so you wanna move to dreamwidth?

[such_heights]

I've been planning to make this post for ages - given that LJ's being somewhat robust today, now seems like a good time!

A note before I begin: this is not a post that wishes to convince the reluctant. Instead, its target audience is people who are dissatisfied with LJ, who've thought about moving, who've thought about setting up crossposting or centralising comments or whatnot, but aren't sure. I am going to tell you why I am super happy that I moved to Dreamwidth, but if you're perfectly content on LJ, this may not be of interest to you!

I came over to Dreamwidth in the first wave because it was new and shiny and exciting. Initially, I was a little concerned that it would turn out to be a bit of a fad, that participation would dwindle over time. While I think there are a lot of users who got accounts at the beginning have drifted away, overall quantity of content here is going up and up, and it's now not uncommon for there be more entries coming up on my DW reading list than my LJ one (especially in the mornings, for some reason!).

I thought it was a pretty cool site initially, but I've moved from that to wanting to draw little sparkly hearts around it. In a nutshell, by moving to Dreamwidth I've cut out most of the things that drive me crazy about LJ, whilst not having to feel like I've drifted away from LJ-based fandoms and friends.

These are a few of my favourite things about Dreamwidth:

Ideology - Dreamwidth actually cares about the stuff I care about, and they're accommodating to other people who do, too. They're open to privilege checks and try really, really hard to get it right. I trust them.

Awesome site owners - denise and mark stand up for their users, and whilst they were without a payment processor for a few months, happily renewed their users' paid accounts - I've had three months of free time as a result. Needless to say, now payments are being accepted again, they have my money. I was very impressed by that whole episode.

Design - Dreamwidth is pretty - this is personal taste as much as anything, but I just like the way it looks. There are a lot of really gorgeous styles to choose from, and the main site is much more intuitively organised than LJ - at least to me. By rethinking everything from the ground up, it's all rather streamlined and wonderful. Plus, with new features being introduced all the time, it gets better and better as a site pretty much every month. <3

Community - It's very easy to interact with LJ! Cross-posting and OpenID and edits being carried over and all kinds of other features make it very easy to manage both accounts from Dreamwidth whether you have comments enabled on both sites or just the one. There's also a great sense of community here, with all kinds of interesting communities and users posting original content here. The division of subscriptions and access has made me feel much less nervous about adding new people, and I've made a lot of friends here.

Lack of fuckery - No adverts, no malware, no profiteering, no unscheduled extended bits of downtime, no strikethrough, no -- well, you know the list.

With regards to disabling/not disabling comments over on LJ, which I know is a thing people often feel undecided about - I'm really glad I have consolidated them. I like having everything in one place, and I like that place being Dreamwidth. I am sure that there are people who are less likely to comment because it's over here, which, well, is probably inevitable no matter how easy you make it. However, as a general thing I really haven't found that I get less response now I'm here, whether on fanwork posts, meta, or anything else.

I have four invite codes, if there's anyone around who still hasn't got them. Here they are, under the cut, you don't have to email me or anything. I'll strike through any that get used.

ZDBG4FYS23PDDAAABRAL
W8JWRQQNW5YRJAAADGU7
AK5V33SD56CZGAAADGU8
5VVSXDQMPZ7ADAAADYPF

eta: I'm all out, but zvi has 91 more here.

Comments

[heathershaped]

Cosigned.

[such_heights]

\o/

[glass_icarus]

THIS.

[such_heights]

♥ Dreamwidth ♥

[glinda]

I'm amused me that as I hit the button to comment my iTunes started playing 'It Must Be Love' by Madness. *draws sparkly hearts around the site*

I'm really excited about the way a community is building over here and how easy it is to get answers about stuff when it confuses me :)

[such_heights]

Hee! That's great. Also, have I mentioned how much I love your Ood!heart icon? Because I do.

[eumelkeks]

I wish more people would migrate here because it is a great site, just as you so aptly summed it up. It's a bit frustrating to pimp out Dreamwidth and no one's using their accounts. :/


Mind if I friend you here on DW? I somehow never got around to do it on LJ.

[such_heights]

Yes of course! Always good to make friends with other active users. :D

[darkemeralds]

Great post! You've stated all the reasons I'm here, and I'd like to point to your words when trying to help other disaffected LJ users make the move for real. May I link?

[such_heights]

By all means!

[kiwikiwi]

Hello! I am here via the latest-things page to say yes, all of this, pretty much! It just feels so homey and friendly.

--also to lol, because I just wrote a post... remarkably similar to this (only focusing on features) and using a lot of the same lead-in language ('these are a few of my favorite things' and 'meaning to write this for ages', notably) LJ downtime -- a good impetus to write nice things about DW, I guess?

[such_heights]

It really does - and people such as yourself feeling able to drop by and say so just adds to it.

And great minds think alike, clearly. :D

[stormy]

This, so much!

[such_heights]

Hurray for Dreamwidth!

