So, this Dreamwidth thingie... a somewhat incoherent rec post
Maybe you've heard about Dreamwidth already, maybe not.
Dreamwidth calls itself a Livejournal fork, it uses the Open Source code of Livejournal, but updates and streamlines it (as far as I can tell ^^), getting rid of unnecessary clutter and not being just a livejournal clone on another server.
Dreamwidth is headed by synecdochic and xb95 who both worked for Livejournal in their past but decided that they wanted to try their own version of a LJbased social networking site. They promise their users transparency in their costs of servers and the like and first and foremost will place NO ADS (explained by one of the founders of DW Here: Why Monetizing Social Media Through Advertising Is Doomed To Failure) on their site anywhere. Dreamwidth is i believe the first LJ-based networking site that actually knows what it is going to deal with in terms of expansion and development, since they seem to have a reasonable business development plan in place and calculated costs accordingly.
I know that there have been many many LJ copies and I'm not even sure I know them all, and in the end nothing came of most of them (I think insanejournal is the only one that is at least somewhat LJ-alternative), since the copies were using a) old code and thus were less flexible than what users where used from LJ, b) in the panicky influxes into new services during Strike and Boldthrough the capacities of the services were maxed out, making it slow and not really viable options for LJ.
But Dreamwidth seems like the first viable option I've seen, that would actually make me want to post and be active. (You can actually import your LJ-Style, hopefully tho, soon there will be many more dreamwidth-only stiles :D)
They've reworked the friending system, which is now very different. You can subscribe to someone and read their posts, but you don't 'friend' them as in give them access to read locked post. That's what the second feature of 'give access' is for. That I find very very good, because I always found the friend-thing on LJ a bit iffy, because if I only wanted to watch a journal without giving them the ability to read my locked posts, i would have to post in filters, which I am way too lazy for.
Another thing that makes Dreamwidth great, imho, is the fact that it is so crosscompatible with other services and I can even read my LJ-friendslist from there, and OpenID accounts on LJ can be watched as well, hooray.
And probably the reason that I love dreamwidth the most? I can FINALLY have my littleblacksheep username, since they upped the username max to 25 char (oh, oh and the max char on comments and posts too, no more having to break up my rambling in tiny parts nooo, now it's continuous rambling all the time :)
So, to make TL;DR short: Dreamwidth is a new shiny thing that promises much, and for the first time ever I find myself actually believing the promises :D! and as stated before, this is my account on DW. So far it is still in closed beta but on April 30th it will open its gates for open beta, so everyone can join, and maybe I can even scrounge up some invite codes beforehand.
ETA: I forgot, they also give you the option of importing your lj with all comments (except for the deleted ones of course ^^)
Useful links for the so inclined:
Stuff Dreamwidth does better than LJ
Zvi gives a little introduction
Why Dreamwidth? Explained a lot more coherently
Another Why Dreamwidth post I had to include due to the title :D
Dreamwidth calls itself a Livejournal fork, it uses the Open Source code of Livejournal, but updates and streamlines it (as far as I can tell ^^), getting rid of unnecessary clutter and not being just a livejournal clone on another server.
Dreamwidth is headed by synecdochic and xb95 who both worked for Livejournal in their past but decided that they wanted to try their own version of a LJbased social networking site. They promise their users transparency in their costs of servers and the like and first and foremost will place NO ADS (explained by one of the founders of DW Here: Why Monetizing Social Media Through Advertising Is Doomed To Failure) on their site anywhere. Dreamwidth is i believe the first LJ-based networking site that actually knows what it is going to deal with in terms of expansion and development, since they seem to have a reasonable business development plan in place and calculated costs accordingly.
I know that there have been many many LJ copies and I'm not even sure I know them all, and in the end nothing came of most of them (I think insanejournal is the only one that is at least somewhat LJ-alternative), since the copies were using a) old code and thus were less flexible than what users where used from LJ, b) in the panicky influxes into new services during Strike and Boldthrough the capacities of the services were maxed out, making it slow and not really viable options for LJ.
But Dreamwidth seems like the first viable option I've seen, that would actually make me want to post and be active. (You can actually import your LJ-Style, hopefully tho, soon there will be many more dreamwidth-only stiles :D)
They've reworked the friending system, which is now very different. You can subscribe to someone and read their posts, but you don't 'friend' them as in give them access to read locked post. That's what the second feature of 'give access' is for. That I find very very good, because I always found the friend-thing on LJ a bit iffy, because if I only wanted to watch a journal without giving them the ability to read my locked posts, i would have to post in filters, which I am way too lazy for.
Another thing that makes Dreamwidth great, imho, is the fact that it is so crosscompatible with other services and I can even read my LJ-friendslist from there, and OpenID accounts on LJ can be watched as well, hooray.
And probably the reason that I love dreamwidth the most? I can FINALLY have my littleblacksheep username, since they upped the username max to 25 char (oh, oh and the max char on comments and posts too, no more having to break up my rambling in tiny parts nooo, now it's continuous rambling all the time :)
So, to make TL;DR short: Dreamwidth is a new shiny thing that promises much, and for the first time ever I find myself actually believing the promises :D! and as stated before, this is my account on DW. So far it is still in closed beta but on April 30th it will open its gates for open beta, so everyone can join, and maybe I can even scrounge up some invite codes beforehand.
ETA: I forgot, they also give you the option of importing your lj with all comments (except for the deleted ones of course ^^)
Useful links for the so inclined:
Stuff Dreamwidth does better than LJ
Zvi gives a little introduction
Why Dreamwidth? Explained a lot more coherently
Another Why Dreamwidth post I had to include due to the title :D