Sense, Nonsense, and Not-Sense

More material about making yourself at home on Dreamwidth. Things like useful HTML markup for making your entries better. sylvaine also has a great guide for HTML and Dreamwidth. jessie_the_k reminds us that if you're familiar with Markdownm you can use that to compose posts with. That also alloows for a certain amount of @usernaming, if that's the form you're wanting to work with.

muccamukk offers a custom CSS rule you can implement that will prevent the display of any content in a comment by a person you do not wish to see. It only works when you're logged in, and because it's custom styling, it'll only work everywhere if you insist in your settings that all pages use your style when you load them. It's not a ban. It's just a "nope, whatever that user has to say is unimportant or otherwise not worth seeing" for you.

melannen built on astolat's bookmarklet to capture text and create a new post with that quoted text and proper attribution for you so that it now will tell you if you're trying to quote a locked post. Great if you find a thing, you want to say "THIS, THIS, THIS!" and make a post about it in the proper way of the Dreamwidth. legionseagle has a great wander through, among a discussion about conventions on Dreamwidth, why the One Ring is a terrible thing to use as a forefeit for wrongdoing.

corvidology has the lowest-pressure friending post possible - just say yes in the comments so people know you're interested in making friends.


If you'd like a place to move your text work to from Tumblr or anywhere else that runs the threat of being shut down when the advertisers say "no more monkeys jumping on the bed," the AO3 is there for you. Specifically there to host your works in a place where there won't be those kinds of pressures. OTW Legal also talks about the things that can be linked in to AO3 works, and the sorts of things they are and aren't able to do with regard to the Tumblr purge.

Also, that post might mean I'm sitting on a lot of Archive invitations. I'm sure I can figure out how to find and use them if people do not already have Archive accounts.

You can link specific users, not only on DW, but also sites that are on the approved list for linking, and their appropriate userhead will appear. So if you wanted to do silveradept, for example, you totally can. The current list of approved sites is in one of the FAQs. musyc also mentioned that each account has a certain number of comments-back they can look, if by chance, the notifications were deleted before the comment could be responded to.

musyc also reminds us that there are more than a few options for choosing how DW looks to you and others in your options page, that tags can be searched and combine-searched, there's an inbox for messages and notifications, that you can set keyboard and device shortcuts for faster browsing, and the beta entries page has a lot of really good functionality.

potofsoup has a tag called DW How-To that contains advice on doing things in a Tumblr way if you are new to DW.

A second round of community recs from sylvaine. and more community recs from rydra_wong.

absolutedestiny has a guide to setting up an account with a cloud storage host so that vidfic or podfic or other such things can be served up for inexpensively if your not-text content should take off like a rocket. There's also a second bit about using a Content Delivery Network if you do get that fame and you need to have your content in multiple easy places for your fans to grab stuff from.

And after that, tozka started a discussion from comments left on a Mastodon instance about fandom's changing demographics, which led into a discussion about what Dreamwidth communities are for and can be used for. In the comments to that second post is advice from those who run and moderate communities about ways of making it more likely you'll succeed. ovembermond has more on how to successfully find active communities on DW.

Most importantly, though, is that Dreamwidth is not a place where everything has to be all seriousness, even if it appears to be that way (kore says so). Admittedly, we are the kind of place that will spawn a discussion about what defines a shitpost. (rydra_wong would like to know.) And the kind of place that will take such a declaration as kore's and craft a challenge for the month of February to use one's Dreamwidth specifically for shitposting (as well as everything else you use it for). Not to be outdone, then melannen created a randomizer to give you topics to talk about off the top of your keyboard and then made a post with the code so that people to generate their own random shitpost. The pull quote for all of this is in the comments to the code post:

(Despite all the stuff that I agree with about dw posts not having to be elaborate or substantial... it is somehow very dreamwidth that we respond to "dreamwidth is for shitposting" by doing things like creating challenges, teaching javascript, and having a symposium on definitions.)

It really is exactly that, and perfectly Dreamwidth. So there's an idea of what you might be getting into, but it'll be fun, we promise.

