newcomers | Recent Entries

Am I right in saying that we're limited to all lowercase letters in tags? That's gonna affect a few of the tags I want to use, for sure... Would be nice if it weren't the case.

What other limits are there for tags, in terms of allowed characters?

Current Mood: discontent

ysabetwordsmith

AO3 is down, likely for weeks. Pillowfort is closing. This is a good example of why it's advisable to crosspost creative work to multiple platforms. Most people on Dreamwidth use it for referral, not posting actual fics or art or whatever. Then something like the above happens, and everyone scrambles to backup their stuff.

Full Content on Dreamwidth at

goals_on_dw provides a place for people to list what they're posting whole on this platform, and for people to seek things they can view here. Fanwork, original, fiction, poetry, webcomics, whatever you create that is visible here is welcome.

Current Mood: busy

soc_puppet

I know a lot of people are archiving fic and other fanworks on Dreamwidth, so there's a place they can still be accessed while AO3 is down; I also know a lot of those same people are worried about spamming their followers/subscribers 😅

Good news! In the "Display Date" section of the Post Entry page, there's a ticky box you can click for the option, "Don't show on Reading pages". While I haven't tested its efficacy myself, it was created for exactly this sort of situation: When you want to do a lot of posting and make it available to the public, but don't want to spam anyone!

If you're archiving a bunch of stuff on Dreamwidth, now might be the time to try it out! And please spread the word, since it's a feature that not everyone knows about ✌

Edit: We have confirmation that the ticky box works as described! Also, if you don't want to miss any posts that someone might make, whether or not they tick the box, you can try this: Go into their profile and, in the Grant Access/Subscribe/Etc panel (upper right hand corner on desktop), the third option is "Track Account". Turn that on, and you'll be notified whenever they make a post, even if they have that box checked!

Edit 2: Another option I just remembered: Personal communities! You set up a community that only you can post to, but anyone who wants to see what you're making can subscribe to. That way, people who want to see what you're archiving in real time can subscribe to that community, while anyone who doesn't want to get a deluge of posts can either wait to subscribe until later, or just skip subscribing to the community at all. It takes a bit more time to set up than just clicking the "Don't show on Reading pages" boxes, but it might be a good solution for some of you!

Current Mood: cheering you on

ysabetwordsmith

Do you like writing? Or reading what other people write? It's very popular on Dreamwidth. Here are some resources...

Follow Friday 9-15-23: Books

Follow Friday 2-2-24: Creative Writing

Follow Friday 9-27-24: Fanfiction

Follow Friday 11-1-24: Fiction

Follow Friday 9-30-22: Poetry

Follow Friday 12-16-22: Writing

Signup Post: Community Thursdays in 2026 at

goals_on_dw

Signup Post: Fannish 50 in 2026 at

goals_on_dw

Signup Post: Full Content on Dreamwidth in 2026 at

goals_on_dw

Signup Post: Reading Challenges in 2026 at

goals_on_dw

Signup Post: Writing Challenges in 2026 at

goals_on_dw

Writing Blanket Box at

pillowfortu_haul

Current Mood: busy

merrileemakes

There have been many excellent guides posted about how to find things on Dreamwidth, which I will link to at the end of this post. But what if you wanted something a bit more... serendipitous? Here's a few methods I use to find people and communities that I didn't know I was looking for until I found them, in order of increasingly unhinged.

Popular with Circle
On Dreamwidth your friends list/subscribers is called your circle. Your Popular Subscriptions shows you the people, communities and feeds that are most popular in your circle (Edit: This is a paid subscriber feature). You can change the filter method used to see what's most popular for subscriptions (people you subscribe to), mutual subscriptions (people you subscribe to who have subscribed back), etc. I find the filters don't change too much results-wise. This is a nice quick way to find some popular people and places to follow.

