LJ will pass too, someday - just not now, I guess

[veronica_rich]

I keep reading about this Dreamwidth blogging service, that you have to have an invite for - sort of like JournalFen. I'll disclose that I am on JF because a friend generously shared an invite with me - and I'm grateful - but I don't understand the point of it.

LiveJournal is free to anyone to sign up. So is InsaneJournal and probably half a dozen other blogging services out there. You can choose to pay to upgrade/add services, but you're not required to spend money to get "in the game" and make friends and participate in fandoms and real-world discussions. So again: What's the deal with "invitations?"

I've seen fandom_wank (which is on JF). It's not like there's a better class of people on an invite-only blogging service than on LJ. Now I understand wanting to create a backup journal for fear LJ's management is going to pull some asshole mass-deletion thing again. But beyond that - what's the appeal for the migration? (Surely there are features DW has that LJ does not on free accounts?)

Comments

[x-pixel-x.livejournal.com]

The short and sweet answer to "why invites?" is supportable growth. They want to be able to handle the users they have without needing to resort to advertisements. It sucks right now because it's still in a Closed Beta testing state, they're slowly ramping up the user base so they know they can handle the influx on April 30th.

It's got nothing to do with their philosophy, or being an "in club" or being exclusive and every thing to do with making sure that they can support the users they do/will have.

They have already added a number of new features to the codebase and *fixed* a ton of little annoying things, like the menus. I HATE the menus on LJ now, before they were sucky but tolerable and now I can see how truly horrible they are.

You can login with OpenId and if you verify your email address, there is a chance you'll get a free invite.

[pseudoblu.livejournal.com]

LJ was invite only in the beginning too. I remember having to get a code from someone to make my first journal, so that part doesn't bother me much.

A bunch of people on my flist have been singing DW's praises but I can't remember all the specifics. What I do remember is that yes there are some features LJ doesn't have, they're willing to listen and answer questions, they're actually improving the code and promising more. A big thing to people is that they're supposed to be fandom friendly, whereas LJ looks down on fandom but they still want your money kinda thing.

[veronica-rich.livejournal.com]

When I hear another service is "fandom friendly" I wonder what that means. Does it mean they turn an eye to chan and related pedophilia? Or does it mean they patrol for any "adult" content? The latter I know has been a problem in the past on LJ, but I don't have much sympathy for the former, I confess.

[pseudoblu.livejournal.com]

I've heard fandom friendly thrown around and I'm not 100% what they always mean.

This is one of the entries one flister wrote about why DW.

"Fandom-friendly! While Dreamwidth does not plan to be a journaling site just for fans, it is definitely fandom-friendly (one of the owners is fannish!), and many of the tiny feature changes in the code fork are going to specifically benefit fandom. (Who wants a comment-fic community where you get 16,000 characters for your comment? As someone who went over her comment limits all three times so far this week, *raises hand!*)"

[gryphons-lair.livejournal.com]

The one feature I've heard about on DW that I'd really like to have is that they've split the FL into two separate categories, basically "Journals I read" and "Journals of people I trust". I'd really, really like to be able to do that on LJ without having to remember to create/maintain/choose a Custom list every time.

As near as I can make out, "fandom friendly" means they emphasize their intent to "enable creativity" by not telling people what they can and can't post unless they get a C&D letter from a lawyer or the equivalent.

And yeah, LJ was invite-only when I first heard about it. A then-friend offered to give me a code, I thought about it for a while, and when I finally decided I wanted one she told me LJ had just gone to "anyone can sign up" mode.

The biggest advantage I can think of from "invite only" membership is that no one can create 43 sockpuppets to back them up, defend them, dogpile people they don't like, etc. LJ used to give you one free invite when you signed up and you could "earn" extras by doing things like designing new journal layouts, mood icon themes, etc or working as tech support.

[gobsmacked.livejournal.com]

From time to time journalfen turns on free account creation. At the moment I can't tell what's available because all journal creation has been turned off to deal with the bots.

[johnnypenn.livejournal.com]

I like LJ. I hope the managment don't pull those mass deleations. I think I missed the last one, but...you never know.
I am a cheap skate. I don't like to pay for that sort of thing. So this is where I am gonna stay for certain. *lol*

[smtfhw.livejournal.com]

No appeal at all as far as I'm concerned. I'm staying right here.

[porridgebird.livejournal.com]

The DW people stress that it isn't fandom-focused, that there are and will be groups representing all kinds of interests. However, everyone I've seen announce they're leaving LJ for DW gives fannish reasons. The only non-fannish reasons I've seen yet for anyone actually pulling up stakes and moving are along the lines of "DW isn't LJ!" "LJ management sucks!" (etc.)

My biggest concern is the ability to import an entire journal over to DW, including all comments. Comments (which may or may not include fanfiction, original fiction, artwork, etc.) are copyrighted material, the property of the person making the comment. If you'd like to edit or delete your comments, you can do that easily on LJ. But to do it on DW, do you need an account? DW gets your money, unless you can beg a code.

(Most of you guys know I maintain an archive and I'm really really anal about copyright and permissions as it is. But I'm far from the only one with this concern with DW, and DW is aware of it. If they've made a statement about it, I'd like to see it. I haven't, yet.)

[zvi-likes-tv.livejournal.com]

Imported comments are attached to the OpenID of the account that originally made them (so if exampleusername originally made the comment as an accountholder on insanejournal, the comment is attributed to exampleusername.insanejournal.com.) Should exampleusername wish to delete an imported comment, they can log in to Dreamwidth with their openid and do so. All one has to do to login to openid is login to where you have the openid account (in this example, insanejournal), then go to http://dreamwidth.org/openid/ and type in your account name, i.e. http://exampleusername.insanejournal.com/

[porridgebird.livejournal.com]

That's good to know, thanks!

Is there any word yet on whether there will be a bulk deletion tool, so a person can remove all their comments at once? I've seen it discussed but I haven't heard anything more.

[zvi-likes-tv.livejournal.com]

The last I heard was no on a bulk deletion tool. They are reworking the recent comments page so that it works with OpenID accounts, though.

[porridgebird.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the info. This is where I'm uncomfortable. I'd like to see the copyright-holder given a little more consideration - at least the opportunity to grant or deny permission for their property to be re-published by DW.

[sorchasilver.livejournal.com]

I was informed that there would be a mass screening tool but not a mass delete, sadly.

[golden-helikaon.livejournal.com]

I've never gotten the invite thing. It just seems silly to me, those places are no better than the others from what I've seen.

[veronica-rich.livejournal.com]

If it's a beta program, I see why they're doing it that way. (But that's about the only reason, maybe?)

[pktaxwench.livejournal.com]

Blogging has nothing to do with fandom, they just tend to overlap. Then again, fandom should not be the primary reason people blog. But that's just my thought.

[veronica-rich.livejournal.com]

Yes. And fandom should be more than the fic. But that's not true for everyone, either. :-)

[roguedemon.livejournal.com]

There is the fear that LJ will collapse at some point because it isn't making enough money. I read something about that somewhere, and I wish that I could reproduce it accurately, but I can't

Honestly, the only thing I worry about is that I'll miss out on fic because people will take their toys over there and there will be none left here.

There have been problems, but so far the horrible oppression of fandom on LJ hasn't happened. I really don't think people need to be as hysterical as they are. But there is always the possibility that something might happen, so it is good to have an alternative. However, they can't make people pay for it forever, because there really are people who can't afford it.