Dreamwidth

[jadesfire]

[Um, this is flattering myself but stuff turns up in unexpected places so just in case: this post mentions fandom but is really about me, so please no link to metafandom, thanks.]

I know I've spammed everyone today, and I promise to be quieter tomorow, but with Dreamwidth going into open beta* tonight, I wanted to get this posted.

*BETA=not everything will work. Join the getting_started comm if you're not sure what's a bug and what's working just not in the way you expected

It occurs to me that I haven't actually done anything with my Dreamwidth account since I got it, save importing my entries. To be honest, the closed beta has been a little too buggy for me, with my complete lack of technical know-how. Things I want to do, like changing the style of my journal, don't really work yet, and things like setting up a properly organised place for my fic, I haven't had time for.



I don't know if I'll get a paid account, although probably not yet. I don't know who I'll follow. I have trouble deciding who I am from one day to the next, let alone doing complicated things like this. But I like Dreamwidth's approach to their business, I like their diversity statement, the efforts they're going to to make the site accessible and the general attitude of the project. If I can afford to support it, I will. That may or may not involve cross-posting, separating out interests, flicking from one site to another and generally complicating my life. That's my choice and I'm okay with that.

It's interesting to see how people approach Dreamwidth and their 'Circle Policy' (the equivalent of a Friending Policy on LJ). My own approach will remain much the same, and is based on the Yes, Prime Minister school of policy making:

"But those are topics on which the government plans to have no policy! Our policy is not to have a policy!"

As you can probably tell from the above, I hate tying myself down to one statement (yes, I'm a P, deal with it) or way of doing things. I know that there has been considerable drama about Dreamwidth in some fandoms, and across Livejournal in general. From my perspective, at least half the problem seems to be no one knows what's going to happen, and that makes everyone edgy. But things change and shift and move and always have done and always will do. Dreamwidth is *not* a fannish journal service (like, say, Journalfen), and fandom is not a monolith. It's more like a jelly (jello ;)) - colourful, entertaining, often sweet, and liable to go splat.

So yes, I have a DW account and therefore will have invite codes. There are some folks that wants them and some that don't care, and some who might want them if they're going spare because like me, they're interested but undecided. I don't think they're going to be too hard to come by, and if you really, really have to have one desperately, register an OpenID before midnight or drop into this comm where people will be sharing them. For me, for now, it's just nice to have somewhere to back-up my journal that makes importing simple. Who knows, maybe one day I'll even get my fic archive organised

*waits for hysterical laughter*


I do know I'm biased though, because although my main interaction is here on LJ, it's not necessarily the stuff that's the most personally significant. That would be the postcards I sent a bunch of you from Morocco, or the stuffed animals I get through the post, or the hand-drawn cards, or the care packages, or the flailing email when I'm struggling to write or the favours you do me or the private messages or the arrangements to meet up or the disappointment that we can't or the secret projects we work on to reveal to the world later. They're the things that make the strongest impact on me, and they're not LJ-dependant. LJ facilitates them, but if everything goes dark over here, I still know where a heck of a lot of you live.

Actually, thanks to Google street view? I can see your house from here ;)

Comments

[dune-drd.livejournal.com]

Actually, thanks to Google street view? I can see your house from here ;)

Eeek! ^^

[jadesfire2808.livejournal.com]

I KNOW! It's kind of freaky *see icon*

I don't think you guys are covered yet, are you? But I'm loving strolling round London. Everything looks right and not-right at the same time.

[dune-drd.livejournal.com]

The pictures are a bit old (like, about 8 years old), but I can at least zoom in on my roof... the BF's a bit more recent, but then he's living next to a tourist attraction ;)

And I tried Street View for London just now - it feels... strange. Definetly not right...

[dune-drd.livejournal.com]

Plus, they blurred out poor Churchill's face! Oh noes! ^^

[donutsweeper.livejournal.com]

I know I've spammed everyone today, and I promise to be quieter tomorow,

Don't you dare

It's more like a jelly - colourful, entertaining, often sweet, and liable to go splat.

Not a jelly donut? Sometimes gooey and gushy and sometimes stale or dry? The splat factor's the same too....

[jadesfire2808.livejournal.com]

Hee.

...we have jam donuts, but yes, that's kind of the same principle ;) Maybe I need to change that to "jelly/jello" so it makes sense to everyong...

[donutsweeper.livejournal.com]

Oh. I didn't realize jelly/jello. Jello as in the 'watch it wiggle, see it jiggle' gelatin? I didn't know the terminology differed across the pond for that.

oh, btw, I left you comment fic in your other post

[jadesfire2808.livejournal.com]

watch it wiggle, see it jiggle
...um. That's an advertising slogan? For real? *sporfle*

It's this, if it helps (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gelatin_dessert). One of the first things British writers have to get used to is what Americans put on their toast. Trust me, "grape jelly" sounds *incredibly* strange to my ear :)

Okay, okay, give me a chance! I'm on the phone to my mother here... ;)

[donutsweeper.livejournal.com]

I can't find it at you tube but it was the commercial for Jell-O (http://brands.kraftfoods.com/jello/products/gelatin/desserts/) for the longest time.