Network Page
The people, communities and feeds you subscribe to are on your Reading Page. If you have a paid account you also have a Network Page, which is the circles of your circle. It's a feed of all the (publicly accessible) people, communities and feeds that are on the reading pages of all the people you subscribe to. You can scroll through it going back 1000 posts or 14 days. You can also filter it like your own reading page. Add the following after network in the URL bar of your browser:

P (personal journals only): ?show=P
C (communities only): ?show=C
F (feeds only): ?show=F

For example, to look at only feeds on my Network Page I would put this in my brower's URL bar: https://merrileemakes.dreamwidth.org/network?show=F

I've found the Network Page a great place to find communities and people tangential to my interests. I occasionally drop into people's comments to say I found them from Network and have a chat.

Other people's Reading Pages
Not a paid member? Or brand new to Dreamwidth and don't really have a circle? No problem!

You can go to anyone's profile and read a version of their Reading Page! Most people have their 'People', 'Communities' and 'Feeds' visible on their Profile Pages (visibility of these are set to on by default but you can turn them off on the Edit Profile page at the very bottom under 'Circle Display Options'). Next to the 'People', 'Communities' and 'Feeds' heading on the Profile Page is a small link that says 'View Entries'. These links are that person's Reading Page, broken up using the filters above. So from my profile there are links to:

People [View Entries] = https://merrileemakes.dreamwidth.org/read?show=P
Communities [View Entries] = https://merrileemakes.dreamwidth.org/read?show=C
Feeds [View Entries] = https://merrileemakes.dreamwidth.org/read?show=F

If there's someone you find interesting, or someone with a huge circle, you can check out these versions of their Reading Page to see who/what they are following. Like the Network Page, View Entries only shows public access posts, no filtered or member-only community posts. Have a rummage! See what other people are into, it may also be your jam. Or not! And that's okay too. These are other people's feeds, please be respectful. And remember, if you want to keep your feeds private hit up the Edit Profile link and turn off Circle Display Options.

Member Pages
Communities on Dreamwidth also have Profile Pages with lists of subscribers so they also have a reading page of sorts! Communities either have a 'Member Posts' link in its sidebar or you can go to its Profile Page and click 'View Entries' next to 'Members'. This will show you all the public access posts from members of that community (no communities or feeds).

For this community you can find the link on the right hand side if you scroll down a bit: https://newcomers.dreamwidth.org/read

A big community like this is a great place to get a feed of active members on Dreamwidth. Other communities like

fandomsecrets,

scans_daily,

yuletide,

snowflake_challenge or

3weeks4dreamwidth would also be good places to go for a general scroll. But you could pick a more targeted community to check out too.

Statistics
If those methods are still a bit too orderly you can hit up the Site Statistics page. It shows the 10 most recently active and 10 most recently made accounts, communities and feeds. It's like panning for gold. Who knows what you'll find! The churn rate of new and latest varies by time of day, day of the week and whether there's member influxes (like right now!)

Latest Things
Latest Things is last because a) it is the most obvious but also b) it is full of idiosyncrasies. The official line is that it's recently publicly access posts made on Dreamwidth, on a 5 minute delay. There are well written essays, angsty thoughts, RP blogs, spam, Ukrainian memes... It's, as Bo Burnham says, a little bit of everything all of the time.

But! It has tags across the top in a word cloud which seem to denote how frequently some are used. But some of these tags show no posts. Why??? At this very moment 'pillowfort' is a rather large tag on Latest Things, but there are no posts on the Latest Things page with the tag 'pillowfort' and when you click on the 'pillowfort' tag it shows a post from 11 hours ago and the Latest Things page only goes up to 3 hours ago. My working theory is that... it's haunted. Latest Things, like a ghost hunter's spirit box, will give you everything or nothing or something in between.

You can also edit the URL to look for any tag you want. The format is

For tags with a single word: ?tag=tag
For tags with multiple words use + signs as spaces: ?tag=this+is+a+tag

For example, the page for the 'WWW Wednesday' tag on Latest Things is https://www.dreamwidth.org/latest?tag=www+wednesday

You can bookmark these tag pages if you want to drop in to Latest Things and see if there's anything relevant to your interests.