1. I welcome all of the following types of comments on ANY of my entries:
   
   • Single or two word comments, e.g. , woo!, yay, yes, no, please, thanks, absolutely, agreed, seconded, so much, no way, etc.
   • "+1" or Facebook style "like".
   • Otherwise brief comments, e.g. single sentences.
   • A comment that is a punctuation mark(s) to let me know you read, e.g. a period, an asterisk.
   • A comment that is a punctuation mark(s) to express your response, e.g. an exclamation mark or question mark.
   • A comment that is an emoticon(s) to express your response, e.g. \o/, <3, :), :(, :-D, :-P, etc.
   • Long, wordy comments. Rambling is totally okay.
   • Comments and links on related topics.
   • Comments on single links, entities, paragraphs, topics, or words in the entry. I throw out a lot of things each entry, and I don't expect anyone to have to come up with a coherent comment on each and every one of them to comment.
   • Sequential commentary. It's totally okay to comment about one thing as you read it, then another thing in a separate comment, then a third thing after you've chewed on it for a while and feel ready to talk about it.
   • Incoherent comments. It’s all good. I would rather have you here and showing interest, even if it's just a *flail*, than for you to stay silent because you are afraid or unable to get the perfect comment out.
   • Talking amongst yourselves in the comments is fine. I like creating a place where people get to interact!
   
   I also welcome:
   
   
   
   • Comments on older entries, access-locked or public.
   • Comments on VERY OLD entries, access-locked or public. I have many years of archives.
   • Comments from people who are not subscribed to me.
   • Comments from people who I’ve never met.
   • Comments from people who haven’t talked to me in awhile.
   • Comments from people who’ve never talked to me.
   • I like knowing the provenance of new commenters. If you're new, I'd love to know where you came from and what brought you here.


2. My great anxiety is that there's nobody out there and I'm shouting into the wind. If you’re feeling like you want to comment with something, feel free to comment with what feels good and comfortable to you, whether that’s leaving a !!! or an essay. If you don't have the spoons for any comment, that's okay, too. No pressure, no obligations.


3. How I reply to comments:
   
   • I mostly try to reply to comments.
   • I normally try to reply to comments as soon after they arrive as I can.
   • My comments will probably try to elicit more discussion and longer-form commentary. Part of it is my professional training, part of it is because I like discussions.
   • You are never obligated to reply to a reply, nor to write longer-form than you wish.
   • If you would like a response to a comment, I encourage you to let me know. “I would appreciate a response to this if possible,” etc. is totally fine with me.
   • If I have forgotten to reply to something you want a reply to, a poke is totally okay. Variable attention stimulus trait means that if I don't respond to something immediately, there's a high chance it will slide out of my brain entirely unless reminded. It's not a personal slight, is less than optimal brain writing.


4. Linking to my entries:
   
   • If it’s public, it’s fair game.
   • It’s access-locked, ask me.
   • Please do not archive my work without asking me first, mostly so that I can see what kind of archive is being built and make a decision about whether I would like to participate. The Internet Archive is usually fine, someone's collection of "people to dunk on because they see the world differently than I do" isn't.
   • If you do link to me elsewhere, it warms my heart if you tell me where you linked, but it's not a requirement.
   • If something I linked or wrote inspired you, it warms my heart if you link me to it. Also not a requirement.


5. Transformative works:
   
   As of the time of the last edit to this post (02023-01-01), the content of my blog is licensed CC-BY-SA (4.0 Unported), which says that if you use my work for something, your work should attribute me (the user name and a link back to my blog is usually sufficient) and your work should also be licensed under a license similar to the Attribution-Sharealike license. The stuff I link to is not governed under this license and may have additional requirements for you to use.
   
   Transformative works are also highly encouraged on anything that is part of my AO3 works. I wanna see, hear, and otherwise know about them. Probably so I can squee about how cool they are.


6. Adding and access:
   • If you want to add me, go ahead! Please feel encouraged to do so.
   
   
   • I like new subscribers. I also respect access-locks - if something you created is That Awesome, I'll ask for permission before excerpting or posting elsewhere.
   
   
   • I may not add you back - I tend to evaluate based on what's available on your entries page. If you're mostly access only, it may take some comments or a conversation in a third space before I have an idea of whether I want to subscribe. If your journal is a repository for your fiction efforts, I may not add you back, because I do not have near enough time to properly read anyone's fiction as a part of my daily list crawl. I would probably enjoy it, if I had the time.
   
