Things You Can Talk About Here
Sep. 29th, 2024 11:26 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ysabetwordsmith posting in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
newcomersThis community supports people who are coming to Dreamwidth from other platforms, and experienced Dreamwidth users who want to welcome them. This gives us a wide range of topics to post about and discuss in comments. The more people who get active and post or comment here, the better.
TOPICS
Dreamwidth
* Why Dreamwidth is great, and what benefits it offers to users.
* Tools available on Dreamwidth and how to use them.
* Dreamwidth code, customization, development, etc.
* Instructions on how to do a specific thing (e.g. how to make a graybar).
* Questions about how to do something or descriptions of a problem you are having here.
* Recommendations for communities, individual blogs, or other things to enjoy.
* Announcements of upcoming or current events likely to interest new users (e.g. thesnowflake_challenge in January or Three Weeks for Dreamwidth from April25-May15).
* Friending memes, love memes, and other socializing opportunities that help people connect.
* Observations about an influx of new users on Dreamwidth; if you haven't spotted a cause for it, someone else might, and it's an opportunity to welcome them.
Other Platforms
* News about other platforms that are having serious problems, closing, or otherwise driving away users some of whom may wind up on Dreamwidth.
* Things you miss about a previous platform, things you would like to bring here from there, feelings of loss, etc.
* Information about your activities on other platforms, so that fans from there can find you here.
* Comparisons between Dreamwidth and other platforms regarding features, pros and cons, etc.
People
* How to make friends / find people you know on Dreamwidth.
* How to attract people to your blog, build and maintain an audience, creator/reader connections, etc.
* Ways to deepen and strengthen relationships online so they fill some of the roles that facetime friends do.
* Social interactions, netiquette, etc. in a blogging context.
* Interpersonal problems in cyberspace and how to deal with them.
* How to adapt to a new platform if you are just moving here -- especially "How to Dreamwidth for (other platform) Users."
* How to help new users feel welcome and comfortable so they'll want to stay.
Cyberspace Theory
* Discussions about blogging / social media theory and practice.
* Discussions about online privacy and rights in the context of blogging.
* Ideas on how to improve the blogging experience, community, etc.
* The importance of coding, web building, and fan-run platforms; and how to encourage these.
See also "What to post about on Dreamwidth" bysoc_puppet.
PARAMETERS
General Community Tips
This community is meant to be welcoming to newcomers. Don't angst too much over details, just do the best you can. Give it a try! Comment! Post! If you goof, it's not the end of the world. But lurking is okay too. There's no real pressure to perform here.
If your post is more than a few paragraphs, or contains more than one image, it is a good idea to use a cut tag to hide part of it so people don't have to scroll past the whole thing on the main page.
If you want to make a really long reply to a post, bear in mind that Dreamwidth has a limit on comment size (16,000 characters). Is this turning into a major discussion likely to interest many other members of this community? If so, you can turn it into a new post, and comment under the old thread showing interested readers where it has moved. Is it more personal, or a side discussion between you and one or two other members? If so, you might want to move that discussion to your own blog, and make a comment under the original discussion pointing interested readers to where it has moved.
Crossposting is welcome here. If you want to post something both here and on your individual blog, that's fine. If you're making an announcement, think about how many communities you want to post in to maximize exposure without creating too much duplication that the same people will see.
On Civility
Practice good netiquette. Do your best to carry on conversations in a polite and rational manner. Remember that even though you are looking at a computer, there are real people on the other side of it who have feelings.
Don't be a dick.
If you hurt someone's feelings, it is polite to apologize. Fix it and move on.
TOPICS
Dreamwidth
* Why Dreamwidth is great, and what benefits it offers to users.
* Tools available on Dreamwidth and how to use them.
* Dreamwidth code, customization, development, etc.
* Instructions on how to do a specific thing (e.g. how to make a graybar).
* Questions about how to do something or descriptions of a problem you are having here.
* Recommendations for communities, individual blogs, or other things to enjoy.
* Announcements of upcoming or current events likely to interest new users (e.g. the
snowflake_challenge in January or Three Weeks for Dreamwidth from April25-May15).* Friending memes, love memes, and other socializing opportunities that help people connect.
* Observations about an influx of new users on Dreamwidth; if you haven't spotted a cause for it, someone else might, and it's an opportunity to welcome them.
Other Platforms
* News about other platforms that are having serious problems, closing, or otherwise driving away users some of whom may wind up on Dreamwidth.
* Things you miss about a previous platform, things you would like to bring here from there, feelings of loss, etc.
* Information about your activities on other platforms, so that fans from there can find you here.
* Comparisons between Dreamwidth and other platforms regarding features, pros and cons, etc.
People
* How to make friends / find people you know on Dreamwidth.
* How to attract people to your blog, build and maintain an audience, creator/reader connections, etc.
* Ways to deepen and strengthen relationships online so they fill some of the roles that facetime friends do.
* Social interactions, netiquette, etc. in a blogging context.
* Interpersonal problems in cyberspace and how to deal with them.
* How to adapt to a new platform if you are just moving here -- especially "How to Dreamwidth for (other platform) Users."
* How to help new users feel welcome and comfortable so they'll want to stay.
Cyberspace Theory
* Discussions about blogging / social media theory and practice.
* Discussions about online privacy and rights in the context of blogging.
* Ideas on how to improve the blogging experience, community, etc.
* The importance of coding, web building, and fan-run platforms; and how to encourage these.
See also "What to post about on Dreamwidth" by
soc_puppet.PARAMETERS
General Community Tips
This community is meant to be welcoming to newcomers. Don't angst too much over details, just do the best you can. Give it a try! Comment! Post! If you goof, it's not the end of the world. But lurking is okay too. There's no real pressure to perform here.
If your post is more than a few paragraphs, or contains more than one image, it is a good idea to use a cut tag to hide part of it so people don't have to scroll past the whole thing on the main page.
If you want to make a really long reply to a post, bear in mind that Dreamwidth has a limit on comment size (16,000 characters). Is this turning into a major discussion likely to interest many other members of this community? If so, you can turn it into a new post, and comment under the old thread showing interested readers where it has moved. Is it more personal, or a side discussion between you and one or two other members? If so, you might want to move that discussion to your own blog, and make a comment under the original discussion pointing interested readers to where it has moved.
Crossposting is welcome here. If you want to post something both here and on your individual blog, that's fine. If you're making an announcement, think about how many communities you want to post in to maximize exposure without creating too much duplication that the same people will see.
On Civility
Practice good netiquette. Do your best to carry on conversations in a polite and rational manner. Remember that even though you are looking at a computer, there are real people on the other side of it who have feelings.
Don't be a dick.
If you hurt someone's feelings, it is polite to apologize. Fix it and move on.