Edit: People in the comments have pointed out the joys of Random Journal and Random Community. I have been sleeping on these gems because I assumed they would be random random and the vast majority of results would be long inactive. But no! These links show you random journals or communities that were updated in the last week or so. An excellent and easy way to sample some new to you people and communities.

If you would prefer not to spelunk through the depths of this crazy, wonderful site here are some excellent resources to find things:

minibit

I own ONE community (Small_Joys!) but I'm a member of several others; so far the only way I've found to get to a list of communities I'm in is to navigate to my profile page and find it alongside interests and circle relationships.

Is there a way to put it in the sidebar? Do most of y'all just bookmark that page seperate from your Reading page?

I browse primarily from desktop, if that matters.

Also I just noticed that clicking the little person icon goes to the profile page while clicking the username goes to recent entries. That's neat, speeds things up a smidge, but I still wonder if there's a way to keep my Comms list handy-er

Current Mood: curious
Current Location: Computer Desk
Current Music: Distractible: Size Matters (Podcast episode 10/08/2025)

prettyarbitrary

I posted this over on

pillowfolks and people are really liking it, so I figured I'd share it elsewhere in case others find it useful.

This list is by no means comprehensive, but all these comms have been active in at least the last six months--and mostly the last few weeks.

Did you know? If you find a comm you love but that is clearly dead, you can apply to take it over.

Also! Check the comments for more recs, and share your own favorites!

General Creatives
( See the list )

Crafting & Fiber Arts
( See the list )

Visual Arts
( See the list )

Writing
( See the list )

Fandom & Fandoms
( See the list )

Fanworks
( See the list )

OCs & Original Fiction
( See the list )

Creative & Fandom Events
( See the list )

Books
( See the list )

Games
( See the list )

Icons
( See the list )

Nature
( See the list )

Coding & Internet
( See the list )

RP
( See the list )

Assorted Interests & Hobbies
( See the list )

soc_puppet

Do you like making icons, gifs, or art in general? Enjoy customizing your online space? Want a chance to earn Dreamwidth paid time, and maybe even contribute to the site while you're at it?

Come check out

moodthemeinayear! If you make a mood theme, any mood theme at all, for personal or public use, you can earn Dreamwidth points, Dreamwidth's on-site currency—and you'll get bonus points if you make a mood theme theme that can be added to Dreamwidth as an official choice for everyone! Find out all the nitty-gritty details over here.

Don't know what a mood theme is? Check out this post for more information! (Shortest version: It's like a sticker you add to the end of a post to indicate the mood you're in.)

Worried that you're too late to join in this year? No need! In addition to the full 132 mood track that starts on January, Mood Theme in a Year runs several shorter tracks throughout the year, including an 18 mood track that lasts only six weeks—and which also just restarted on Thursday! That said, the community mood theme schedule is also just a suggestion for anyone who wants the extra structure; there area also bingo cards, Mood Theme in a Month calendars, or you can check the tags and create everything that's listed for the first week of a scheduled Part at a time. And that's just if you want to take a more scheduled approach!

Drop on by

moodthemeinayear and join the fun!

axolotls

Does anyone know if it's possible to change comment interaction icons into text with the Celerity site skin? I just noticed I'm getting icons in the beta inbox for comments on my posts and I would prefer for those to be text, instead, but can't find the setting...

bookscorpion

Here are a couple of sites you can use to host your images to display them on Dreamwidth via hotlinking (aka the image is uploaded to that site but appears on whatever site you embedded it on)

(disclaimer: I have not used most of these personally but I have seen them around, or used them for single images I wanted to share real quick)

PostImages

no account needed, free account available for more organisational options and space., and a paid account starting at 15$/month Will give you embed code ready made in a bunch of variations from html to markdown to bbcode.

Flickr

Flickr has been around for ages. There's a free account with limited space, or various tiers of paid accounts. I have no idea what those costs because Flickr won't show it to me. Will also give you embed codes in bbcode and html, with options on how the embed should look.

