I can haz dreamwidth account

[firecat]

http://firecat.dreamwidth.org/

I will be keeping LJ as my primary blogging account for now but will be following some communities over there.

Comments

[clever-doberman.livejournal.com]

what do you see as the pros and cons of each?

[firecat]

Pros of dreamwidth: responsive startup, open source, welcoming of some expressions that LJ has banned, no advertising (at least not yet). They explicitly separate the "list of journals I read" and the "list of people I allow to access my filtered posts" rather than calling both "friends." I don't care as much about that as some people. You can import almost all of your LJ settings including friends list and journal content over to Dreamwidth in one step.

Pros of LJ: It's established. Most everyone is still here.

[zvi-likes-tv.livejournal.com]

It is very unlikely that DW will ever start advertising, as one of the founders wrote a long and detailed essay on why internet advertising on social media is unworkable (http://synecdochic.livejournal.com/238398.html). It's not merely that they don't like them, they think it is a bad business plan.

[firecat]

That's good to know, but I think it only means DW won't start advertising as long as the current set of founders is running it. The founder of LJ didn't approve of advertising either, but the business was sold.

[aquaeri.livejournal.com]

I'm just lurking around dreamwidth, but I don't get the impression this is something they're turning into a business in the sense of "later we can sell it and make lots of money". They're making it a business in the sense of this is what they want to do the rest of their lives, and therefore they need enough income from it that they can do that (http://synecdochic.dreamwidth.org/300634.html).

I also agree with her argument (as linked by zvi, above) that advertising on social spaces on the net is not going to stay, and that the founders can live long enough to see that shift in thinking extend beyond dreamwidth. I may be naive :-).

[firecat]

I hope you are right, and it's worth supporting them in case you are.

[sistercoyote.livejournal.com]

If you get an invite code, may I have it?

[firecat]

I have one. Let me know the e-mail address you want me to send it to.