rusty_halo

Trying to figure out how to use tumblr vs other social networks. I think maybe the breakdown is something like:

tumblr = random shiny things
delicious = fic and meta recs
lj/dw/wp = actual writing and thoughts
twitter = no
facebook = hell no
google plus = google, i do not want to be a pawn in your doomed attempt to kill facebook

Does this sound right?

Anyway if you want to follow me on tumblr, I am at http://drinkthehalo.tumblr.com (aaaah someone stole both my aliases already!! so i had to make a stupid hybrid name).

Please link me to yours if you have one; I’d love to follow you guys there too. :)

Originally published at rusty-halo.com. You can comment here or there.

I don’t have comments enabled on LiveJournal, for which I’m very glad, because LJ has just enabled a feature that allows people to crosspost their comments on other users’ locked LJ entries to Facebook and Twitter.

Although visitors from Facebook and Twitter won’t be able to read the locked post, they will know 1) that it exists, 2) the URL and LJ name of who posted it, 3) its title, and 4) the text of the comment, which may or may not include an excerpt from the post and/or enough contextual information to make it clear what the post is about. Since Facebook has very poor privacy controls, its quite likely that this information may be visible not only to the social circle of whoever crossposted it, but also to the public at large, meaning that someone looking for personal information about you could find it via search engine without even knowing the person who crossposted.

It’s currently impossible to turn this “feature” off–you can hide it from yourself, but you can’t stop other people from crossposting their comments on your private entries to their Facebook and Twitter pages. Needless to say, this is a massive breach of privacy.

I would include here a long rant about how LiveJournal is a cynical and unethical company, desperately scrambling to squeeze every last penny from its customers while regarding them with contempt. But you’ve heard it all before, and honestly, I’m over it. It’s clear to me that LiveJournal is never going to change, but meanwhile, Dreamwidth is out there showing that a viable alternative that develops smartly and treats its user with respect is possible.

Read the dw_news community to see how straightforward and open they are compared to LJ.

Example 1: Dreamwidth is redesigning its posting page. Instead of suddenly unleashing a surprise new posting page full of features that users don’t want and fixing problems one by one as users complain, Dreamwidth has 1) announced far in advance that it’s going to change the posting page and explained why, 2) released several test iterations and solicited user feedback first, 3) fixed problems in advance before launching it on the public, and 4) actually listened to the user feedback and made lots of changes in response to our needs and preferences.

Example 2: One of those censorship groups went after Dreamwidth and reported to their payment processor (first PayPal, then Google Checkout) that Dreamwidth allows legal but potentially pornographic content. Instead of caving and deleting content, Dreamwidth stood up for its users, took a financial loss, and put in a ton of extra work to switch payment processors to one that wouldn’t require that they censor legal content.

Example 3: Read Dreamwidth founder Denise in the comments here promising that Dreamwidth won’t spring any kind of crossposting feature without privacy controls and the ability to turn it off, and clearly getting why users care about this stuff.

It’s ridiculously easy to switch to Dreamwidth. They have an automated system that will import your entire LiveJournal in about five minutes. If you want to stay in touch with your LJ friends, they have an automated crossposting system that allows you to post to DW and LJ simultaneously–you can even edit posts in one place and they’ll be updated at both.

For step-by-step instructions with links, use coffeeandink’s How to Move from LJ to Dreamwidth in Six Easy Steps.

You can set up an account by paying $3, using an invite code, or moving as part of a group.

My invite codes are free to anyone who wants one (let me know if you use one so I can take it off the list):
BQ3J3AEFBJAN6AAABYJB
697RPGE6384DPAAABYJC
NM4CQ7RV52QGZAAAEAWN
F4EED36ZXP3QSAAALGFX

If these are gone, go to dw_codesharing and someone will give you a code.

For groups, their instructions:

Promo codes are a special code you can use to create multiple accounts. If your community or your RP has been eyeing Dreamwidth, but have been not been sure about getting enough invite codes, email accounts@dreamwidth.org with the details.

You might also want to look at the guide to Dreamwidth for LiveJournal users and at their guiding principles.

I’m slowly making DW my fannish home, and it would make me ridiculously happy if more of my friends would switch, or at least crosspost. If you crosspost, you won’t lose any of your social connections on LJ, but you’ll also make sure that your friends at DW won’t lose touch with you. Please consider setting up a DW account and crossposting–I would love to see you over there.

I have no personal or professional connection with Dreamwidth–I’m pushing for them because I respect what they’re doing, and it feels more positive and productive for me to rave about DW than to complain about LJ.

If your response to this is to tell me that you don’t care about privacy and are too lazy to crosspost, please don’t. I have heard it often enough already. However, if you’re interested in switching and need advice, please let me know–I’m happy to answer questions and help however I can.

Originally published at rusty-halo.com. You can comment here or there.

I went to the White Collar Comes Clean event at the Paley Center last night, which was kind of fun. I was a little out of it, though, because I’d been in the middle of reading a Dark Angel fic (via my smartphone) and couldn’t really focus on anything but wanting to get back to it. I am honestly a little bit concerned about my sanity. (It wasn’t even a particularly *good* Dark Angel fic, but it was an incredibly satisfying one in which Max recognized that Logan was a boring douche and that Alec was totally and completely awesome, and then Max and Alec had bantery romantic adventures together.)

