(no subject)

[phineasjones]

oops.

i have a sunburn. annelarissa and i just spent about 5 hours lying on the grass in direct sunlight. we used sunscreen... but i suppose some shade would have been more to the point. at the moment, i'm not feeling much in the way of regret.

i really wish i could go swimming right now.

hm.

ok, pay attention to this part:

i'm going to post a poll soon in which i ask people's feelings about filtering and friending and such things. and i will take the results very seriously as i figure out how i will be going on in my livejournal life when it comes to moving and going back to school and all. but before i make the poll, i have a preliminary question for anyone who feels like answering. and that is, how do you read your flist? especially if it's fairly large - like, anything over 100. do you filter? do you read in groups? do you read constantly or every few days or catch up on the weekends... or what? i'm honestly curious and would love to know how different people manage this. if your answer is something like, 'i filter and really only read 5 people but i don't want anyone to know,' feel free to comment anonymously. i just want your thoughts on the matter.

♥

Comments

[hermionesviolin.livejournal.com]

I check LJ rather constantly and feel a touch overwhelmed when i've been away for a day or two. I'm a completionist freak, so unless i've been away for more than just a few days i catch up on the whole thing (though that frequently means i skim and don't comment, and i filter out communities). I regularly filter out communities when school etc. gets too busy.

I'm insistent upon reading every person i have friended -- though there are certainly individual entries i skip when the content doesn't interest me. (And in terms of numbers, my flist of 83 people includes a number of dead names and people who don't post anymore, so i'd say it's closer to about 60 in actuality.)

[jjtaylor.livejournal.com]

I am SO interested in your poll and reading everyone's answers to this question, because, as we discussed, I am having major problems keeping up.

One of the things I've done for a while and continues to work regarding fic is to hoard stories weekly, then read them all during a free night or a weekend. Usually I can sneak in one story a day if it's something that grabs me at the right time, but most days, I open a new tab, and then collect the link later and email it to myself. Because, yes, I live by email.

I tend to skim my f-list, and I've found skimming does not work as well every day. Because some days, I can skim easily and other days, it's "wait! I want to read that and that and....." and I can't save someone's post for later the way I can with fic, because....I lose momentum. And sometimes there's a discussion and....it sucks to come to the party late, you know? So a lot of the time, it's all or nothing for me.

And I don't use filters, because, frankly, I don't know how to use them. I feel like they could be very useful for days when I really only want to read certain people who write certain things - I tend to be a mood-reader, because some days meta rocks my world and other days I could give a rat's ass.

And I've done a whole lot less commenting than I used to, which makes me SAD. But that's almost entirely because I'm spending most of the day logged in as someone else - and so unless it's appropriate for your entry to be receiving comments from Tonks, I'm not responding.

Very much looking forward to this poll. Which I will try not to take as Tonks. Seriously, it might happen, though.

[penknife.livejournal.com]

I read everybody on my flist, because I am insane. No, because I am online all day (for reasonably legitimate reasons, since I telecommute) and so I usually have time to at least skim everybody's posts daily. I do have a "short" filter of people who I'm closest to so that I can make sure I don't miss their posts when I'm pressed for time.

I also have a filter for Support-related comms, a filter for meta-type communities, and a filter for artists and art comms, but that's just so that I can look at all those posts together when I want to -- they're also on my default view.

[callmesandy.livejournal.com]

I read lj at work and home. I read fast. So I actually read everything. The only things I skip cut tag entries about shows I don't watch and I generally save fiction posted in a temporary file to reread later when I have time if it's a pairing/fandom I like.

So, er, yes, 300+ friends (and 40+ communities) and I actually do read everything.

[katuah]

I'll read almost anything for a couple of days, then go a week without reading my FL at all and have to just skim when i come back. i don't use filters, never had time to figure out how. personal entries get read first. stories get saved away for weekends and off times. i also use my FL as a sort of RSS reader, with lots of stuff like worldchanging, Atrios and boingboing on it; when i'm pressed for time, i skip most all those.

[musesfool.livejournal.com]

I read LJ at home and at work (and sometimes at other people's houses, if I'm babysitting *snerk*) and I don't filter. I skim stuff that doesn't look interesting (most RL for most people, cat stories, stuff for fandoms I'm not in). I save links to interesting discussions I want to go back to - I have a quote file I keep open all the time, where I paste links to fic I want to rec and quotes that interest me and links to articles I want to read later, and yeah, links to posts that are interesting but I don't have time to read sometimes.

