a vintage year for scoundrels

It's come to my attention that I may be being a Bad Advocate, what with my periodic grousings about Things LiveJournal Has Done and the regularity with which I mention Dreamwidth invitations in the same place as the grousing happens.

Time for some clarity. I don't usually like these sort of lifestyle choice/mission statement kinds of things, but I don't like being misunderstood either, so here goes.

I used to keep my gaming writing on Blogger, but the interface was annoying me, especially where photos and embedding thereof were concerned, so I wanted somewhere else to put that sort of thing, ideally with an interface which I knew and loved.

Some of the conversations occurring via metafandom indicated that Dreamwidth might be a place where the gaming conversation and the fandom conversation could overlap to an extent.

To encourage that, I wanted to draw in fandom people and gaming people and see who wanted to talk about things, which meant that the space where I wanted the conversation to happen needed to have fandom content in it as well.

(Of course, it all falls down flop when I can't really be bothered to create much content of either sort, but we're talking about reasons and plans and suchlike here. Work with me.)

Dreamwidth also does things that I really like, like avoiding words like 'friend' when it means 'person whose Internet writings interest me'. Terms like 'subscribe' and 'grant access' are a little clinical, but they're much more precise in both form and connotation than 'add as friend'. It's not that I've had LJ Drama over this: it's that the Dreamwidth people have recognised something which can cause Drama and have decided to avoid the potential Drama from the start.

I approve of that sort of thing. Dreamwidth is run by people who seem to think about things like I think about them (see also: loyalty to founding principles and being selective in who they do business with). And it allows whacking great comments (like, four times the lengths of LJ comments) - it's a little thing, but it makes me happy.

It's getting on for I Should Be Ready To Go To Work By Now Time and that means I probably need to wrap this thing up rather than going into more detail, so: Dreamwidth works like LJ but it does some things differently and I like the way it does them. I want Dreamwidth to work. For Dreamwidth to work, it needs content, because content makes the discussions happen, which is why I post things here and don't crosspost everything, and why I want to encourage people to use Dreamwidth.

That's one Thing. Another Thing, which is not the same Thing, is that LJ occasionally does Stupid Things. Stupid Things might upset people, and those people might make them want to consider taking their business elsewhere. I have Dreamwidth invitation codes that would allow that thing to happen, so mentioning them in that context seems relevant. I don't hate the Livejournal or anything, I just like Dreamwidth.

Really, really need to get moving now. Here, some links:

Dreamwidth Advocacy Policy, which I think indicates Why It's Awesome.

Why Dreamwidth?, in which people explain what they like about Dreamwidth, and also discuss some Bigger Issues which you might be interested in.

A post about crossposting, content and readership - while I don't view this as a competition, I do want Dreamwidth to work, which means I should probably crosspost less and create more.

A non-fandom contact-making meme - because sometimes I forget that I am more than just another Fan Boy, and because I know so little about some people beyond their fandom inclinations.

I still have eight Dreamwidth invitation codes. They're yours if you want them. If not, I understand. If you're happy on the LJ, that's fine, no pressure attaches: if you're interested in what comes out of my filth-hatch, add kaptainvon to your OpenID reading list.

And now I really, really have to go to work.