migrations
I have been struggling for weeks with the Dreamwidth vs. LJ question, trying to figure out how to restructure my corner of the internet. I've been thinking about spring cleaning and reorganization, and I've been reading the meta, and I've been watching my friends make up their minds, and I have, on the whole, been feeling a little lost. A lot of you are staying on LJ, and a lot of you are cross-posting, or using your two journals for different things. The absolute last thing in the world I want is to lose any of the extraordinary community I have on LJ, and I'm putting my foot down on that: I won't lose any of that community.
But the thing is that I do like change; I think change is frequently good, especially when it comes at a time that seems fortuitous. I've been pretty unhappy with LJ. Not with the people, of course, or the interface, or all of the wonderful and amazing and exceptional things that LJ has given me. But I've felt guilty every time I've renewed my paid account for more icons and a layout I like; I've felt uncomfortable giving my money to a company whose actions and policies I so often disagree with, and while I could at any point have stopped paying for my account, I am ultimately a very shallow person: I really like icons and I really hate advertisements.
I think, ultimately, that dreamwidth could be the answer to the hopes that I wasn't ready to voice. It's open source. It's fan friendly. It's working for its customers. Sure, it's the new shiny thing, and nobody is under any obligation whatsoever to believe the hype or agree with any of the meta, but I kind of - do. I kind of want a migration, and I think maybe I should actually own up to that.
My paid LJ time expires this week, and I don't want to renew it. I was going to, but then
aria was in the same boat, and said a lot of the things I was thinking: why not be the people who move so that other people can move, too? I'm not going to proselytize, because I know a lot of you have good reasons for not moving, and I respect that, and them, and you. From now on, however, my dreamwidth journal,
oliviacirce, will be my primary journal.
Practically, this means:
1. I will be cross-posting from dreamwidth to LJ, and I will leave comments open in both places. You can comment in either place (or both), and I will respond in both.
2. I will be privatizing a lot of the backlog of both journals, but only out of a general sense of spring cleaning. I am also in the process of moving all fic to my new fic journal, the cleverly named
oliviafic. I am putting replacement links in all old fic posts, so if you have something bookmarked you shouldn't end up at a dead page.
3. I will not be de-friending anyone (although I took all my feeds off my LJ this morning and put them in my new Google Reader account, which is like the most amazing thing ever), but I do read LJ on a filter, and will adapt my filter so that I don't read people twice. If you are cross-posting and/or using dreamwidth as your primary journal, I will read you on dreamwidth. If you aren't, I will continue to read you on LJ. At some point I will go looking for everybody, but if you feel like leaving me a comment with your dreamwidth name, that would be pretty awesome. If you want to read my dreamwidth on Open ID rather than (or in slightly pointless addition to) reading my LJ, I will probably grant you access on dreamwidth, but I won't subscribe to you, because I'll be reading you on LJ. Logically. I will not be offended if you de-friend me (or whatever) in either place. I figure we're probably all doing a bit of spring cleaning.
4. I will probably be leaving more posts unlocked at dreamwidth, because I feel like dreamwidth is a more welcoming fannish environment - despite all of you at LJ, of course, who are wonderful fans (♥). All real life and academic posts will stay locked, of course, but more fannish stuff will probably be open.
5. I won't leave LJ entirely, of course - unless everybody moves to dreamwidth for real, which I think would be cool, but am seriously not counting on - because that would be a dismissal of all of the things I love about our part of the internet. Which is to say: you.
Questions, comments, thoughts, etc., are all very welcome, on either journal.
But the thing is that I do like change; I think change is frequently good, especially when it comes at a time that seems fortuitous. I've been pretty unhappy with LJ. Not with the people, of course, or the interface, or all of the wonderful and amazing and exceptional things that LJ has given me. But I've felt guilty every time I've renewed my paid account for more icons and a layout I like; I've felt uncomfortable giving my money to a company whose actions and policies I so often disagree with, and while I could at any point have stopped paying for my account, I am ultimately a very shallow person: I really like icons and I really hate advertisements.
I think, ultimately, that dreamwidth could be the answer to the hopes that I wasn't ready to voice. It's open source. It's fan friendly. It's working for its customers. Sure, it's the new shiny thing, and nobody is under any obligation whatsoever to believe the hype or agree with any of the meta, but I kind of - do. I kind of want a migration, and I think maybe I should actually own up to that.
My paid LJ time expires this week, and I don't want to renew it. I was going to, but then
aria was in the same boat, and said a lot of the things I was thinking: why not be the people who move so that other people can move, too? I'm not going to proselytize, because I know a lot of you have good reasons for not moving, and I respect that, and them, and you. From now on, however, my dreamwidth journal,
oliviacirce, will be my primary journal.
Practically, this means:
1. I will be cross-posting from dreamwidth to LJ, and I will leave comments open in both places. You can comment in either place (or both), and I will respond in both.
2. I will be privatizing a lot of the backlog of both journals, but only out of a general sense of spring cleaning. I am also in the process of moving all fic to my new fic journal, the cleverly named
oliviafic. I am putting replacement links in all old fic posts, so if you have something bookmarked you shouldn't end up at a dead page.
3. I will not be de-friending anyone (although I took all my feeds off my LJ this morning and put them in my new Google Reader account, which is like the most amazing thing ever), but I do read LJ on a filter, and will adapt my filter so that I don't read people twice. If you are cross-posting and/or using dreamwidth as your primary journal, I will read you on dreamwidth. If you aren't, I will continue to read you on LJ. At some point I will go looking for everybody, but if you feel like leaving me a comment with your dreamwidth name, that would be pretty awesome. If you want to read my dreamwidth on Open ID rather than (or in slightly pointless addition to) reading my LJ, I will probably grant you access on dreamwidth, but I won't subscribe to you, because I'll be reading you on LJ. Logically. I will not be offended if you de-friend me (or whatever) in either place. I figure we're probably all doing a bit of spring cleaning.
4. I will probably be leaving more posts unlocked at dreamwidth, because I feel like dreamwidth is a more welcoming fannish environment - despite all of you at LJ, of course, who are wonderful fans (♥). All real life and academic posts will stay locked, of course, but more fannish stuff will probably be open.
5. I won't leave LJ entirely, of course - unless everybody moves to dreamwidth for real, which I think would be cool, but am seriously not counting on - because that would be a dismissal of all of the things I love about our part of the internet. Which is to say: you.
Questions, comments, thoughts, etc., are all very welcome, on either journal.