I've had a terribly busy last few days and didn't even have the chance to watch the latest Elementary yet, let alone Doctor Who, so reviews will have to wait a bit more. However: today, April 28th, is my ten years on livejournal anniversary.

And what a decade it was, too. Back then, we still needed invite codes (mine was provided by raincitygirl, and finding icons for my interests was tough. BTVS was in its final season, AtS in its fourth, the dvds for various shows I'd loved in the 90s like Babylon 5 and DS9 were just being released. And I don't know whether to find it appalling or amusing or both that then, as know, there was apparantly debate about many a fandom's reactions to female characters.

Here are some things ten years on livejournal taught me:

- there is no such thing as an opinion you alone hold. Therefore, never use the phrase "is it just me or...?" because naturally it will result in lots of people chiming in they think the very same thing. Unless, of course, you're playing coy and that was the result you wanted

- people whom you've befriended because of shared interests will inevitably have other interests you don't share as well, and these in time may even come to dominate; sometimes this means you discover new fandoms through them, which is great and one of the thrills of fannish friendships, and sometimes it just doesn't work this way because their other interests don't do anything for you. In which case, try not to take it personally and feel yourself deserted, not least because chances are you hare doing the very same thing from the pov from someone else

- be careful with pronouncements like "I will never..."; sometimes you really won't, but sometimes the very subgenre you thought you'd never ever write is the one you'll explore a few years later

- if fannish friend X blogs about how Y did/said a horrible thing (to her or someone else), it might be wise to check out Y's entire post first before rushing over to dogpile and yell at Y based solely on said quote, let alone write an entry on your own about the awfulness of Y based on the quote; the Chinese Whisper principle at work can be a frightening thing to behold

- posts featuring cats will always get replies, featuring your most earnest deliberations might not; deal

- jumping into someone else's squee post with a declaration of how you utterly and completely hated the film/book/tv show/actor/relationship she just squeed about is rude; don't do it. (Note: despite knowing that, chances are sometimes you probably will, in a case of writing before thinking, and trust me, you'll mentally cringe and feel awful afterwards every time) You can write your own post in your own journal about the ways the film/book/tv show/actor/relationship appall you instead, if you feel that strongly about it.

- Memes are infectious and will always be around

- finding and keeping lj friends is as great as the non-virtual variety; losing them (generally, or sometimes even to death) hurts just as much

- reading over your old disclaimers will make you facepalm sometimes (example: in my very first slash story, I warned for slash)

- the internet does not forget; somewhere, someone will have a screencap of that lj entry/debate someone else delated post flame war, which is one reason why despite not considering all I posted pearls of wisdom (read: I'm sure there are some posts where I wish in retrospect I hadn't said anything), I don't delete

- also, it's annoying to come across fanfic or fandom discussions years later and find out half of the replies or entire posts are missing because the lj in question has since been deleted

- on that note: getting a comment on a years old story or meta essay is one of lj's unexpected perks

- unless it's spam, in which case it's one of the curses.

- but isn't that true for everything?