the_great_tumblr_purge | Now taking tutorial requests

soc_puppet posting in

If there's a subject about Dreamwidth in general or how it compares to Tumblr that you'd like me to cover, reply to this post and I'll see if I can get to it! If it's something I'm not prepared to cover myself, I'll say so, and hopefully someone else can pop in with resources.

I've got a hellaciously busy weekend ahead of me (Easter weekend in the food industry, and we do an Easter Sunday buffet special), so I likely won't be getting to any before Monday at the absolute earliest. That said, knowing if people have requests might give me something to mull over while I'm working.

Tutorials I'm already planning on:

Cut tags, Dreamwidth's ~~superior~~ equivalent to Tumblr's "Read More"

The basics of icons, Dreamwidth's userpics/PFPs/avatars/what-have-you

Image hosting and sharing on Dreamwidth

If you have any requests, comment on this post or send me a direct message and I'll see what I can do 👍

Update: Thank you, everyone, for the questions and suggestions! I'm posting a quick list of what I've gotten so far, but feel free to keep asking if you don't see what you want to know listed here already. (I also did my best to provide some quick answers to the questions/topics at the posts where they were asked, so go check the comment section if you want to know some of this ASAP.)

Tutorial requests from

newcomers:

How communities work (special request for clearing up 'subscribe' vs 'join')

The Latest Things Page

How to make friends and find things to do (prototype post)

What about reblogs, anyway?

Does Dreamwidth have an equivalent to Asks?

What exactly is a "circle"?

Tutorial requests from

the_great_tumblr_purge:

Seriously though, what about reblogs?

General Dreamwith etiquette

How subscribing and granting access works

A general Q&A/quick answers post

Current Mood: productive

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

From:

glitteringstars

I can see understanding how DW tagging being a bit of a sticking point. I've seen at least some mentions on tumblr's tagging etiquette being different, but a dedicated understanding the nuanced way it works could definitely help.

There is stuff on DW vs Tumblr community building, but understanding on how to share cool posts others have made would also be neat since reblogging was so important to Tumblr's identity. There isn't a great one-to-one on it, but still knowing how to go about that would still be pretty neat!

From:

soc_puppet

Oh, I might already have that! Give this post a look over, it might help. (I realize it doesn't cover how Tumblrites use tags in reblogs, but I'll get to that in a moment ✌)

I just covered a bit of this in the comments of the

newcomers version of this post, s I'll copy-paste here:

So it kinda depends on how you used reblogs on Tumblr. If you used them to keep track of things that interested you, then yeah, the Memories feature is pretty close. It's a site-specific bookmarking feature, and can be public. It predates tagging, and is what a lot of us used for organization back then, like keeping track of our own fics, etc.

If what you reblogged for was to spread the word, you can make a post with a link to what you want to share and include a quick excerpt. There's also technically a workaround, made by astolat (yes, that Astolat), ljwrites, and melannen. I haven't tried it myself, but I've heard that it can also work to reblog some non-Dreamwidth links, such as from AO3.

If what you reblogged for was the lols (such as memes, jokes, etc), I'd recommend metaquotes! It wasn't particularly active last I was looking, but that's something we can change 👍

If what you reblogged for was to share your thoughts on a topic, we usually use comments for that here 😉 If it's something you'd put in the tags of a reblog (that isn't rude), feel free to leave it in a comment! Odds are very good that it would be well received.

I'll see about expanding that thing into its own tutorial post. Thank you for the requests, and I hope these answers helped a bit in the mean time!

From:

teres

Something that might be handy to suggest for "sharing cool posts others have made" is just making a list of cool stuff like that. I haven't seen it done around Dreamwidth yet, and it does raise some etiquette questions, but I think it has some potential for that!

From:

soc_puppet

Another good option!

For public posts, I'd say, leave a comment on the post asking if it's okay to link to it elsewhere. IIRC, most people have the opinion of "if it's public, I'm okay with getting linked most places," but even then, it can be nice to have a little bit of warning.

