DREAM A LITTLE DREAMWIDTH
May. 4th, 2009 01:09 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
defrogSo I’ve seen some talk on the f-list about Dreamwidth, which – if you don’t know – is a sort of Old School LJ blog site. It was started by two former LJ employees and, as near as I can tell, aims to go back to the original LJ mandate of being a true community site with none of that pesky corporate ownership and advertising that allegedly ruined it for everyone.
I checked it out, and so far it looks nice. It’s not radically different from LJ – in fact, it’s almost identical, and even sports a few improvements, like a much easier filter system for posts about yr personal life. One feature that appeals to me, besides an apparently more liberal attitude towards content, is the ability to import yr entire existing LJ to it. The Google Analytics support isn’t bad either. And it’s more user-friendly for people who want to use a blogging site to promote their professional work (provided it’s in a creative field – so novelists, artists and photographers who don’t want to build a separate commercial site have an option to combine it with their LJ – only not on LJ, if you follow me).
If there’s a downside, it’s that you currently need an invite code for a free account, and a paid account costs about $5 a year more than LJ. I understand the rationale of keeping their growth under control, and I understand that they have to charge a little more to avoid going the ad route. Still, while it’s tempting to set up something there and cross-post to here, paying for two blogs is a bit overkill for me.
The other thing, of course, is that there’s no real reason to move off of LJ at the moment. LJ has its issues, but so far none of them have been an inconvenience to me personally. And maybe it’s because I cover the Internet for a living, but the social networking space is clogged with wannabe companies that want to be the next Facebook or Twitter. When competition is fierce in a medium where it’s easier to get VC funding than it is to actually make money, few survive. Dreamwidth might, but they’ve only been in beta for five days, so it’s hard to tell.
Personally, I’m in no hurry. If nothing else, I think I’ll wait until all the cybersquatting yahoos have had their fun before I commit to it. If any of you who have already set up accounts there can make a really good case for Dreamwidth, I’m all ears.
Invite codes are also welcome. :)
Meanwhile, the official Team Def blog will stay here on LJ at least until 70% of you head off to Dreamwidth.
Of course, this would be the ideal time to start that sex blog I’ve always wanted ... because God knows there aren’t enough of THOSE on the Internet ...
Don’t dream it, be it,
This is dF
I checked it out, and so far it looks nice. It’s not radically different from LJ – in fact, it’s almost identical, and even sports a few improvements, like a much easier filter system for posts about yr personal life. One feature that appeals to me, besides an apparently more liberal attitude towards content, is the ability to import yr entire existing LJ to it. The Google Analytics support isn’t bad either. And it’s more user-friendly for people who want to use a blogging site to promote their professional work (provided it’s in a creative field – so novelists, artists and photographers who don’t want to build a separate commercial site have an option to combine it with their LJ – only not on LJ, if you follow me).
If there’s a downside, it’s that you currently need an invite code for a free account, and a paid account costs about $5 a year more than LJ. I understand the rationale of keeping their growth under control, and I understand that they have to charge a little more to avoid going the ad route. Still, while it’s tempting to set up something there and cross-post to here, paying for two blogs is a bit overkill for me.
The other thing, of course, is that there’s no real reason to move off of LJ at the moment. LJ has its issues, but so far none of them have been an inconvenience to me personally. And maybe it’s because I cover the Internet for a living, but the social networking space is clogged with wannabe companies that want to be the next Facebook or Twitter. When competition is fierce in a medium where it’s easier to get VC funding than it is to actually make money, few survive. Dreamwidth might, but they’ve only been in beta for five days, so it’s hard to tell.
Personally, I’m in no hurry. If nothing else, I think I’ll wait until all the cybersquatting yahoos have had their fun before I commit to it. If any of you who have already set up accounts there can make a really good case for Dreamwidth, I’m all ears.
Invite codes are also welcome. :)
Meanwhile, the official Team Def blog will stay here on LJ at least until 70% of you head off to Dreamwidth.
Of course, this would be the ideal time to start that sex blog I’ve always wanted ... because God knows there aren’t enough of THOSE on the Internet ...
Don’t dream it, be it,
This is dF
