On crossposting

[feuervogel]

LJ keeps doing sketchy things wrt security and data mining (and stealing people's revenue by hijacking their affiliate codes). Here's a nice post by afuna on the current issue, which links to this detailed (and in non-jargony language) post.

LJ has been pissing me off over time. I've toyed with the ideas of stopping crossposting, or turning off comments on the crossposted posts. But the bulk of my peeps are on LJ, and none of you seem terribly inclined to move (other than the several of you who already have.)

I could give all my LJ friends OpenID access to my DW account (those of you who have DW accounts but don't use them would be exempt), but that would make it easier to connect the two IDs than it already is, and I prefer to keep them separate.

Question: If I stopped crossposting, or if I turned off comments on LJ, who would have a problem with coming to DW to comment? You don't have to create an account to read, or even comment: they support OpenID.

I don't want to keep supporting LJ and all their sketchy bullshit and keep providing content for them (even if it's mostly behind a flock) to get more ad revenue.

Dreamwidth has an amazing diversity statement, actively works to be accessible to the disabled, and stood up to repeated censorship trolls who targeted their payment providers (first paypal, then google checkout) under the spectre of "porn sites." They don't allow illegal materials (child porn, for example), but neither do they prohibit free expression. They will not allow advertisers.

I still have an invite code, if anybody wants one. I don't think there are free accounts right now, but you can buy a single-month paid account (for $3, iirc, though they've just introduced a points system which I don't fully understand) and let it lapse to become free. Yeah, it's kinda cheating, but their business model includes that situation. And if you decide you like it, you can buy more paid time.

They don't have a bunch of stupid "features" that nobody wants, and they took the spaghetti code from LJ and cleaned it up, so it works *better*.

It's kinda quiet over here, but the water's nice. Come on in.

Comments

[sabeth]

I'll be curious to see people's replies to this. Have been contemplating making comments DW-only as well. I'd prefer to stop crossposting altogether, but 80% of my flist seem set to stay on LJ, sigh. (Although I'm still hoping that as LJ keeps messing up, those numbers will change.)

Let me know if you need more codes, I have a few left.

(I'll reply to your FB message later today! Been busy, and laaazy about communications.)

[feuervogel]

I think most of my flist doesn't give a flip, though the sheer trans!fail going on lately in LJ mgmt might swing a couple of them to go. So far both commenters have said they're ok with commenting here, but they both have dw accounts (which they never use. :P )

Have you been able to move into your new flat? I saw you got keys, and that's exciting!

[sabeth]

Lots of people on my flist are casual users these days and they just can't be bothered. Which I kind of understand, but it's still a shame. I think I need to post and remind people about recent LJ mess-ups again.

I'm in the middle of moving! Went to IKEA yesterday and spent lots of money on furniture, which is supposed to be delivered on Monday. So that's when I'll move in permanently, I think. Should be getting Internet next Wednesday. I can't wait, honestly. It's all pretty exciting. :D

[feuervogel]

I keep running across people who have some sort of moral/ethical objection to using DW, which just ... I don't even know. And they're never my friends, just people commenting elsewhere that they don't want to support this service, or back ages ago when people were all over metafandom "I have an openid account because someone imported their lj, and now it looks like I support DW, and I DON'T."

Furniture is exciting! What district are you in?

[sabeth]

I don't get that at all. Same with the people who are so passionately opposed to the AO3. I think there's a prevailing idea that both DW and the AO3 are some kind of elite/BNF institution, which ... I just don't really understand at all.

Third district! Been wanting to move somewhere around there for ages, so I'm well chuffed. Where are you staying when you're in Vienna, again?

[feuervogel]

Wut? That just doesn't make sense. Hell, I'm not even hardly a FAN these days, not in the way people generally mean it when they say "fandom." (I don't watch TV, I rarely write fanfic, I don't vid ... but I like to read and natter on about cool books I read.)

Oh, nice! We're staying in the 8th district at Pension Wild. (They're openly queer-friendly :D )

[sabeth]

It's just because some of the minds behind DW (and even more so behind AO3/the OTW) are well-known media fandom people. I swear, I keep seeing the argument that this makes people feel unwelcome somehow. (I don't even want to get into what this says about some people's issues. >_>) I've never understood it -- both DW and the AO3 are tools for people to build their own communities, to make their own space.

And I know what you mean, but I think you still have ... fannish sensibilities, in a way? There's a fannishness many people retain even when they wander out of fandom, which I think keeps on connecting us all. (I never know how to describe it adequately, but people either have it or they don't. In RL, too. It's related to, but slightly different from, geekiness, and I tend to get along much better with people who have it.)

Ooh, right, I remember now! Well, one of the many nice things about Vienna is that it's small enough to get anywhere reasonably fast, especially as long as you stay within the inner districts. :D

[feuervogel]

That's just ... Having insecurities sucks, and it's not like anyone is *barring* people from creating accounts because they're not BNFs. (Though one issue I remember people having was Denise's involvement with LJAbuse, and a few resolutions they didn't like. But it's not like she set the policy, you know?)

I think I know what you're getting at. It's a sort of community feeling, with an understanding of what it means to squee, and that makes a difference.

Vienna looks fabulous :) I'm so excited that we're staying within easy walking distance of the first district (and pretty close to a U-bahn stop).

[picklish]

Harumph.

[kirin]

Huh, so you can import an LJ wholesale, including comments? That's kinda nifty.

[picklish]

It was pretty smooth, actually. The only thing that went weird were videos that I had embedded.

I haven't totally committed to switching to DW, but it's looking really tempting.

[feuervogel]

The embedded videos thing is a known bug.

[feuervogel]

Yup! You can even set it to be private if you want. Almost all of my entries from LJ are private, and the ones I've made public I screened the comments on. Partly because it's even easier to figure out my LJ username that way, since I comment on my own posts a lot.