Dreamwidth Rocks

Why I Love Dw

Sat, 16 Aug 2014 03:42:03 GMT

Posted by: jazzyjj

Hey everyone. This community seems rather dead, so I thought I'd bring it back to life. I'm rather new to Dreamwidth, but I wanted to give my reasons why I love it. So here they are, in no particular order:

-- Diversity: I'll start by giving my opinion of the Dw diversity statement. For those who have not yet read it, it's calling your name so please head on over and read it. I am proud to say that I'm in complete agreement with this statement. Diversity is certainly something that everybody, young and old, needs to embrace. See below.

-- Accessibility with VoiceOver: For those of you who don't know or who have been living under a rock or whatever, VoiceOver is Apple's on-board screen reader. Although it is the only screen reader I've used with this site, I am proud to report that the two get along beautifully in OS X Mavericks. I'm planning to upgrade to Yosemite now that it's out, and I'm hoping to report the same results. I am also including the mobile Dw site here. Although I have tested Dw with Chromevox and it works well too, I'm not including that here because it's not a full-fledged screen reader. But I have been very impressed with its performance using VoiceOver so thank you to all those who work, and have previously worked, on Dw's accessibility.

-- Customer service and support: I love how the DW staff is so responsive, and actively check for problem reports etc. They seem to not only talk the talk, but walk it too and that is a very good thing.

-- Features: I like all the features I've played with on here thus far. The paid-for features are good as well.

-- Customization: Last but certainly not least, I love that we can customize Dreamwidth to our liking. I have done this and it is really neat.

So there you have it, 5 reasons I love Dreamwidth. I can't think of any more at this time. Thanks for reading, and please don't drink and drive!

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What, no entry yet?

Sun, 25 Dec 2011 12:39:38 GMT

Posted by: yvi

I hear lots of people love the coming "import communities" feature :)

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We love Fu!

Wed, 02 Nov 2011 18:14:48 GMT

Posted by: azurelunatic

DW rocks, the new entry beta rocks, and fu rocks.

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Community-Wide Comment Tracking

Fri, 18 Feb 2011 00:08:50 GMT

Posted by: rebelsheart

I'm in the process of starting up a an Eberron D&D 4e campaign with some friends here on DW and the full benefits of being able to be notified of all comments in the community are AWESOME.

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A fave feature I take for granted!

Tue, 05 Oct 2010 02:29:11 GMT

Posted by: senmut

On DW, when I receive a PM, the message is included in my email, and has a link for me to reply directly then and there. This is such a simple thing, but it is one of my favorite improvements in the code.

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Sat, 02 Oct 2010 18:47:58 GMT

Posted by: yvi

Since it says inthe userinfo this is also a place to post Anything about it that makes you smile or makes your life better, I am going to link to:

Anonymous love meme

Share the love! :)

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And pray to God we hear you

Sun, 18 Jul 2010 06:06:03 GMT

Posted by: azurelunatic

I have reason to believe that Dreamwidth has, at least indirectly, saved a life.

I'm not going to give out details, but there was a person who was going through some pretty rough things. At long last, things are looking up for them. Through all the general crud, there was a sympathetic and cheering community of people available virtually, and I have reason to believe that the mere presence and interaction from these people helped tip the balance in making it possible for this person to rally and pull through and survive.

Thank you, Dreamwidth.

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Stepping down

Sat, 26 Jun 2010 01:52:55 GMT

Posted by: hatman

I'd like to step down as owner of this comm. It doesn't take any moderation work, but I haven't been doing it any good in the promotion department. If anyone has the energy and drive to make this comm thrive, I'd like to hand over the keys and give you (and the comm) a chance.

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Tue, 11 May 2010 07:49:36 GMT

Posted by: hatman

The "Top 5 Favorite Things About DW" idea seems to have worked out rather well. And while many people had their own unique favorites, there were also some frequently-recurring themes. The top five (somewhat loosely categorized):

Community

Accessibility and usability

Acceptance and diversity

Responsiveness and communicativeness of the devs, particularly denise and mark

No ads

Thanks to everyone who participated! :)

Now, I said I'd give 30 points to a random participant if at least five people joined in. We got sixteen. So... I took three random drawings. Congratulations to hermitty, adelheid, and gorgeousnerd! Your shiny and awesome DW points should at this moment be winging their way through the aether! Enjoy!

