Not really-- the comparison I was making was that with usenet, you follow topics, while in livejournal you follow people. Similarly, in IRC you get brief conversational updates on topics, while with twitter you get that from people.
I just clicked through to the comments to tell you that you were totally wrong because... the point you just made.
Another point is that both Usenet and IRC are distributed, open and standards-based, so anyone can write a new server or client but Livejournal and Twitter are much more closed (I know there are some clients for the former and plenty for the latter but things aren't so shiny on the server side).
But, with Dreamwidth making the moves it's making with the LJ APIs, the days of LJ being closed are limited, the idea behind DW is that it's going to be distributed and nodal, the guys behind it want some other people to install it soon to make sure they've got all the bugs and make sure the interoperability works well.
And LJ is picking up and movign with a lot of their code implementation, which is very nice to see.
At some point, LJ'll become a distributed model, a one shop feedreader and blog with pivacy functions.
Given how open Twitter is, I reckon it could head that way as well, given it's unlikely they'll ever really figure out a way to make money off it directly.
Don't know enough about three of those to contribute, but I am amused and fascinated that someone actually is using the analogy format in real life to initiate conversation. I love that my friends are nerds like me. It sure as hell makes life easier.
On LJ you have the room to sit back and expound on the weighty topics of the day, while Twitter gives you 140-character micro-snapshots of What I'm Doing Right Bloody Now.
Well, that's the point. On usenet, you followed topics, and if somebody decided to get stupid on, say, rec.arts.sf-lovers, your option was either stop reading it or killfile the doofus. The entire population of AOL later, no longer bothering to read the group got a lot more appealing. Similarly, on IRC either you make private channels or get busy banning people, or just don't bother.
With LJ/twitter, you can follow _people_ you find consistently interesting. If a person starts going bad, you can block that one person, but since following them was already an opt-in process, opting out of that one person's postings is easier and doesn't necessarily cut out potential parts of an ongoing conversation. (That is, if you killfiled somebody on usenet, you could then find posts replying to that person's posts and lose context. On LJ if you de-friend somebody, you may still see their replies to people on your friends list but you won't break threading overall.)
On the other hand, you don't necessarily get the same kind of ongoing conversation...
You also don't meet new people based on interests, at least not the way I use LJ. I follow the journals of people I already know. These days the function of Usenet is fulfilled by topic specific web based message boards, at least for me. I'm still not convinced it's a step forward, but what can you do. I've made a bunch of friends via a few web message boards, especially one that's both location and topic focused.
That's true, although I have run into interesting people through sort of LJ comment cross-pollination. For deep discussion of a topic, web boards are good but again, unless you're pretty careful there's still a lot of retard farming...
I never met anyone new (who I later met in person) on Usenet. I don't know if that's because I gave up on Usenet entirely some time around 1997 (after having read it for nearly 10 years) or for other reasons.
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(no subject)
Date: 2009-03-01 08:16 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2009-03-01 08:30 am (UTC)Does that explanation make sense?
(no subject)
Date: 2009-03-01 11:07 am (UTC)Another point is that both Usenet and IRC are distributed, open and standards-based, so anyone can write a new server or client but Livejournal and Twitter are much more closed (I know there are some clients for the former and plenty for the latter but things aren't so shiny on the server side).
(no subject)
Date: 2009-03-01 03:27 pm (UTC)And LJ is picking up and movign with a lot of their code implementation, which is very nice to see.
At some point, LJ'll become a distributed model, a one shop feedreader and blog with pivacy functions.
Given how open Twitter is, I reckon it could head that way as well, given it's unlikely they'll ever really figure out a way to make money off it directly.
(no subject)
Date: 2009-03-01 01:49 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2009-03-01 04:38 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2009-03-01 08:28 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2009-03-01 08:30 am (UTC)Also you are now my hero at least until next Tuesday, displacing, I think, the bassline from a Shriekback song.
(no subject)
Date: 2009-03-01 04:47 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2009-03-01 05:02 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2009-03-01 05:13 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2009-03-01 09:43 pm (UTC)livejournal:twitter::weed:speed
On LJ you have the room to sit back and expound on the weighty topics of the day, while Twitter gives you 140-character micro-snapshots of What I'm Doing Right Bloody Now.
(no subject)
Date: 2009-03-02 04:27 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2009-03-02 04:32 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2009-03-02 05:22 pm (UTC)With LJ/twitter, you can follow _people_ you find consistently interesting. If a person starts going bad, you can block that one person, but since following them was already an opt-in process, opting out of that one person's postings is easier and doesn't necessarily cut out potential parts of an ongoing conversation. (That is, if you killfiled somebody on usenet, you could then find posts replying to that person's posts and lose context. On LJ if you de-friend somebody, you may still see their replies to people on your friends list but you won't break threading overall.)
On the other hand, you don't necessarily get the same kind of ongoing conversation...
(no subject)
Date: 2009-03-02 05:31 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2009-03-02 07:52 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2009-03-02 11:15 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2009-03-03 02:12 am (UTC)I keep in touch with some of them via livejournal now.