All the different "me"s
Oct. 14th, 2025 12:52 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
hrjThere's a delicate balance to putting one's life in a lot of different online spaces. I don't want to simply duplicate content across them all. But periodically I want to indicate what I'm writing about where. So here's a brief guide:
Alpennia.com blog -- This is where the content of the Lesbian Historic Motif Project goes (including podcast transcripts). It's also where I talk about my writing and publishing projects in detail. (Like today's blog about getting back to working on Mistress of Shadows: https://alpennia.com/blog/fish-markets-19th-century-marseille) I haven't been doing that as much in the last couple years, but if you want to know details, that's where to follow me. There's an RSS feed of that blog that has a feed here on Dreamwidth, but it sometimes gets weird when I've set up posts in advance. And also, I don't get notified of comments on the RSS posts, so if you actually want to engage in conversation about the blog, you have to do it at alpennia.com.
Dreamwidth -- This tends to be long-form info about my everyday life, but also thoughts about books and writing that I don't necessarily want to tie directly to my professional site. (For example, I've moved book reviews--such as they are--to Dreamwidth.) The exception is that it's hard to post images in Dreamwidth so if I ever want to do anything will illustrations (like trip reports), those go to alpennia.
Facebook -- The only real profession posts there are links to the alpennia blog. Otherwise, it's for chatting with friends and family and nattering on about everyday stuff. Posts about the garden and wildlife get distributed randomly across fb and bsky. Before I retired, I friends-locked everything that wasn't a blog link, so that I could keep professional separation. Now I don't really lock anything there.
Bluesky -- This is much more for interacting with my bookish/fannish/etc. friends. I'm more likely to be posting about professional topics, though it also gets everyday stuff that I think might amuse/entertain people. I don't do memes much, but I'm more likely to engage in comments/conversations on writing topics. Bluesky is my professional network space.
Mastodon -- I have a mastodon account and cross-post the links to the Lesbian Historic Motif Project stuff there, but not really much else. I do engage with comments or stuff I'm tagged in, but don't read the feed.
Discord -- I have a Discord "fan club" (it's labelled Alpennia, but is for all my writing) which is open to anyone who asks. It's relatively low-volume. The Discord gets some sneak peaks at projects and advance information that I'm not ready to post publicly. We occasionally get lively discussions, especially on gender/sexuality topics. Members of the Discord are also free/encouraged to post about their own writing, etc. (I'm also a member of a number of other Discords, though there are relatively few where I read most of the posts.)
Newsletter -- I have an email newsletter that I keep trying to get back on schedule with. Currently, it's primarily news about my publications and convention appearances. Sometimes I include "bonus content" about my books, but that was becoming daunting to keep up with.
The big thing I'm always hoping to find is interaction. Conversation. Sharing of ideas and feedback. My biggest disappointment about the alpennia.com blog is how very little direct interaction I get from it. (Hampered by the need to manually approve comments, due to comment-spam.) I wish I could figure out how to be more interesting.
Alpennia.com blog -- This is where the content of the Lesbian Historic Motif Project goes (including podcast transcripts). It's also where I talk about my writing and publishing projects in detail. (Like today's blog about getting back to working on Mistress of Shadows: https://alpennia.com/blog/fish-markets-19th-century-marseille) I haven't been doing that as much in the last couple years, but if you want to know details, that's where to follow me. There's an RSS feed of that blog that has a feed here on Dreamwidth, but it sometimes gets weird when I've set up posts in advance. And also, I don't get notified of comments on the RSS posts, so if you actually want to engage in conversation about the blog, you have to do it at alpennia.com.
Dreamwidth -- This tends to be long-form info about my everyday life, but also thoughts about books and writing that I don't necessarily want to tie directly to my professional site. (For example, I've moved book reviews--such as they are--to Dreamwidth.) The exception is that it's hard to post images in Dreamwidth so if I ever want to do anything will illustrations (like trip reports), those go to alpennia.
Facebook -- The only real profession posts there are links to the alpennia blog. Otherwise, it's for chatting with friends and family and nattering on about everyday stuff. Posts about the garden and wildlife get distributed randomly across fb and bsky. Before I retired, I friends-locked everything that wasn't a blog link, so that I could keep professional separation. Now I don't really lock anything there.
Bluesky -- This is much more for interacting with my bookish/fannish/etc. friends. I'm more likely to be posting about professional topics, though it also gets everyday stuff that I think might amuse/entertain people. I don't do memes much, but I'm more likely to engage in comments/conversations on writing topics. Bluesky is my professional network space.
Mastodon -- I have a mastodon account and cross-post the links to the Lesbian Historic Motif Project stuff there, but not really much else. I do engage with comments or stuff I'm tagged in, but don't read the feed.
Discord -- I have a Discord "fan club" (it's labelled Alpennia, but is for all my writing) which is open to anyone who asks. It's relatively low-volume. The Discord gets some sneak peaks at projects and advance information that I'm not ready to post publicly. We occasionally get lively discussions, especially on gender/sexuality topics. Members of the Discord are also free/encouraged to post about their own writing, etc. (I'm also a member of a number of other Discords, though there are relatively few where I read most of the posts.)
Newsletter -- I have an email newsletter that I keep trying to get back on schedule with. Currently, it's primarily news about my publications and convention appearances. Sometimes I include "bonus content" about my books, but that was becoming daunting to keep up with.
The big thing I'm always hoping to find is interaction. Conversation. Sharing of ideas and feedback. My biggest disappointment about the alpennia.com blog is how very little direct interaction I get from it. (Hampered by the need to manually approve comments, due to comment-spam.) I wish I could figure out how to be more interesting.
no subject
Date: 2025-10-14 09:11 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2025-10-15 04:45 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2025-10-15 05:17 am (UTC)I don't think of blogs as an interaction space, I think of them as a place where others share information, and while it is possible to follow them, it is more likely that I will stumble upon blogs randomly when I ask google for a specific question that a random blog touched on. I haven't remembered to actively follow blogs in years, though I often click through to yours when I see a reminder when I am not too busy to take a look.
I wonder when that viewpoint changed? Back in the early 2000s there was a "geoblogsphere" I was active in. A geologist in the states set up a feed for all of the geology blogs that could be found, and we all read and commented on one another's blogs. But when GoogleReader ceased to be a functional way to follow blogs, and that feed vanished I quit reading geology blogs, and quit posting in mine, and I haven't even made the effort to keep on top of SCA blogs in years, and I almost never comment. These days "blogs" feel kind of like books--one way communication from an author.
no subject
Date: 2025-10-15 07:57 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2025-10-15 10:20 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2025-10-15 04:23 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2025-10-15 06:23 pm (UTC)Some blogs still have a lively commentariat and I spend a lot of time on them. (That's where most of my Facebook people come from--people who used to blog but now do FB and are just as interesting there. Their comment threads are long.)
Mary Anne in Kentucky
no subject
Date: 2025-10-16 06:39 pm (UTC)