Well I think it is as good a time as any to comment on my experience blogging on joeuser.com and livejournal.com. Both of these sites have been pretty good. Overall I have had very few problems accessing and using these sites.
Updating my blog is quicker at livejournal. There is this unusually long delay whenever I update my blog at joeuser. Most of the time there is nothing slowing down the process on my end and the update blog process is much faster at livejournal so most likely there is something going on at joeuser.
Maybe they are running all sorts of screening scripts (or my account can be on a server separate from most of the rest) for some reason but the delay updating a blog (averaging 10 to 25 seconds) is annoying.
Another thing that is annoying about joeuser is their rating system and their desire to attract attention to the blogs on their site.
I do not give (or is that care) two cent about who or how many people see or read my blog and I definitely don’t give a hoot about the rating system. It is meaningless and a waste in my opinion.
I do not blog for the pleasure of others or to be graded. If anyone reads my blog they should consider themselves lucky or unlucky. I don’t care.
Having said all of this I do like the forum structure of joeuser. It makes it easy to check out what others are blogging about at joeuser.
I like the organization of the joeuser forum. It makes it easy for me to read blogs of interest to me and respond if I so desire.
I also enjoy reading commentaries to my blog and commentaries to others’ blogs. I enjoy responding to these commentaries on occasion.
I think all the bloggers of a particular blogging site should be able to find and read blogs by others on that site.
I do not feel that we should worry about others who do not blog at the site we blog at reading our blogs.
At livejournal.com you don’t know who the hell is blogging or how to get to the various blogs posted by livejournal members. They show so called latest post on a latest post page although I have never seen one of my post on this latest post page soon after I make a post and the stuff I have seen is almost completely aimed at a young demographic.
I thought I rambled but you haven’t seen rambling until you read the blogs of these pre teen and teen bloggers.
I think my blogs on lighter subjects would be more at home at livejournal.com than joeuser.com but I find this fact to be amusing and funny and since I don’t care if anyone sees my blog I don’t mind the fact that my blog at livejournal may be out of place sort to speak.
However this does mean that I have read better blog post that deal clearly with a myriad of topics at joeuser. Livejournal is filled with the banter of young minds or the blogger that deals with less serious topics.
If you want to read something a little more serious at livejournal then point your browser to my blog at livejournal/users/backgroundchat or go to livejournal.com and search for backgroundchat, which is my name at livejournal.
My blog at joeuser is distinctly less serious most of the time than the one at livejournal but if one reads it he or she will learn a lot about my taste and opinions on less serious issues although occasionally I deal with more serious matters at joeuser.
Of course I don’t know if livejournal has more serious and well-written blogs because I can’t find them. Livejournal needs a way to scroll through the blogs on its site so the bloggers at livejournal.com can find each other.
Maybe they do have a way to do this but it is not obvious and there are no links on their home page (if you know the name of a blogger you can search for his/her blog using the search feature).
Now I am interested on setting up a web site of my own, which will give me much more flexibility as to what I can post and do. I haven’t started one yet but I’m definitely heading in that direction.
I don’t know if I will continue blogging at joeuser and livejournal when that happens but I can confidently tell all potential bloggers that joeuser.com and livejournal.com are good sites to set up a blog. Both sites get passing grades as of this date. I give a slight edge to livejournal.com on reliability.