getting_started | Recent Entries

First of all, hello and welcome! It's lovely to see you here and I hope this community can help you.

To keep things reasonably organised and to help you find relevant information quickly, there's a tagging system in place. A full list of tags can be found at: http://getting-started.dreamwidth.org/tag/

I've been going through entries and tagging them, but do add tags to your posts if you think any are suitable. If you need help, it can be a good idea to go through the tag to see if anyone has asked a similar question before. Bear in mind, however, that Dreamwidth is being actively developed and there have been many code pushes since its foundation; some older information may be outdated and no longer relevant.

Currently, creating new tags, removing tags from entries, and adding existing tags to entries is limited to community administrators. If you think of a useful tag that hasn't been created yet, or a post that should be tagged differently than it currently is, please let an administrator know!

bedes

I know, second post from yours truly in a row, but this is a new topic that I can't figure out for myself either.

I have this issue where, when I try to apply a journal theme to my community, it glitches out and applies it to my personal journal instead. This includes when the URL says auth as=(community name). I've tried switching browsers, and even switching to my phone, to see if it's a problem on my end, but it's consistent across all devices and all browsers.

Does everyone else experience this? If yes, what's the fix for it, if any? Thanks!

Current Mood: frustrated

bedes

Hello! I'm looking into possibly creating a community for a series that doesn't have a community yet. Do any community-owners have any advice for keeping a fandom community active and fun? Is there a good place to interest-check a community, or do you just throw it to the wind and cross your fingers, so to speak? Where do you recommend promoting communities?

Thank you in advance!

Current Mood: curious

dray

If I've accidentally changed my journal styling when I'd meant to swap out a community's theme, is there any way to recover it? I'd spent a long time with my original background, colours and where all the elements were placed, and lost it all in one mis-click.

spectre_writes

Hello! I'm trying to move my writing backlog over here from cohost and I'd like to automate the process as much as I can, and email posting seems to be the easiest way to do that.

Now I have two things I'd like to do that I'm not sure how to do via email:

Firstly I would like the posts to not appear in the reading page, as there will be near 150 of them posted in a short period of time, and second I'd like to give them custom URLs so that I can automatically put prev/next links into the posts that are parts of a series.

These are both things that can be done in the beta post editor, but I'm unsure if it's at all possible to do them via email headers. Is it possible, or is there an alternate way to post to dreamwidth via a script that would allow me to do these things?

bedes

Hello! I have a question regarding customizing my journal. More specifically, I'm making a side account, and I want to replicate the sort of look of this journal:

https://veryroundbirdfics.dreamwidth.org/

I realize that they're using custom CSS! My problem is I cannot, for the life of me, figure out what base code they're using. Is there a way to find what theme someone else is using, if they don't directly say it somewhere? If this isn't possible, but you think you know what base code is being used, shout it out in the comments!

Thank you!

Current Mood: confused

doodlemancy

I just joined a community and read their rules and it says "please don't hardcode your entries".

I cannot for the life of me find a definition of "hardcode" anywhere, at least not in the context of Dreamwidth. Doesn't seem to be on the jargon page of the wiki. What does that mean? Also is it generally unwelcome in communities, whatever it is?

Edit: thank you! I have been educated!!! I had totally forgotten about this aspect of journaling sites.

Current Mood: confused

sunlit_skycat

I'm considering buying a rename token, but I'm not entirely sure how those work. Some questions:

Can a rename token be used on a community?
After a rename token is used, what happens to previous links to posts sent out with the old name? Will those redirect to the same posts under the new name?

osteophage

Note: At ysabetwordsmith's suggestion, I'm crossposting this post from where it was originally published on Pillowfort. Hopefully some of these ideas may be helpful for thinking about Dreamwidth, as well.

These are some general thoughts about how to encourage folks to shift or expand activity onto a new site, based a conversation with

prettyarbitrary, as well as some of my own experience. This list is not exhaustive and comes with no guarantees, but I wanted to pass these suggestions along for anyone who might be interested. Feel free to add in your own tips and observations in the comments. ( Read more... )

ysabetwordsmith

Twitter faces a mass exodus.

