Is Dreamwidth becoming a ghost town?
May. 13th, 2020 02:13 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
benjamin_russellAccording to my profile, my Dreamwidth account was created on 2018-10-19 at 08:31:25.
Prior to joining Dreamwidth, I had 579 followers on Google+ at the point just prior to Google's scuttling of that social network service (I move that I seriously opposed).
On Twitter, I currently have 216 followers.
Prior to my becoming inactive on YouMe.social last month, after joining in April of last year, I had 9 followers there as well.
Here, however, currently, after posting 19 journal entries, I have a current grand total of 1 follower.
Since I tend to post similar entries to each of the social network services to which I subscribe, these statistics have led me to the following conclusion:
Either Dreamwidth is becoming a ghost town, or it already has become one.
The only other possible reason that I can conceive for this phenomenon is that the demography of Dreamwidth users seems to consist principally of non-geeks, and I happen to be a geek. In particular, I happen to be an otaku, and a game otaku at that.
On most other social network services to which I subscribe, I tend to contribute chiefly posts on general science, especially astronomy (even though that is not my main interest). However, here, because of the demography of user interests, I have never written any posts on science. Instead, I tend to write on such topics as epic poetry, fantasy, role-playing games, and social network services. My main interest is actually the solo-play of certain online role-playing games (Final Fantasy XI Online and The Elder Scrolls Online: Tamriel Unlimited, specifically); however, it is meta-discussion on scholarly aspects of the narratology/ludology of this topic, as opposed to mindless requests for fellow players to join dungeon raids (since I usually solo-play, I almost never participate in dungeon raids, and tend to focus on seasonal events).
However, for some reason, whenever I write about computer/console-based online role-playing games on almost any social network service, almost all, if not all, of the respondents tend to be people who do not seem to know how to use correct grammar, spelling, or punctuation, and who seem to have an extremely limited vocabulary.
For example, in a nutshell, I might write as follows:
Myself: Generally speaking, most Western online role-playing games seem to focus on a more open-ended play style than their Japanese counterparts; for example, in The Elder Scrolls Online: Tamriel Unlimited, the player principally essentially creates his/her own story, whereas in Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn, the player is forced to experience a linear main story designed by the creators.
However, in response, someone might reply as follows:
Respondent A: whassup lfg pst @BoredPlayer
No. That is not the type of response that I seek. Rather, I seek something similar to the following:
Hypothetical Respondent B (apparently non-existent): Really? I play some Japanese games, too, but I don't think so. When I play Phantasy Star Online 2 with my friends, we all just go raiding together on the same server, but we're never "forced" to play linearly. What makes you think so?
While I personally do not play Phantasy Star Online 2, and have no plans to do so in the future, either, at least the latter sort of response could potentially lead to a discussion, whereas the former could not.
In conclusion, since I prefer a scholarly writing style, to avoid having to interact with people who do not seem to know how to write, I need to restrict the content of my posts to meta-discussion, and to scholarly meta-discussion at that. Then nobody responds at all.
Therefore, I am forced to write about some other topic that tends to attract a sufficient number of the correct demography of users, and that topic, by elimination, usually winds up being general science, even though I am much more interested in certain geeky topics.
Such topics might include the above subject, pedantic (5-7-5 morae-meter) haiku, the Scheme programming language, the Haskell programming language, category theory, Gödel's incompleteness theorems, the logic of Gottlob Frege (in particular, Begriffsschrift, which I studied back in college), the analytical philosophy of Bertrand Russell, and generally speaking, any pedantic scholarly topic that does not concern the "real" world.
(One of my mathematics professors in college once said in class, "Mathematicians don't care about the real world."; while I do not consider myself to be a mathematician, I quite agree with this sentiment; also, one of my best friends in college was a sort of pedant who used to debate the fine details of the definition of the term "science" with me on certain newsgroups on USENET).
Alas.
Prior to joining Dreamwidth, I had 579 followers on Google+ at the point just prior to Google's scuttling of that social network service (I move that I seriously opposed).
On Twitter, I currently have 216 followers.
Prior to my becoming inactive on YouMe.social last month, after joining in April of last year, I had 9 followers there as well.
Here, however, currently, after posting 19 journal entries, I have a current grand total of 1 follower.
Since I tend to post similar entries to each of the social network services to which I subscribe, these statistics have led me to the following conclusion:
Either Dreamwidth is becoming a ghost town, or it already has become one.
The only other possible reason that I can conceive for this phenomenon is that the demography of Dreamwidth users seems to consist principally of non-geeks, and I happen to be a geek. In particular, I happen to be an otaku, and a game otaku at that.
On most other social network services to which I subscribe, I tend to contribute chiefly posts on general science, especially astronomy (even though that is not my main interest). However, here, because of the demography of user interests, I have never written any posts on science. Instead, I tend to write on such topics as epic poetry, fantasy, role-playing games, and social network services. My main interest is actually the solo-play of certain online role-playing games (Final Fantasy XI Online and The Elder Scrolls Online: Tamriel Unlimited, specifically); however, it is meta-discussion on scholarly aspects of the narratology/ludology of this topic, as opposed to mindless requests for fellow players to join dungeon raids (since I usually solo-play, I almost never participate in dungeon raids, and tend to focus on seasonal events).
However, for some reason, whenever I write about computer/console-based online role-playing games on almost any social network service, almost all, if not all, of the respondents tend to be people who do not seem to know how to use correct grammar, spelling, or punctuation, and who seem to have an extremely limited vocabulary.
For example, in a nutshell, I might write as follows:
Myself: Generally speaking, most Western online role-playing games seem to focus on a more open-ended play style than their Japanese counterparts; for example, in The Elder Scrolls Online: Tamriel Unlimited, the player principally essentially creates his/her own story, whereas in Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn, the player is forced to experience a linear main story designed by the creators.
However, in response, someone might reply as follows:
Respondent A: whassup lfg pst @BoredPlayer
No. That is not the type of response that I seek. Rather, I seek something similar to the following:
Hypothetical Respondent B (apparently non-existent): Really? I play some Japanese games, too, but I don't think so. When I play Phantasy Star Online 2 with my friends, we all just go raiding together on the same server, but we're never "forced" to play linearly. What makes you think so?
While I personally do not play Phantasy Star Online 2, and have no plans to do so in the future, either, at least the latter sort of response could potentially lead to a discussion, whereas the former could not.
In conclusion, since I prefer a scholarly writing style, to avoid having to interact with people who do not seem to know how to write, I need to restrict the content of my posts to meta-discussion, and to scholarly meta-discussion at that. Then nobody responds at all.
Therefore, I am forced to write about some other topic that tends to attract a sufficient number of the correct demography of users, and that topic, by elimination, usually winds up being general science, even though I am much more interested in certain geeky topics.
Such topics might include the above subject, pedantic (5-7-5 morae-meter) haiku, the Scheme programming language, the Haskell programming language, category theory, Gödel's incompleteness theorems, the logic of Gottlob Frege (in particular, Begriffsschrift, which I studied back in college), the analytical philosophy of Bertrand Russell, and generally speaking, any pedantic scholarly topic that does not concern the "real" world.
(One of my mathematics professors in college once said in class, "Mathematicians don't care about the real world."; while I do not consider myself to be a mathematician, I quite agree with this sentiment; also, one of my best friends in college was a sort of pedant who used to debate the fine details of the definition of the term "science" with me on certain newsgroups on USENET).
Alas.
