Giant non-fandom friending meme

[liv]

Here's the thing: a lot of people are about ready to leave LJ over the latest shenanigans. But they don't want to make the leap to Dreamwidth because, frankly, there isn't enough going on here. The site is smaller, so there are fewer posts, and fewer cool people to meet. And all their friends are on LJ, which is of course a self-perpetuating situation: if "everybody" is still on LJ, then there's a huge disincentive against moving, which means that everybody continues to be on LJ.

Lots of people have realized that the best way to address this issue is, well, creating content. Some people are organizing collective efforts to create more content. This is a great idea, except for one small problem: the people who are really good at organizing and creating content are mainly fandom. I have nothing at all against fandom, but I'm not really part of it, and I think that a lot of other people who feel similarly are being put off because they see DW as yet another clubhouse for the cool fandom kids.

But I am going to take a leaf from fandom's book: I'm going to cease sitting around complaining about how DW is too quiet. Instead I'm going to participate in creating content and drawing attention to the cool stuff that already exists. So, I propose a giant non-fandom friending meme (thanks, delight). If you would like find some new, interesting people to read, or make new friends, or just help highlight how much cool stuff there is on DW, please comment to this post.

You're welcome to say whatever you like, but here's a suggested template:
Your identity: doesn't have to be A/S/L, but anything that you think people should know about you to be able to decide whether they're likely to be interested in getting to know you.
What you are passionate about
How you use Dreamwidth
A link to a recent post of yours that is characteristic of your journal or writing style.
A link to a journal on Dreamwidth you think people might enjoy reading, even if they don't know the writer personally.

Footnote 1: Some people have moral or technical objections to Dreamwidth, or actively prefer LJ. That's totally cool with me – this post isn't addressed to you. I'm looking to involve people who would like to make the move, but are put off because there isn't enough to read or enough people to meet here. I am not at all proselytizing, in other words, just doing my bit to fix what I see as the biggest glaring problem with DW. Other people may see other problems, and I am not trying to fix those.

Footnote 2: If you are involved in fandom, you're extremely welcome to participate. Perhaps you'd like to meet someone who shares some of your less fannish interests. Or you are welcome to go and join in some of the more explicitly fandom-related activities going on instead.

I am going to post this now, rather than waiting until the official three-week fest, because I think now is while the iron is hot and people are motivated to move to a new site. But I'll link it again when the fest starts up on 26^th April, around the one-year anniversary of Dreamwidth entering Open Beta. I don't have any strong opinions about the DW-only content thing, and you don't have to be participating in that to participate in this meme.

So, go forth and friend!

ETA: And if you like the idea, please link this post all over the place. Or make your own version, or whatever, but mainly spread the word as much as possible

Comments

[flourish]

I have been ordered to sub to you by Joni! So I will! :D

[flourish]

Your writing style intrigues me. I shall sub!

[shanaqui]

Reaaaally? Let me see now, who are you...

*sticks tongue out*

[takemyrevolution]

Of course you may add me! I'll add you back. :)

[willidan]

You had me at math and chocolate (I have the same issues), but then I really fell for you when you mentioned knitting, quilting and ranting about stupid people. :)

[auroraprimavera]

Wonderful!

[flourish]

Me: Flourish (my real name, or as real as these things get, anyway). Feminist, female, cis, queer but in a het relationship at the moment, upper-middle-class, not disabled, working on unpacking the knapsack. I'm in a master's program in Comparative Media Studies at MIT at the moment and then will be working in the entertainment industry.

Passionate: Poetry, fannish things (which I will leave out here), religious belief (especially Christianity, paganism and the place where they intersect), interactive fiction & video games of a storytelling sort of nature, queer rights & unpacking my privilege knapsack (you will definitely run into musings about race, gender, class, disability, and more on my journal), and various kinds of outdoor adventures (hiking, sailing, and kayaking, primarily).

How I use Dreamwidth: Not so much as a personal journal when posting publicly, although occasionally. Highlighting media, stories, games, etc. that I like, and occasionally going off on rants. My primary online social circle is on Dreamwidth, and is fairly mixed between fannish and non-fannish friends. I often talk about my coursework, which is fortunately apparently generally interesting (because, dude, I study pop culture!)

Link: interactive fiction!

[auroraprimavera]

Oh fine, I see the way it's going to be. *pokes some more*

[zarhooie]

Sure, go ahead!

[rivenwanderer]

What a great idea! I'll go through all the entries when I'm not at work.

Identity: Yet another geeky bi poly gal with purple hair, age 24, Boston-area codemonkey by trade and crafter by night. In an LTR. The only non-Jew (I'm an atheist, raised in a mostly-secular-Christian household) living in a 6-person Jewish co-op house. Fat and trying to learn how to accept my body and live well in it. Grew up living in various parts of the western USA before college, and love the city but miss the forest.