Edit: Flickr's $11/month or $82/year

imgbb

Similar to PostImages, will give you html and bbcode for your images. No account needed, no free account available but a paid account in various tiers. starting at 14$/month
Edit: apparently there are free accounts (I didn't want to go to all the steps of signing up so I missed that)

SquidgeImages

free fannish image hosting by Squidge - for fans by fans which is really nice. 18+, no commercial use of the images. Images don't need to be fannish to be there.

FileGarden

more a cloud than image hosting but as far as I know (but could not confirm because I haven't signed up), hotlinking is allowed. Also no idea what any of this costs because there's no easy way to find out.

edit: it's free for the first 2GB (with 40MB maximum per file) after which you have to pay, with the lowest tier being US$2.50/month which increases the capacity to 100GB storage.

edit: Linkyhost was suggested in the comments on Pillowfort:

I've been using Linkyhost and so far so good.

If you wanna use Linkyhost for free, you'll have to put up with them slapping their banner onto your image if you choose to hotlink, but they at least let you hotlink with a custom subdomain url.
The Pro tier is $5 USD/mo ($60 billed annually), but they've got a lot more detail on what they'll host, including images, PDFs, documents, HTML, spreadsheet, and bla bla bla.
However, I do not recommend Linkyhost for video or mp3, they're kinda shit at it, lol.
You can host a little website on it if you like or just use it for hotlinking (its main purpose), and doesn't come with the galaxy of shit you don't use or need that other webhost servers offer (like PHP and databasing and assorted control panel shit).

https://www.linkyhost.com

dishonorable mention: Imgur made hotlinking against their TOS. The irony is killing me LOL

even more dishonorable mention: ImageShack who used to be free, pivoted to paid account and replaced embedded images from free accounts with advertising. And Photobucket who deleted those images when they went paid account which I guess is better than ads but still.

gloomfiles

I've been poking around in original fiction, fanfiction, fanwork, etc. communities and I'm noticing that while there are fanworks spaces for all manner of genres, themes/tropes, time periods, fandoms, etc., there's also some communities that are specifically for a single user's work. I've seen it a few times, usually [user]_writes or something to that effect for the community name.

As a new user to the site, who wants to eventually start posting writing of both the fanwork and fanwork-adjacent (like, fanfiction of my D&D campaigns) variety, is that something I should do? Is there a norm that creative works go in communities, not on personal journals? If something's for a kink meme or fandom event, I assume those would have their own posting guidelines within the host community, but for stuff that I wanted to write and share without prompting, where should that go?

blood_pomegranate

Hello ! As I mentionned, I am new here.
I wish to connect with people who dabble with dark themes in fiction, like fanfictions or art, but most specifically with Transformers characters.
How does posting work here ? Is there a "general" place to browse tags of a fandom / theme , aside from communities ?
Are the devs planning on adding a feature where you can share other people's posts/ journal on your profile ?

I appreciate all help, thank you !

ysabetwordsmith

This year I'm doing Community Thursdays. Some of my activity will involve maintaining communities I run, and my favorites. Some will involve checking my list of subscriptions and posting in lower-traffic ones. Today I have interacted with the following communities...

* Commented on Speak Up Saturday in

tv_talk.

* Commented on Just One Thing: 21 October 2026 in

awesomeers.

* Commented on Hummingbirds in

common_nature.

* Commented on just create - type edition in

justcreate.

* Posted Meme in

memes.

Current Mood: busy

soc_puppet

For anyone who hasn't been alerted yet,

dw_maintenance has put out their LAST CALL for beta update and inbox page bug reports; Dreamwidth will officially be switching the Update/Create Entries and Inbox pages to their current Beta form in the next code push! Team Dreamwidth will still be doing everything they can to eliminate any bugs that pop up when the new pages go live site-wide, but they'll get taken care of faster if you can report them before the pages go live.

