(no subject)

[heidi]

So I'm looking over a few LJ-modded journals and communities to see if LJ is ever going to lift the 750-friends limit (yes, that's the reason I haven't friended back a bunch of the people who've friended me in the last week) and I read this:

Activity and raw number of postings, in the last 30 days, 7 days, and 24 hours, has gone down over the last year. That's a very interesting result, and a little worrying to the powers that be, I'd think.

So what's going on? Maybe...

1) We're seeing less LJ use. Maybe everyone's heading over to MySpace so they can put ten thousand little icons and widgets and little midi songs in every post, and never use capitals ever again, ever. There are a lot more companies out there offering similar services to LJ than there were six years ago, and blogging has changed over that time. This is the most likely option.

2) We're seeing a change in LJ use. More people are reading, but less people are posting. We're seeing more people using LJ on a regular basis to read their friends lists, but they're posting less. So we're seeing it change to more of a broadcast medium, than the chat medium it once was. It would be interesting to look at thing like raw K of text posted over time. However, this is only possible if "active" doesn't involve counting "readng friends lists without commenting", or "reading friends lists without commenting or without even being logged in."

So given all the discussion about whether the HP fandom is dying - maybe it's not fandom? Maybe it's an impact of reduced LJ usage? I can safely say that the fic submission rate on FA hasn't dropped, and there's forums for fandom now that didn't exist 15, 18 months ago, and there are wikis and stuff - is it just another sea change in fandom discussion location? Or a further bifurcation of discussion location/opportunities?

Comments

[quidditchgrrl.livejournal.com]

*nodnod*

I think MySpace is killing every kind of previous blog site out there. I went over to do some search and if someone has a MySpace account, you can find it. MySpace, from what I've seen through searches, is just like #2. People log in, but they only have one or two posts. That doesn't interest me at all - I post and I want to see posts, not futz around with my layout and embedded midis and junk!

Possibly we're seeing the same kind of change that we saw in 2002-2003 when LJ became so popular and Yahoo!groups waned in popularity? Yet another splintering of fandom, where we're all out here, but getting a large number of people into the same space is relatively difficult.

[heidi8.livejournal.com]

I love your icon! And would you believe I have never been to myspace? I think I have to, though, because we're going to use it in our 15th reunion plans for my Uni. Sigh.

[tropes.livejournal.com]

It's true. My flist has gotten so slow. And even in my own posts, I've been shooting for quality and content over quantity. Not that is always works.

Huh.

[prettyveela.livejournal.com]

Myspace is the new black just like LJ was a few years ago. LJ has 10 million users but only about what? 2 million active users or so? Myspace has close to 80 million users. Take out all the inactive accounts and you're still in the millions of active users on that site, wow.

I don't know if we'll ever see anything like myspace again.

[heidi8.livejournal.com]

What's the point of MySpace again? I just don't understand how the thing bloody works!

[slytherincesss.livejournal.com]

Well, IMO, I've never thought that "fandom" was wholly represented by Livejournal. There are likely a ton of people out there who are HP fandomers and who read and write fic who don't blog. I remember when I was new to fandom, no one had a Livejournal - it was super new. *shrugs* I just figure dynamics shift.

[slytherincesss.livejournal.com]

Oh, and I had a MySpace for about four months, but I deleted it. I couldn't take the annoyance factor. I was spammed constantly, by shitty bands, online businesses, etc. The format for blogging is terrible. Everytime I attempted to post, you know, an actual entry, it wouldn't post. I couldn't stand it. Good riddance!

[jayabear.livejournal.com]

You have 750+ friends? O.o

My friendslist is slow. I wasn't reading lj for like, a month, and I came back and it was only back like, three screens, and a large amount of the postiness was yours :D. The rest was about another four users. Five people out of 53. O.o

~j

[ancarett]

I read the article over at the lj_research site and the comments. Things look more complicated when it comes to the issue that lj's stat reporting hasn't stayed constant and they're not giving out exactly what they represent -- are these stats representing total pages served or is each separate call for a separate post, comment, file, generating the count? Add that into the increased competition from Myspace *shudder* and other sites and you do get a complicated picture.

Is HP fandom dying? No, but it's expanded into things such as text-messaging, more chat sites, more ephemeral sites and even into things we're really not too much aware of -- yet!

[annearchy.livejournal.com]

I've not reduced my use of LJ. Well, not much. I'm in a RPG over on GreatestJournal so I guess I do spend some time there that I would otherwise spend on LJ. Hmmm.

