huh, imzy is closing down

[tielan]

Apparently they couldn't find their niche.

I stopped using it because it simply didn't suit me - I'm oldskool journal keeping. I don't need the new fancy details - hell, I used to HTML code my journal entries for a website I paid for, using a basic layout format and then adding the text, including <p> tags! LJ was a revelation - still the code, but all the design and layout functions made easy! And if there were more complicated things - like embedding vids or sound files, then you could do that easily enough with the WYSIWYG interface if the vids/sound sites didn't make it easy for you to embed by pre-producing the code.

And, too, the people connections weren't there for me in Imzy. I started out social media on LJ, which had a particularly fannish community feel back in the day. Friendships were made by interacting, by connecting over common interests and then commenting on each other's meta - holding conversations in text that couldn't be held in person or over the phone. Most of my connections on Tumblr and DW and a great many of my FB connections are from those old LJ interactions.

Imzy, in contrast, added nothing to my social media experience - I had no incentive to use it without a guarantee of interaction, and there is no guarantee of interaction in Imzy, let alone a way to interact without having to go back to Imzy and look through all the posts you'd previously commented in. It was (if I think about it) a bit like going to FFA - with even less way to track conversations that you were interested in.

So, not my thing. Apparently not many other peoples' thing either.

I'm sorry for the people whose style of social interaction/internet presentation Imzy suited, but it wasn't for me.

Comments

[scribblemyname]

While I respect your feelings, Imzy never lacked notifications. They slowly got more options, but I was getting comment notifications and post notifications almost right away. That said, I definitely get it not being your cuppa. I'm scrambling to relocate my favorite comms, particularly conlang, but there were really just the conlang and worldbuilding comms I'm feeling at a total loss with. I'll miss Imzy though. For me, it was a Tumblr alternative rather than a journal alternative.

[tielan]

Were they delivering the actual comments to the inbox, or just telling you that "someone has posted/responded in your community"?

If the first, I never worked out how to switch it on, and if the second, I got those and found them pretty unhelpful.

Tumblr is a much more visual medium to me, but not somewhere I expect reasoned discussion; Imzy presented as a journal-style service, which I already had here at DW.

[scribblemyname]

Someone has replied to comment/post and dropped you on the comments of post (parent comment if a reply), upgrade 1 with new comments clearly marked. On the notifs page, also said how many comments and gave a new notif when the old one was marked read. Imperfect but present and actually useful.

I do agree with Tumblr's limitations and part of why it didn't work for me. Imzy only added personal journaling though because users clearly wanted it. Imzy was about comms and really only worked well for that with the existing features, but it functioned and was laid out more like Tumblr than anything else, and I really can't shake the association, right down to its stream approach to content and the dashboard. Very Tumblresque but like community features only focused Tumblr. Though extra nonTumblr comm features too, but yeah, nothing geared towards personal journals really.

Eta: sorry about my butchered grammar. I should be sleeping.

But that's why I'm weeping over my fave comms really, and their awesome pseud system, but whatever.

[tielan]

I understand people being disappointed that it's gone down, particularly if it worked for them. It just never worked for me, and, I guess, for quite a few other people, too.

[scribblemyname]

Yup.

As I'd say at work, known issue. :sigh:

[deird1]

Yeah, it seemed to be trying to fill a need that I wasn't needing...

If DW was a little more active (like LJ was in the old days), I'd be perfectly happy with what's on offer here. Imzy was interesting, but not interesting enough for me to ever get into it.

[tielan]

I guess Imzy also felt very young to me. "Look at me! Talk to me!" Without necessarily encouraging interaction on a deeper level. The lack of threading didn't help - it's hard to follow a conversation when it's all in one thread and no diversion can be properly followed up.

[monanotlisa]

I didn't use Imzy once, I'm afraid...

[tielan]

This may have been a wise decision in the end!

[kore]

hell, I used to HTML code my journal entries for a website I paid for, using a basic layout format and then adding the text

HAH ME TOO

Added to all that, it just wasn't accessible for me -- the design, the font, the way comments were done, all that. And they never addressed any of those issues. People complain about DW all the time, but at least they try to make the site accessible and listen to suggestions.

[tielan]

It wasn't Ye Goode Olde Dayes O'Geocities, but it was pretty close! :)

I heard about the issues that were never addressed, although I guess I just went in, found that it wasn't to my tastes and that it was really hard to get comment notifications back the way I was accustomed to doing in LJ/DW, and went "meh" and just never went back.

[novel_machinist]

I feel you. I wanted to really get going with IMZY, but in the end, it just doesn't appeal to me either. I'm really enjoying that I'm able to interact with people in a way I can look back on later here in DW. I really couldn't get the hang of plurk or tumblr either, to be honest.

[tielan]

Tumblr is entertaining and meme-ish, and a nice visual alternative to FB, but it's a timesuck, too, and the user base tends young.

I might get back on next week after watching Wonder Woman, but I haven't actually been on to check anything out in about a month.

I think part of the thing with Imzy is that you had to be willing to go in and make new communities, and I wasn't. I'm forty-something, not twenty-something. I've been online for as long as some of these kids have been alive, I have my social networks and online community, and if I'm going to add to those circles, it will be very slowly.

[novel_machinist]

Yeah, my mid 30s and it's just better for me to have good conversations with other people. There's too much that you just have to stay ON TOP OF with facebook or tumblr and I do not have the time for that at ALLLLLL

[colls]

I staked my claim over there, but never got very engaged. I'm not surprised it didn't take off, too much competition with places like tumblr and reddit, I guess.

I didn't like the interface either.

[tielan]

Yeah, I staked a claim, but backed off once I realised it wasn't going to work for me.

It's interesting to see what people are saying they were setting it up as the alternative to. It was never going to challenge Tumblr for me, nor Twitter or FB. I don't use Reddit, but I gather that's like a messageboard, or a much more conversation-based interface? And LJ/DW is a different kind of journalling altogether.

[gaffsie]

I never even tried imzy. When it started getting buzz around fandom I'd already hit platform fatigue, so I was like, "hard pass."