Dreamwidth - HUH?

[dreaming_k]

Is it just me, or has there been a veritable surge of people switching to Dreamwidth in the last few days? I'm happy most of them say they aren't jumping ship, they just use it as a back-up so to speak. Still, what's going on over there that has people signing up in masses?

I don't live under a rock, but I seem to have missed something big.

Comments

[snycock]

Well, they just went out of closed beta into open beta, so they starting letting more people make free accounts, and also opened up the ability to purchase an account. That's why the rush in the past few days.

The larger question: Dreamwidth is a social networking site, built on LJ's code, made by fandom folks (synecdochic was a major force) in the wake of Strikethrough (LJ deleting a bunch of fannish journals and communities in a panic because some right-wing organization was accusing them of supporting child porn).

Personally, I am glad to have a backup for LJ, but also, I admire the ethos behind Dreamwidth and the support for fannish endeavors. I want to support them, because they're trying to do things differently - they've been amazingly transparent about issues in the beta, they respond really quickly to questions and comments, and they have a diversity statement that brought tears to my eyes.

Now, it may not always be that way, and people could end up as disgruntled with DW as with LJ, but I really hope not. I really think they want to be a home for fandom and be supportive. Which doesn't mean that they aren't going to have to make some uncomfortable decisions at times. But I believe they're committed to making those in an open and transparent environment.

Anyway, whoo, that was probably way more than you wanted to know! All my own opinion, obviously. You can validate your livejournal account over there as an OpenID if you want to check it out: www.dreamwidth.org.

[dreaming_k]

Sorry for taking so long to get back to you.

Thank you for taking the time and explaining this! It really came out of the blue for me as I'd never even heard of Dreamwidth before. With the help of laurie_ky and fluterbev I've got my own account there now, and will see how this proceeds.

After reading the diversity statement, I do really hope that things work out the way the Dreamwidth creators imgagine them. It does sound like a good place to be.