[ivyblossom.livejournal.com]

I think it's the other way around, Heidi. LJ is noting the decline of HP fandom (on lj). I suddenly feel guilty for not posting as much.

I kid, I kid. I actually have no first hand knowledge that HP fandom is any less active than it ever was, though I hear rumours to that it is. Can't understand why, though.

[mogliecat.livejournal.com]

This is quite interesting. My personal take is that fandom has slowed down quite a bit because many/some fandomers feel the series jumped the shark in book 6.

Of course, it might not be that fewer people are in fandom overall, but that some of the BNFs on lj have reduced the number of their posts/fic updates.

[plaidphoenix.livejournal.com]

I don't think the fandom is dying, I just think it's just becoming more diversified. They're spreading out to other sites and starting up their own. There are several people on my flist who have started up their own sites in the last year. Not out of any inherent or institutional dislike or distrust of LJ or FA, but just so they could have some freedom to do "their own thing".

Also, I think some of the people who have been in the HP fandom the longest have burned out a little on dear old Harry and are focusing on other fandoms, whether it might be.

But then again, I'm not exactly the most attentive person in the world, so I might miss a thing or two.

[gehayi.livejournal.com]

I don't think LJ is dying. I see a lot of people who aren't posting as much as they used to because:

1. They're trying to get away from posting in their fandom journals and are posting more in private writing journals;

2. They aren't spending as much time online because they're spending more time with original writing.

I do have to say that much of my friends list has lost interest in HP post-Book 6. The problem seems to be that there is less to speculate about now. We know the ending has to involve a hunt for Horcruxes and a showdown with Voldemort. We know Voldemort has to die, though no one is sure whether or not Harry will die too. There just seems to be less scope for stories. And many people feel that they've said all that can be said about backstory.

Most of my friends list is hardly posting about HP at all these days. There's a lot more activity centered on Supernatural, Doctor Who, House, M.D., and so on. New, shiny fandoms, where there is a lot more scope for storytelling.

[aliah-carina.livejournal.com]

I'm actually commenting for once *shock*. I agree that the HP fandom isn't dying out, it's just being spread over more sites and therefore is less concentrated and harder to measure. I know that when I first looked into the fandom, a long time ago, all I knew about was FF.net, and that seemed to be the main source of all fanfic. Now I know about so many different, and sometimes more specialised, fansites (mostly fanfic based).

There is a small amount of moving into new fandoms, quite a bit of my flist is getting into House, Lost, Grey's Anatomy and the like, but most of it is still Harry-centric. There doesn't really seem to be any way to see whether the fandom is getting smaller or bigger...

[heidi8.livejournal.com]

Getting more spread out is right - it's like the solar system - things are moving away from each other at an accelertating pace.

And I still remember when there were about a thousand people on HPfGU, and that was the extent of fandom to me...

[aliah-carina.livejournal.com]

I know, all these fancy-shmancy new fanlistings and shipping sites, =) I don't think it's a bad thing really, it just makes it harder to keep track of the fandom.

2000? Er, I had only just started reading HP then, and didn't really know anything about the internet! I only really got onto fanfic.net in about 2002-2003-ish. Then on Fictionalley in 2004. A thousand people...Wow...So few!

[xylodemon.livejournal.com]

Nearly everyone I know in RL has a myspace account, and a good handful of them drifted to myspace from LJ (or deadjournal or journalfen).

Of course, myspace has more of what they are looking for, in terms of meeting people, reconnecting with high school friends, or dating. Most the people I know with a myspace don't actually *blog* -- they post pictures, spam each other's inboxes with inane quizzes, and leave ZOMG WATZUP!!11 comments to each other on their bio pages.

I don't get it, myself. I prefer LJ all the way.

Regarding fandom decline, I think it's a bit tricky...

My own flist has slowed down; some people are on hiatus, some people are dabbling in other fandoms (particularly Stargate, House, Firefly, and Prince of Tennis), and some people have just stopped posting.

However, you say fic submission hasn't dropped at FA, and from what I've seen, fic submission (read: posting) hasn't dropped at the communities on hogwarts_today's watcher journal. It would be interesting to see how the numbers break down, as in *who* is submitting/posting the fic -- is there an influx of new people keeping the sheer volume up?

[wcspegasus.livejournal.com]

I know personally that I've just gotten into other things. I don't re-read the books obsessively like I used to, I've found new series that are just starting that have caught my attention and new fandoms that I haven't explored (like CSI, PotC, Bones, and House).