Passions: All kinds of handicrafts (that brainspace is currently dominated by metalsmithing and knitting, but I've dabbled in dozens of kinds of crafts. Whatever I'm dabbling in at the moment, I can't picture myself not being a person who makes stuff). And, you know, figuring out life and stuff. Thinking about feminism and queerness and fat and gender and stuff like that. Also I'm mono-fannishly hyper-enthusiastic about the Myst games and associated universe (as far as I can tell, Myst isn't the kind of fandom people mean when they talk about Fandom TM... in any case, Myst-related geeking is only a part of what I post!).

How I use Dreamwidth: I crosspost to LJ, and tend to use it as a "life updates" journal and to brag about crafty accomplishments, but I'd like to do more sharing of cool links, sorting through my thoughts on stuff, and hosting actual discussions. Dreamwidth specifically is where I'm trying to find and follow cool people I don't know in real life, LJ is mostly people I went to college with and the associated social networks.

Recent/representative posts: this is a fairly run-of-the-mill braindump; this is a post I'm really proud of about learning and exercising and being alive; this is a bragging-about-crafts post that doubles as Myst geekery.

Rec: holyschist is really cool and writes about stuff I like reading about :)

[phoenix]

Identity: Introspective, queer, twenty-something Irish girl. Reads a lot, stresses a little.
What you are passionate about: reading, computers, psychology, seeing clearly, things being more complicated than first assumed, unconventional people, getting heartily enthused about stuff, details of perception.
How you use Dreamwidth: I write about life through my eyes; observations, self-analysis, records of feelings, notes on things I've got excited about (recently, Johnny Weir and Lady Gaga). About half of it is access-locked - mostly to protect identifying details from casual passers-by; I like meeting and adding strangers.
A link to a journal on Dreamwidth you think people might enjoy reading, even if they don't know the writer personally: marina! (She has a thread in here too.) Best discovery on Dreamwidth, absolutely. She writes often and writes well, talking about her daily life and experiences and frequently meta-ing on life as a Russian immigrant to Israel and on her experiences in the IDF and how they've changed her.

[james]

And I didn't even have to mention bacon? ;-)

[willidan]

Oh, if you had mentioned bacon I'd have been a puddle on the floor.

[marina]

Oh my god, I think twenty people added me since yesterday O_O I don't even know what to do with that! Clearly you've created the most adding-happy adding meme ever! LOL

Also, hi. :)

[wicked_socks]

haha hi there! I keep seeing you everywhere.

Balaton is awesome, I've spend several summers there too! Hungarians are just bitchy and on their high horses sometimes, they go abroad and are assholes themselves (often extra bad because they assume no one can understand them).

[marina]

AHAHA JONI! You are actually not the first person to tell me that! You tell a girl you approve of her new beau and suddenly she's reccing you all over, it seems.

[ex_rising236]

See, your interpretation of it sounds fine to me -- and of course, I'm an adult who doesn't see the faeries at the faire when they're right in front of him anyway. Which can be a great lot of fun for me, overall, because it is getting to play with another actor, and getting to play with the smaller people in the audience, all without breaking character. (I let myself get tied up by one of the faeries one time, all the while not even seeing that they existed.)

It's not the company casted faeries that so much annoy me as the ones that have come in with some of the outside acts here in the past.

And heh, yeah. I'm on the historical side of things too when I do actor stuff, or at least I have been for a while, though I'm not this year. I grew up, more or less, in MacColin. Very, very historical. :D This year, though, I'm going over to The New Reformed Guild of St. Helena's (otherwise known as the peasants) and I'm very much looking forward to the fun of things.

If you do get down to SoCal, lemme know when and all?

[ex_rising236]

Except when the cats try to eat the spinning.

[mewithme]

Your identity: I'm Margaret, 19 from New Zealand. I'm a sufferer of CFS/M.E. I don't really have that clear a picture of who I am right now beyond that actually.
What you are passionate about: Photography, forensic science, X-files, invisible illnesses, feminism, reading, sewing, gaming, old movies and television, just masses of things really - I have a lot of spare time on my hands
How you use Dreamwidth: Currently I use this journal as an introspective, trying to step back and look at how my illness really affects me. I also post day to day about how I feel and will occasionally post writings and the like as well.
A link to a recent post of yours that is characteristic of your journal or writing style: This is fairly representative of my day to day stuff.
A link to a journal on Dreamwidth you think people might enjoy reading, even if they don't know the writer personally: lauredhel
She's a feminist writer who I find both interesting and informative, she also writes for several other feminist websites.

[wicked_socks]

I am also intrigued by the fangirling of Kant! It's been a while since I read him. My old professor had a love affair with Hume, but we also read a fair amount of Kant.