If you want to familiarize yourself with the upcoming Create Entries page, or just switch over before you get too used to the current version, I have a guide on how to do so over here; it includes a general guide on using said page.

prettyarbitrary

It's me again! With how-tos on more cool DW features. (I think they're cool.)

Comment Tracking:

My personal favorite--I consider it the secret sauce of Dreamwidth (and LJ before it)--post tracking! You can use this to get notified when your favorite bloggers make new posts. But you can also CRUCIALLY use it to get notified when people leave new comments on a post you like.

So if you got dug in on a cool conversation in the comments, you can turn that on and get notifications whenever somebody leaves another reply. This lets you stay in the conversation without keeping the post open in a browser window or something. You can add a blog or post to your tracking at any time using the little bell/track this icon at the bottom of each post. You can manage your post tracking in Account Settings > Notification tab. (Also the place to go to adjust your notification settings generally.)

Create Custom Access Circles & Custom Reading Pages:

Another super useful trick, if you're somebody who likes privacy and the ability to lock your posts to certain users, is the ability to create custom access circles. On DW, you always have the ability to set posts to public, private or 'access locked' (this means people you have followed/friended). But you can also create custom access lists! So perhaps you have one for 'besties I trust with information about my mental health.' Or one for 'beta readers for my rough drafts' or 'people who opted into my obsessive posting about kpop.' You create and manage these Custom Access Groups or Custom Circles in your Account Settings > Manage Circles. Create and name one, and then add the people you want in it. Or remove people who you've blog-divorced.

As a bonus, a Circle also includes a custom reading page. So along with using them for custom blog post access, you can also use them to create specialty reading pages--maybe 'people who write weird fic,' or 'my fiber arts friends.' AND you can set those reading pages to be public or private, so that if you don't want people to know you have a weird fic reading page, you can hide it.

Subscribing to RSS feeds or, Did you know you can follow Tumblr blogs from your DW reading page?

Another super cool one: You can add RSS feeds to your Dreamwidth reading page. So you can follow people who post on Tumblr or Twitter or Bluesky. You can follow people's personal off-site blogs. You can follow news feeds from various sites--maybe you're into AP's Finance section or you want to be able to track new fics posted to your favorite AO3 fandoms. Here's the how-to of creating and following RSS/Atom feeds on your Dreamwidth. (Edit: now with 100% more actual link!)

Post to Dreamwidth via email

In your Account Settings > Mobile, you can set up the ability to send emails to Dreamwidth to make posts or reply to comments. Nice if you don't feel like logging in. If you're like me and you lurk in your email a lot, you can have DW notifications set to send you emails as post or comment notifications and then reply to them straight from email.

Crossposted to

newcomers,

pillowfolks

bookscorpion

So I figured something out that will make creating photo and gifsets way easier for me in future:

I have the html code for this post saved, a 2x2 gifset I adapted from this code by

midnightchills . Now when I want to do another post like it, I copy paste it into the html editor, and then switch to rich text. There, I can click on each image individually and edit the link to a new image with the Insert/Edit Image button.
I find this much easier and less fiddly than doing it directly in the html code, and I can immediately see the images, no need for preview.

Edit: you have to toggle on Disable Auto-Formatting in the html editor or it will mess with the formating!

yourlibrarian

Pillowfort has a somewhat unique practice of creating "Blanket Boxes" as a type of Q&A meme. Possibly the first PF community to be re-opened here at Dreamwidth is

pillowfortu_haul, to preserve the ones created over the years at Pillowfort.

Everyone is welcome/encouraged to try out the blanket boxes that get transferred here. I only created 2 in my time there, but they are both now here and perhaps one of them is of particular use right now.

The How I Use Dreamwidth Blanket Box was originally designed to discuss Pillowfort use and encourage new users to explore its features. I have now adapted it for Dreamwidth.

So whether you're new to Dreamwidth or a longtime user, why not give it a go? You might find yourself realizing how much your experience has evolved here since you first signed up 🙂

ysabetwordsmith

I've seen a few people declare that they have finished reposting their material from Pillowfort to Dreamwidth. Are you finished? Comment below with your accomplishment in case folks are trying to follow the reposts.

