I'd like to suggest considering a social media site that hasn't been talked about here, as far as I know: Dreamwidth.
I'd like to suggest considering a social media site that hasn't been talked about here, as far as I know: Dreamwidth.
Dreamwidth has been operating for eleven years now. It has circles, communities, tags, and the separate options to follow or be followed without "friending". It has an active, mature, and generally friendly body of users. It's not swarmed with memes, or at least the parts that I see aren't. You can create different views that will allow you to see posts from specified groups of friends or communities. Privacy controls are outstanding, and the service as a whole is very easy to use.
It's ad-free. There are free accounts, and there is no posting limit. There are also paid accounts; they get the additional option of searching their posts internally.
They keep out spammers quite effectively. Their policies on free speech are enlightened; when the Russian government started enforcing restrictive and homophobic policies on LiveJournal, many users migrated to Dreamwidth.
The code is a fork of LiveJournal code. It was set up by ex-LiveJournal staffers, and they have continued to update and improve it. Journals can be imported to other LJ-code-based sites, and posts can be automatically copied elsewhere at your option. You have the option of logging in via OpenID.
It's not perfect. There's a mobile app for LJ-type sites, but it doesn't work very well. I use the browser on my Android to post there instead, but that's not ideal.
As far as I know, there's no way to download your data - although you can mirror your posts on LJ-based sites. Edit - My mistake, it turns out that you can download your data in XML or CSV format.
Here's my Dreamwidth journal, although most of the posts are private and won't show; I've had a couple of stalkers over the years, although as far as I know neither was actually a Dreamwidth user.
https://bobquasit.dreamwidth.org/
And here's the Wikipedia entry about the site. I do think it's worth considering.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dreamwidth
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dreamwidth
Dreamwidth has been operating for eleven years now. It has circles, communities, tags, and the separate options to follow or be followed without "friending". It has an active, mature, and generally friendly body of users. It's not swarmed with memes, or at least the parts that I see aren't. You can create different views that will allow you to see posts from specified groups of friends or communities. Privacy controls are outstanding, and the service as a whole is very easy to use.
It's ad-free. There are free accounts, and there is no posting limit. There are also paid accounts; they get the additional option of searching their posts internally.
They keep out spammers quite effectively. Their policies on free speech are enlightened; when the Russian government started enforcing restrictive and homophobic policies on LiveJournal, many users migrated to Dreamwidth.
The code is a fork of LiveJournal code. It was set up by ex-LiveJournal staffers, and they have continued to update and improve it. Journals can be imported to other LJ-code-based sites, and posts can be automatically copied elsewhere at your option. You have the option of logging in via OpenID.
It's not perfect. There's a mobile app for LJ-type sites, but it doesn't work very well. I use the browser on my Android to post there instead, but that's not ideal.
As far as I know, there's no way to download your data - although you can mirror your posts on LJ-based sites. Edit - My mistake, it turns out that you can download your data in XML or CSV format.
Here's my Dreamwidth journal, although most of the posts are private and won't show; I've had a couple of stalkers over the years, although as far as I know neither was actually a Dreamwidth user.
https://bobquasit.dreamwidth.org/
And here's the Wikipedia entry about the site. I do think it's worth considering.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dreamwidth
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dreamwidth
Nice addition. Thank you, Peter Maranci . I'll go give it a whirl.
ReplyDeleteOkay, signed up. LIke what I saw on your profile. Tried to buy a premium account for $50/yr, but they don't accept PayPal. Have a support ticket in about that, and am awaiting their reply.
ReplyDeleteSo the paid accounts is basically just if you wanna search for your posts? Wanna know about it before I spend $50 a year
ReplyDeleteWiki is blocked on the computer I'm using atm
DL Keur it's rather the opposite. Dreamwidth supported Paypal, but Paypal decided not to support them as they wouldn't censor content: dw-biz.dreamwidth.org - dw_biz | why you can't pay for your account with PayPal or Google Checkout
ReplyDeleteKonan I'd strongly suggest trying a free account first. That's what I've been using. There used to be a free third-party program (LJ Archive) that could download and search through LiveJournal posts; unfortunately that has been abandoned and broken for many years. But it was a really useful program. :(
ReplyDeleteI am trying the free account, right now, Konan , but I was impressed enough by what I scoped already to pay them the cheap stipend of $50/yr. I pay for reddit gold membership, too, even though I don't use it much because of the bad modding. I also pay good coders and skin/theme builders when I like thier work. As a matter of principle, I support good work. I also expect to be paid for MY good work.
ReplyDeletePost for later reading.
ReplyDeleteTwo more things that I forgot to mention: LiveJournal was founded in 1999. So the code is well-tested. Also, Dreamwidth feels a bit like G+. It is relatively obscure and therefore has a higher quality of conversation; the users there aren't looking for memes and tons of people to interact with. The groups and users all seem to be looking for good conversation, and people put more effort and thought into their posts than they do on (for example) Facebook.
ReplyDeleteMaybe I should also mention that although the software is centralized (which is always a concern for me), the owners really seem to care about the site. They started it to break away from LiveJournal when it was sold to the Russian government, and I do believe that Dreamwidth is a labor of love for them.
Dave S that's actually a good reminder of another important feature of platforms that I'd forgotten about, but one we've requested (in vain) from Google+: the ability to subscribe to replies to posts, without having to post a reply.