For people on any other service, this is an opportunity to scoop new users. Listen to why people are leaving Twitter. Does your favorite service meet any of those needs? If so, encourage people to move there instead. Gathering more of your friends together will make any service more fun to use.

For example, many people are complaining about hate speech and poor privacy tools that don't let them block it. Dreamwidth offers private blogs, themed communities, and pretty robust moderation tools that let you delete comments you don't want on your blog or block people so they can't bother you. Want a hate-free online space? It's not that hard to make one. Want to make tweet-sized blog posts? Some people do that here, especially with certain formats like "3 Things Make a Post" in various blogs or "Just One Thing" on

awesomeers. Looking for communities on your favorite topics? Check out

followfriday for suggestions. You can also use the search box in your blog header for interests.

Some resources that you can share or reblog for new users to find:

* Dev Getting Started (for the code)

* dreamwidth 101: the (sort of) fast version

* Finding people on Dreamwidth

* Getting Started on DW (from LiveJournal)

* how to dreamwidth: a primer

* Making Friends on Dreamwidth

* So you're into BNHA and just created a Dreamwidth account

* A Tumblr User's Guide to Dreamwidth

* And of course, refer them to this community.

I have not seen a Dreamwidth guide for Twitter users, so if you know of one, please share the URL so I can link to it. Other guides are welcome too.

EDIT 11/19/22 -- I have continued to update the version of this list that I posted on my blog, which is now much larger, as other people have made resource posts or lists.

Current Mood: busy

vriddy

I'm meeting more and more people who are finding their way to Dreamwidth and enjoying the pace and atmosphere here better, and are also realising that if they want to see more activity related to their fandoms, they'll have to create the communities themselves.

And so I find myself wondering... Is there a community out there about how to run a dreamwidth community effectively? Where people share their experience and advice, best practices, and possibly support? With topics like how to write a code of conduct or a good profile page, keeping a community active, dealing with trolls, promoting a comm, encouragements...

I found a few posts under the communities tag helpful already, but the kind of questions I'm thinking of may have a broader scope than just getting started 🤔

vriddy

I was recently asking about Dreamwidth tips for new users on my journal, and this community was suggested to me in the replies! Here to my first post in a DW community. I am wondering, what little tips and tricks do you have that make for a more comfortable experience? The kind of tips that wouldn't be obvious for someone coming from another of the modern platforms.

For example, I only recently discovered the "Track this" option to keep an eye on post with thriving/interesting discussions in the comments without necessarily getting emails for it. Love how this lets me participate in conversations for longer, or get a notice if it was e.g. a request for recs and someone replies later.

Thank you!

archerships

I was a longtime LJ user back in the day, got sucked into the Facebook borg, and am now returning to my roots. Many thanks to the staff and volunteers for creating/maintaining Dreamwidth.

I'm still finding my bearings, so apologies if this is not the right place for this kind of question.

As y'all are probably aware, Facebook heavily censors a wide variety of topics, from porn, to vaccines, to erotic Bernie memes. (Ask me how I know about that last one). I've been banned (temporarily) and seen friends banned (temporarily and permanently), sometimes for posts they made years earlier that were consistent with Facebook's rules at the time.

As a result, I've become increasingly angry at being treated like a child by Facebook's Dolores Umbridge algorithms. One of the main reasons I've fired up my account on Dreamwidth is the founder's stated commitment to free speech:

"With servers in the US we're obliged to follow US laws, but we're serious about knowing and protecting your rights when it comes to free expression and privacy. We will never put a limit on your creativity just because it makes someone uncomfortable — even if that someone is us."

...and from the site's Operating Principles:

"We will not place limits on your expression, except as required by United States law or to protect the quality and long-term viability of the service (such as removing spam)."

While I'm heartened by the apparently vigorous commitment to free speech here, many sites that claimed to support free speech at their founding, grew to support censorship of a wide variety of topics. For example, when reddit was founded, it claimed to be a "bastion of free speech". Over the intervening years, however, it has censored or banned thousands of communities, on topics ranging from drugs to sex work to conservative politics.

