omgaeula

I've been reading the Dreamwidth posts on metafandom and I cannot understand the animosity towards the service. The biggest issue seems to be about people who are crossposting to LJ and DW and redirecting all comments to their DW journal. In effect, "forcing" people to visit a DW page if they want to comment on an entry. But somehow DW itself is drawn into the mix, as if the antagonism towards individual bloggers is displaced towards DW as a journaling service. As I see it, DW having this option is just one of the ways they're making it easier for people to use the service without losing touch with their LJ/IJ/etc contacts. And people are using DW not because it's the hot new slightly exclusive thing (open beta is in a few days!), but because the developments they are making are really useful.

Another thing I am confused about is the drama people think the subscribe/access system is going to make. The system actually makes things easier for those who post friends-locked content exclusively (probably to keep track of who's viewing their content) but don't wish to read the entries of everyone they have to add as a friend just so that friend can read their locked posts. (Users like andreas_ri come to mind.) Yes, you accomplish the same thing on LJ through custom filters, but subscribe/access makes this easier. And what about those who have reached their friends limit?

I'm not even the touching NO ADS EVAR issue. I really know nothing about it. True, I'd rather have a journal without ads, but I also understand that the money to run websites has to come from somewhere. If I'm already availing of the service for free, a few ads should be something I can live with. Then again, I can understand the disappointment if a service promised to be ad-free forever but reneged on that promise. But I very much doubt that will happen in DW's near future. And...yeah. Tricky issue.

You know, I never thought of Dreamwidth as a fandom-based project. (And it isn't.) But apparently a lot of users did. (DW was even confused as being under OTW.) And now that I'm reading meta and wank on and about Dreamwidth, it's starting to feel that way. Some diversity on DW, we need it!

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This post doubles as an attempt to use DW's cross-posting feature for the first time, hee. Will not do this often.

ETA: Editing a post in DW edits the cross-post in LJ! That is excellent.

I learned of dreamwidth from afuna and owe my account to her. Ü Im looking forward to poking around and testing for myself the awesome updates and bug fixes I've been reading about on the mailing list. Thanks afuna, wheeeee!