I thought of something that wasn't clear in my post. A lot of people have been saying they use LiveJournals to post about stuff happening in their life. I think this is a good use of LiveJournals, as people who aren't friends with you probably don't give a rat's ass about the details of your life. Most of them probably don't belong on the Forum, either.

BUT...

There is a definite place here, I feel, for posts about things that happened to you. The trick is to somehow generalize your experiences so that others can get something out of them. For those who read newspaper columns, this is what many good columnists are able to do. It's not easy to do well, but when it works there are few things greater than it. The trick is, these sorts of posts shouldn't be laundry lists of what happened to you. If you've had some really amazing experience, make it clear to us why it was so amazing. If you've had a life-changing experience, share your insight with us!

Of course, less world-shattering experiences can make good posts. Some good examples of these sorts of posts were Sam's posts about his trip to New Zealand -- they were lively, entertaining, and filled with humor and odd observations. It was travelogue-ish, but sprinkled with fun thoughts about the differences between cultures (something Sam is particularly interested in). Dave's "Adventures with Dave" posts are stellar example of Dave taking sort of mundane experiences and making them interesting by adding ample doses of humor and sarcasm. His commentary was what made the posts funny, not the "adventures" themselves.

Then again, sometimes events are just interesting enough to stand on their own. Brunnen-G's posts about her work in the Coast Guard, for instance, tend to fall into this category: just reading about doing crazy survival stuff is interesting. The trick to writing these posts is to cut the extraneous crap and focus on the things that are truly interesting.

Ultimately, the secret to posting about yourself is to figure out what you're trying to say. If you're not making a point or being funny, you should really ask yourself *why* you're posting it.

Stephen