My last post, regarding Dreamwidth, received mixed responses on my LiveJournal. There are several people who are interested in DW accounts, but several of the responses asked why Dreamwidth is so much different than LiveJournal. And, that's definitely a valid question, since my main reasons for switching aren't rooted in technical issues.
When I first signed up on LJ back in 2003, I wasn't really sure what to make of it. Aside from the requirement of receiving an invite code to join, it didn't seem that special or interesting. As time went on, I found friends there, and started getting into it more, but it was still just another website.
This was about the time that every blog, forum, and homepage on the internet started adding Google ads to make money on their visitors. It was like every webmaster out there suddenly decided that selling ads was the greatest idea ever. Combined with my career (at the time) that was primarily based in killing spyware/adware, I developed a very strong disdain for internet advertising, which remains strong to this day. Unfortunately, I was in a minority position on the issue, so aside from developing ad-blocking techniques on my own computers, and vowing never to include outside advertising on any site I was involved in, I didn't do much. But, I did start to actively support websites that shared my philosophy.
Much to my enjoyment, LiveJournal was one of those sites. It didn't have to sell ad space to stay afloat, and with its paid account structure, it was actually doing very nicely for itself. A nice contrast to sites like DeviantArt. So, LJ's business philosophy became an inspiration to me. I was involved with several websites at the time, some of which I contemplated putting ads on due to sheer traffic volume, but I could always look at LJ and say "If LJ doesn't need ads, neither do I". After less than a year of membership, I bought a paid account on LJ, and it became one of my favourite websites. It had a huge userbase, but still managed to stay innovative, fresh, and friendly.
Of course, things change over time, but I wasn't as cynical about the business world then as I am now. I fully expected LJ to continue to be The Most Awesome Website Ever for as long as it existed. No such luck. After a few years of bliss, they sold out. Which made me uneasy, but I went with it, hoping that the new owners wouldn't kill it. Then they started selling ad space, but I gave them a pass on that because they were pretty much only an opt-in implementation. But, the troublesome business moves kept coming. Censorship drama, blatant pandering to advertisers/corporate sponsors, and so forth; I'm sure pretty much everyone knows the history on these things for the last couple of years, no need to re-hash it here. The point is, LJ lost the charm it once had, and became Just Another Business, sacrificing principles for increased profits.
The turning point, for me, came when they announced they were phasing out Basic accounts. This marked a very clear transition from ads that were opt-in to ads that the user had to pay to get rid of. It also displayed a change to a more profit-centered administrative attitude. Since LJ no longer represented something I felt comfortable supporting financially, I reverted my paid account to Basic and no longer bought upgrades for friends. I also looked into moving entirely to a self-hosted blog, but that was short-lived; I did eventually launch one, but for a different purpose.
Things continued downhill with LJ, and I decided that as soon as a viable LJ replacement came along, I'd be jumping ship. I already had a full backup of my LJ on my blog, so I just wanted to see a community blogging site for grown-ups (none of this pointless kiddie BS like Myspace).
When I read the launch announcement for Dreamwidth (from![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
rebelsheart/![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
tango), I could barely control my glee. It was exactly what I'd been waiting and hoping for, and even run by former LJ coders/staff. It's what LJ used to be for me; a well-run website that runs on good ideas and good members, not marketing. And, on top of that, it's proudly open-source (LJ is too, sort of, but they try rather hard to obscure that fact and make the code hard to find).
So, that's my take on this. I don't have 100% faith that Dreamwidth will maintain its principles indefinitely, since I've seen so many other sites with similar starts abandon their principles over time, but I do believe it has a chance to succeed.
I know that not everyone feels the way I do on this, and that's fine. But, look at it this way; Dreamwidth is in competition with LiveJournal, with a vastly superior product that fills the same niche. All it needs to succeed is a userbase, and I feel confident that it will develop one.
As for my own journal, I plan to use the cross-posting tool for all my entries, once they add the ability to use filters on the external sites it posts too. I'm not going to stop reading LJ anytime in the next few years, if ever, but I would like to see people migrate to the new site. The cross-posting tool makes it easy to try the new with minimal difficulty, so I highly recommend that everyone at least try it when accounts open up.
Regarding invite codes, Dreamwidth has already said that they'll continue to exist after the launch, to prevent explosive growth. This is pure speculation, but I have a feeling they'll be discontinued once DW has reached a point where they can handle open membership. In the meantime, all existing accounts on DW will receive "a ton" of invite codes (their words), and everyone who's subscribed to a mailing list will be invited, and everyone with an OpenID account that has a confirmed email address associated with it will be invited. So, if you have any interest in getting a Dreamwidth account, make yourself an OpenID account and you'll be able to magically "presto" it into a real account at the end of the month.
