On LJ it is strictly a cult of personality and you follow people but not threads.
I think in theory that was supposed to be true of GEnie topics, but in practice, with one continuous thread, it was about the conversations that evolved in each topic. Those were still, imo, in large part due to the personalities and interests of the people for whom the topics were created; I adored almost anything John Barnes said in Alis Rasmussen's topic -- but his own topic was like a bar brawl. Which was what he wanted out of his topic -- but he was entirely different there. Alis wasn't an autocrat -- far from it, although she did say I was not allowed to say anything negative about Jane Austen's work in her topic -- but she conveyed tone, and the tone in her group was very different from other groups.
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branchandroot
Re: Sideways and slightly OT (sorry)
Date: 2007-03-29 02:28 am (UTC)I think in theory that was supposed to be true of GEnie topics, but in practice, with one continuous thread, it was about the conversations that evolved in each topic. Those were still, imo, in large part due to the personalities and interests of the people for whom the topics were created; I adored almost anything John Barnes said in Alis Rasmussen's topic -- but his own topic was like a bar brawl. Which was what he wanted out of his topic -- but he was entirely different there. Alis wasn't an autocrat -- far from it, although she did say I was not allowed to say anything negative about Jane Austen's work in her topic -- but she conveyed tone, and the tone in her group was very different from other groups.