First post

[ign]

Many thanks to the kind developers and testers of the Dreamwidth, I've got my "invite code" and is finally able to reserve my favorite username!

Overall, this does seem like a very nice job porting basic Livejournal features and UI (I regret that being a programmer, I didn't have sufficient free time to contribute, but perhaps I will) while making it easy to use and more consistent in the process.

I regret though that development team has decided against making localized UI version available (I believe that this capability has substantially contributed to Livejournal original success, especially in non-English-speaking communities). Yes, making any sort of user-provided content publicly available as site UI can and will backfire, but it is important to strike a right balance.

What I don't really understand is how business managers are planning to attract paid-account users in any substantial numbers. Comparison table between different account levels does not give any incentive whatsoever to ever want to upgrade to paid account, other than an obvious desire to support a good work by dedicated people. Who the hell would need more than 1000 tags, anyway (other than some automated publishing system, but that's a totally different issue)? Or, let's say, post via e-mail - I can trivially write a script which would make it possible via XML-RPC, should I ever need it, but I never used this option with Livejournal and not going to.

OK, granted, some people love dozens of userpics user icons and possibility to edit your comments is nice, but I am not sure how this could justify $25 per year.

That said though, "premium paid" account is a total mystery to me. 2000 tags instead of 1500 for twice the money? Well....

Speaking of Livejournal, historically in the early days of the service paid accounts attracted people because:

1. They wanted to support the service - OK, this reason does equally apply to the Dreamwidth;
2. This was the only way to get an invite code, and this way people who would not otherwise consider this were lured into paying - OK, Dreamwidth does use invite codes;
3. Free users only had 3 userpics, and that not a lot. Dreamwidth gives 6.
4. Free users could not customize styles, but rather only select from few pre-defined ones. Dreamwidth never mentions "styles" in the comparison table;
5. Livejournal also promised faster access to paid users, not that I think it ever delivered, but still, it sounded nice. Dreamwidth does not mention anything similar to that;
6. Ability to use "short" journal name like <user>.livejournal.com; this is now a default address in both Livejournal and Dreamwidth.

Currently, Livejournal users purchase paid accounts because of:

1. Ads-free access to Livejournal; this is not applicable to Dreamwidth;
2. Bigger and ads-free photo hosting; Dreamwidth is unclear on this;
3. Styles (reason #4 above)..

Anyway, I sure hope this new platform and community will succeed and attract attention beyond some dissatisfied LJ users, but we will see.

Comments

yes, we will see

[piranha]

hey there --

you underestimate several things:

"some" people on LJ like icons -- "some" is a number in the tens of thousands. same for highly customized styles. this is a major attraction -- it still boggles my mind, but there it is.

the tag limit on LJ was instituted because quite a number of people (and comms especially) slowed the servers down because they had so many tags. well-organized comms, such as free_manga can use thousands of tags. if you categorize books by genre, author, original title, translated title, you're gonna be there real quick.

you and i may be able to throw together a quick script for anything we want to do, but the vast majority of users can't. they like their bells and whistles, and they like them served up pretty.

localization might come later; the groundwork is being laid now. i think it is a good idea to put it off, because LJ's translation system is a mess. if you end up finding some free time and joining the effort you'll get to see the code intimately up close -- might as well brace yourself now. :)

photo hosting is on the list of things to come within the year.

in any case, welcome to dreamwidth, and i hope you enjoy it here!

[ign]

Well, I am happy to hear that translation is still being considered as an option - I dealt quite a lot with translation-related problems in our company, and know how bad it could be, but unfortunately it is necessary nevertheless :(

Regarding "post by e-mail" option, I guess what I meant to say is that just about any imaginable usage of that feature (such as posting from mobile phones, etc.) could be better solved with specialized software client (like LJ client(s) for iPhone) based on published interface. After all, if you can run a e-mail client, you can also run an LJ client, can't you?

And icons, yes.... I have so far used 4 in my "permanent" LJ account - out of 197 available - but I guess it's just me :)

translation and icons

[piranha]

i don't want to mislead you (and i definitely don't speak for the site owners); i think the translation option is very far in the distance. the door isn't completely closed, but frankly, i find it more likely that somebody not-dreamwidth in another country will take up the code and build their own. it is a huge effort, not just to create a good translation, but also to maintain it on a day-to-day basis. and LJ's translation into other languages, frankly, leaves much to be desired; it's an illusion that it is LJ fully translated. maybe the russian is close by now. but i've played with the code on my own server in the languages i know, and it wasn't anywhere complete.

ah, that's what you meant about "post-by-email" -- yes, possibly so. i haven't thought about it much. i've never even used it outside of testing. i just know that apparently lots of people like it.

icons, *heh*. i had an LJ for more than a year and only used 1 icon. when i got a paid account, it was to support the site; i didn't use more than 6 icons. now i have nearly 50 that i made myself -- and i still don't use them often, only when i really want to underline a specific point, or express my association with a specific group. generally i like the single "avatar" association. but i know i am in a minority. and the site needs to serve all of us, and deliver for a wide variety of tastes.

Re: translation and icons

[ign]

I know, I tried using LJ in languages other than Russian :) and it is indeed leaves a lot to be desired.

One thing about LJ is that in many ways it is built around technologies and ideas from the 90's. Times changed, and nowadays many web sites offer "translations" implemented with some machine translation tools. For example, our local MBTA site can be viewed in 14 languages, and they very openly warn visitors that "the translation is literal and may misrepresent names and idiomatic expressions", but still, people do it for a reason.

Similarly, old LJ translation could be perhaps augmented with Google translation, so that you wouldn't see a weird mix of languages as you do today.

That's just one example, I am sure many other technologies could be used here which simply didn't exist in '99.