The founders of Dreamwidth also don't seem very active on the site any more. denise hasn't posted publicly since 2015. mark hasn't posted publicly since 2013. Many of the founding documents are outdated with references to policies that don't exist any more (such as invite codes).

As a result, I'm hesitant to invest in a site that seems to be on autopilot, and de facto controlleded by volunteers who may not share the founder's commitment to free speech.

So, before trying to recruit my friends here, I'm trying to get a sense of the real boundaries of free speech on Dreamwidth.

To help clarify, I've made a list of topics that have been banned on other major services. Note, to be clear, I don't necessarily support the communities that were banned on other sites. For example, I'm not a Trump supporter, and I'm certainly not a Nazi. However, I'd like to occasionally be able to discuss those topics without fear of being banned.

Which of these topics, if any, is likely to put my Dreamwidth account/communities at risk of a ban/censorship?

Thanks in advance for your thoughts on this matter!

sophus

I keep on finding myself automatically logged out of Dreamwidth within 36 hours or so of logging in, which is mildly inconvenient.

Is there a setting that I can use to increase log-in duration? And if so, where do I find it?

rivendellrose

I was recently gifted with a paid account, and since I finally have access to the ability to add a custom mood theme, I wanted to upload my old mood theme from LJ. I had saved off all the gifs from that theme (it was one of the defaults there but not available here) before I deleted my journal there, and I was able to upload all the images and set up the console code without any trouble using these instructions here, but when I entered the final commands, a bunch (but not all!) of my commands came back with the error "You do not own this mood theme."

So now, around 14 of my mood theme images work, and the rest are blank. And I have no idea how to fix this, because it seems so dang arbitrary.

At first I thought the problem was that I had uploaded all the images to my image storage here on Dreamwidth and linked to them there, but if that was the case I would expect all of them to fail. Same with the theory that the system somehow knows that yeah, I admit it, I don't actually own these images, I saved them from my old LJ. While it would be sort of understandable... that would apply to all of the images. (And also, I'm guessing, to a lot of other people's mood themes that use images from TV shows, movies, etc.) So...???

It's dumb, but all I want is my little grey-blue animated cartoon kitties. Anybody have any experience with this problem or have an idea how to fix it?

Current Mood: sad

snapshotgun

Okay, so I've gone over the FAQs relating to posting pictures, and I cannot figure out how to do it. I've tried using my Instagram account to no avail. I've googled 'how to import pictures on dreamwidth' and couldn't find a satisfactory answer.

So please, if you can, can you show me or list the steps (one by one) on how you post a picture on Dreamwidth?

cross-posted to

ask_me_anything and

thequestionclub

avismalus

Hi again! I have some more questions, this time regarding customizing the look of my journal.

I never used livejournal or anything similar so I'm extremely confused and can't really find any kind of guide that explains things without assuming you have prior knowledge of Livejournal. As you can see on my page, I've been messing around and managed to somewhat change my profile, but I still am confused and not really satisfied.

What I'm trying to achieve is making my layout look something like one of these:
https://secretare.dreamwidth.org/
https://catholicisms.dreamwidth.org/

Something extremely simple, basically I want my journal's front page just to be a navigation page. In the case of secretare, it seems like they basically have no theme, the only feature is the navigation post and the previous page button at the bottom. Also, when you click on their links, the pages it takes you to go back to being in the DW default theme for the comment page (if that makes sense?). I want to do something like this. catholicisms' is another example of the journal just being a single post with navigation links and no other features.

Sorry for these probably really basic questions... I'm not at all used to sites with this kind of setup and I can't understand layers versus styles versus coded post formats, etc...

