Dreamwidth rambling

[frelling_tralk]

Er I hope this doesn't cause any offense, but today I actually unsubscribed from quite a few of the DW accounts that I first added when we were creating them as LJ back-ups. All of those accounts still have mutual access, but I decided that I want to start to try and keep up with my DW flist as well (or "reading list" I guess) now that so many people have left for DW, and at the moment I find that I'm mostly just reading the same entries again that I've already read on LJ, so I've unsubscribed to friends that I'm already in touch with on LJ

For the moment I won't be cross-posting and using my own DW, but I am going to try and keep up with my "subscriptions" over there (is it just me, or is DW awfully impersonal??), and read through it after I've read my flist

Comments

[honeymink]

I'm still fairly undecided what to do about Dreamwidth and all. In any event, meanwhile I'm around and I feel the need to tell you how much I adore your "The Americans" icon! Are you caught up on the new season?

is it just me, or is DW awfully impersonal??

No. That's always how it has felt to me. Probably why I never really felt like moving.

[frelling-tralk.livejournal.com]

Maybe it's just because we're used to LJ, but "subscribers" on DW and "followers" on tumblr just don't have the same cosy feel as my LJ flist does :( I prefer the mutual friending system where we can get to know one another properly. I have thought about it being fairly easy to manually cross-post to DW, and maybe I should consider it with so many moving there now, but at the moment I'm really meh about it. I consider myself to be primarily based on LJ, and so I really don't want comments in two different places for the same entry, but I know that if I did start cross-posting I'd most likely get people posting on the DW entry instead. And I really want to keep everything all in one place on LJ for the time-being, so I'm just going to wait and see how big the shift to DW is before I make any decisions on cross-posting I suppose. A fair few people and communities have moved there lately, but most of my flist are still here at the moment, so it's not like LJ is a complete ghost town

And all of my The Americans icons are by iwillnotdance, and I was very happy to find them :D I'm all caught up on the new season now, aside from the very latest episode which I'm hoping to watch tonight

[honeymink]

I know what you mean. Never really got used to the term "followers" on tumblr either. Yet, I kind of got used to the concept because well, it was different enough from LJ – so it didn't feel redundant having both. From my f-list, three or four people have moved to DW, so I guess I'm not feeling it as badly right now as others? But that can still happen I guess. It's true, it's probably that we're used to LJ... I'm still feeling like I need to tinker more with my DW layout to make it look like I want it to. I don't know. If I posted from DW, I'd still get the comments on LJ so I'd have to re-import them again so... yeah. Big hassle all that. I hear you.

Thanks for the link to the community. Once in a while I think about changing my icons... hm. Oh, you must tell me what you think of the episode once you've watched it!

[hamsterwoman]

I had the same problem with mostly duplicate entries with DW, a migration or two ago, so I created a "DW only flist" reading filter, and that seems to work pretty well (...when I remember to check DW at all).

And, yeah, I don't like the "subscription"/"give access" terminology much either. I mean, I do think it's awesome that DW separates those two functions, because there are cases where I do want to do one and not the other... but they tend to be an exception rather than the rule for me, and having the whole framework phrased in such impersonal-sounding terms feels rather uncozy...

[frelling-tralk.livejournal.com]

I never used to bother with DW tbh, but enough people have moved there recently that I've decided it would be worth checking out my reading list over there after I've caught up with LJ. It is going to be a bit annoying having two separate flists to check, so I thought I might as well cut out any cross-posters from DW, and then had a panic that it might be considered rude after we've only just added one another over there! It seems a bit more formal on DW though, so I'm not sure that anyone would even care, but I'm still in the LJ mode I guess where it's always feels like a bit of a rejection when you get "defriended"

And :nods: I used to think it was annoying that you automatically give someone access to your LJ when you might just want to read their entries, but then when DW was created and did separate it all, I found that I really didn't like the idea of making everything more complicated with subscribing and access. It would make me feel like we're all putting out daily newspapers or something :P

[frelling-tralk.livejournal.com]

Will do :)

And well the other thing putting me off moving is that I have a permanent account here with over 200 icons, and lots of extra perks like comment tracking, it would feel like a real downgrade to move to DW and lose all that. I don't know if I would even be able to purchase icons and paid time on DW actually, because apparently they had problems with paypal and can only accept US credit cards?

