Now taking tutorial requests

[soc_puppet]

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

Comments

[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!

[cyare]

You're amazing and so, so helpful, thank you! And that first link is great too, thanks for sharing it!

[soc_puppet]

My pleasure 😊 If you think of any more questions, feel free to drop them here, in another one of my tutorial posts, or send me a direct message!

[teres]

Yep, my guide does mention that, and the field is labelled "alt text", so that should be clear, I think!

[soc_puppet]

Excellent, thank you! As mentioned, I really didn't have as much time to double-check things as I would have liked over the weekend 😂