[mary-russell11.livejournal.com]

I think I may love you in an inappropriate way for quoting Yes, Prime Minister*G* I like your policy btw...it's nice to keep all options open! I registered an OpenID over at DW so hopefully I'll get an invite and we'll socialize there too*g*

[jadesfire2808.livejournal.com]

That's a good plan :) I think they're going to have a lot of people doing that today!

I adore both Yes Minister and Prime Minister, and can more or less recite whole episodes off by heart - I plan to use them when I run out of "Round the Horne" quotes for my regular posts ;)

[mary-russell11.livejournal.com]

I adore both Yes Minister and Prime Minister, and can more or less recite whole episodes off by heart hmmmmm*thinks* there is a strong possibility you're my British comedies long-lost twin sister*looks at you with stars in her eyes* some people have comfort drinks or/and foods...I have DVDs of Yes, Minister and 'Allo 'Allo*g*

[greyias.livejournal.com]

Actually, thanks to Google street view? I can see your house from here ;)

I'd be scared... but Google has my address wrong ;)

[jadesfire2808.livejournal.com]

Hee. You can't actually see our flat, although you can see the block. While I think the privacy thing has been a little overblown (if people don't want to be seen coming out of a sex shop, then maybe they shouldn't go in...) it's slightly freaky to walk around cities I've never been to!

[greyias.livejournal.com]

Although the street view is very handy. I think we used it once in Dublin to try and figure out where a grocery store was.

then maybe they shouldn't go in...

Hey, what I do on my own time...

[blackmare-9.livejournal.com]

I'll confess some unease over the whole Dreamwidth thing, and some fear that unless I migrate, I will become by default part of a perceived lower echelon of fandom and not any longer (if indeed I ever was) one of the Cool Kids.

The earnest striving of the founders, and the general Let Us Go Forth and Save the Intarwebs vibe I get off so much of the excitement ... it unsettles me in much the same way Obama-mania did during the election: it is bound, in my experience, to lead to some serious disappointments when human beings turn out after all to be human.

Also, I like it here. LJ's flaws notwithstanding, I'm comfy and my history is here and so are certain non-fandom people without whom my online world would lack for fresh air. I'm not so sure I want to live in a place full of Creative People and nothing much else; I did that with art school and found the whole place far too out of touch with reality. I lasted a semester and then finished my art degree at a university where there were also med students and science majors and English lit geeks.

I've held back on saying these things because I'm happy for my friends who got invited early to the party, and because I really don't know how it will pan out. I'm curious, but I guess I've been online long enough now to also be somewhat jaded.

Who knows; maybe it'll be the best thing that could've happened. Sort of like that other forum's mods going bonkers on us and leading to the invention of the House of Whining.

I'll move if it comes to that, if my friends go. The fandom thing is transient by nature anyway, but I've met some people who aren't and I want to keep them.

[jadesfire2808.livejournal.com]

I'm never one of the cool kids, so I absolutely understand that feeling. And like you, hype unsettles me as much as I like it. It's great reading posts by people who are excited (I dig enthusiasm more than anything, really) but I keep a healthy dose of skepticism to hand.

Like you, I want to be where my friends are. I honestly don't think LJ-fandom will migrate en masse, because with many LJers having permanent accounts, there's no incentive for them to shift.

My fandom experiences have been transitory - we still talk regularly, and I haven't watched House since S2! - but as you say, it's about the people. Those friendships aren't based on fandom, they're based on who we are, and they'll go on whether it's on LJ, DW or email or sky-writing :)

[miss-zedem.livejournal.com]

This is pretty much exactly how I feel about it, so I'm just going to point at what you say and nod. With my lack of excitement over DW, I currently feel very much like the fat kid in gym class, and that's just not pleasant.

[blackmare-9.livejournal.com]

I think that there are probably a lot of us who feel this way. We're happy for our friends, who are out there playing, so we haven't been saying much. But ... yeah.

*scoots over to make room on the Fat Kid Bench*

[miss-zedem.livejournal.com]

Exactly. I'm happy they're happy, I just...

*gets comfy on bench*

[hab318princess.livejournal.com]

I'm still confused about DW - haven't opened an account there yet as it would have cost me money and I already have a paid LJ account and more to the point, I am not sure what Dreamwidth is all about - is it similar to LJ?

[tiggothy.livejournal.com]

Actually, thanks to Google street view? I can see your house from here ;)
Can't see mine! You can just about make out the size of our gardens, but that's as close as they've bothered going for our area :-D
<3 rural life
...of course, it does also mean that I feel very stupid because I don't actually know how to make Street View work except by following a direct link *blushes*

[phoenix64.livejournal.com]

I have to admit I'm drawing back a little from Dreamwidth, particularly when it seems there are segments of fandom on there that I would kind of be happy to minimize my interaction with. But of course they're loud over there, because they're loud wherever they are.

I swear I don't know why I still watch metafandom - it ends up giving me emotional heartburn more times than not.