I tend to fall behind in answering comments, but I generally manage to keep up some semblance of reading.

[ecaterin.livejournal.com]

I don't have a hugenormous flist, but i do read the whole thing every day or 2. Like the other freaks who manage this, I work from home, online. I use LJ as my break time ;P

[helpwess.livejournal.com]

i have a people-only filter i use when i don't feel like dealing with communities, or when i have lots of time at work, and a smaller list within that of the people i feel closer to, for i-want-to-read-my-flist-but-don't-have-lots-of-time-for-slogging.

[novembersnow.livejournal.com]

I don't filter at all for general reading. I tend to skim through my flist a lot unless something piques my interest, but I don't filter anyone out, so everyone has the opportunity to be read. I read daily--always at home in the evenings and on weekends, and often at work, if I have a few spare minutes here and there to glance at my friends page.

The only time I ever created a reading filter was last spring when I was in Vancouver on business for a week and wasn't online at all. It would have been impossible to catch up on a week's worth of posts from something like 400 people, so I threw about 70 or so people into a filter and just read those journals. Even so, my friends page was somewhere around skip=900.

[cimness.livejournal.com]

my biggest reaction to this question is bafflement. it's hard to see how other people's strategies and feelings could be useful because if their feelings about it don't match up with yours, their strategies won't work either.

i read everything most of the time, but if i don't have time (out of town for instance, or a busy week) i don't worry about it and i don't try to catch up if i don't want to.

[phineasjones.livejournal.com]

that's a sensible reaction to the wording i used, i guess. what i meant with this particular question was that i'm looking for strategies for keeping up when busy, more or less. and i'm curious to know how other people handle that. and i'm curious what people generally expect from me or from each other.

other people's feelings will ultimately factor into my decisions about things like whether to filter or un-friend. because the effect would be the same to me, or almost the same. and so i'm curious to know how other people will be affected.

i won't make my choices based solely on what other people think. but i do want to have that information as much as possible.

[riikkarocks.livejournal.com]

I have a pretty manageable flist at the moment, so I don't use filters for reading. If I'm home, I generally read my flist two or three times a day. Sometimes more often, sometimes I may skip a day. When I'm gone for a couple of days or longer, I at least skim through all the entries, but I may not read very thoroughly. Generally, though, I want to read everyone on my flist, that's really the main reason I have them friended.

[ashkitty.livejournal.com]

I read everyone I have friended, and I do it all at once, no filters, pretty much every day. *g* I skim things a lot, because some of it will be fandoms I'm not involved in or something, but if it's a personal post I try to catch it, and if it's something I am interested in, fandom-wise, I will read it. If it's long or something, I'll just open that entry in a different Firefox tab and leave it there till I can go back to it. I catch up at work a lot, since sometimes I don't have much else to do! Most of the time the page only goes back 100 or so, and that's only 5 pages, right? It's when I go away for a long time, and get back to skip=360 and still haven't got to wear I left off, that I have to just say "Sorry, missed everything, was on holiday" or something.

[semielliptical]

The only filtering I do is to separate ljs into categories: 1-people, 2-groups (mostly fic communities), 3-newsish groups or feeds, and 4-knitting related stuff. I can't stand having them all jumbled up together. I think this lets me read much more efficiently, even if I read the groups one after the other.

I skim when I'm busy. I put posts into "To Read" categories in my memories. That lets me mark things I'm interested in but can't respond to at the moment, and still "catch up" on my flist. I don't always get back to these posts, but at least I have them saved so I can if I want to.

I check in on LJ at work, though I do my best to just do a quick check as a break and not get sucked into lengthy reading. It does make it easier to feel that I'm caught up.

[manynames.livejournal.com]

I've got a hundred and forty something and I read all of them pretty much every day. I skim some but I do my best to read everything. I check pretty much constantly throughout the day, which helps. I don't friend communities, just join and check from userinfo every few days. That helps a lot too.

[vellum.livejournal.com]

i read everything, though i have a relatively small flist. i keep major communities (mkaolsen, teh_music, knitting) that have longer posts and higher instances of stupid stuff off so i can peruse later at my leisure. i'll defriend anyone i don't read.