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Five reasons that I adore Dreamwidth

Sun, 09 May 2010 04:30:52 GMT

Posted by: hermitty

1. Crossposting feature
2. Importing content feature
3. denise and mark because they 'get it'
4. Users having a real say in what features are added/wanted
5. Feeling of community

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My DW Top Five

Sat, 08 May 2010 13:11:28 GMT

Posted by: viklikesfic

~ An aware community (meta on this to follow!)
~ Strong focus on accessibility
~ Users have say in what features happen and can become developers themselves
~ An awesome tagging system
~ Gorgeous styles

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Five reasons I love Dreamwidth!

Fri, 07 May 2010 07:49:44 GMT

Posted by: gorgeousnerd

+ The user name tag: I don't have to differentiate communities from personal journals, and I can easily switch it to link to non-DW journals!

+ Being able to insert ?show=P, ?show=C, and ?show=F at the end of my reading list URL without needing to make special filters.

+ Long character lengths in both comments and posts.

+ The update date button! I like posting every day, so sometimes, if I'm writing a post just before midnight, I like to update to make sure the post when I post the next day.

+ The existence of both the diversity statement and the guiding principles, the fact the site-runners follow them diligently, and the community that's built up as a result. I feel like a person on DW, and that's really nice. ♥

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Five Reasons I Love Dreamwidth

Tue, 04 May 2010 14:21:22 GMT

Posted by: goodbyebird

♥ I can edit posts without opening them first. As a serial-editing user, this just wins so very much.
♥ I can search my journal!
♥ Finding people who's interests match mine the most :D
♥ I can change userpic names without losing the icon in previous threads.
♥ The ability to link to usernames on several other sites.

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Five little things....

Mon, 03 May 2010 22:57:19 GMT

Posted by: trixieleitz

I have lots of reasons to love DW, but I'm going to stick to five small interface tweaks that make a huge difference:

"thread from start" on entry comments
the "Mark" on the "Mark read" button in the Inbox
having the "Save" button at the top of the notifications tab as well as at the bottom
the "Delete all inactive subscriptions" button on the notifs tab
the Preview button on the quick reply comment form

I have more. I find more every time I try something new on DW. But five is the brief, so five is what you get :)

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Five Reasons I Love Dreamwidth

Mon, 03 May 2010 19:22:44 GMT

Posted by: jumpuphigh

1. Community. Community. Community.
2. Brilliant people
3. DW ethics including privacy, refusal to be bullied, acceptance of diversity
4. Clever tech which makes my experience here easier and happier
5. High level of communication including dw_news and dw_suggestions

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Five reasons why Dreamwidth rocks

Mon, 03 May 2010 12:09:18 GMT

Posted by: pale_moonlite

In no particular order except for the top:

The fact that DW doesn't expect you to fit into the binary gender construct, and that you can define your gender as other on your profile.
Entries with a maximum length of 300,000 characters. I love to read novel-length fics in one entry.
The practical "reload page in: my style" button on the navigation strip.
The cross posting feature and the DW specific tags that make it easy to refer to users on other sites (love the AO3 tag). DW really furthers communication!
dw_suggestions

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Five reasons to love Dreamwidth

Mon, 03 May 2010 08:48:09 GMT

Posted by: miss_haitch

1. I don't have to worry that people reading will have to cope with obnoxious or offensive adverts.

2. Splitting subscription and access lists, and removal of the loaded "friends" terminology. I feel comfortable chopping and changing my reading list.

3. The navigation bar, and using it to reload pages in different styles.

4. The readiness of the devs to listen to people's thoughts, and the existence of dw_suggestions.

5. The points system means you can save up rather than having to spend in a chunk. Which I find a lot more flexible.

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Top 5 Reasons I Love Dreamwidth

Mon, 03 May 2010 07:56:50 GMT

Posted by: mixtapestar

5. The description field on icons.
4. No ads!
3. The safety I feel about posting fannish content.
2. Crossposting to LJ, keeps me from having to lose friends over there.
1. It's the most welcome I've ever felt on a large-scale networking site. There's just a sense of involvement in every community I join, every person I friend, etc. I feel much more inclined to join in on things here.

I am loving three_weeks_for_dw so much. I don't want it to end!

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5 reasons I lurve Dreamwidth, not ordered

Mon, 03 May 2010 06:30:22 GMT

Posted by: yvi

* The split of access/watch. This is the only way I feel comfortable having a public journal: I can have a small group of people that have access to my very personal posts and can still subscribe to lots of interesting people I don't know at all.

