I'm an Idealist, but I also Read the Terms of Service
Sprouting in my friends list recently, have been a lot of mentions of Dreamwidth. Dreamwidth is an idea for building a better sort of online community using an open source version of the Livejournal software. It would also modernize a lot of the aging code. It is also the brainchild of a former Livejournal staff member. Most of the buzz about Dreamwidth has been generated by that original manifesto of sorts. These ideals are more clearly expressed on the "Guiding Principles" section of the site.
"When I was young, my mom called me an idealist an awful lot.
She always meant it as a good thing, but let's face it; in today's world, 'idealist' is usually a dirty word. It carries the connotations of someone who doesn't know how the world really works. Someone whose head is in the clouds. Someone who sees the ideals, and not the reality."
What an unintentionally ironic description of the users that Dreamwidth will be attracting - Mommy's little idealists with their heads in the clouds. Why? Because the reality is that Dreamwidth is spewing pure bullocks as "idealism". If one checks Livejournal's company values, one would be hard pressed to find much appreciable difference. Perhaps more damning is that virtually all social network services express a commitment to very similar values. Certainly it is sensible to for such a service to express commitment to such values, as a social network service that doesn't give a damn about its community is going to fail, but none of what Dreamwidth says is actually new, or particularly great.
More ominously, and more important than to what values a company professes to believe in, is the Terms of Service. While a read through will not reveal anything odd about this very normal looking document, following it with a read through of Livejournal's Terms of Service will. That is because they are virtually identical in all the important aspects. For all their talk of transparency and consulting the company still reserves the right to give you absolutely no stake whatsoever in their operations. Just like Livejournal.
Like Livejournal, Dreamwidth operates as a registered corporation. Its primary purpose is to generate a profit for its owners, not create a truly awesome online community. While I think they are honest about wanting to have a great online community for its own sake, it will always be secondary to profit, without which the whole venture fails. Even if it had a terrible community, but turned a profit it would succeed. The terms of service are abundantly clear that Dreamwidth is profit first, community second, otherwise they wouldn't have a top down corporate structure, or a terms of service for the matter.
Even Dreamwidth's other professed values of "Open Expression" and "Open Source" ring false. As the company reserves the right to absolute authority over what content is allowed on their service and makes all users, regardless of nationality, adhere to restrictive US copyright law, it can never truly be open expression. As the company controls what makes it into the final edit they use, it can never truly be open source. They let the users fix the bugs and but the company reaps the benefits, and they have the nerve to call it open source.
Never take a company at its professed values, as they are meaningless. The Terms of Service are the only thing that matters for determining company behavior. Terms of service only exist for the provider, not the user, as they are setting the terms of your use, and all of them reserve the right of the provider to do whatever the hell it wants. This is all fine and dandy - we live in a free market. They own the service, so they can set the terms of service for users. I don't like terms of service in general, but I am not disputing Dreamwidth's right to them, but I take exception when they call themselves an open operation when they are clearly not.
Beyond some cosmetic differences, Dreamwidth and Livejournal are basically the same, except for one thing: Dreamwidth has 200,000 users. Livejournal has 16,000,000. If I find an online community that exists for its own sake, the community has direct control over its own fate, does not put binding restrictions on its members, and has a not insignificant number of users, I'll jump ship for it. But for now, I'll stick with Livejournal and closely reading terms of service.
"When I was young, my mom called me an idealist an awful lot.
She always meant it as a good thing, but let's face it; in today's world, 'idealist' is usually a dirty word. It carries the connotations of someone who doesn't know how the world really works. Someone whose head is in the clouds. Someone who sees the ideals, and not the reality."
What an unintentionally ironic description of the users that Dreamwidth will be attracting - Mommy's little idealists with their heads in the clouds. Why? Because the reality is that Dreamwidth is spewing pure bullocks as "idealism". If one checks Livejournal's company values, one would be hard pressed to find much appreciable difference. Perhaps more damning is that virtually all social network services express a commitment to very similar values. Certainly it is sensible to for such a service to express commitment to such values, as a social network service that doesn't give a damn about its community is going to fail, but none of what Dreamwidth says is actually new, or particularly great.
More ominously, and more important than to what values a company professes to believe in, is the Terms of Service. While a read through will not reveal anything odd about this very normal looking document, following it with a read through of Livejournal's Terms of Service will. That is because they are virtually identical in all the important aspects. For all their talk of transparency and consulting the company still reserves the right to give you absolutely no stake whatsoever in their operations. Just like Livejournal.
Like Livejournal, Dreamwidth operates as a registered corporation. Its primary purpose is to generate a profit for its owners, not create a truly awesome online community. While I think they are honest about wanting to have a great online community for its own sake, it will always be secondary to profit, without which the whole venture fails. Even if it had a terrible community, but turned a profit it would succeed. The terms of service are abundantly clear that Dreamwidth is profit first, community second, otherwise they wouldn't have a top down corporate structure, or a terms of service for the matter.
Even Dreamwidth's other professed values of "Open Expression" and "Open Source" ring false. As the company reserves the right to absolute authority over what content is allowed on their service and makes all users, regardless of nationality, adhere to restrictive US copyright law, it can never truly be open expression. As the company controls what makes it into the final edit they use, it can never truly be open source. They let the users fix the bugs and but the company reaps the benefits, and they have the nerve to call it open source.
Never take a company at its professed values, as they are meaningless. The Terms of Service are the only thing that matters for determining company behavior. Terms of service only exist for the provider, not the user, as they are setting the terms of your use, and all of them reserve the right of the provider to do whatever the hell it wants. This is all fine and dandy - we live in a free market. They own the service, so they can set the terms of service for users. I don't like terms of service in general, but I am not disputing Dreamwidth's right to them, but I take exception when they call themselves an open operation when they are clearly not.
Beyond some cosmetic differences, Dreamwidth and Livejournal are basically the same, except for one thing: Dreamwidth has 200,000 users. Livejournal has 16,000,000. If I find an online community that exists for its own sake, the community has direct control over its own fate, does not put binding restrictions on its members, and has a not insignificant number of users, I'll jump ship for it. But for now, I'll stick with Livejournal and closely reading terms of service.