06-13-03 @ 4:14 am EDT

STUPID CAT! Stop tearing apart the bathroom and just settle down already; sheesh, I'm going to let him out in fifteen minutes anyway.

WARNING! Opinion ahead. If you don't agree it's fine to say so and to give your OWN opinion too, but namecalling and debating/arguing/flaming isn't welcome. Bla bla bla, you should know that by now.

I came across another one of those "I'll review your diary!"-type things on another site. I tried one once and was not impressed; I probably said this in here already, can't remember, but this "reviewer" read like only the FIRST few entries of Skew and based her ENTIRE review on that. She didn't seem to read any of the RECENT ones, and certainly none on my "best of" list (though she noticed the link, at least). All of her comments were on VERY old entries that pretty much no longer applied. You remember how when Skew started out it was pretty much just me bitching? Well, yeah, it's STILL pretty much just me bitching, but I like to think my entries have at least evolved a LITTLE bit since then. I don't, for example, include most of my "whiny" entries in my best-of lists; and I noticed that my last best of featured a lot more links than usual. Which seemed to say I had more higher-quality entries (at least in my biased opinion). That is, not as many really whiny ones. That's probably changed since then, but my point was, her review was very lopsided. Who goes to a journal to review it and reads only the first few entries, without even glancing at the most recent ones, nor at the ones the JOURNALER thinks are most interesting? Very halfassed job she did.

Anyway, this other review diary...don't get me started. I do not understand the point of these things, especially on a site that has such a small userbase. (The number of diaries permitted is kept low.) They give points for such things as how many notes are left on your entries, plus the "quality" of the notes (meaning, I guess, whether the noter appears to have read your entry or not), and on how much HTML you use in your entries. I could argue about ALL the things they rate based on, but...how many NOTES you get and HOW MUCH HTML you use? How dumb is that?

Take my version of Skew on this other site, for example. It has over 1000 entries and about 40 notes. Why is that? That's because number one, the vast majority of entries were composed and posted long ago and I uploaded them all there without letting them show on the main page, because they were old entries and I did not want to unfairly run everybody else's RECENT entries off the main page. Plus people just don't respond to old entries very much (unless they're that person I described above, of course!). Number two, perhaps most people on the site just don't CARE about Skew. That's typical, because many of them are teenagers and for the most part, what I type in here is of no interest to them. The same as most of what they type is of no interest to me. The majority of entries on the site seem to be about boyfriends and school and endless endless ENDLESS surveys and "about me" lists. If others want to post that stuff, fine; it's their journals. It's NOT what *I* want to post, so...these people don't leave me notes, and I don't leave them notes. People will only leave notes if they are INTERESTED and HAVE SOMETHING TO SAY. For the most part, that does not apply to Skew. It's a very long journal but I'm not the most social creature in the world, and neither is Skew the most interesting, lively journal that everyone can apply to their own lives.

I noticed this reviewer, in response to diaries that had few notes, would suggest "Get more notes." Well, um...any suggestions HOW? The only real way is to go and Spam other people's diaries with notes of your own. This means you either have to read a lot of other diaries that might not interest you in the least, or just notebomb people like some morons do. ("I was here! Check out my diary!" or some such.) You're guaranteed to get at least SOME notes in return...but the QUALITY of said notes is not guaranteed. Many people only post to say "Thanks for the note." And this person made a point of saying she would review notes based on their quantity AND quality. I already said that Skew is not a journal that would be of interest to most readers. So how is it expected to acquire a vast number of notes? By magic?

I do not want to stoop to notebombing total strangers just to get MY note quota up. I don't believe in that, and I hate it when people do it to me. So I wouldn't do it to them, not even to gain points in a review. I note only when I feel like it, without expecting a lot of stuff in return. I know better than to expect that, by now.

The other point, about HTML, is even more ludicrous. My version of Skew there is very basic--really, all I need is some links and some bold text, plus a picture or two--and I have no use for lots of fancy stuff in all my entries--I just let my writing speak for itself. Personally I cannot STAND those diaries with lots of flashing colors and comet cursors and music and UGH! (With the way some menus overlap each other and some links don't work, I wonder if these people test their diaries on every monitor resolution? I bet they took a lot of time to code, but some of those things look really CRAPPY.) "Use more HTML in your entries," was the recommendation. Well...what if your entry doesn't REQUIRE HTML? Am I just expected to make things bold and underlined and colorful for no real purpose other than to make a reviewer happy? Personally I think over-HTML'ing entries (AND diaries!) is disgusting and detracts from the text. Everyone knows that text in all different colors and font sizes and such is very unprofessional, and not only that, it's very hard on the eyes. And I know this doesn't count as HTML, but We ReAlLiE dUn WaNnA rEaD sTuFf lIk DiS. How long does it take people to type that junk out, anyway? Does typing "reallie" actually save more time than typing "really"? Seems kind of pointless and like a waste of time that could be spent writing a DECENT, coherent entry.

When did diaries and journals turn into showcases for other people's notes and for our HTML skills (or lack thereof)? Sure, most of us want lots of notes--I admit, even I do. And nice HTML can make somebody stick around a journal longer--if a journal looks like crap, I won't want to read it. But when the WHOLE POINT becomes acquiring notes, or jazzing things up with HTML...then it's not a personal diary or journal anymore. It's a way to show off to get a review. The moment we start compromising our entries--our PERSONAL thoughts, views, opinions, rants, dreams, whatever--just to add some HTML or beg somebody to leave notes is the moment our personal journals stop being our personal journals. They become PUBLIC property, OTHER people's stuff, meaningless to us as journalers and diarists. We are not supposed to sit here and look popular or pretty. We are supposed to be ourselves. If being ourselves means being popular and pretty, fine, more power to them. But if we are going to be judged lesser because we aren't popular or pretty, because we write REAL entries without focusing all our attention on acquiring lots of notes or on adding pointless HTML to every entry...then I don't want to be involved in a review like that. For crying out loud, another criterion was if the entries were too long or too short. Who decides which is which?

ONE person does: The reviewer. And we've all seen how subjective they can be. If reviewers determined the quality and popularity of all journals, then I would have deleted Skew a LONG time ago. Because it would have been rendered useless. It would not have been my personal journal anymore, just a hollow empty showcase to impress others.

"Hey look, I got so many points because my journal has lots of HTML in all the entries and lots of people leave me notes and my entries have so many words in them and no more! I know, I had to bend over backwards to make it likable to everybody else while I haven't had any use for it as my personal space anymore, but, LOOK AT ALL THE POINTS I GOT!"

What good is a good review if you don't have a journal that YOU YOURSELF think is good to go along with it? Don't prettify or lengthen or shorten entries or beg for notes on your journals or diaries because you want to get a good grade. This isn't elementary school. Just do what you like to do best in your personal space, for YOURSELF, and if it's truly good then others will eventually find it. Or not. But should it matter TOO much if they don't?

I do have too many days when I whine about the lack of hits to Skew, but you still see me writing in here despite all that, don't you?