The state of the Dreamwidth
This is the current roundup of the state-of-the-Dreamwidth!
* We are still in closed beta.
Open beta, which is the point where we will a). hand out invite codes like candy to our existing users and b). start accepting payments for people to upgrade their accounts and/or create new accounts, is still April 30.
* Closed beta is expanding.
We're adding more people to the closed beta on a daily basis, in order to get new sets of eyeballs and to start gathering better data on server load. (We're trying to figure out what we're going to need in terms of server resources at open beta launch. Right now we're running with minimal resources, and we want to know what we're going to need when we start getting heavier traffic.)
* This means that some people have invite codes to give out, but not a whole lot of invite codes.
We're inviting people who've expressed interest in the project on a more-or-less random basis -- by sending invites to people who've subscribed to our project mailing lists, people who have created OpenID accounts and set/validated their email addresses, and people who have volunteered and/or contributed to the project -- and we're also giving some people invites to hand out. This is so we can get a really broad sampling of users of all sorts of technical levels and experience.
We're handing out invite codes to our existing users to give out in small batches, to watch things very very carefully. This is temporary. We'll be a lot more generous with invites and with giving out invite codes towards the end of the month.
* Your best bet to get an account is using your OpenID to comment.
If you absolutely can't wait for April 30, your best route to getting an account is to log in with OpenID, then set and validate your email address. OpenID accounts can leave comments, but they can't post entries.
We're inviting anywhere between 20-50 OpenID users a day right now.
* Things aren't totally finished yet.
Big things that aren't finished yet: our style system (we only have two styles right now, and they can't be customized using the customization wizard yet), the crossposter (the thing that will let you automatically cross-post to LJ or a LJ-based site from within Dreamwidth), the ability to read your LJ friends page from within Dreamwidth, and, uh, our payment system.
We'll have all of that done by open beta launch. (We might not have a tremendous number of styles available precisely at open beta, but our styles team is working hard, and we'll release styles as soon as they're finished. The customization wizard will be done, though.)
We're keeping a list of user-facing Known Issues on our wiki, if you don't want to wade through our bug tracker. It may be a little out of date at any given time, since it has to be manually copied over. Bugzilla has the most recent information.
* If you've got a question, it might have already been answered.
I've spent a lot of time this week writing up answers in dw-biz about our business plan and what things are going to look like for the next few months. If you've got a question, check out the things I've already answered, and see if that covers it.
* If your question hasn't been answered, I want to know what it is.
If you're unsure about something, there's a good chance a bunch of other people are, too.
* If you think you've spotted a bug, you may very well have.
We know there are still some bugs lurking around, in addition to things being undone. You can see our list of bugs blocking open beta (the things that will get done before open beta begins), as well as our list of all open bugs. (The all-open search is kinda intimidating, I know, but do remember that some of them are planned enhancements for the future, not just "things that are broken now".) There's also the Known Issues list on the Wiki -- that's an attempt to only gather the open bugs that you, the end-user, might notice.
There are almost certainly things that aren't listed there, so if you think you've spotted something that's broken, or just something that could work better, leave a comment on one of my posts and we'll see what we can do. (We'll have a better reporting process by the time we launch.)
* You can't pay us yet.
I just edited the text on the Create an Account flow to make it clearer, but -- we aren't accepting payments until April 30, the day of our launch to open beta. This is partially because we don't want to take payment until we feel that we're providing a reasonably complete service, and partially because, uh, the payment system isn't finished yet.
In the meantime, while we're still in closed beta, you can manually upgrade your account. (We'll expire everyone's accounts before we open on April 30. You won't lose anything you've uploaded like userpics; they'll just be marked inactive, just like when your paid account expires on LJ.)
* Everybody should be reading dw-news.
We post important announcements there, as well as once-a-week progress updates every Monday night (or Tuesday morning, if I run long). Keep an eye on it for any useful and informative announcements.
[Comment to this entry on Dreamwidth. You can log in with your LiveJournal URL, and then set and validate an email address. (If you don't set and validate an email address, your comment will be treated as anonymous for purposes of comment screening, etc. We're going to be fixing that.)]
