Six Weeks for Dreamwidth

[erda]

As most of you already know, we are approaching the first year anniversary of Dreamwidth's open beta. To celebrate that event, I am thinking about creating a community to oversee a festival which would generate content for our home.

This is not about trying to coerce people into joining Dreamwidth, it's not about posting on lj or any other service about Dreamwidth. It's about making content here, for the people already here, because we have a group of talented people already gathered here and we should have a party for ourselves. If some live journal only people get curious about what's happening over here, they're welcome to come join the fun, of course, but I'm envisioning a party that is by and for people who already love Dreamwidth. Because Dreamwidth is awesome.

I have some ideas about how this might work, but right now it's all still fluid, and I'm open to suggestions. Here's what I have in mind so far:

A central community which I've tentatively called "Six Weeks for Dreamwidth" where people would probably post links, though posting actual content there is not out of the question. Six weeks for Dreamwidth means that participants agree to post their content only on Dreamwidth for six weeks, that is six weeks from the date it is posted. After the six week period is over authors/artists/vidders are free to take their content and post it anywhere they want.

Starting at the beginning of April, as many people as we can interest will start posting content on Dreamwidth comms, or wherever they want on Dreamwidth, and link it on the main comm. Also, as many people as we can interest would start comment fic memes in their personal journals. I would personally like to see some pairing specific memes, because I suspect the percentage of monofannish people on some other journaling services is higher than on dw, and those people might not be so interested in combing through a multifandom thing looking for their pairing, whereas if they should happen to hear there is a meme with just their otp available only on dw, it might make our home more interesting to them, and spark more discussion here.

I'd also love to see a prompting community where people can post prompts without any formal sign ups or obligation to write. I'd like to keep this whole thing as low stress as possible. No real sign ups, just people trying to participate as much as they can given that we are all busy people with lots of other projects. It's a party, not a duty, you see.

ETA: To clarify things a little: I am not saying that participants would restrict their posting of all content to DW for six weeks, or for any period of time. This six week period would only be for works that the participant decided to use for this fest. That would include any comment fic the participant chooses to write for memes which are designated as Six Weeks for Dreamwidth memes. Participants would continue to post other works not written for this fest wherever they liked.

Sooooooooooo

Poll:

Poll #2385 Six weeks for Dreamwidth Interest Poll

Open to: Registered Users, detailed results viewable to: Just the Poll Creator, participants: 84

Are you interested in a Dreamwidth only content fest for our Anniversary?

Yes.
48 (57.1%)

Maybe.
27 (32.1%)

Yes, but six weeks is too long to tie up my content.
9 (10.7%)

Yes, but I think we should keep the content on Dreamwidth longer.
0 (0.0%)

No, not interested at all.
2 (2.4%)

What kind of content should we try to generate?

Fic only.
0 (0.0%)

Fic/Art only
0 (0.0%)

Fic/Art/Vids
3 (3.7%)

Everything we can get.
81 (100.0%)

Would you try to participate in this fest?

I would probably try to create content.
76 (90.5%)

I would probably start a comment fic meme to support Dreamwidth in my personal journal and link it to the main comm.
18 (21.4%)

I would probably try to comment on content generated by this fest to support people creating content.
58 (69.0%)

No, but I still like the idea.
4 (4.8%)

No, I think your idea is lame.
2 (2.4%)

Which activities would you like to see?

One main comm where everything is linked and tagged.
49 (65.3%)

Separate prompt comm where anyone can play.
12 (16.0%)

Use already existing comms to post content.
52 (69.3%)

Comment fic memes in personal journals.
38 (50.7%)

Create fandom specific comms for the fest and link them all to one main comm.
16 (21.3%)

I have another/other ideas I will explain in comments.
4 (5.3%)

Input, suggestions, signal boosting welcomed.

Comments

[rydra_wong]

Maybe I'm misreading the OP, but I didn't read it as saying that people should withhold all content of any kind from LJ (or other services), but that there would be a push to generate new, additional content which would (at least temporarily) be DW-exclusive.

It'd obviously be helpful to clarify that.

[stewardess]

Right, that's why I called it a "temporary content boycott." I realize the word boycott pushes a lot of buttons, but it will come up.

