I am here.

[thewhitelily]

Well, it looks like I'm officially moving to Dreamwidth. I didn't mind about... things... enough to make the move on my own, but it seems that all the communities I'm even semi-active in are closing up over on LJ, and many of my active friends are at least somewhat active on dreamwidth too.  My main remaining link at LJ is really the nostalgic grief of knowing that I'm leaving behind the journals of old friends who haven't updated for many years.  I'll be automatically crossposting, so hopefully anyone remaining in the ghost town who wants to get back in touch can still find me.

My journal's in the import queue, I guess in the current backlog it'll arrive when it arrives. I've managed to recreate my journal style, which is good even though I've never been particularly fond of white on black, because the background metaphor still suits me in so many ways.

Journalling has become the best thing I can do when I'm drowning, when I feel like I'm struggling to reach the light at the surface and breathe.  Groping blindly for the distorted reflections of who I really am through the medium of fiction.  Things may seem calm and serene from above but here, beneath the surface, you can see some of my frantic paddling--as well as glimpsing the other nine-tenths of the icebergs floating through my stories.  And of course, even when I'm at my most calm, my very favourite thing is to go out late at night and lie on the bottom of the pool, looking up through the water at the darkness and the stars.  It makes me feel... peaceful. 

The journal is dead.  Long live the journal.

Comments

[ancientreader]

Grief is grief and not subject to rationalist dispelling, but for what it's worth I'll offer this: the people who run DW seem consistently to demonstrate their good faith and goodwill toward the site's users. I spent years thinking that DW was just LJ's punier cousin, but now I'm glad to have made the leap.

So, welcome!

[thewhitelily]

I held no particular opinions or value judgements on LJ vs any other platform; only that it was where my friends were. I'll agree with you the people who run things at DW seem very genuine and sincere, and I hope they benefit greatly from the influx of new users.

Thank you! I'm sure I'll soon consider myself at home. :)

[smallhobbit]

Like you, I'm here because most of the comms I participate in have made the move. I still have friends on LJ, so for the moment that is my first port of call (I also dislike some of the way DW works), but I copy all my LJ posts over (unlike most people I don't cross post from DW, I find it easier just to copy - at the moment).

But definitely, yes to journalling and staying in touch. As for the serene swan, there are times when I feel like the furiously paddling feet are the visible bit and the rest of me is floating along somewhere underneath ;)

[thewhitelily]

Copying wouldn't work for me; I need to simplify in my life not add more steps to get things done. :) What are your bugbears with dreamwidth? I'm currently finding it annoying on comms that the comment threads aren't displayed very deeply before they collapse, and then to expand you end up on a page with just that subthread's comments. I find it less inviting to participate in community discussions.

I know that upside-down swan feeling well too! Well put!

[smallhobbit]

Bugbears: Not being able to look at the list of tags and choose them, but having to start typing. Which means I need to remember whether I tag my book revues as books or reading.

Reading through entries to a comm and clicking on the 'read more' to find you're on another page rather than just expanding.

Hitting the enter button having chosen a tag to find I've posted my entry - that was particularly annoying when I was cross-posting to LJ, as I then had to amend both entries with further tags.

Once an entry is posted coming to a screen which says 'entry posted' rather than showing the entry, which I like because at times I spot the obvious mistake.

Not currently being able to schedule posts. The latter particularly for comm entries where I normally prepare something the evening before and want it to go live in the morning.

Because I like to receive email notifications of entries, so I track journals/comms they also go into my inbox. Similarly replies to my entries arrive to my email showing the full entry, even if I've used a cut.

They are mostly just niggles, but for me it makes the system less user friendly.

[thewhitelily]

Ah, thanks. Yes, mostly niggles--a couple I'd noticed, a couple I hadn't. The 'read more' on entries con a comm is certainly the big one for me, particularly since I think it seems to collapse threads much more aggressively than LJ, so you don't get much on the main page. I've never used scheduling, but I can imagine that would be big for a lot of people.

Re: the crossposting irrit, I've been pleased to see that editing an entry automatically updates the crossposted entry as well. I do a lot of editing, so I'm glad I only have to do it in one place.