new user - how to get by?

[szabgab]

I am new in DW and used LJ only once so I have no idea where to find things and how to do things here.

Following the recommendation of damned_colonial I got on the #dw IRC channel and asked about it. I got a link to this getting_started community, to dreamchasers, and to support.

So I am posting here wondering how do you start using DW? How do you find people to answer your questions if there is no community yet with your interests?

Comments

[damned_colonial]

The other comment I'd make to all this is that unlike blogs, DW journals tend not to be topic-specific. People just talk about what's going on in their life: a mix of what's happening at work, hobbies, family, travel, TV shows they watch, book recommendations, philosophical thoughts, whatever.

The way to build a following here, and get into interesting conversations -- at least in my experience -- is to journal regularly (> once a week), speaking as if to a group of friends, and prompting interesting conversations in your comments. The way to get people to read and join in, as others have said, is to subscribe and comment on their journals first, whereupon they'll usually come over to take a look at yours, and in some cases will subscribe.

One of the reasons I have very active discussions on my journal is that I subscribed to over 500 journals here around the time of open beta, and left a comment saying "Hi, welcome to Dreamwidth!" and sometimes further personalised comments, on each one of them. My LJ journal, OTOH, was almost dead because I followed so few people and didn't really post regularly or comment regularly.