And of course the current overriding obsession of trying to get a National Championship with one of my model horses.

The new interests have just started to squeeze the old ones out, and LJ in general since the busier I am, the less interesting stuff I have to post. And after spending hours chatting on IRC with my RPG group, I'm sort of not interested in coming here and chatting still more, not when I've got piles of other stuff to do.

*shrugs* Interests shift. I <3 my flist very much, but I also don't want to bore them with crap that I thought up just so I could post. Instead, I just don't post as often.

[til-midnight.livejournal.com]

Maybe everyone's heading over to MySpace so they can put ten thousand little icons and widgets and little midi songs in every post, and never use capitals ever again, ever.

MySpace has become mainstream in a way livejournal never has. I have never been asked if I have a livejournal in real life, but I got an email from one of the girls I've travelling with the summer asking if I had MySpace because "its like the best thing since sliced bread!!!"

[anchoredhope.livejournal.com]

I have a totally unfandom related question for you... I'm thinking of law school... but I know nothing about it, because I've been on the premed track but I don't know really what i want to do with my life anymore. My school's prelaw advisor apparently doens't actually do anything, so I'm wondering if you know where I would look for info-- I don't even know the basic things, like when peopel apply to law school, or when they take the LSAT.

[heidi8.livejournal.com]

I'm 11 years out of school already, which means it's about 15 years since I did the SATs and applications, and I know things have changed since then, a lot. Other than recommending an LSAT prep course in the 8-12 weeks before you take the test, which brought me from about 85% to 96%, I don't really know what to recommend - but I'm going to ask my friend Kellie, who's finishing her 2nd year right about now, to give you her take on it. Hope that helps?

[themorningstarr.livejournal.com]

Here to answer at Heidi's request. :)

My first suggestion is to ask yourself whether you really want to be a lawyer. Going to law school because you need another three years to figure out what to do with your life is all fine and dandy, but it can also lead to a person becoming bitter about law school within the first semester. I suggest Barely Legal: The Blog (they have a series called "Bad Reasons for Attending Law School" and while they are humorous, they are also very true). Once you've decided that yeah, you really want to go to law school, read on.

IIRC, the law school application process generally runs from sometime in September through to early or mid-February, but this varies by school. You generally apply the year before you want to start school (e.g. if you want to enroll Fall 2007, then you would want to apply this fall).

I wouldn't recommend taking the June LSAT, since the deadline to register may have already passed and because it gives you little time to prepare. Assuming you're shooting for a Fall 2007 enrollment (which would be class of 2010), I would suggest the following time line:

Start studying for the LSAT in July. If you can afford one, do an LSAT prep class of some sort; they can really help you raise your score and teach you how to break down the questions. The one I did was through my school, so I can't comment on how good or bad Kaplan is. If you can't afford one of those classes, see if your Pre-Law advisor will help you get a hold of all the old LSATs that are available. And buy a book that teaches you how to approach the test. I recommend this book by my professor for the games section. He taught me this stuff, and I brought up my LSAT score 10 points over the course of my practicing. Be dilligent in your LSAT practice, but don't kill yourself.

As far as applying, I was advised to apply to roughly 12 schools: 3 goal schools that are a reach to get into, 6 schools that you could probably get into, and 3 that you could easily get into. The USNWR rankings are a good guide for this (look at the 27th/75th percentile LSAT scores/GPAs etc), but those rankings are often over emphasized, so take them with a grain of salt. If you can't afford all the application fees, apply for as many fee waivers as you can. Do this early in the application process (like August of the admission season). Also, if your grades are high (3.75 GPA in a strong major or above) and you do well on the LSAT, you may not have to apply to 12.

You'll also need 3 letters of rec (I think they recommend at least 2 from professors, the other can be from an employer or similar). It's best to ask profs who are familiar with your writing and whose class you did well in (duh).

For tips on how to strengthen your application generally I recommend this book by my pre-law advisor. It will explain the whole process to you and is generally helpful and won't break the bank. :)

Anyway, that's probably way more detail than you wanted, so to avoid this becoming any more tl;dr than it already is, a quick recap:

For enrollment Fall 2007: take the October 2006 LSAT. Pick schools to apply to based on scores on practice LSATs + GPA. Apply ASAP during the admissions season (Sept, Oct, Nov).

For enrollment Fall 2008: take June 2007 LSAT. Apply to schools based on actual LSAT score + GPA. Have applications ready to send out on the first day the school will accept them.

If you have any more questions, feel free to ask, here or via email. Hope my long answer was somewhat helpful. :)