* The navbar. It is useable, has function I need and I think it's pretty.

* Site search. Oh, how I love site search.

* Weekly news posts with substance.

* dw_suggestions and how accepted suggestions are directly transferred into Bugzilla and then implemented.

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My Dreamwidth top five

Mon, 03 May 2010 02:16:02 GMT

Posted by: adelheid

5. The mere idea of tag merge. And it will be reality after the next code push. You can't imagine how much I'm looking forward to it!

4. Things like this comment. It typifies a) the sense of community and b) the "close to the ground-ness" of the devs, that in response to a question like this someone would just go and look up the code to see how it works.

3. The cross-post feature. There are a few tweaks I'd love to see happen, but it really is in general, quite awesome.

2. The subscribe/access split. It's made me far more willing to add people to my circle, and as a result I have a fascinating subscription list.

1. The completely abstract, difficult to describe or pin down, sense of community around here. (#2 and #4 have a lot to do with this, but I still think it's a thing that is awesome about DW all on its own.

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5 Reasons I Like Dreamwidth

Sun, 02 May 2010 23:12:28 GMT

Posted by: littlegreen42

I've only joined really, really recently, so I'm not yet familiar with all that Dreamwidth has to offer, but I'll list my Top 5 anyway...

5. It just feels cozier here somehow, like a real community. Admittedly, I haven't really participated here much, but I get a very good sense about this place. It just seems so welcoming!
4. Lack of ads. I like to know that my journal isn't unintentionally promoting some product I don't agree with.
3. So many interesting things to read!
2. I like how there seem to be a lot more serious, critical discussions of fandom here, rather than just squee. Not that I don't love squee, though.
1. Three Weeks for Dreamwidth -- it's been so much fun, I almost don't want it to end! I love all the comment fic memes.

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My Dreamwidth Top 5 ♥

Sun, 02 May 2010 22:45:39 GMT

Posted by: holyschist

1. Split subscribe/access. This was my killer app, and I love it; it makes me feel so much more comfortable subscribing to people who look interesting.
2. The commitment to diversity and accessibility. Like when people have brought up concerns in news posts and such, denise and mark have been quick to make corrections/changes/apologies. Some examples that stuck in my mind: (1) being called out on gender-binary language and fixing it right away and (2) early on, when someone said seeing usernames in red in the site scheme was disturbing due to cultural background, they quickly rolled out an alternate site scheme.
3. The much more intuitive site navigation, including the actually-useful navbar.
4. All the little fixes and improvements that are constantly being made.
5. dw_suggestions

Lack of ads was a close 6th, but since I use AdBlock, it's more of a principle squee than something that affects my DW experience on a day-to-day basis.

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Top 5 Favorite Things About Dreamwidth

Sun, 02 May 2010 22:43:42 GMT

Posted by: majoline

(in no particular order)

the Community of Users here is just so wonderful and considerate
Accessibility - being able to make the site scheme in Gradation makes it so much easier for my eyes (now in horizontal! YAY)
Lack of Ads!
Commitment to Diversity
Commitment to Open Source

I would like to continue to pimp out my One Comment for Dreamwidth! Lots of awesome things about DW there :)

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Dreamwidth ♥ Top 5

Sun, 02 May 2010 20:14:31 GMT

Posted by: timeasmymeasure

5. 15 icons with a basic account and a crazy lot more with a paid account.
4. No ads (makes a heck of a lot of difference in loading time and no surprise!malware).
3. Diversity statement of awesome.
2. The little things -- screened comment conversations, icon descriptions, community contributions, multilevel tags, network page, multiple icon loading, entry character limit, admin-locked posts to communities, access/subscribe difference, and so much more I seriously could go on and on.
1. DW community is amazingly friendly. From the admins, to the support staff/volunteers, to the users.

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Top 5 Things That Rock About DW

Sun, 02 May 2010 17:29:34 GMT

Posted by: disastrously

5: The community. DW has some of the most awesome people ever.
4. Dreamwidth Support. Dreamwidth has the best support staff of any site I've ever been on.
3. The Number of icons: If you get a paid account you get more icons than any other site.
2. Lack of ads: DW has no ads. And you get fifteen icons if you're not paid and you don't have to deal with ads to get them.
1. Icon Descriptions: DW allows actual icon descriptions. Since I'm a blind member, this helps a lot. I love that.

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