EDIT: It seems that there are no plans to remove the invite code system, which is highly disappointing, but it sounds like they'll be giving them out more frequently than LJ did. I'm hopeful that they'll stick to that, and consider removing the system at a point that they can support living without it.
When I first signed up on LJ back in 2003, I wasn't really sure what to make of it. Aside from the requirement of receiving an invite code to join, it didn't seem that special or interesting. As time went on, I found friends there, and started getting into it more, but it was still just another website.
This was about the time that every blog, forum, and homepage on the internet started adding Google ads to make money on their visitors. It was like every webmaster out there suddenly decided that selling ads was the greatest idea ever. Combined with my career (at the time) that was primarily based in killing spyware/adware, I developed a very strong disdain for internet advertising, which remains strong to this day. Unfortunately, I was in a minority position on the issue, so aside from developing ad-blocking techniques on my own computers, and vowing never to include outside advertising on any site I was involved in, I didn't do much. But, I did start to actively support websites that shared my philosophy.
Much to my enjoyment, LiveJournal was one of those sites. It didn't have to sell ad space to stay afloat, and with its paid account structure, it was actually doing very nicely for itself. A nice contrast to sites like DeviantArt. So, LJ's business philosophy became an inspiration to me. I was involved with several websites at the time, some of which I contemplated putting ads on due to sheer traffic volume, but I could always look at LJ and say "If LJ doesn't need ads, neither do I". After less than a year of membership, I bought a paid account on LJ, and it became one of my favourite websites. It had a huge userbase, but still managed to stay innovative, fresh, and friendly.
Of course, things change over time, but I wasn't as cynical about the business world then as I am now. I fully expected LJ to continue to be The Most Awesome Website Ever for as long as it existed. No such luck. After a few years of bliss, they sold out. Which made me uneasy, but I went with it, hoping that the new owners wouldn't kill it. Then they started selling ad space, but I gave them a pass on that because they were pretty much only an opt-in implementation. But, the troublesome business moves kept coming. Censorship drama, blatant pandering to advertisers/corporate sponsors, and so forth; I'm sure pretty much everyone knows the history on these things for the last couple of years, no need to re-hash it here. The point is, LJ lost the charm it once had, and became Just Another Business, sacrificing principles for increased profits.
The turning point, for me, came when they announced they were phasing out Basic accounts. This marked a very clear transition from ads that were opt-in to ads that the user had to pay to get rid of. It also displayed a change to a more profit-centered administrative attitude. Since LJ no longer represented something I felt comfortable supporting financially, I reverted my paid account to Basic and no longer bought upgrades for friends. I also looked into moving entirely to a self-hosted blog, but that was short-lived; I did eventually launch one, but for a different purpose.
Things continued downhill with LJ, and I decided that as soon as a viable LJ replacement came along, I'd be jumping ship. I already had a full backup of my LJ on my blog, so I just wanted to see a community blogging site for grown-ups (none of this pointless kiddie BS like Myspace).
When I read the launch announcement for Dreamwidth (from
rebelsheart/tango), I could barely control my glee. It was exactly what I'd been waiting and hoping for, and even run by former LJ coders/staff. It's what LJ used to be for me; a well-run website that runs on good ideas and good members, not marketing. And, on top of that, it's proudly open-source (LJ is too, sort of, but they try rather hard to obscure that fact and make the code hard to find).So, that's my take on this. I don't have 100% faith that Dreamwidth will maintain its principles indefinitely, since I've seen so many other sites with similar starts abandon their principles over time, but I do believe it has a chance to succeed.
I know that not everyone feels the way I do on this, and that's fine. But, look at it this way; Dreamwidth is in competition with LiveJournal, with a vastly superior product that fills the same niche. All it needs to succeed is a userbase, and I feel confident that it will develop one.
As for my own journal, I plan to use the cross-posting tool for all my entries, once they add the ability to use filters on the external sites it posts too. I'm not going to stop reading LJ anytime in the next few years, if ever, but I would like to see people migrate to the new site. The cross-posting tool makes it easy to try the new with minimal difficulty, so I highly recommend that everyone at least try it when accounts open up.
Regarding invite codes, Dreamwidth has already said that they'll continue to exist after the launch, to prevent explosive growth. This is pure speculation, but I have a feeling they'll be discontinued once DW has reached a point where they can handle open membership. In the meantime, all existing accounts on DW will receive "a ton" of invite codes (their words), and everyone who's subscribed to a mailing list will be invited, and everyone with an OpenID account that has a confirmed email address associated with it will be invited. So, if you have any interest in getting a Dreamwidth account, make yourself an OpenID account and you'll be able to magically "presto" it into a real account at the end of the month.
EDIT: It seems that there are no plans to remove the invite code system, which is highly disappointing, but it sounds like they'll be giving them out more frequently than LJ did. I'm hopeful that they'll stick to that, and consider removing the system at a point that they can support living without it.