[kazzy-cee.livejournal.com]

Someone told me to create a filter, but then I still have to go over there and look at it (which I know I should do, but I'm just too lazy.....).

The thing that annoys me is that people don't want to be on Lj, but then they cross post. So they aren't really sure are they? They should just go if they don't want to support Lj otherwise it looks like they still support Lj and they might as well stay here. Also it makes it look like DW is an active site because everyone is backing up there and creating a history that looks like we've been there for ages. I don't see why they should get that 'history' without providing a nice place like Lj is...

*mutters*

I dunno - maybe I'm just fed up with people flouncing off and I know they don't read my journal here, but seem to expect me to read theirs on DW....!!

[honeymink]

Excellent! The Americans and Reign are the only shows I'm seriously watching at the moment. (Though to be fair those past few days I watched a lot of telly since I can't move or do much post surgery.)

I know they don't accept Paypal. I'd purchased a paid account a couple of years ago because only that would allow me to code my own layout. But I'm not sure if I paid with my US or my German credit card anymore to be honest. And yes, I imagine that'd feel like quite the downgrade. I tell myself I don't post enough these days to actually justify a paid account anywhere anymore.

[frelling-tralk.livejournal.com]

Also it makes it look like DW is an active site because everyone is backing up there and creating a history that looks like we've been there for ages. I don't see why they should get that 'history'

Heh that's true, a lot of DW must just consist of back-up journals created from LJ. I must admit that I did do that myself because I found it so handy to be able to back it all up, but on the other hand I'm surprised that LJ ever allowed a rival platform to copy all of their codes (or whatever the technical term is) to the letter, it does seem a bit cheeky!

And cross-posting seems to be the big thing these days, but it just feels to me like it would be annoying to have comments in two separate places, that way there's much less chance of everyone seeing *all* of the coments and maybe joining in on a particular discussion. I've realised recently that a few entries on my flist that didn't get much response on LJ actually had a lot more comments over on DW, and at the time I'd no idea that there was more talk going on over there, so now I need to remember to try and keep track of the comments in both entries. It was so much easier when everything was all in one place :grumpy sigh:

[elisi]

I'm slowly trying to set up a filter for DW, but it's v faffy.

Like you, I'm reading a lot of things twice...

[wendelah1]

The reason for the subscription/access separation was to make it easy for people to read the journals of those who wanted to keep some entries private or for only for a few close friends. The other reason is so people can grant access to someone even if they don't want to read their journal, for whatever reason. You can do the same thing with reading filters here and at DW. It's just more work. If I want to stop reading someone--maybe they're posting a lot on topics that are sensitive to me, or they're obsessed with a fandom I actively dislike--I can just unsubscribe, but leave their access in place. They can still read all of my entries. I always check in periodically. Sometimes I'll resubscribe to people again after a time.

All of my non-fandom entries are locked up there, although I grant access to anyone who asks. My default on LiveJournal is now locked, but again, I grant access to anyone who asks.

Maybe it doesn't feel impersonal to me because I've met new people since I started cross-posting.

I also love your icon. I saw you joined theamericans. I'm two episodes behind. Sigh.

[frelling-tralk.livejournal.com]

Yes, I found that I was skimming DW a bit as I'd read most of it on LJ already. I've decided that it makes more sense to take people off my DW reading list if I'm already following them on LJ, but then it felt rather awkward to suddenly take so many names off my reading list when we'd only just added one another on DW, so I had a panicky moment of hoping that none of my LJ friends would take offence at being removed from my DW (well I'm sure that nobody does particularly care lol)

[wendelah1]

The person who created LiveJournal based it on "open source" code.