[foxfirefey]

Identity: I'm a geek girl in her upper 20s who loves tinkering with code--I do that for my grown up job now (how exciting is that!), after having gotten my Bachelor's in Computer Science and my Master's in Bioinformatics! I have a boyfriend, slowsculture, that I adore, and also a very fluffy kitty who demands much love and a violent but robust fish named Gilgamesh. I was raised LDS, but am now a fairly passive-about-it atheist that sometimes still tries to analyze what my left behind religious cultural heritage means to me. My family's currently in the (ugly) process of splitting up, and I'm still trying to figure out what that means to me, too. I am very nonfandom. I know that my default icon creeps people out, I'm just not sure what else I'd want to make it.

Passions: I am fascinated by science and especially love learning about nature and animals, especially the weirder ones, so you'll find me posting in wtf_nature. I'm fond of my city, seattle. I'm fond of cross_stitch, and I love to read, and am starting to learn swing dancing. I love food. I have a hobby of applying the bechdel_test to movies. I'm not a gamer, but I like to play games anyway. Actually, Dreamwidth is one of my big hobbies--I'm unreliable and easily distracted but do jack-of-all-trades kinds of work on it, including code development, styles work, occasional Support requests, etc etc. And in spare moments sometimes I do data analysis on Dreamwidth stuff, like on memewidth--and I'll probably do a network graph run soon for Dreamwidthers! So, if you want somebody to help show you around the place, I am a good person to ask! I like nurturing communities on Dreamwidth, too, so you shouldn't be surprised if I give you a suggestion to share some post on your journal with a community.

Dreamwidth use and examples: I haven't posted a lot lately in my personal journal, but I'm just about to get back into the habit. (I've been posting much more to communities!) Sometimes, I pose ridiculous questions and provide answers. I am an observer and reporter of amusing awkwardness. I will ask questions and solicit advice! And, under access and sometimes filters, I'll talk about my feeeeeelings.

Recs: I totally think people should join communities I'm in and make posts to them, like our homegrown metaquotes. Look at my profile and join them and make me happy! You should also read piranha if you like photos, pippin if you like fantasy and fun wonderings about it, chebe if you like awesome geeky projects and crafts, charmian if you like social media analysis, etc etc, really, just poach from my read page all you like.

[wyrdkat]

Me: I’m wyrdkat, I’m 38 (only a few months away from turning 39). I’m I wife and mother. I’ve been married to joecrow for nearly 10 years now. We live in Massachusetts with our 6 year old daughter who we homeschool/unschool. We all live in a small apartment along with a cat who I often take pictures of and surrounded by many books.

I’m very much an introvert. I am not currently employed and I stay home with my daughter.

Passions/Obsessions/Stuff I Like: Pretty much all things arts and crafts. I usually have some sort of project I’m working on.

Books, I love to read. I read mostly urban fantasy and YA urban fantasy. I also read manga and other graphic novel type stuff on occasions.

Gaming…
I play tabletop role playing games. Mostly Vampire: The Requiem these days. I play video games as well, but mostly on my Nintendo DS though occasionally on the PS2. Lately I’ve been playing Harvest Moon Island of Happiness on the DS.

I love a lot of TV, that I mostly watch on DVD (we don’t have cable anymore), but I’m not particularly fannish. Lately I’ve been kind of into Lost. I also watch Castle, Supernatural (though I haven’t been loving it like I used to)Burn Notice, and Doctor Who, among other things.

The way I use Dreamwidth depends on my mood. Sometimes I post a lot. Sometimes I go a week without posting. I tend to post a lot of photos, I list the books I read and I post about the art I do. I also post about day to day types of things, sometimes I post about food, and occasionally I do a book review. Often I whine about the weather. It changes from time to time.

A finished project post: here.
A random whatever post: and here.

Yeah, they both have pictures I post a lot of pictures. I’m a very visual person.

Most of my journal is public but I do lock some posts, sometimes it depends on content (the more personal stuff or works in progress that are going to be gifts), other times it just depends on how I'm feeling.

[glass_icarus]

Your identity: glass_icarus, here and on LJ. 24, fannish, Chinese-American, able-bodied, cisgendered, female. I am not religious, but this doesn't mean that sacredness and spirituality have no place in my life. Also, I am a magpie- I like shiny things of many stripes!

What you are passionate about: In no particular order, a non-exhaustive list- books and stories, language, writing, social justice, poetry, science, fandom, gender and feminism, dance, sexuality, travel, SF/F, visual arts, intersectionality, music, food. Oh, and my city, of course! &New York;;;;;

How you use Dreamwidth: Discussions and random babble? *g* My journal contains a hodgepodge of fanfic and... well, everything else I like to talk about, including race and books. My recent posts have looked more like these, though.

A link to a journal on Dreamwidth: ciderpress, deepad, and bossymarmalade are brilliant and fabulous. :)

[kate]

Way to blame it all on me, dude.

♥

[glass_icarus]

All of this sounds awesome, so I am subscribing! :)