[kel_reiley]

i have some codes, too, if anyone would like them! let me know if you get any requests or anything

[such_heights]

Awesome, thanks!

[gorgeousnerd]

I agree with this post so hard. And I hadn't even seen the last two links in the "ideology" section, which makes me love DW and everyone involved even more.

While I'd love to make DW my main home, and only enable comments here, many of the people I communicate with on LJ are pretty casual users and not too involved in fandom, and I'm not sure they'd cross over, even just to use RealID. I might give it a shot, though.

I'm going to link this; thanks a lot!

[such_heights]

You never know! But yes, that's exactly why I'll never move away from LJ completely - I feel like even if people don't comment over here, at least I'm still reading them and staying in touch that way.

[saint_claws]

Dreamwidth actually makes me feel quite sad! I appreciate that it offers good service and has a much better attitude than LJ, but it has taken my friends away from me. I don't really talk to people with Dreamwidth accounts because I feel like they have moved on from me and none of them have commented on any of my entries after moving. I had planned to move my journal over here, but that would have caused me to lose even more friends. I know DW is good, but I still wish it hadn't been invented in many ways.

[zillah975]

Well, idk, I have both LJ and DW accounts, and while it can be a bit cluttered due to crossposting, that's mostly because I'm lazy and disorganized and haven't figured out the best way for me to minimize that. There are lots of ways if I would just pick one and go for it. But you could use your DW and crosspost to LJ and read both flists and just make more friends, rather than losing any. :) It works very well for me.

[auroraprimavera]

I recognize your username from Merlin fandom - Right? :D

Also, DITTO to everything you've said. SO MUCH ♥

[such_heights]

Indeed! And you're one of the camelotsolstice mods! Hi there. :D

[sophinisba]

Yay, Dreamwidth!

[such_heights]

*doodle its name in her notebook*

[lyras]

*draws sparkly hearts around this post*

I like LJ because that's where most of my friends still are. But I feel much more comfortable on Dreamwidth (and I agree, it's much prettier!).

[such_heights]

Yes, that's precisely it. Yay for feeling comfortable!

[youarefree]

Can you somehow make your LiveJournal friends list's posts show up on your DW friends list? I think if I could do that I would totally move to DW, since LJ has been giving me loads of problems. But most of my friends are NOT on DW, and I don't want to have to go back and forth reading two separate friends lists. I know I could look this up on some FAQ somewhere, but I am rather lazy today.

[medie]

They're working on that actually. You'll be able to read posts, but to comment, naturally, you'll still have to follow links back there.

I'm pretty much in the same boat, so when they said that there was major \o/ from me :)

[tea]

Hey you! I think if I were posting with any frequency, I would do this too. I might go ahead and disable comments (and get more paid time!), the trick is I almost only use LJ right now to check my flist for people I want to keep track of, and not all of them crosspost, so I tend to check lj and then not get around to checking DW. I'm trying to accept that I'm just not active online right now, regardless of the site, but I like DW so much I wish I could put in some time to building up friendships here and adding content and such! Maybe I'll have more time in the summer.

Also, I wish I could import my fic community journal here. Or convert my community LJ to a personal LJ so I can import it here. I'd love to move everything but they'd be all comment-less, and that feels deceiving!

[such_heights]

Hi, you! I am in favour of anything that means we get to see you around a bit more. :D

Hmm, I think they are working on community import, maybe? I feel like I've read that somewhere.

:-)

[elke_tanzer]

<3 <3 <3

Re: :-)

[such_heights]

:D

[lady_ganesh]

I got linked to this from-- somewhere-- and if anyone needs codes, I have some.

[such_heights]

Awesome! I think we're about hitting the stage where everyone and her wife has a code, but you never know.

[miss_haitch]

Seconded. I'm enjoying DW greatly in recent weeks, and am finding it a very inspiring atmosphere! And the lack of adverts is joyous.

[such_heights]

Very much so! I actively want to contribute to the site, not just use it as a means to an end.

[fly-to-dawn.livejournal.com]

SO TEMPTING OMG. I've been thinking about it...I probably will, I think, once school settles down and I have some spare time. Then again, procrastination is my best friend, so...yes, basically grabbing an invite code, thank you ♥

[fly_to_dawn]

*takes first baby steps*

[rydra_wong]

This!

Btw, in case any more codes are wanted, zvi's just posted 91 of them:

http://zvi.dreamwidth.org/611757.html

[such_heights]

Oh wow - thanks, edited in!

[goodbyebird]

Good post :)
zvi has tons more codes up for grabs here btw.

[such_heights]

Cheers!

[harpers_child]

this is way more eloquent than i could ever be about DW. my come join posts seem to degenerate to me flailing around.

[sibyllevance]

lyras linked to this entry on her journal. I had never even considered crossposting to Dreamwidth, but I read your entry and especially the posts you link to. This is a strong enough case for me, I want to be a part of this. Thank you for taking the time!