#dreamwidth help

[bisexualbaker]

do you know of any kind of "introduction to dreamwidth"? i didn't grow up in english language fandom and while i caught the tail end of LJ's lifespan i never got used to it. i've had a DW account for over a decade but i simply don't know how to make use of it beyond browsing very specific writing prompt communities.

Hello! Here's some links you might find helpful:

Basic Dreamwidth for Tumblr Users by @star-anise A Tumblr User’s Guide to Dreamwidth by @aniamraDW for Tumblrites Masterpost by potofsoup

@dreamwidth-help hasn't updated in a long time, but they still have lots of useful information!

A lot of Tumblr users also made Dreamwidth accounts in 2018 in response to the porn ban, to the point where Dreamwidth made an official News post welcoming them. There are a whole lot of resources linked in that news post, which you can find right over here.

If you need anything more specific, or just more help with any of this, please let me know and I'll do my best to help! You can also comment on the latest news post and ask for some help there; a lot of very helpful people hang out in the comments there, and are very eager to lend a hand!

[darcylightninglewis]

I feel so fucking dumb. Trying to customize the layout for my community on Dreamwidth. I JUST WANT IT TO LOOK PRETTY. HEEEELP MEEE.

I’m so used to CSS I don’t know wtf is going on.

[volfoss]

Pretty happy to get 25% thru this book tonight tbh! Hoping to get 50-60% thru tomorrow if all goes well :)

[sisterdivinium]

Guilt served as comfortable bed sheet, as did darkness — the price for the sacrilege of love.

But a mischievous light shone briefly from outside and Jillian perceived the shapes of the woman she had spent the night adoring: scars, dimples, hair and fat which she only loved all the more, growing ashamed of her shame, of hiding her own mangled arm.

Then she saw the thin, injured skin of Suzannes’s knees and understood.

She could not hide from God.

Jillian dropped to her own knees, cursing the cross, defying it; worshipping her lover with new passion under His resentful eye.

[rearranging-deck-chairs]

havent really had more indepth thoughts since than the posts i made last night but i just got to the "my name is zephyr" line again

like it's meant to be heavy bc we knows names are Sacred (<- lots of worldbuilding questions there forever to remain unanswered) and so yes theres the trust in penance, but it's also like, to claim a name, "my", is to claim an identity. it's an expression that there is something more to you than just your role, your function, the cause youre in service of.

and if transition is the only thing shes ever done for herself, right? and all the rest has been in Service. what shes called at any point is just the title of her function in the circumstances. but to say My Name is to claim an identity, that exists for its own sake. as is. not for anything. just is.

and if she chose the name herself, it's like an expression of a Want. which is what i was talking abt with the joy/pleasure thing. she doesnt Want anything, really, except maybe just for "this to be over". she starts out, in this story, at like the most Unwanting state you can have. being suicidal, most of the time, rather than a positive wanting to be dead, usually it's more a negative not wanting to be alive, you know what i mean?

and she remains in that state for all of the story we get. she doesnt really Want anything in a positive sense, mostly just wants like, things not to be like this. the world not to be like this. and not to be in the position shes in. but shes stuck in that position bc the world is like this. so the only way out is to try and make it,,,not like this. which is the main thing driving her for the whole season i think.

to say "my name is zephyr" i think is an expression of a positive desire. it's i want to be zephyr. it's, maybe, i want to just live. i want to just live instead of i want to stop fighting.

[thisbluespirit]

New seasonal challenge up at TARDIS Library, the Dreamwidth Doctor Who reccing community!

Simply comment in the sign-up post, receive 5 random characters (we have lists for New Who, Classic Who & various spin-offs you can choose from), then rec 5+ fanworks for at least 1 of those characters at the comm to complete the challenge, receive a banner, and share the love for some excellent fannish creative endeavours!

You will need a Dreamwidth account to post recs to the community, but they're free to sign-up for, with no strings attached, if you'd like to take part. <3

[narzissenkreuz-ordo]

me, wondering why ive been having panic attacks at night recently

[mejomonster]

In case tumblr ever does go down, im mejomonster on twitter insta discord too. Please add me

[ngtskynebula]

Guylies, I need help.

So, Dreamwidth. Yeah.