From:

teres

In the meantime, I've remembered that it is a bit of a thing, as in "linkspam" posts! And yes, that seems like appropriate etiquette.

From:

cyare

This is not urgent nor a priority, but it's been on my mind so might as well ask: a post on DW's etiquette. For example, is it better to drop someone a comment in their sticky post before subscribing to them? My first instinct was indeed creating a sticky post on my own journal, why do we do that? How do people use/fill their profile? Is it polite to just randomly comment on a post if you've never interacted with someone? What about sending a PM? The implicit encouragement to credit icons instead of just saying you found it on the internet, the approach to image descriptions in the alt text, the different ways people subscribe/grant access, etc.

Is it too broad of a topic? My main thought is that DW is a blogging site, not a social media site, but is there anything that would be considered a faux pas in the community?

From:

soc_puppet

aniarma can answer a few of those etiquette questions for you! But probably not all of them 😂 I'll see what I can do for quick answers for now:

is it better to drop someone a comment in their sticky post before subscribing to them?
Check what their sticky post says; if it asks you to make an introduction, do so! Otherwise, it's up to you. You certainly can, but there's no general obligation that I'm aware of.

My first instinct was indeed creating a sticky post on my own journal, why do we do that?
Okay, you know that title thing on Tumblr that you can use to tell people a little bit about yourself and your blog? Or how you might have a pinned post on Tumblr? That's basically the same thing as a sticky post. It's an introduction to your blog for anyone who doesn't want to click through to your profile—and it may have different information than your profile does, as well. Some people have accounts that are entirely access-locked, and will grant people access only if they ask for it in the person's sticky post.

How do people use/fill their profile?
Pretty similarly to sticky posts 😂 Sometimes a profile will have more personal information in it, or will be longer; sometimes it will advertise for other communities or website that the person is a member or moderator of. A number of people put banners in their profiles. It's a good idea to fill out some of your Interests at the very least; if more than one person or community lists that same interest, it'll turn into a hyperlink that you can click on to see them!

Is it polite to just randomly comment on a post if you've never interacted with someone?
If it's in a community, go for it! That's kind of what communities are for. If it's on their personal account, maybe include a line about where you came from somewhere. For example, "Hi! I saw this post on the Latest Things page and just wanted to say..." at the beginning, or "(BTW, here via [mutual friend/community we're both part of], hello!)" at the end. I think that would be enough for most people?

What about sending a PM?
Similar etiquette to commenting on journal you don't have a relationship with yet, I would say. "Hello, I saw your post/your post on [community] about [subject], and wanted to offer this insight". Let them know where you came from and what you want to talk about, and you should be okay.

The implicit encouragement to credit icons instead of just saying you found it on the internet
I'll probably get into this in the post about icons, but it's because a lot of people consider icons to be an art form. It's similar to how we encourage each other to credit the original artist of whatever on Tumblr. Plus, if you find someone who made an icon you like, that means you can tell them how much you liked it, and even see if they have more available for the general public 😉

the approach to image descriptions in the alt text
Dreamwidth is very disability-friendly, and has a built-in alt text field (for image descriptions) to fill out whenever you upload an image here. I think it's also there when you add an image via link in Rich Text Entry? It's not something I've ever tried, but I think

teres's guide described that... Anyway, using alt text is generally encouraged. I know not everyone can, even all sighted people (I know someone who has a visual processing disorder and has trouble making image descriptions because of it, and I can't imagine it's easy for dyslexic people, either, etc), but if it's the kind of thing that would only take a few extra minutes, then it's considered polite, IMO.

the different ways people subscribe/grant access
I think that probably deserves its own post! I'll add it to the list.

For the rest, I think it might be helpful to have just a general Q&A/short answers post. I may see about making one of those in the near future. Thank you for the questions and suggestions!