Some thoughts on Dreamwidth
Apr. 25th, 2009 04:48 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
eleanorjane[This entry crossposted to Dreamwidth and LJ.]
So, I've been using Dreamwidth for a little while now, and my impressions are solidly positive. The site's not perfect yet, obviously - there are features yet un-implemented, there are bugs and dead ends, and so on. It is, after all, in closed beta, and that's what beta periods are for. Speaking as someone who's beta tested a reasonable amount of software, Dreamwidth is in pretty good shape. (Try beta-testing World of Warcraft - at least Dreamwidth doesn't completely disappear out from underneath you on a regular basis.) I'll be paying for an account when it goes live, and - if finances allow, which they probably won't - possibly trying to snag one of the permanent seed accounts.
I don't understand why people are being so negative about Dreamwidth; I've seen a lot of hostility from people who don't want to use the service. No-one's holding a gun to their heads and making them get Dreamwidth accounts; no-one forced me to use InsaneJournal or GreatestJournal or any of the LJ clones. Are there really that many offensively pushy Dreamwidth fans out there who are rubbing the naysayers the wrong way? Or is this an unsurprising case of people being resistant to change, and trying to claim the moral high ground about it?
I've seen a number of posts - mostly via metafandom and links, rather than people on my flist - being quite vicious about Dreamwidth and its founders, and painting the people using it as a bunch of elitists who are trying to make the entire population of LiveJournal move en masse. For starters, the irony is choking; these are mostly fandom folks, and fandom is all about squeeing about the good points of something, providing links and picspams and clips of the source and trying to get other people enthused about something you like. And honestly, most of the outright negative posts I've seen just sound like sheer bloody-mindedness at this point.
*eyeroll* Grow up, people. I'm allowed to like something you don't, without it threatening your world.
So, I've been using Dreamwidth for a little while now, and my impressions are solidly positive. The site's not perfect yet, obviously - there are features yet un-implemented, there are bugs and dead ends, and so on. It is, after all, in closed beta, and that's what beta periods are for. Speaking as someone who's beta tested a reasonable amount of software, Dreamwidth is in pretty good shape. (Try beta-testing World of Warcraft - at least Dreamwidth doesn't completely disappear out from underneath you on a regular basis.) I'll be paying for an account when it goes live, and - if finances allow, which they probably won't - possibly trying to snag one of the permanent seed accounts.
I don't understand why people are being so negative about Dreamwidth; I've seen a lot of hostility from people who don't want to use the service. No-one's holding a gun to their heads and making them get Dreamwidth accounts; no-one forced me to use InsaneJournal or GreatestJournal or any of the LJ clones. Are there really that many offensively pushy Dreamwidth fans out there who are rubbing the naysayers the wrong way? Or is this an unsurprising case of people being resistant to change, and trying to claim the moral high ground about it?
I've seen a number of posts - mostly via metafandom and links, rather than people on my flist - being quite vicious about Dreamwidth and its founders, and painting the people using it as a bunch of elitists who are trying to make the entire population of LiveJournal move en masse. For starters, the irony is choking; these are mostly fandom folks, and fandom is all about squeeing about the good points of something, providing links and picspams and clips of the source and trying to get other people enthused about something you like. And honestly, most of the outright negative posts I've seen just sound like sheer bloody-mindedness at this point.
*eyeroll* Grow up, people. I'm allowed to like something you don't, without it threatening your world.