Thanks to anyone who can help.

avismalus

(is this group still active)?
well, hopefully someone sees this.
i've just made an account on this website a few days ago, in search of a roleplaying community. i've read a lot of resources made by DW users about getting started with the website, but i still have some specific questions that it's been difficult to find answers for. also, a lot of guides assume that you're experienced in using livejournal, which i am not. would anyone experienced in this website (particularly the roleplaying aspect of it) be willing to help me out and answer some questions of mine? kind of like a mentor?
thanks so much! it would be greatly appreciated!!

nimueth

I'm really not sure if this is the right place to ask, because it's less to do with Dreamwidth specifically, and more about third party hosting. But I really don't know where else to look for help (google came up with zip), and who knows, maybe others have wondered this as well.

One of my favourite things about journal sites like DW are custom mood themes. I used Photobucket as hosting, but unfortunately ever since they revoked sharing privileges from free users, I was forced to look for alternatives. The problem is this: unlike Photobucket, they all generate random links. Even the ones that leave the original file name in the link will include random numerals, which means that using the admin console codes to quickly replace the hosting in the links is no longer possible.

I guess my question is, does anyone know of a workaround? I want to avoid doing it manually, if I can.

fifty_fifty

Hi,

I have been using OpenID in order to comment on LJ communities as I don't want to have an LJ account for obvious reasons.

I used to be able to log in just fine and post comments and create posts etc. But I recently got a new computer and went to log in and comment and it told me I needed to validate my email address. So I clicked through to a link and then clicked the link that was in the email that LiveJournal sent to my email address.

When I click this link in the validation email, it takes me to a page titled:

"Please, verify that you are human"
When you submit the form an invisible reCAPTCHA check will be performed.
You must follow the Privacy Policy and Google Terms of use.

Then there's a continue button to click on. I click the page and it looks like it's doing something, but it takes me back to the same page again and I remain unverified and now unable to comment or post on any communities.

Any ideas as to how I can get LJ to actually verify the email address for my OpenID account? Thanks!

Current Mood: annoyed

gehayi

Hi!

I've been told that recently--say, the past week or so--people have been coming to a comm that I co-mod (which transferred to Dreamwidth earlier this year), but they haven't been able to access it. This is happening with both Firefox and Chrome users, and is occurring both when they go directly to the blog and when they try to follow links to specific posts. In both cases, the server redirects indefinitely, so that they are effectively locked out of the comm.

As I said, this is very recent. We have made no changes recently to our comm's settings. Frankly, I am at a loss as to what could be causing this.

a) Does anyone know what is causing it? If so, what?

b) Does anyone know how to fix it? If so, how?

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Page Summary

forthwritten - Tagging in getting_started
bedes - Community themes glitch
bedes - Tips for creating a community?
dray - Journal theme recovery?
spectre_writes - Questions about posting by email
bedes - Journal Style Query
doodlemancy - What is "hardcoding"?
sunlit_skycat - What happens if I buy a rename token?
osteophage - Notes on Migrating an Online Community
ysabetwordsmith - Twitter Exodus
vriddy - Community about running communities?
vriddy - Tips for new users coming from other platforms
archerships - Moderation / Censorship on Dreamwidth?
sophus - How to decrease logout frequency?
rivendellrose - mood themes upload error "You do not own this mood theme."
snapshotgun - posting pictures
avismalus - basic layout question
avismalus - looking for someone to help me out
nimueth - Uploading mood themes through admin console
fifty_fifty - OpenID and Livejournal
gehayi - There's an Accessibility Problem

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Base style: Tranquility III by branchandroot
Theme: Shallows by dancing_serpent

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Getting Started with Dreamwidth

Recent Entries

Sticky: Tagging in getting_started

Community themes glitch

Tips for creating a community?

Journal theme recovery?

Questions about posting by email

Journal Style Query

What is "hardcoding"?

What happens if I buy a rename token?

Notes on Migrating an Online Community

Twitter Exodus

Community about running communities?

Tips for new users coming from other platforms

Moderation / Censorship on Dreamwidth?

How to decrease logout frequency?

mood themes upload error "You do not own this mood theme."

posting pictures

basic layout question

looking for someone to help me out

Uploading mood themes through admin console

OpenID and Livejournal

There's an Accessibility Problem

Profile

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December 2024

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