Dreamwidth Accounts

[glennagirl.livejournal.com]

Perhaps some of you have heard the rumblings about the changes being made at Live Journal, including the move of headquarters to Russia.  There are a few whispers going 'round that the site may be in for some turbulent times, including hacking or invasions of privacy.  For several years we have maintained an account on Dreamwidth, a similar journaling site that has served as a back up of sorts whenever LJ has had issues, which at one point we thought might be very serious.
I have been updating communities on Dreamwidth, transferring all of our posts and comments to that version of our lives here on LJ.  You can access Section 7 by going HERE
I will continue to transfer from other comms we have here on LJ: mfu_map_room ; mfu_gallery
Dreamwidth isn't an exact duplicate of LJ, the environment is different but the concept is intact and the methods of posting and viewing basically the same.  If you don't already have an account there, I am going to suggest that you consider opening one.  It's a back up, but in times past it has been a necessary one, and may be again if things go wonky.  According to their recent newsletter they have experienced a surge of new accounts, many of them Russian in origin.  You can read the newsletter HERE
I post there as girlintheglen and ironically my last post there was about a hitch on LJ.  LIke I said, we've used it as a back up plan in the past.
You can post questions here in the comments or PM me here at LJ.  We'll probably be addressing this periodically.

Comments

[mrua7.livejournal.com]

Wow, this is sounding serious, and I guess it's not a bad idea to be preemptive.

For anyone moving to Dreamwidth for the forest time I'm under my old user name of 'mlaw' so please friend me there.

[glennagirl.livejournal.com]

I don't know if it's a real concern, but since we have the lateral site we might as well keep it current. Importing is easy, I'll just keep on it.

[avery11.livejournal.com]

I have to say, I've never been impressed with Dreamwidth. There's no option for photo sharing or illustrations, and the site seems difficult to navigate. Perhaps it has improved since I was there last? I wonder if there is another site that might serve the community better.

[reapermum.livejournal.com]

I must admit it's the lack of easy photo sharing that stops me using my DW account.

[mrua7.livejournal.com]

That was the reason why I stopped posting on DreamWidth. Very frustrating, especially when trying to post a PicFic prompt.

I read a notice from DreamWidth yesterday saying they are having an unusually high number of requests for membership coming from Ukraine and Russia. They're looking for people who can volunteer to the site to help with translations as Google translate doesn't quite do the trick.

So this mass migration could mean a few things. The hackers are moving to DW

Or these people are worried about being monitored and or cut off from LiveJournal....could that be some writing on the wall?

OR it could mean nothing, and is just the doom and gloom scenario.

Actually the servers I believe, weren't in the U.S.. they were located in Finland. There was a San Francisco office for LiveJournal, but that's been closed. So all operations for LJ have been centralized in Moscow.

[mrua7.livejournal.com]

I was just there and tried to post the PicFic prompt for 45 minutes without success. Still as frustrating as ever. I really dislike DW, but if it comes to us losing LJ, then It better than nothing I suppose. AO3, and FF.net don't have that sense of community...actually what other site does? Do you know of any others Avery...or anyone?

[avery11.livejournal.com]

No, I don't, but I don't feel that sense of community on DW either. I hope there's another alternative out there, somewhere.

[mrua7.livejournal.com]

Me too. Fingers crossed things don't do south with LJ. We had this same worry when it was bought by a Russian company, and the US sanctions in the past didn't affect the site. One can only hope it'll still be around for us all.

[glennagirl.livejournal.com]

It makes me wonder how on earth a virtual location can actually feel different. It's as though the corridors are narrow and the ceiling too low, and for the life of me I don't know how they managed it.

[reapermum.livejournal.com]

I've been here on LJ for nearly 13 years now and this prediction of doom and disaster has done the rounds everytime LJ changed hands. Yes, the site has had its problems in maintaining services at times, but what site hasn't. The crosswording blog that OH helps with suffered a prolonged DOS caused in retaliation for the webmaster shutting down attempts to use it as a spam factory.

You could just as easily say that the Russian owners want to take the servers out of the US because they fear the possible actions of your new president.

[leethet.livejournal.com]

Doom and disaster in the form of a lost comm (with piles of lost stories) has happened before, on and off LJ. I don't think this is meant as an insult to Russia or Russians in general, but there have been problems since LJ went Soviet (JUST KIDDING about the Soviet part). Some people want to be sure they don't lose stories/posts/etc. It's never a bad idea to have a backup

[reapermum.livejournal.com]

I seem to recall, but I may be thinking of the wrong time, that posts and comms were lost before SUP took over from Six Apart. I tend to think of any troubles being an on going feature.

I totally agree with you about ge need for backups. You should see the number of different places I have my photo collecton.

[leethet.livejournal.com]

"I tend to think of any troubles being an on going feature."

You're dead right here - no situation is perfect.

[mrua7.livejournal.com]

Linda, I finally figured out how to post photos on Dreamwidth. I use Google docs. and had to drag the photo there, then cut and paste it into the window for Dreamwidth. No problem cutting and pasting text from LJ, just images. So weird.

Can't cut and paste images directly from Live Journal, and none of the photos I use have URLs. Wish Dreamwidth would do like LJ and allow you to drag your photos directly from your desktop to the posting window where they upload from there.

Hope this helps?

[reapermum.livejournal.com]

I've been on DW since '09, and have posted pics there in the past. I did it by uploading the photo to Photobucket and linking from there. But using LJ's scrapbook is so much easier.

I used to have to use Photobucket to post pics to Ravelry, but they will take them directly from my computer these days. Which means I hardly use Photobucket anymore.

[mrua7.livejournal.com]

I don't use Photobucket, though I really should. So i works out if just cut and paste things from Google docs. to DW...hopefully we won't have to segue there as a community. I like LJ so much more.

[leethet.livejournal.com]

I went over there thinking ...oh, invite codes, invite codes ...

But I'd already created an account over there. This was back in the day when everyone was fleeing LJ for Insane Journal or Dreamwidth.

So I'm over there too, at leethet.dreamwidth.org

[mrua7.livejournal.com]

Hey, at least we have a backup in the event something does go wrong with LJ. Really need to spread the word among the comms, as I'd hate to lose people along the way.

We don't have to use DW unless we need it. It's definitely not Livejournal, but if push comes to shove it's better than nothing.