't one a few years back. It is now.

     That said, if Admin wants to, the code that does journals could easily be tweaked to implement
an 'FA Tweet' feature. Save the journals for the more meaty material. When we stage
the coup, first thing on the To-Do list. Agreed? Good.

     Alternate: Let's say people got used to putting a tag in the title. In other words, something
to *tell* us that this journal's a tiny one. [FATWT] perhaps? Feel free to invent your own tag (that's
not so descriptive of some journal posters). Furs, always on the lookout for good ideas; I'm sure
this one will catch on like tails on fire...



     Hmmm again. Wonder if I should turn this comment into a journal? ...Nah, TL;NRI (Too long,
Nobody'll Read It. :- ) )


FB.






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The FA Writers Directory v1.0

*chuckles* At least here you knew one person'd read it. :P

Yes, one journal did rather tweak me. I won't bother pointing fingers, suffice it to say I no longer read that person's journals because whilst the art is good, the mind behind it is rather like the kiddy pool at the public facility. You can look at it, but you really don't want to step in because you know that all those kids have been peeing in it all day.

     The writer's [necessary] conceit: That at least one other human being will read and appreciate
what you've scribbled, somewhere, sometime. Without this faith no author writes a solitary
word.

     (As important, the fevered delusion that once you die your work will own the NYT bestseller
list for weeks. And that stupid agent said it'll never sell. Well, I've shown him, ha! :- ) )



     When it comes to journals, however, I think there's a good case that something else is afoot.
Than the blind urge to just put words out there, that is. Some people do use journals to write solid
epistles, and with something meaningful to say. Short essays, the literary skill shows, worth
the read.

     You can tell: That person had to get that journal off their chest, and broke the mouse clicking
Post. Another hallmark of the writer: Gotta club us to stop us typing whatever weirdness is
on our mind.



     This ain't everybody, not the least because most people's writing skills are low-to-average. AND:
Most people rank social reasons at top-of-list for being on FA. Common interest in furs + Shared
fantasies of furry identity = Friends, and a lot of them, and likely no way could they be found
in RL.

     Write something meaty in a journal? What, and risk convincing all your watchers you're a
stuffy-minded deep thinker? Uh uh. A lot of these short journals are going out to an
audience of friends just to keep the relationship(s) alive. They give your friends a
chance to reply back. Hey, I'm here, are you here? Yeah, I'm here, are you here?
Yeah, I'm here...

     And so on. Short journals may say very little, but as a way of starting 'conversations' they
barely have to say anything at all. This is a use of journals that's very similar to how
shouts are deployed. Just got more than 222 chars to play with.



     Upshot: A lot of short journals are so personal and so specific to a small group of people you
could puzzle the SETI dudes with a transcript. Can't make head or tail (sic). That a lot
of folks type with their brain turned off goes without saying. Your kiddie pool metaphor
is depressingly accurate.

     As for the folks who never had a brain to start with, I propose adding some Javascript to
FA's codebase. When the Post button is clicked, up pops an icon of a British General
holding a swagger stick, who says, 'That's silly. Start again.' *

     Probably wouldn't help.


FB.



* (Or does knowing Python forwards and backwards really, *really*
date me? :- ) )






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The FA Writers Directory v1.0

Heh. My next journal will probably bear the title, "That's silly, start again."