[elynrae.livejournal.com]

Wow, all these people saying "I read everyone!" make me feel guilty. Since I went mostly friends-only, I've read on a filter, and since I've been back at uni, that filter has been even smaller. I'd estimate that out of the 106 people I have friended, I read about 60 of them. Every so often, if I have free time, I'll read unfiltered or go and look at specific journals to catch up, but to be honest, as it is - if I go away for 24 hours to stay at Matt's, it's been known that I'll come back to skip =250 on the filtered list. I just don't have time.

I'm about to do a filters poll, in that I've been thinking about it for a few days - at the moment I filter according to who I think might want to read, but there's new people who've been friended who might be interested in different things, etc. I just have to find time to make the poll!

[phineasjones.livejournal.com]

ohthankgod. i was beginning to think i'm the only person to ever read with a filter. and feeling mighty guilty about it. phew.

[ceresi.livejournal.com]

I use about four filters, one for the friends that I want to read every day, one for the communities that I would like to read everyday, and two more with all the communities and all my friends. And I've only got about a hundred people on my flist. ^^ I make sure that I use them by putting them in the links section of the Boxer layout.

[emriver.livejournal.com]

frequently, in its entirety except for stuff that is obviously irrelevant, and it's not big enough to filter.

[ursula]

I have a basic reading filter which contains about 80% of my friendslist, and a "worksafe" filter which has the people on the basic list minus the people whose icons are particularly incriminating. If I'm trying really, really hard to procrastinate, I'll read the top twenty-five or so entries from everyone.

[annecatherine.livejournal.com]

My flist is just under 100 right now. Even that seems overwhelming.

I don't have any filters set up because I want to read -- or at least skim -- all the entries on my flist. My reading list gets "filtered" only when I'm too lazy to log in and can't read the friendslocked entries.

I read LJ almost everyday but there are days when I get too busy. I usually catch up on the flist in the next day or two.

[brightest-blue.livejournal.com]

I generally end up reading the whole damn thing, which probably explains why I'm not totally unpacked yet. I have a filter for the people I always read, but I seldom use it, because I'm afraid of missing something.

[fuschia.livejournal.com]

I have a tight filter that consists of the people with whom I want to keep up with, even when I'm on near net-lockdown. This filter is also my "close" filter for posting personal issues. This filter I read all the time -- it consists mostly of people who I know in real life or who I have met in person. Something about meeting someone in person is essential for me.

Otherwise, I have a set of filters, including one for academic reading and one for my way-too-many communities. Seriously, do I need to belong to so many communities?

[crackling.livejournal.com]

I try to read everyone when I can, but I don't necessarily comment or read their entries properly. I've yet to use filters, but that's simply because with the number of people I'm reading there's no need to.

[dorrie6.livejournal.com]

I've been reading my friends list differently lately than I used to. I used to read it daily, unfiltered, and it was really just a lot of skimming, because I didn't have time. Since I have some big RL things to focus on right now, I've cut the list down to 150, and created a second journal for reading everyone else. I have a filter of seven or so people that I read daily. I read my whole friends list when I can, which is sometimes every day, but often more like every other day or every three days. I read the list on the other journal...not often. Maybe once a month or once every couple of weeks at most. I miss most of those posts, but I try to catch enough to keep a little contact.

[dorrie6.livejournal.com]

Incidentally, I'm reading this post on my 7-person filter. ;)

[phineasjones.livejournal.com]

eee. you make me feel very speshul. no, actually you make me feel special - spelled correctly. :)

[phineasjones.livejournal.com]

you also relieve me of some guilt. i use filters too - i have to! god, i don't understand how some people don't. man. but i definitely need some new strategies, so it's good to hear about yours.

[boniblithe.livejournal.com]

I have a filter called "daily reads" which are the people I absolutely, positively, cannot live without reading. I don't always read that filter daily, sadly; but when I do read LJ, that filter is top priority. I have to keep it small enough to manage, which is hard sometimes, so I started a #2 reading list which I'll page through on a night when the daily list isn't busy and I know I can get through some more entires. (Basically the #2 list is everyone NOT on the daily list, LOL)

Then when I have time to read with wild abandon, I just start wherever we are on the unfiltered flist and go backwards until I hit an entry I've already read, or until time runs out.

[phineasjones.livejournal.com]

thanks for this. and thanks for not saying, 'i read everything! every day!' because, oh man, i was starting to feel some heavy guilt. ;)