* We are still in closed beta.
Open beta, which is the point where we will a). hand out invite codes like candy to our existing users and b). start accepting payments for people to upgrade their accounts and/or create new accounts, is still April 30.
* Closed beta is expanding.
We're adding more people to the closed beta on a daily basis, in order to get new sets of eyeballs and to start gathering better data on server load. (We're trying to figure out what we're going to need in terms of server resources at open beta launch. Right now we're running with minimal resources, and we want to know what we're going to need when we start getting heavier traffic.)
* This means that some people have invite codes to give out, but not a whole lot of invite codes.
We're inviting people who've expressed interest in the project on a more-or-less random basis -- by sending invites to people who've subscribed to our project mailing lists, people who have created OpenID accounts and set/validated their email addresses, and people who have volunteered and/or contributed to the project -- and we're also giving some people invites to hand out. This is so we can get a really broad sampling of users of all sorts of technical levels and experience.
We're handing out invite codes to our existing users to give out in small batches, to watch things very very carefully. This is temporary. We'll be a lot more generous with invites and with giving out invite codes towards the end of the month.
* Your best bet to get an account is using your OpenID to comment.
If you absolutely can't wait for April 30, your best route to getting an account is to log in with OpenID, then set and validate your email address. OpenID accounts can leave comments, but they can't post entries.
We're inviting anywhere between 20-50 OpenID users a day right now.
* Things aren't totally finished yet.
Big things that aren't finished yet: our style system (we only have two styles right now, and they can't be customized using the customization wizard yet), the crossposter (the thing that will let you automatically cross-post to LJ or a LJ-based site from within Dreamwidth), the ability to read your LJ friends page from within Dreamwidth, and, uh, our payment system.
We'll have all of that done by open beta launch. (We might not have a tremendous number of styles available precisely at open beta, but our styles team is working hard, and we'll release styles as soon as they're finished. The customization wizard will be done, though.)
We're keeping a list of user-facing Known Issues on our wiki, if you don't want to wade through our bug tracker. It may be a little out of date at any given time, since it has to be manually copied over. Bugzilla has the most recent information.
* If you've got a question, it might have already been answered.
I've spent a lot of time this week writing up answers in dw-biz about our business plan and what things are going to look like for the next few months. If you've got a question, check out the things I've already answered, and see if that covers it.
* If your question hasn't been answered, I want to know what it is.
If you're unsure about something, there's a good chance a bunch of other people are, too.
* If you think you've spotted a bug, you may very well have.
We know there are still some bugs lurking around, in addition to things being undone. You can see our list of bugs blocking open beta (the things that will get done before open beta begins), as well as our list of all open bugs. (The all-open search is kinda intimidating, I know, but do remember that some of them are planned enhancements for the future, not just "things that are broken now".) There's also the Known Issues list on the Wiki -- that's an attempt to only gather the open bugs that you, the end-user, might notice.
There are almost certainly things that aren't listed there, so if you think you've spotted something that's broken, or just something that could work better, leave a comment on one of my posts and we'll see what we can do. (We'll have a better reporting process by the time we launch.)
* You can't pay us yet.
I just edited the text on the Create an Account flow to make it clearer, but -- we aren't accepting payments until April 30, the day of our launch to open beta. This is partially because we don't want to take payment until we feel that we're providing a reasonably complete service, and partially because, uh, the payment system isn't finished yet.
In the meantime, while we're still in closed beta, you can manually upgrade your account. (We'll expire everyone's accounts before we open on April 30. You won't lose anything you've uploaded like userpics; they'll just be marked inactive, just like when your paid account expires on LJ.)
* Everybody should be reading dw-news.
We post important announcements there, as well as once-a-week progress updates every Monday night (or Tuesday morning, if I run long). Keep an eye on it for any useful and informative announcements.
[Comment to this entry on Dreamwidth. You can log in with your LiveJournal URL, and then set and validate an email address. (If you don't set and validate an email address, your comment will be treated as anonymous for purposes of comment screening, etc. We're going to be fixing that.)]