Giant non-fandom friending meme
Mar. 15th, 2010 12:47 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
livHere'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 26th 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
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 26th 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
(no subject)
Date: 2010-03-18 12:17 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2010-03-18 12:18 am (UTC)What you are passionate about: Looking over my journal, there seems to be a lot of musical theatre in there. I love Avatar: the Last Airbender. I have no linguistic abilities but keep getting roped into attempting new languages: my girlfriend is teaching me modern Hebrew, despite watching me struggle with Mandarin, Russian and Japanese. I'm five years behind everyone else TV and movies wise and six months behind when it comes to music, so there's lots of excitement about things everybody else already knows about. I am fascinated by religion.
How you use Dreamwidth: I won't lie, I am a bit spotty about journaling in general. I'm trying to get into the habit of updating more often, and it's unlikely to be about heavyweight stuff. I AM NOT VERY CONCISE. Occasionally I post slivers of fic.
Re: *succumbs to temptation*
Date: 2010-03-18 12:23 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2010-03-18 12:30 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2010-03-18 12:31 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2010-03-18 12:38 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2010-03-18 12:43 am (UTC)Batman I tried and wow, very fiddly controls plus because it's going for that dark Batman look everything is, well, dark. Which makes it really hard to see what the fuck is going on. So I will be going back to it eventually, but decided to try my hand at Indiana Jones instead and I'm liking it better (this is the first Indiana Jones one).
I hope to get Indiana Jones 2 eventually, as well as the HP ones when they come out. I really love the Lego game format. It's so much fun.
(no subject)
Date: 2010-03-18 12:43 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2010-03-18 12:48 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2010-03-18 12:50 am (UTC)What you are passionate about: Books, the museum, feminism/intersectionality/social justice issues, history, linguistics and languages, Shakespeare, wildlife/nature (especially sealife because the sea is awesome).
How you use Dreamwidth: I... kind of don't lately, heh, but that's mostly because I've been ill, to the point where I couldn't write anything coherent; I'm getting back into it now. Mostly I write short-ish entries consisting of me babbling about my daily life, with occasional bouts of introspection and/or political-type stuff.
A link to a recent post of yours that is characteristic of your journal or writing style: Not that recent because as I said, I've been kind of on a break! But I did do the thirty-day meme (journalling prompts every day for a month) recently-ish, so here's me describing my day in great detail, and me talking about books.
A link to a journal on Dreamwidth: I'll go with
[edited for clarification of some identity stuff]
(no subject)
Date: 2010-03-18 12:58 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2010-03-18 01:00 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2010-03-18 01:00 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2010-03-18 01:08 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2010-03-18 01:13 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2010-03-18 01:14 am (UTC)I attempted a Navy career and was weeded out at the boot camp level. My brother-in-law is still Navy, though, and my uncle is in the Navy Reserves. :)
(no subject)
Date: 2010-03-18 01:17 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2010-03-18 01:27 am (UTC)pingheadsonar tech)...and math has always been my worst subject. :P(no subject)
Date: 2010-03-18 01:28 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2010-03-18 01:29 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2010-03-18 01:32 am (UTC)I don't post about museums much at the moment, aside from grousing under access lock, but I hope to become less bitter in the future (I still love museums! Other people's museums!).
(no subject)
Date: 2010-03-18 01:34 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2010-03-18 01:34 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2010-03-18 01:34 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2010-03-18 01:35 am (UTC)