Current Mood: busy

ysabetwordsmith

Pillowfort is closing. Users are affectionately calling it Laundry Day because you have to take down the fort and put all the pillows and blankets in the laundry. Here is a saved image of the announcement. See "Pillowfort News" for more on this topic and what you can do about it. Use the "Introduction / Friending Meme" to say hello and meet new people or find your Pillowfort friends here. A mourning post will go up December 4.

If you are on Pillowfort, you may find Dreamwidth a viable replacement. Scroll down for more resources about this.

For people on any other service, this is an opportunity to scoop new users. Listen to why people liked Pillowfort and say they will miss it. 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, people have described Pillowfort as cozy, cuddly, friendly, creative, community-oriented, with good features. It was popular among speculative fiction fans, queerfolk, and adult content creators. Dreamwidth has free, paid, and premium levels so you can choose the package that suits your needs. It 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. It's easy to find bloggers you like and nurture a sense of community. You can make short posts, carry long conversations, share images, and so on. Want a hate-free online space? It's not that hard to make one. Want to make a Pillowfort-like experience on Dreamwidth? Consider starting a community or using feeds. Looking for communities on your favorite topics to replace the Pillowfort accounts that you used to enjoy? Check out

followfriday for suggestions, or watch

dw_community_promo. You can also use the search box in your blog header or the Interests page. Community Thursdays is just a custom of folks posting what they've done in communities recently, whether posting or commenting.

( Read more... )

Current Mood: busy

ysabetwordsmith

These are some articles about the upcoming closure of Pillowfort and what you can do about that. Please pass the word, and share any resources you have.

See "Dreamwidth for Newcomers" for resources on using Dreamwidth instead. Use the "Introduction / Friending Meme" to say hello and meet new people or find your Pillowfort friends here. You might also like

pillowfortu_haul or

pillowfolks.

( Read more... )

Current Mood: busy

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Page Summary

axolotls - Tag Capitalisation?
ysabetwordsmith - Full Content on Dreamwidth
soc_puppet - For people archving stuff on Dreamwidth
ysabetwordsmith - Writing
merrileemakes - How to find stuff on Dreamwidth: A chaos goblin approach
minibit - Is there a faster way to access my Communities?
prettyarbitrary - Big honking list of communities
soc_puppet - Community: Mood Theme in a Year
axolotls - Site Skin Comment Icon Options
bookscorpion - Image Hosting
gloomfiles - writing ettiquite for dw
blood_pomegranate - New to Dreamwidth ! Confused on how and where to post to a fandom ?
ysabetwordsmith - Community Thursdays
soc_puppet - Heads up! Dreamwidth officially switching to new Post Entries and Inbox pages very soon
prettyarbitrary - DW features: Comment tracking, Custom circles, RSS feeds and replying from email
bookscorpion - Photo Posting
yourlibrarian - Blanket Boxes
ysabetwordsmith - Are you finished reposting?
ysabetwordsmith - Dreamwidth for Newcomers
ysabetwordsmith - Pillowfort News

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Newcomers to Dreamwidth

Recent Entries

Tag Capitalisation?

Full Content on Dreamwidth

For people archving stuff on Dreamwidth

Writing

How to find stuff on Dreamwidth: A chaos goblin approach

Is there a faster way to access my Communities?

Big honking list of communities

Community: Mood Theme in a Year

Site Skin Comment Icon Options

Image Hosting

writing ettiquite for dw

New to Dreamwidth ! Confused on how and where to post to a fandom ?

Community Thursdays

Heads up! Dreamwidth officially switching to new Post Entries and Inbox pages very soon

DW features: Comment tracking, Custom circles, RSS feeds and replying from email

Photo Posting

Blanket Boxes

Are you finished reposting?

Dreamwidth for Newcomers

Pillowfort News

Profile

November 2026

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