thoughts of thinking

[catchmelike]

I am sort of confused by all of the options on dreamwidth (grant access, subscribe, whatever), and honestly that's always been one of my biggest problems with it. I treat my friends list as just that - a friends list; it's a list of people I enjoy being around and interacting with and want to be friends with. A "reading" list full of people who can follow me while not allowing me to follow them and vice versa feels way less personal to me, and I just don't like it.

Also not having a ton of icons. The thing that may keep me going back to Lj is that I DO have a permanent account, and while their attitude towards their user base frustrates and angers me ...I have 200+ icons, and I get all of the storage and features without having to constantly throw money at them. And I have thrown a lot of it. I had the money back then. I don't know if I have it in me to pour hundreds of dollars into another site that's really just a back up for me - a consolation prize so to speak. It doesn't feel the same. Maybe it eventually will but not just now.

I don't know. Just thinking thoughts or whatever.

Also can you install mood themes here? And how?

Comments

[rhoda-rants.livejournal.com]

I know nothing about Dreamwidth, unfortunately. :(

I have been thinking about switching to Wordspace though, or at least setting up an account there. They have amazing backgrounds.

[catchmelike.livejournal.com]

Dreamwidth is probably the closest and best if you want something Lj-similar, though I don't completely love it. The biggest draw for me is that I can back up all of my past LJ entries there and I can crosspost to both places so that I don't have to think of what I've said there vs. what I've said here.

The customization options, from what I can see, are fairly similar at DW as to what they are here, but there aren't as many layouts.

[rhoda-rants.livejournal.com]

Honestly, I haven't done a huge amount of research on Dreamwidth, but I checked out--what'd I say, Wordspace? I meant Wordpress--because all my writer-friends hang out there. Well, most of them anyway.

[catchmelike.livejournal.com]

Ahh, I'm going to be honest, I've never even heard of it - I use Lj mostly for fannish/fandom things like comms and fic and discussions/interactions with other fans, and for me it's always been the best for that sort of thing. (Tumblr doesn't lend itself very well to actual discussion, IMO and fic is unreadable there, I don't care what anyone says - also it lacks the community feel that I crave in fandom.)

[thefreshchuff.livejournal.com]

So many of my friends that I've been close to for years, and so many fandom communities I closely follow, are staying on LJ, so I don't anticipate making a blog switch. I use Tumblr/Twitter/FB more often than LJ anyway and lol yes, like you said, I like all mah icons.

[catchmelike.livejournal.com]

Lj's the best for me. I kind of hate tumblr most of the time and I don't use fb at all. I have one but I rarely even think about it. I use twitter but I like being able to make long posts about whatever. I just am so discouraged with the treatment of their user base. I've been on Lj for 10 years, and it's changed so much. I feel like the current Lj leadership needs to take some serious customer service workshops.

[samelthecamel.livejournal.com]

I love all my icons too, and although LJ isn't that loyal I couldn't ever bring myself to leave. There's too many awesome people here staying that I love. The whole grant access/subscribe thing at dreamwidth thing irks me too. I don't like the feel of the place, so I'm staying put here.

[catchmelike.livejournal.com]

Yeah, that's my biggest problem with it. A lot of the staff actually seems really snobbish about some things, and I just feel like it's not created to be a community~~ in the same way that Lj is.

[eledhwenlin]

For mood themes, go here: http://www.dreamwidth.org/customize/options?group=display

I like the subscribe/grant access feature, actually. It allows me to check out if I really gel with another person before having to give them access to my locked entries. If we manage to build up a relationship by commenting, etc., I usually give them access after a few weeks. I don't know, it makes me feel safer.

[catchmelike]

I don't know. For me it's mostly the wording. I don't want a reading list. I want a FRIENDS list because that's what it is for me, if that makes sense. I don't friend people I'm not actually interested in befriending - I wouldn't friend an author whose fic I like but that I don't really have anything else in common with because I can get their fic elsewhere. I don't know, I don't know. It's all semantics, I know, but Lj just gives me a more homey/community feel. DW feels colder and less personal. It's probably just that it's new and different and I don't really feel settled in here yet.

[eledhwenlin]

Hee. I think it's funny because during the first migration wave in 2009, people were all "yay, we can differentiate between reading/access, flist is a stupid word, anyway".

The thing is a lot of people do use it as a reading list and prefer not to give everyone access immediately. Each to their own, I guess.

It'll come with time! In the beginning, it was difficult because many people only saw DW as a back-up, but didn't actually post there. (I actually find DW more personal than LJ because you can comment on the latest dw_news entry and you get a reply. YMMV.)

<333

[catchmelike]

I remember that being one of the initial reasons I *didn't* want to move! I think it really just depends on your perception and what you use it for.

see, I don't really care about that. I rarely even LOOK at the news feeds unless someone on my flist mentions it. I like that they aren't condescending towards their userbase but I also think that should be a given.