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: 2010-03-20 11:10 am (UTC)(no subject)
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Date: 2010-03-20 12:22 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2010-03-20 01:23 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2010-03-20 02:11 pm (UTC)i'm white, middle class, cis, temporarily able bodied, queer female, 30. i live in london, uk and have done for a long long time but am swedish by passport. so far i haven't used my dreamwidth account very much but i'm planning to start using it more so this meme is very timely as i've not managed to make many friends on here yet!
i will be using dw to blog about thing's that i'm passionate about as well as a general space to rant, dissect privilege (my own and others'), plus i'm trying to start externalising some issues related to depression/anxiety which have been taking up too much space in my head lately, hopefully from a somewhat political angle (thinking through connections between mental health, privilege, oppression etc) not just wallowing self-destructive stuff (i'll try to keep that to a minimum!). The more personal stuff will be under lock but i'm mostly happy to give people access - the lock is more to avoid certain people i know in real life reading it.
so, things i'm passionate about! issues related to social justice, in particular (intersectional!) feminist, anti-racist and queer politics. i'm currently in my second year of a part-time phd on British feminism and race. i have a love-hate relationship to feminism due to historical and ongoing exclusionary (racist, transphobic, classist etc.) politics practiced in its name and i spend quite a lot of time going on about that.
plus i like music and books and stuff...
i know this is more about what i plan to write about than what i have already written, so you may be a bit sceptical... but i'm hoping that making some new connections with people on here will help spur me on to start writing more. i'm adding quite a few people who have posted on here, so i look forward to seeing folks around!
(no subject)
Date: 2010-03-20 02:50 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2010-03-20 02:50 pm (UTC)(no subject)
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Date: 2010-03-20 03:23 pm (UTC)Re: Testing.....testing......
Date: 2010-03-20 03:29 pm (UTC)*CRACKS UP*
you seem really awesome, is it all right if i add you?
Re: Treed Turkeys and the Shetland Buss
Date: 2010-03-20 03:40 pm (UTC)The first time Donald and I went to Shetland we arrived the week that that the Tall ships made Lerwick harbor one stop in their race. It was the first time Lerwick had been used, and I swear that the entire island chain stopped whatever they were doing and came to party. It was inspiring.
(no subject)
Date: 2010-03-20 03:41 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2010-03-20 04:11 pm (UTC)I'm Aliyah. I'm 22 and a research assistant at an IGO in Trinidad right now. I'll be starting a PhD program in French Studies this fall in the US, and I eventually want to be a university professor, specialising in Francophone colonial and postcolonial literature. I'm married to a lovely lady, and we're really into living a happy, sustainable, vegan lifestyle together.
Passions
The aforementioned French literature interests-- more specifically, I'm into women's writing and the treatment of gender and sexuality in the literature. I wrote my undergrad thesis on two of Maryse Conde's novels, and I hope to do more of an examination of her work in grad school. I'm also really into literary translation both ways. I was a double major in college, and my other major was international studies, so I'm also interested in that, again with issues concerning gender and sexuality in the global South, specifically the Caribbean and Latin America.
I'm also really into the politics of exclusion and marginalisation, especially combating racism, homophobia, transphobia, sexism and ableism. My main thought on feminism is that I'll be a post feminist in the post patriarchy!
On the non-academic front, I spin, knit, sew, embroider and cook, and welcome conversations on those topics, too.
How I use DW
Really randomly, quite honestly. I post things about all my interests. I've been really bad about updating lately, but if I had more folks to read, it'd bring me here more. I've never been one to update daily-- more often there are days or weeks between posts.
Recent post
Me, recipe-sharing: http://rooibos.dreamwidth.org/14659.html
Journal I think you'd enjoy
(no subject)
Date: 2010-03-20 04:13 pm (UTC)(no subject)
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Date: 2010-03-20 04:28 pm (UTC)Re: Friending meme - presentation
Date: 2010-03-20 04:29 pm (UTC)I wouldn't consider Turkey European for several reasons, but I guess it is debatable. This is one language I haven't been ever particularly curious about, for whatever reason, but hopefully you do enjoy learning it. (The language learner's forum at http://languagelearners.myfastforum.org/index.php keeps me up in my learning and makes me always curious about the languages the others are learning, anyway. Or dabbling in, it makes me want to dabble a lot with them, too!)
I have to admit never have been neither to Ulm nor to Montpellier. I still need to discover so many cities and regions within the countries I already know, not to talk about those I don't yet!
(no subject)
Date: 2010-03-20 04:47 pm (UTC)What you are passionate about: Spanish/foregn languages, fanfiction, serving/bartending.
How you use Dreamwidth: Mostly I use Dreamwidth for fandom purposes, but as I've been friending more and more people here, I find that I'm also using it for journaling, meta, and networking as well.
A link to a journal on Dreamwidth you think people might enjoy reading: Everything that pops into mind is fandom related, and while certainly worth the read, isn't really the function of this post. So - I'm open to suggestions.