Best place to find a belly dance blogging community?

[*Shira*]

First the first time, I'm feeling a very strong need to blog, due to something that happened last week. (Those of you in my facebook friends list or those of you in my tribe on tribe.net can probably guess why.)

I know there are lots of different blog environments out there. But which ones have the best belly dance communities? And on whichever blogging system you use, which belly dance community do you like best?

I'm looking for a place where the general tone of people's behavior is thoughtful and supportive.

[sabrinabellydancer]

I'm looking for a place where the general tone of people's behavior is thoughtful and supportive.

in the blogosphere? ^ good luck! *gets off cynical soap box.
perhaps livejournal?

[beafarhana]

It depends what you want from your blog. Is this a long-term way of widening your circle of online friends? Is it a place to vent? Is it a way of creating more discussion among the community? Is it a way for you to process your experiences by writing about them? Is the blog to be an adjunct to your existing social networking (twitter/facebook/bhuz/tribe) or something completely different? Do you want to self-identify as "Shira" or just as a dancer or as a completely private individual?

I tried blogspot a long time ago, but wasn't that keen on the all or nothing privacy element. It may have changed since I tried it.

Livejournal is my blog of choice, because of its filter system. I like that I can post publicly, or I can keep it to my "Friends Only", or I can filter between soecific "Friend Groups", or I can keep my post completely for my eyes only (for when even a private snark community is still too open!). I also like the tagging options, and I found it very easy/instinctive to use. There are various bellydancing communities (groups/fora/whatever you want to call them) on LJ, which was a good way of getting to know people initially. The Friends system also means as you post and as you get people commenting and you comment on other people's journals, you build up a gang of friends around you. So it's a good social networking blog. I think of LJ as my online home.

When I was investigating alternative blogs for a personal blog, aside from dancing, I used Wordpress, again, because of its range of privacy options, and tagging options, but I haven't found it quite as intuitive to use. I also didn't find many bellydance blogs there, but again it was a while ago. I don't know if there are any formal ways of bders getting together in communities. I'm not sure how one would build links between different bloggers there, to build up the kind of community you're looking for.

I hope other bloggers will chime in with their own experiences, it would be nice to know what the options are out there.

[Nathara]

Since you have such a fabulous website, I would suggest that you host your own blog on your own site - that would get some good exposure to the bellydance community and if I were to set out looking for your blog, that's where I would check. Just a thought, though!

[*Shira*]

Is it a way for you to process your experiences by writing about them?

This is the motive that's leading me to ask.

I feel that facebook and twitter are meeting my general social networking needs, so I don't need another one of those. I'm looking for a place where, day by day, as I process "stuff" I can write about it.

After my dad died suddenly in a drowning accident many years ago, I found that writing poetry about it was the best therapy for me. Eventually, I submitted what I felt were the best ones to poetry journals, and they were published.

There has been another incident in my life recently, a dance-related one, that I need to process, and I find myself wanting to turn to writing to do it. Only, this time, instead of writing poetry, I want to blog.

Do you want to self-identify as "Shira" or just as a dancer or as a completely private individual?

I'm thinking I would choose a screen name that isn't obviously "Shira", because I'd want to limit my friends list to people I already have some level of relationship with - either people I've talked to a lot online, or people I've met in real life and know well enough to greet them by name when I see them at dance events. So I wouldn't keep it a secret that whatever screen name I use is me, but I'd want to be a little discreet to avoid attracting too much attention.

Livejournal is my blog of choice, because of its filter system. I like that I can post publicly, or I can keep it to my "Friends Only", or I can filter between soecific "Friend Groups", or I can keep my post completely for my eyes only (for when even a private snark community is still too open!). I also like the tagging options, and I found it very easy/instinctive to use. There are various bellydancing communities (groups/fora/whatever you want to call them) on LJ, which was a good way of getting to know people initially. The Friends system also means as you post and as you get people commenting and you comment on other people's journals, you build up a gang of friends around you. So it's a good social networking blog. I think of LJ as my online home.

Hmmm, this sounds attractive. Thanks for all this detail.

When I was investigating alternative blogs for a personal blog, aside from dancing, I used Wordpress, again, because of its range of privacy options, and tagging options, but I haven't found it quite as intuitive to use.

I've thought of using wordpress in the same way Gilded Serpent uses it - to enable people to post reactions to specific articles on my web site. But I agree with your comment that I don't hear belly dancers talking about using it in a community-building way. Whereas I do hear belly dancers talking about LiveJournal.

[Khuzama]

If you want it to be private and limited to people you want to read it... www.blogger.com is good

[tigerb]

I think of LJ as my online home.

So do I, and I've been blogging there since 2002. Friends have come and gone and new friends have popped up. You can also use LJ to read RSS feeds of blogs you like, so I have some that are updated irregularly fed in there, since I don't check them very often. And if you avoid using your name in LJ, and instead pick something quite odd for your LJ handle, your journal will not pop up on casual searches. And of course you can lock it down to be friends only, so only the people you choose can read it.

The one thing to keep in mind is exactly what "friends" means in LJ land. If you say someone is your "friend" that means 2 things: their journals appear on your friends list AND they can read things you mark friends-only. Some people do not like this dual purpose -- they don't want everyone they like to read to be able to see more private posts -- but luckily LJ lets you make sub-groups of friends to solve this problem.

[indigostars]

LJ is the only place I can really think of as having a "community." They have groups, like the bellydancing LJ (LiveJournal Bellydancing Community). People post questions there, get to know each other, etc. It's like a web forum. Quite a few people on Bhuz and in the dance community in general use LJ.

Wordpress and Movable Type are good, and I prefer their platforms, but AFAIK, they don't have anything there to really get to know other dancers.

[*Shira*]

Would anybody like to friend me on LiveJournal? I joined tonight, and I feel a little lost in a big place.

My user name is shiradotnet - I decided to be on there as myself.

Indigostars, thanks for steering me to LiveJournal Bellydancing Community. I have joined it. Would folks here like to recommend other belly dance related communities that you think are good ones?

[nadyasidhe]

as soon as I get back into it! I'm banned for trying the wrong password too many times right now!