ReplyDeleteOn a similar note, another thing missing is the ability link directly to a specific comment.
Peter Maranci and/or DL Keur, how does DreamWidth handle these two usecases?
Filip H.F. Slagter You can link to any individual comment or post. And yes, you can "track" a post to follow it without commenting.
ReplyDeleteBy the way, I'd welcome new G+ contacts on Dreamwidth.
ReplyDeleteKonan I looked into it, and actually there are a lot of additional features for paid accounts. Here's the FAQ about it.
ReplyDeletedreamwidth.org - What are the extra services available?
Peter Maranci Is there provisions for communities. I cannot tell by your page. I personally don't get a kick out of writing about my life
ReplyDeleteI've had a Dreamwidth account for years under a pseudonym but recently registed a new account under my real name just in case any of the G+ refugees decide to go there. :-)
ReplyDeleteI've not used DW much, really, but I do like it. I'd migrated from LiveJournal, where I was active for several years before most of my contacts moved on to Facebook, after the Russian acquisition of LJ and the imposition of rather intolerant policies.
I already have a LiveJournal account, so if this is similar I will feel at home very fast I think.
ReplyDeleteDave White Yes, there are lots of communities. There are excellent moderator tools. In fact...there. I just created a new Dreamwidth community for Google Plus Expatriates.
ReplyDeletegplusexpatriates.dreamwidth.org - gplusexpatriates | Recent Entries
Anton A It's basically the same software. And you can import all of your LJ posts to Dreamwidth, which wouldn't be a bad idea in any case (just in case things get bad there).
ReplyDeleteYou can also mirror any or all posts that you make on Dreamwidth directly to your LiveJournal. I have my Dreamwidth set up to do that automatically, although I have the option to withhold any post I make from LJ on a case-by-case basis.
Is there a way to include images, videos, or gifs within a post itself?
ReplyDeleteWalter Imai Images (including gifs) are hosted at Dreamwidth, up to 500MB total. Videos can be embedded from external sites such as YouTube. Audio files can be linked from other sites, of course. LiveJournal used to allow making audio posts by phone, but I'm not sure if that's an option on Dreamwidth.
ReplyDeleteI've been on Dreamwidth for years and I've had very good experiences there. I'm in several communities there - I think my favourite is https://findthatbook.dreamwidth.org/ if you want to know how a community looks.
ReplyDeleteleecetheartist.dreamwidth.org - leecetheartist | Recent Entries
Peter Maranci I'm silkensteel on DW. I'm trying to gradually slip it into my posting preferences, been both busy and lazy lately.
ReplyDeleteIt seems to me that the biggest weakness that Dreamwidth has, in terms of being a replacement for G+, is the lack of a good mobile app. I just queried them about that. I will report their answer as soon as I get it.
ReplyDeletePeter Maranci Seems like a great place. Thanks for the link and read some of your posts
ReplyDeleteVery nice indeed
Dreamwidth seems quite fascinating. The fact that they were denied service by Paypal and Google Checkout for refusing to censor content that did not violate Dreamwidth's Terms of Service, but which made Paypal and/or Google Checkout uncomfortable, only makes this SNS even more appealing (see https://dw-biz.dreamwidth.org/7022.html):
ReplyDelete> We've seen a bunch of people questioning why we don't accept
> payment via PayPal. We used to, but PayPal closed our account
> with them, after demanding that we censor our users' content to
> remove material that did not violate our Terms of Service but
> that made them uncomfortable. We refused to place restrictions
> on our users over and above the restrictions placed by US law,
> and so PayPal refused to process payments for us. (The same
> thing then happened with Google Checkout, before we found a
> payment processor that was willing to accept our business
> without placing further restrictions on user-generated content
> other than "is it legal".)
This site seems to have certain interesting types of profiles that are either rare or nonexistent elsewhere. For example, after searching on the site for only approximately 5 minutes, I managed to discover a type of profile for which I had searched in vain for here on Google+: a profile by a scholar who also is a Tolkien aficionado and plays LOTRO (see https://arwen75.dreamwidth.org/). Most scholars dislike online titles in general, and most people who play online titles seem to be idiots who dislike scholarly topics; finding a scholarly hybrid who is interested in both topics is exceedingly difficult elsewhere.
dw-biz.dreamwidth.org - dw_biz | why you can't pay for your account with PayPal or Google Checkout
Benjamin Russell Fascinating!
ReplyDeleteIt's pretty ironic that DreamWidth was denied service for not censoring content, given that they were founded by Denise Paolucci, who was responsible for LiveJournal's "nipplegate" when she was on the LiveJounal abuse team.
ReplyDeletemathew No kidding! I didn't know that. I barely remember when that happened! But then, it didn't really affect me.
ReplyDeletemathew Interesting. However, according to the related Wikipedia article (see https://fanlore.org/wiki/Nipplegate), although LiveJournal initially opposed the use of a default icon depicting breastfeeding for their user Cali4niachef, eventually, it seems they reversed their position; viz.:
ReplyDelete> Two years later, Livejournal's
> policy was finally clarified:
> breastfeeding images would
> be allowed as default icons.
Therefore, it seems that this issue would substantially be inapplicable at this point.
fanlore.org - Nipplegate - Fanlore
Well, the Paolucci abuse team killed my paid account permanently and deleted all my content, so yeah, I'm not trusting them.
ReplyDelete