Tips for new users coming from other platforms

[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!

Comments

[raine]

One of the ways I've found new communities and people to follow has been through the "Network" tab.
Also: subscribing to a community is not the same function as joining it. DW allows you to separate those functions - for example, I might want to check out a community before I join it so subscribing is step 1 and I might never go to step 2 (join), and that's totally OK.

[vriddy]

That is definitely not a page I would have found on my own so thank you for that 😂

Even looking at the FAQ I don't fully understand what is the difference with the reading page. Is it like, friends of friends and what communities they follow as well?

[raine]

The reading page is the list of friends and communities you follow (are subscribed to or have joined). The network page is the list of your friends' friends and the communities they follow or have joined. It's a nifty way to see other communities and friends. The other way is to look at a person or community's profile page and see what they have subscribed to and/or joined. The caveat with using a profile page as a basis for what you might join or subscribe to is that some people (myself included) wind up with a lot of accounts listed on their profile page - some of which aren't even active anymore - and it can get messy. Using the Network tab gets you a quicker, more up-to-date snapshot of what your friends of friends are into. Have fun exploring!

[vriddy]

Haha, I was using the browsing people's profiles technique until now. Thanks for the explanation! It looks like the Network page is only available for Paid users which new joiners might not have just yet, but I'll certainly poke around myself :)

[raine]

Ah, yeah, sorry, forgot that free users don’t have all the access. I have a Seed account, so it’s easy for me to forget what features aren’t available to free vs. paid users.