What aspects of people's lives do you like to read about? Do you feel like you can get an accurate perception of a person by reading his or her public journal? Have you ever met the writer of a journal you'd been reading, and compared the reality to the image in your head? If so, did your image match the person?

-- ann monroe (monroe@chorus.net), February 28, 2000

Answers

Maybe it's my active interest in how different people think and tick, maybe it's a voyeuristic attribute of mine, but I've been reading a goodly number of online journals for about three years now with little urge to start one of my own. The "gotta read it" list has shrunk a lot, though, and only a small handful remain (Jellyfish Absolution obviously is one of them).

What I like:

1. A writer who has at least some sensibilities, interests, passions shared with me. (Probably the most common reason for reading these things, of course.) "Real" writers are big attractors for me, as are artists and actors. (Diane Patterson's "Nobody Knows Anything" has been of both personal and professional interest to me.)

2. The writer demonstrates awareness of the audience. I prefer a writer who looks me in the eye and is interested in the fact that I'm reading. There shouldn't be an opaque wall between the reader and the writer.

3. Humor. Attitude. A sense that the writer is having fun (all demonstrated Jellyfishisms).

4. Honesty is, naturally, good and can be a refreshing change from the outside world. If I meet a journaler I've been reading a long time and -- after some hours of conversation and face-to-face interaction -- the writer matches my expectations, then that's points gained for both the journaler and the journal. This has happened.

5. A feeling, largely subjective, that the writer is trying to use the writing to give something positive to the world, rather than trying merely to take from readers attentiothe n and "understanding" that is missing from real life.

What makes be drop journals from the "gotta read it" list:

1. Ongoing entries that are little more than grocery lists of mundane details get dropped from my radar pretty quickly. To borrow from Samuel Jackson in _Pulp Fiction_, personality goes a long way in my book. (It's one of the reasons Jellyfish Absolution remains high on my list.)

2A. See #4 above. However, "honesty" of the sort that makes me wonder if you listen to _Jagged Little Pill_ *way* too often can become wearing. It's not lack of sympathy on my part; it's just that self-conscious bleeding for the sake of demonstrating how deep you are is, IMO, unattractive and unimpressive. Especially if the writer is over, say, 28.

2B. See #4 above. Append: "So has its opposite."

3. Petty, vicious sniping at other journals and journalers. Even if I agree with the ostensible reasons, it's also unattractive and unimpressive.

=Whew=. All that said, I have a feeling I'll continue enjoying Jellyfish Ab for quite some time. Thumbs up, Ann.

-- Mark Bourne (mbourne@sff.net), February 29, 2000.

I think, in short, I like to read how different people, from different (or not so different) places deal with life. It makes me realize that everyone lives life both differently and similarly at the same time. A personal look into the lives of others. Such an intruiging concept. I love it.

-- Andrew Davies (adavies@glhec.org), March 01, 2000.