   
   • I don't give access, generally. For one, nearly everything posted is public, so you're not missing out on anything by not having that access. If I do post something under access-lock, it is probably something intensely personal, and so I'd be hand-selecting who I want to see it.


7. Tagging:
   • Tags are generally used on a subject and organization basis, rather than a whisperspace basis.
     • Standard linkspam posts are not tagged.
     
     
     • Linkspams primarily of political acts, actors, and actions are tagged, so that tag may be excluded from your reading, if you should desire it and have access to that feature.
     
     
     • December Days, Snowflake-style challenge posts, other projects of interest and the AO3 Output are tagged. Each post on a particular year's subject will have the same tag applied. If you like reading many posts on the same subject, those are a great way to get to know my style quickly.
     
     
     • If you are here just for the fic, it's probably best just to go to AO3 in the sidebar, but if you would like commentary as well as links to fic, the AO3 Output tag will get you there.
   
   
8. Content Notes:
   • It's probably worth mentioning somewhere that there will be swears, blasphemous utterances, and other things that are often part and parcel of the World Wide Web experience. I also talk about adult topics, like taxation, work, time management, and decision-making. Usually obliquely, but not always. I'm trying to get better about allowing for "ish" to be sufficient in so many things.
   
   


9. A miniature bio that's accurate-for-now:
   
   
   
   • Physically speaking, I will probably tell you that I'm not much to look at. It is up to you to decide whether or not I'm telling you the truth or my insecurity is coming through. I'm generally friendly, use complete sentences, am prone to random humor, occasional bouts of angst and anger, and making leaps of neuroatypicality, especially in trivia matters.
   
   
   • Professionally, I'm still a polymath-in-training. I pay the bills by telling stories and making information appear from the wilds of the Internet. This sometimes is harder than it looks, and more often than not, it requires translating back and forth between Human and Machine, and there's almost always some information lost in the process.
   
   
   • Fannishly, according to our commencement speaker for the first degree, I'm part of the "Net Generation," which is becoming more and more "the last generation on the Web before the corporations got to it and ruined it." Most importantly, though, that makes me a Fandom Old at this point, since I've been through the process where I was on a platform that had All The Fandom, and then the Advertisers interfered and crushed the fandom, which left for other places, and I have now seen this process happen several times to other platform, where all the fandom apparently left for, so I am rapidly approaching the point of being a Fandom Great Old One, with all the "what are all these old people doing in my fandom space?" that I will get as flack from people who are just starting their fannish journeys.
   
   
   • "Don't like? Don't read." is an important fannish maxim for me, and I would much rather that someone who doesn't aesthetically like what I have to offer, or who wishes to engage in ship-to-ship combat spend their energy finding something they do like rather than making more work for everyone by trying to harsh on someone else's squee. Objections based on the idea that shows, characters, or their creators are -ists or otherwise people who give the fandom a bad name will be considered with thanks for the information provided.
   
   
   • I am profoundly multi-fannish, I tend to write on the exchange circuit more than spending a significant amount of time on a single large work, and when given the opportunities for sign-ups, I tend to try and fill my spaces with things that I believe are rarer, and perhaps leaving in one or two bigger fandoms as safety nets for the matching algorithm. This means I can talk to a lot of people about a lot of things. I don't post all that much in my own space about fannish stuff, outside of prompty-stuff, so if you want to talk fandom stuff, feel free to grab a post and start talking.
   
   
   • A primary life goal of mine is to know myself. It seems like an easy thing, until I stop and think and talk about it. My understanding grows with time, but acceptance is not always along with the understanding. Especially when acceptance means admitting to myself that the things that served me well in the past don't any more, or admitting that I may, in fact, have some form of a disability and I need to plan for that or accommodate it was a normal part of me, rather than as a System to prevent moral failings and lapses from normality.
     
     I tend to irrationally believe that I'm really someone else other than the person I aspire to be. You would think that after enough opportunities to prove myself otherwise, I would take the hint and believe that WYSIWYG, but that's not something that's happened yet. I tend to be caustic about willful ignorance, people who actively try to suppress other people, and people who have the power and clout to make changes that would benefit everyone and instead enrich themselves at the expense of others.

(This idea stolen and modified from trascendenza, who first broached it in their own journal when talking about commenting culture and their own anxieties, and then further extended as part of housekeeping for snowflake_challenge challenges.)