[elisi]

Well, it makes perfect sense - I hadn't even thought of doing that.

Have been thinking of doing a poll asking where people want me to read them. But. Faffy...

[frelling-tralk.livejournal.com]

It's just different ways of doing things I suppose, and a lot of us still on LJ have become a bit set in our ways *g*

I was very pleasantly surprised at how active the comm for The Americans seems to be! I'd always heard that the communities were pretty much dead on DW, but of course that might be changing now anyway, a few biggish comms from LJ have moved over recently

[frelling-tralk.livejournal.com]

Oh and I take it that it's not considered that big a deal to unsubscribe and still remain on friendly terms on DW then, do you get a notification about it the way that you do on LJ when you've been defriended?

[wendelah1]

I don't. But I don't get notifications of it on LiveJournal either, unless people make a special point of announcing it.

[frelling-tralk.livejournal.com]

It's definitely that! *g* I've had moments of wondering if I should cross-post so that I can better keep up with the DW-only people, but then I think about having conversations for the same entry scattered in two different blogs, and it really doesn't appeal to me quite honestly. Idk, I'll wait and see how things go with LJ I guess, and if many more of us move over there

[elisi]

I've been cross-posting for a good while now, partly because I have quite a few friends now who have left LJ completely.

Yes, the split comments is really annoying, but that's life. *sigh*

[frelling-tralk.livejournal.com]

I'm not very technically minded, so I'm not really sure how open source works tbh. I know it's all aboveboard legally, it just seems a bit strange that we can copy literally everything from one platform to another, including everyone else's comments as well. But it's definitely useful to have that backup if LJ does ever go under

[wendelah1]

Except for xf_book_club, I've never had much luck keeping communities going for very long after a series ends. I did work at it for Fringe for a few years. People move on to other fandoms, plus most people had switched to Tumblr by 2010, which had a negative effect on all of my communities, here as well as at DW.

OT: I'd love to find communities to discuss The Expanse and The Good Place. I'd go anywhere. I don't find personal journals comfortable for that and Tumblr is a joke. But if such places exist anywhere, I haven't found them. Maybe Imzy? Or Reddit (shudders)?

But I'm sure The Americans discussion community will keep going until the end of the final season. The people running it are committed.

[bm-shipper.livejournal.com]

I don't like DW, never did, therefore I'm not going anywhere. If LJ goes down I go down with it, I won't move to DW at all!

[frelling-tralk.livejournal.com]

most people had switched to Tumblr by 2010, which had a negative effect on all of my communities

Urgh, tell me about it :( And sadly I think that Reddit is really the only very active message board these days, and maybe AV Club, otherwise I never see much discussion going on anywhere, it's all tumblr and Twitter based. I guess that today's fandom just doesn't have the same attention span for the longer posts and discussion that were once such a thing on LJ

I keep trying with tumblr, but I'm never going to understand why people attempt to have conversations over there

[frelling-tralk.livejournal.com]

Aww let's hope it doesn't come to that then, I would hate to lose touch! At the moment I'm mostly just using DW as a safeguard to back everything up, but if LJ does ever go under for good then I'm hoping that most of us will pick things up on DW. I would hard to give up blogging all together, I don't want to be stuck with tumblr for talking with other fans :shudders:

[wendelah1]

I'm not very technically minded either but I know DW was designed to do that, just the way it was designed for cross-posting, in order to make it easier for people to maintain ties to both communities. I have, since 2009.

For people who, for example, lost their fandom communities during strike-through, DW provided a safe haven. Losing comment subject lines, another of LJ's so-called improvements, made it harder to have discussions, and impossible to do a RP community on LiveJournal. I'm sure that's why failfandomanon moved to DW. Dreamwidth is a safe space for LGBT fans. It's a safe space for political discussion. I'm grateful it exists for the sake of the thousands of Russians who moved their accounts this year.

And there are no ads on DW. I have a permanent account here so I don't see the ads but I know they're everywhere.