Hanging the first picture on the wall

[sailorptah]

Like the profile says, I wasn't planning to create a DW account yet - but then I won the OpenID lottery, so I figured, why not.

Am still not ready to make the Big Move. I'm waiting at least for open beta first (plus things like better import tools, OpenID-to-DW-account linkage, more layouts, etc., etc.). When the site has progressed a bit more, this place will start to look lived-in.

In the meantime, have a placeholder.

Stuff I Like About DreamWidth

DW isn't just another LJ clone, like InsaneJournal, GreatestJournal (R.I.P.), and JournalFen. The developers started with the same code, then did sweeping revisions from the bottom up — without losing the ability to interrelate with LJ &c. in the first place.

Some features I like (both existing and planned):

• A more sophisticated memory system - they work more like del.icio.us bookmarks.
  
  
• The ability to easily refer to usernames on other sites, without losing the markup. (Like so: sailorptah goes to DW, sailorptah to LJ.)
  
  
• Menus that have the information you're looking for in the logical place.
  
  
• A staff that is committed to never freeze your account just because some witch-hunting fundamentalist group complains about your porn.
  
  
• No random Russian friending bots.
  
  
• Longer username character limits. (25 characters, not 15 - so that really cool name you wanted that was 16 or 17 characters long? It's available!)
  
  
• Longer character limits on everything else: posts, polls, etcetera. (You've seen really long chapters/fics that have to be split into two posts, right? Not on DW.)
  
  
• Splitting your flist into different levels, so you can easily put someone on your "read" list without having them on your "let this person read my locked posts" list.
  
  
• Total ignore ability. (You know that one user who sucks the joy out of everything they touch? You won't even have to see their comments anymore.)
  
  
• Anyone can create syndicated feeds. (No more bothering people with paid accounts when I want something like stephenathome_feed syndicated! I'm on fifteen feeds already, and I just got here this morning.
  
  
• Greater, and easier, ability to customize layouts.
  
  
• You can schedule posts in advance. (So, for instance, if you had been itching for a while to put your ancient collection of 1700+ Sailor Moon images to good use by starting a daily image comm, but were worried that you would forget to update it for long periods...good news, Totally Hypothetical You! DW has you covered.)
  
  
• And Much, Much More.
  

A bunch of other people have made Why DreamWidth? posts, although most of those are more on the "idealistic gushing" front and less the "here are the neat features" front. Me, I love me some sparkly idealism, but when you get right down to it, it's the features I will use that are going to sell me. And DW has features in spades.