I wanna use an image I uploaded to Dreamwidth in one of my posts, but I'm not being able to make it show up correctly... it comes out distorted, too stretched 😫

I'm a Blogger girlie, I don't know how to work with those numbers that allow you to costumize even the tiniest dots you've got. How can I make the picture show up with its original dimensions?

[sokovianfortune]

i've been in such a writing funk lately :/

[bisexualbaker]

I highly recommend this roundup of links for Tumblrites who are new to Dreamwidth. Full disclosure, OP of the posts has linked one of my own guides in a past post, but I don't know if it's anywhere in the current list at all.

[meova101]

He could have just gotten it over with when he’d shown the kid around the factory. 

Chapter 4: From the same old stories to the new ones

It is Tuesday my dudes and that means a new chapter of Love Like Mine (Met With Mixed Reviews)! Chapter 4 already, oh how time flies.

I have decided to start cross-posting this on DreamWidth for the time being. You can find the chapter here and the masterpost for the fic here. Feel free to follow me on DreamWidth as well!

[floor20]

Bit of a long shot, but does anyone know of a longform(ish) blogging site that doesn't focus on microblogging stuff like Tumblr/Twitter/Mastodon?

The only thing really keeping me from Dreamwidth is there's no way to softblock someone (afaik) because unbanning someone following you keeps them as a follower. Keeping them banned is the only way to remove them. And deleted accounts still follow you with a strike through their username.

I love the personal blog and community group balance DW and LJ had. I love the privacy and access features of DW, which is what I'd like to see from Pillowfort before I really consider heading there.

My situation atm means I can't really go out and meet people. I'm lonely and want to make friends and all that. But Tumblr and Mastodon bring out the "lurking reblog-only" side of me. I wanna be able to write an essay if I want to. I wanna read other people's long posts too.

It feels like a hopeless ask because "slow" social media and longer posts aren't a thing anymore. Maybe I'm missing something about these sites. Maybe there's something out there that's exactly what I'm looking for.

Anyone else have a suggestion? Please?

[silveraspen]

2024 resolutions

Communication, crossposting, and my new year's resolutions for the first time since 2020 where so many things went off the rails: let's go.

[sonicenvy]

there is a new scourge on AO3 that I discovered recently...

that scourge is "Placeholder fics". This is thing, where someone posts a "fic" on AO3 with a summary and tags (and sometimes even a complete tag), but when you click on the "fic" the content of the "fic" is something like:

"coming soon" or "in progress" or "an idea I'll write someday"

This is a scourge on AO3 tags that directly violates TOS Section IV, as it is spam (sect B) and inappropriate content (sect H) (not, strictly speaking a fanwork).

If you see these "placeholder fics" on AO3 REPORT THEM. It is easy to do.

Link the fic in report and in the description, you can write something like this:

The linked "fic" is a so-called "placeholder fic" where the author posts a work to a tag and the only content is the words "In progress". The "fic" appears in tags, yet contains no content, so I would consider it to be spam. Thank you!

(This, btw is the actual thing that I wrote to report one of these a few weeks ago)

If you want to get jazzy you can even mention that you believe the "fic" violates TOS IV.H (which is what the AO3 mod told me in the email response to my report) or TOS IV.B.

You can report anonymously if you want afaik. Once you submit a report the AO3 moderators will get back to you at some point to update you on that report and action taken.

This is a simple way that YOU can make AO3 better today. If you see a "fic" that violates TOS in any way, REPORT IT. There are literally millions of fics on AO3 and the moderators can't possibly go through all of them without YOUR help.

I suspect that the people who are posting these "placeholder fics" are probably very young people who are very new to fandom and fanfiction and do not know better. If you are reading this post, and you are one of these people, know that I don't hate you, I just want you to know that what you are doing is a violation of the AO3 TOS and that it fills AO3 tags with spam, preventing readers from finding actual fic to read. There can be (and certainly are) MANY fics on AO3 with the SAME names, if that's what is motivating this.

AO3 isn't a social media site, it's an ARCHIVE for fanfiction. If you want to communicate with your following that you are planning on writing a new fic, use your tumblr, your reddit, your dreamwidth, your substack, your pillowfort, your livejournal, your bird site or whatever the fuck you have to do this. Link your socials in your bio on AO3 if you must. Mention it in the author's notes on your latest work. IDK, just don't post empty "fics" on the ARCHIVE.