It's not easy... It's funny how things go in cycles. When I started out online, everything seemed divided off by topic. Not that there was much available in those far off days when the web was still mostly text and search engines were a brand new concept. Most of my time was spent on Usenet where the discussion in a group was supposed to revolve around a particular topic.
When I started a blog on LJ I found it quite freeing. It was nice to be able to put photos in with the discussion of writing or do a post about decluttering next to a moan about the weather. It's that all-embracing, anything goes concept that I particularly like about LJ and the friends I have met here. But more recently, especially after getting involved on Flickr, my online activities seem to be dividing along topic lines again: Flickr for photos, Goodreads for posting about books, Facebook for keeping up with family, Twitter for snippets of thoughts and news, etc. etc. Do people prefer the specialisation after all?
Anyway, another result of LJ's troubles is that I've decided that I need to start keeping a secret paper journal again. Except on very rare occasions, I've never actually use LJ as a place to unburden myself or to vent, but I think it would be good to have a place to be able to do that. Strangely, venting on LJ always leaves me feeling somewhat guilty. I usually have more people than usual commenting, but the thing is, just getting the Whatever It Was off my chest has usually made me feel better, so by the time I read the comments, I'm no longer feeling like I did when I wrote the post -- hence the mild guilt!
I just hope that I'm being pessimistic and Eeyoreish about what will happen and that before too long, the people attacking the service will get bored and find something more urgent/interesting to do. We'll just have to wait and see what happens over the next days and weeks, but I'm keeping my fingers crossed that LJ gets through this OK.