So dreamwidth, what's that all about then?

[hmmm_tea]

So, my flist, seems full of people offering codes for dreamwidth accounts.

I had a quick look using open ID, and as you'd expect, it appears to be a lj clone with a few tweaks. The main one seems to be how it deals with friends, separating them into subscription and access to friends locked posts. OK, these are different things, but as you can already limit which of your flist can see locked posts using filters, I can't see the point of this, surely it's just overcomplicating things? The things I really like about the lj friends system is that is really really simple, why take this away?

Other than that, the other major difference seems that there's no ads (which having a paid account I don't see and I'm not actually averse to lj funding themselves through ads, most other sites do, if people object to seeing them they can just get a paid account).

In short, unless there's a mass exodus of my flist, I can't see why I'd want to use it. It doesn't offer anything over lj I want, I don't need 2 ljs, I already have a permanent account here and that leaves very little incentive to overcome the inertia of staying put.

I guess I just don't get it...

Comments

[morganmuffle]

I think what you might be missing in the motivations for people moving is that a lot of people aren't even remotely happy with LJ at the moment. A lot of fandom types still feel betrayed from strikethrough and there are others who've never really been happy since "nipplegate" (which was the idiocy about breastfeeding images in icons) and DreamWidth has been set up by people who are very determined not to make those same mistakes.

Plus some people really hate advertising. Particularly in a week where some have discovered some rather nasty anti-gay marriage adverts appearing on LJ.

*shrugs*

I quite like a lot of the new DW features and left to myself I might well switch but a greater proportion of my flist is staying than is going so I'm staying too though I've got a DW account to read those who are leaving.

</ tl;dr)

[hmmm-tea.livejournal.com]

Particularly in a week where some have discovered some rather nasty anti-gay marriage adverts appearing on LJ.

I must have missed those. Yes, that would be a less good side of advertising, but a site like this needs to fund itself somehow, and I like the way anyone can pretty much get on LJ. By avoiding adverts DW are limited in the number of unpaid accounts they are able to take on, so is less open as a result.

OK, the implementation of advertising on LJ has a lot to be desired, but it does seem a good way of funding the site.

By DW's reconning they will need around 1 paid account for every 20 unpaid ones, so it seems they give out the number of codes based on the number of paid accounts, but what happens if the number of paid accounts drops back (through people not renewing payments, etc)? Will they have to cancel some of the unpaid accounts, limit their access to resources or what?

a greater proportion of my flist is staying than is going so I'm staying too though I've got a DW account to read those who are leaving.

This seems the key point to me. With any social networking site, the users become more important than the actual software backend.

I guess it's a case of those with strong feelings going one way or another and the rest of us just following like sheep (and I just had my hair cut to look less fluffy - bother!).

[morganmuffle]

I have to say I haven't read through any of DW business plans but I think they can get away without advertising more easily than LJ because they're not out to make a profit (at the moment, who knows what will happen in the future, Brad always said there would never be advertising on LJ)

One of the best things about DW actually is how easy it is to get and use an OpenID account. I mean I got a full one in the end but even with an OpenID you can subscribe to people (so have a DW flist or whatever term we'll end up using for that) and comment and have 6 icons and, I believe, people can grant access to an OpenID account so you'll be able to read flocked posts even if you stick to LJ.

The next few months, as everything shakes out, are going to be very interesting. But I'm find it VERY unsettling watching people leave and I know the people leaving are fiding it very odd at the moment too. Because it's all about the connections between people and nobody knows how those will hold up between different sites.

[hmmm-tea.livejournal.com]

One of the best things about DW actually is how easy it is to get and use an OpenID account.

Surely that's just carried over from the LJ code (http://www.livejournal.com/support/faqbrowse.bml?faqid=283&q=openid&lang=)? There certainly seem to be a few people around who read LJ pages via open-id and you can treat them as you would any other friend.

I think what really makes me uncomfortable is the fact that in order to get a free account to post with you need an invite code, which cries out exclusivity to me, which goes against one of the best points I see with sites like LJ.

[morganmuffle]

Some of it is and some of it isn't.

Well LJ was invite code only for a long time too, it was when I joined, it's a sensible way for any site to be when it's in beta or its first few years so that doesn't actually bother me at all.

It's easy enough to get a code by going and asking on one of the code sharing comms if you want one.

[hmmm-tea.livejournal.com]

A lot of fandom types still feel betrayed from strikethrough and there are others who've never really been happy since "nipplegate" (which was the idiocy about breastfeeding images in icons)

Just a thought, but weren't these both under six apart? They were ridiculous with their implementation of policies on these things, but they've gone now.

There don't seem to see so many controversies since our mysterious russian overlords took over, but maybe that's just me? Then again, I did miss the anti-gay ad - was this down to SUP or the ad company though? How did SUP respond?

[morganmuffle]

SUP responded by taking it down as far as I can tell, it's more the problem that there's no way to stop ads like that from getting through the net than it is that people think SUP are doing it deliberately.

And yes some of that was under Six Apart but it's not like there have been big changes. And SUP's attempts at the whole advisory board have been pretty much laughable so a lot of people don't really see why they should give them the benefit of the doubt. Plus if you talk to some people SUP apparently have some links within Russia that are pretty dubious.

*shrugs*

Bear in mind I'm staying. If you want to know any details you'd have to ask someone who's actually leaving.

[morganmuffle]

Just because I came across this while your post was still in my head:

On person's fairly articulate reasons for moving to DW

[hmmm-tea.livejournal.com]

Yes, I'd seen livredor's post and she does actually sell it quite well.

There are a few features there that, yes, I could see being an improvement on LJ and some that strike me as unneccessarily complicating things (like the whole friends thing - I still don't see what was wrong with it), as you'd expect really.

However, I think the big thing that puts me off (as it did with gmail) is the invite codes system. LJ may have used it in the past, but they'd stopped by the time I joined, if DW stop using them in the future then I might reconsider depending on how the whole LJ/DW thing has progressed.

[catmint-1984.livejournal.com]

Ah, glad to know it's not just me who thinks this! I think I've got quite enough of my life online, anyway! The ads on here don't bother me - to be honest, I don't ever pay any attention to them. If that's how LJ is partially funded, it doesn't bother me.