Anyway, there are pictures and write-ups of the White Collar event here. I got there late but ended up in a lone seat in the fourth row. It would’ve been more fun if I’d known someone there and had someone to talk to. The audience was full of fans and must’ve been 90% female; the woman sitting next to me spent most of her time primping and leaning forward, blocking my view.

Marsha Thomason probably did the most talking of any cast member, and there was a very moving question from an audience member who talked about how inspiring it is to have a lesbian character of color as an accepted member of the team. Also, I realized why her dialog delivery seemed so stilted in the pilot–she’s English and was struggling a bit with the US accent. I definitely think she improved in her second episode. She was a lot of fun at the event.

Willie Garson closed the event with a surprisingly moving and thought-provoking speech about how television shows couldn’t exist without their fans, and how they become fan-driven as time goes on. It was interesting because it hit me how much more fan-driven and collaborative TV is than many other art forms, especially now that the Internet facilities so much two-way communication between show and fandom. This can be bad, obviously, if a show panders to the lowest common denominator, but it can also be really cool as canon takes on a life of its own and reacts to what fans love, and I think it’s a big part of why I keep returning to television as my fannish focus despite its many flaws. It’s a lot like a concert in a way, that when it’s good it’s a shared experience between artist and fan and each heightens the others experience. TV is like that symbiotic artist/fan concert experience, drawn out over months or years instead of the space of a few hours.

There was also some talk about how character-driven the show is and how Neal and Peter love each other (complete with Bomer/DeKay hug) but it wasn’t anything I hadn’t heard before in other interviews.

At the end, they gave out White Collar cookies. (Someone posted a photo here.) I couldn’t resist taking one because I wanted the label, although now I’m going to have to find a non-vegan to feed the actual cookies to. :P

***

Dreamwidth now has expandable cut tags–you just click them open while reading your flist and don’t have to open a new tab. It’s awesome. I’m starting to seriously think about closing my hosted blog and moving over there permanently.

Originally published at rusty-halo.com. You can comment here or there.

I’ve been debating what to do with this blog.

For two years, I’ve had a self-hosted WordPress installation that crossposts automatically to LiveJournal, DreamWidth, InsaneJournal, and JournalFen. I set this up because I finally got fed up with LiveJournal’s greed and incompetence.

If I was doing this from scratch, I would have just set up a paid DreamWidth account and used it to crosspost to the other sites. DreamWidth didn’t exist when I initially set this up, and then they were unproven. By now, though, they’ve earned my respect. They are working constantly to upgrade their system in a way that is logical, transparent, and has their users’ best interests in mind. Most importantly, they put their money where their mouth is when it comes to censorship. While LiveJournal gladly censored their users to keep their advertisers happy, DreamWidth stood their ground and were willing to switch payment processors twice rather than cave in to pressure to censor content that is legal in the US.

Meanwhile, maintaining a self-hosted blog is kind of a pain. I have to upgrade my WordPress installation regularly to keep it secure, and nearly every upgrade breaks my cross-posting plugins. So far I’ve been able to fix them, but that’s hours of my life wasted each time. I also get many fewer comments on my own blog–people just don’t like leaving the comfort of the journaling sites, even though it’s simple enough to click the link to comment directly at my blog. (It is, really! Try it!)

I’ve thought about closing my self-hosted blog and switching my main blog to DreamWidth, but that feels like a step backwards. With my own hosted site, I have more control. I can have infinite userpics and mood themes. If there’s something in the code I dislike, I can go in directly and change it. If I want a new feature, I can install an existing plugin or write my own. I can create backups directly from the database. I can do a full-text search and put my Twitter and Delicious accounts in my sidebar. It’s just more customizable, and it fits my control freak tendencies.

I do want to support DreamWidth, though, and I want to continue to distance myself from LiveJournal. Since I’m already paying for my own blog and frantically saving to go to Paris in October, I don’t want to pay for a DreamWidth account yet. But I am trying to center my fannish activity there by:

1. Adding as many White Collar people there as possible. That new!fandom!squee! is the perfect motivation to get me to read my DW reading list daily.
2. Filtering everyone who crossposts to both sites so that I’ll only see their posts on DW. If you crosspost and I have you on my LJ flist but not my DW reading list, please let me know your DW username so I can add you.
3. Enabling comments on DreamWidth. I’m not sure if this is right–I really like having comments centered on my own blog so that the discussion happens in one location and so I can make a complete backup from one place. But if it was hard to get my old friends to comment on my own blog, it’s basically impossible to get new friends to do so. Plus, it’s a way to encourage more activity at DreamWidth. So… for now, I’m enabling comments at DreamWidth, though I’d still prefer comments on my own blog.

Now I shall have to make a commitment to actually post more often. Having a new fandom certainly helps!

(I wish there was more time in the day. There is so much I want to say about White Collar and so much guilt about the RL work I should be doing instead. Argh. But this is me, so expect fannish indulgence to win out eventually!)

Originally published at rusty-halo.com. You can comment here or there.

http://rusty-halo.com/wordpress/?p=2833

I’m rusty_halo on dreamwidth.

I’m not cross-posting there yet and not sure when/if I’m going to. I definitely like DW better than LJ, but I like having my own blog even more. I might write a WordPress plugin so I can cross-post from here to there too. I might also end up changing my entire online presence–perhaps use Dreamwidth as a main fandom journal and use my own blog as a non-fandom thing. Still figuring it out.

Anyway, I’m there now if you want to add me. I’ll try to add everyone there that I’ve added on LJ, IJ, or JF.

Originally published at rusty-halo.com. Please click here to comment.
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