This Livejournal

[aggienaut]

   So, as promised, I am going to explain to you what this livejournal is and why its friended you. Its been two years now I believe since I friended most of you, though I think some were a year go. So I figure you've been patient enough.

   As you may have noticed, there is also a livejournal of emosnail. That is my "real" livejournal. (And as to that name, basically, long story short I already had a snail theme of names of my AIM screen name, email address, etc, and when creating a livejournal I was like, "ljs are so emo, so.. emosnail!"

In The Beginning
   It all began in 30 in 30 III, two years ago. As a prank my friend and fellow 30 in 30 participant shid, who apparently has mad skills at such things, made the "EMO-SNAL WILL DIE" fake photograph of graffiti. Initially I thought it was real though I wasn't concerned at all.

   Shortly Shid told me it was a joke I believe, or I caught on. One way or another, I decided to run with it. Obviously, "emo-snal" was supposed to be taken as just a misspelling of my ljs name. However, I got an idea!
   So I created an actual lj of "emo-snal." To make it seem real I backdated a month worth of entries leading up to the date of alleged death (the original image was dated to 2006, not 2007).
   But to seem real the LJ would also need FRIENDS!
   So I decided to go on a serial adding frenzy, under the theory that people tend to friend people back, so if you friend enough people you'll get a certain percentage of them to friend you back.
   To maximize the effectiveness of this procedure, I reasoned that people who had already friended serial adders were obviously proven to be likely to summarily friend people back. So I hunted down every serial adder I could find (starting with really obvious ones like serialadder) and added everyone that had added them back.
   And apparently it worked, as this livejournal now has MORE FRIENDS-OF THAN MY REAL ONE! O=
   And whats really perplexing, is that this livejournal seems to get more comments per entry on average than my real one. All I can imagine is that my real one has a lot of friends that don't actually use their ljs anymore. I dunno, but its a really odd statistic.


For Science!
   Anyway, obviously I continued to use the livejournal after that initial episode. As you may have noticed if you took a look at my last entry, I am very interested in finding more bloggers out there that are interesting to read and correspond with. The goal of this lj became to trawl for intelligent life.
   Additionally, I've used it as a sort of test bed to experiment with what makes an entry more likely to be read. Obviously the shorter the better, and in fact the original one line entries were pretty successful (as well as the second wave). Additionally I tried varying posting time and found that an entry is drastically more likely to receive comments if its posted around noon during a weekday than an evening. Its least likely to be read on a Sunday. I guess this indicates that people do most of their blog-perusing while bored at work.


The Future
   I'm thinking about trying to get back to the super short entries again for awhile to have a recent comparison to reactions to the relatively long recent entries. Also thinking about seeing how posting once a week compares to posting once a day. So much research to do!
   And you may ask why do this? My answer is that the purpose of blogging is to be read (in my opinion), and I therefore will endeavour to do what I can to maximize my effectiveness at that.
   Also thinking about loading up another round of serial adding (though I do consider the practice rather morally questionable I must admit).


In Conclusion
   Anyway, thanks again for friending me back and being around these last two years. I've gotten to know many of you through this and I have really appreciated the awesome new people I wouldn't have otherwise ever met.


Noteable Links
The Good Ole Days: Phase 1
The Good Ole Days: Phase 2
Initial Reactions: Round 1
Initial Reactions: Round 2

Comments

[drcuriosity]

This has certainly been an interesting blog to read. I can't remember exactly what led me here - we seemed to have a number of mutual LJ-friends, and the content seemed engaging enough to continue reading. So it goes.

[snuh.livejournal.com]

I guess that answers why replies rarely get follow-ups, as this, for example.

[emo-snal.livejournal.com]

Eh, not really, I think I've just been really busy lately. I try to make an effort to respond. I mean, if they've been nice enough to read my entry and give me some kind of feedback on it its the least I can do.

Sorry if I missed some of your comments )=

[qweenkaren.livejournal.com]

thanks for friending me, and providing me with something a little more interesting that a lot of the drivel out there. While I 'friended' you because you had some people I knew I was skeptical, and if your posts had annoyed me (by being illiterate and obnoxious) I would have deleted you from my friends.
Hence, well done! :)

[emo-snal.livejournal.com]

Thank you very much. (=

[nocturneprime.livejournal.com]

Interesting entry, as they usually are.

[emo-snal.livejournal.com]

Thanks (=

[lostindeath.livejournal.com]

I can't for the life of me remember friending you--I usually only friend people I know. So every time I see an entry from you I've always said to myself, "who the hell is this? It must be some friend of mine but I can't remember WHO..."
The entries are usually interesting though, so worth the confusion. Keep posting :)

[emo-snal.livejournal.com]

Odd I have no record of when or why I friended you either. Thanks though. (=

[innerly.livejournal.com]

hi there...
ok, read this and i'm a bit confused... um,this journal is an experiment? and did you add me cause you think i'm a serial adder? (i'm not.. when someone adds me, like you did just now, i usually check their journals but rarely add back.. most of the people on my FL have been there forever)

Hi

[emo-snal.livejournal.com]

No no I don't think you're a serial adder. I noticed you in ayoub's "friending frenzy" and thought you seemed like you might be interesting. The "serial adder" phase of the experiment is over and now this journal is used more like a main journal. But in my search for interesting people on LJ I still follow more of a policy of friend first and see if they turn out interesting than only friend if I'm certain they're awesome. So the hope is that you turn out to be awesome.

But back to where I found you, I liked your comment to Ayoub's entry( "not exactly in a partying mood yet, but my heart does feel a bit lighter today.. mind if i just sit here and do some people watch?" ) ... but didn't really feel I had something worth saying back to that. I'm kind of bad about that sometimes I guess. Liking people's comments but not saying it at the time and then they're like wait wha?

Re: Hi

[innerly.livejournal.com]

ah ok.. thank you for taking the time to explain..

i would say that any friend of A is a friend of mine, but.. no, not really :P .. he and I go way, way, WAY back, and i tease him about being a superstar and love guru now (if you have the time, check the "what do you think attracts people to you" qoftd and his comment exchange with chiropteraclan, where i butt in..)

a little explanation on my comment in his virtual party:
1. friending frenzies fascinate me in a "i think this is so silly but i can't stop watching" way.. i don't judge people who participate/add people like that.. i just can't do it
2. i love people to people watch.. which is kind of hard sometimes, because i have 2 little ones to look after, and because i'm a very social person, so it's a bit difficult to just stay back, for several reasons
3. not in a partying mood.. the past few weeks have been.. hard

ok, you have intrigued me.. welcome to my world, i am in no way awesome (contrary to popular belief :P)... looking forward to getting to know you.. and if you want to understand #3, read back a little on my journal, let me know if you have any questions..

Re: Hi

[emo-snal.livejournal.com]

I definitely like to people watch at real parties and social situations. And I like friending frenzies when there's interesting questions. Its fun to peruse people's answers.

I posted one myself a bit ago

Thanks for friending me, I look forward to getting to know you. (=

Re: Hi

[innerly.livejournal.com]

yes, the question part is fun.. but i hardly ever participate cause i have a hard time keeping up with everyone on my list as it is...

will answer yours so you get a general idea of me :)

[kanaetkassad.livejournal.com]

i didn't realise you had that other journal (and under that you posted on lj idol) i really liked your entries! alas, i don't have as much time to follow whole seasons like i used to.

ehhh right now i'm bored and procrastinating. uggggggg.