[erda]

Am editing to clarify the post. In no way was I saying people could not post anything anywhere else for six weeks. In no way is this meant to be a boycott. I simply said participants could write/make something that they would agree to post only to DW and not post that particular work anywhere else for six weeks after the posting date of that particular work.

[stewardess]

I understand that, but I disagree that it does not amount to a boycott. Posting only at DW for six weeks is equivalent to not posting anywhere else for six weeks. It's a temporary content boycott. I want to see inclusion build DW, not exclusion.

[erda]

In no way is anyone expected to stop posting anywhere for any period of time. In no way is this meant to be an attack on any other service.

I just want to have a content party for Dreamwidth. Other services are free to have parties, too, if they like. That would be cool.

[stewardess]

Your post reads

Six weeks for Dreamwidth means that participants agree to post their content only on Dreamwidth for six weeks, that is six weeks from the date it is posted.

Only = exclusive. If the concept has morphed/clarified from not exclusive posting into something else, the post isn't getting that across to me yet.

[erda]

Yes, I see that I was unclear. I have added an edit to the post.

[zvi]

Enticing people with temporary exclusive content is a fairly common practice. Zines, for example, generally keep stories for a year, or an anonymous exchange usually holds onto content until anonymity is lifted, or a fest to promote a particular pairing or character may have an exclusive period (harryronbigbang is holding onto stories for a month, for instance.)

If the point of the exercise is, "Come to DW because there is stuff you will like here," keeping it off of other websites for a period will entice people to come to DW to view it, and realize it's not the evil den of iniquity (or the dull tomb of censoriousness, whatever their poison) that they've feared it is.

On the other hand, it isn't a boycott because it's not an agreement to not use other services.

[stewardess]

There could be a negative reaction. My reaction is negative, and I quit using LJ as my primary blog three years ago. Instead of enticing people from LJ, it could be seen as yet another attempt by the "dreamcult" to lure people from the green pastures of LJ and turn them into zombie sheep. Who eat brains, of course.

I realize most, if not all, of my negative reaction springs from my belief that exclusivity (of blog content, that is; zine content is very different) is doomed, archaic, funky, and yet... Exclusive brings to mind the LJ comms which do not link to content outside of LJ in newsletters, round-ups, rec lists. I intensely dislike LJ comms like that. There are times when exclusive content is essential to make a mod's workload bearable (Yuletide, for instance, or locked comms where members go through some sort of vetting), but exclusivity as a tool to promote a platform does not work for me.

Further ponderings...

[elke_tanzer]

I've thought myself in a big circle or two over the past few hours... it's dawned on me that even if I'm posting "only" or "exclusively" some content here on DW, I've also already set up RSS feeds on IJ and LJ for most of my journals and comms, so that LJ readers could see the posts or at least a link to the posts. So "exclusivity" isn't really possible for me unless I were to post access-restricted, which doesn't seem to be in the spirit of open celebration.

Now I'm wondering if it wouldn't be better to turn this idea inside-out, so to speak, just to see what it would look like: we could encourage folks to create new content on DW, to comment on DW posts, to make announcements of newly-created or newly-more-active DW communities, and tag all of that activity "happy open beta anniversary dw"... on every journaling service and website we already contribute to or provide RSS feeds to.

Huh. I find myself intrigued by this inside-out idea.

Will continue to ponder...

Re: Further ponderings...

[stewardess]

My mind was also traveling along the "but what about feeds?" lines, so I'm going to post separately about that, because it's not the feedback erda was seeking, it's a completely different ball of wax.

[zvi]

You seem … opposed to the basic idea here? I mean, you asked if this were an agreement to boycott LJ, and people said, "No, it's not," and you are still upset that people are agreeing to post specific content only to DW for a limited period.

So, what's your alternate proposal? What would you do to get people to visit Dreamwidth and check it out? I know you said something about crossposting to DW, but I … fail to see how that would get anyone to visit DW, if they're reading whatever it is on LJ or AO3 or tumblr.

How is learning that this thing they're reading is also available on DW going to get them to visit DW? Unless you're suggesting that people crosspost everywhere and close comments to DW? I'm not sure you can close comments everywhere — I don't think there's a way to turn off commenting at AO3, for instance.

Yes, there will be a negative reaction. There are plenty of people who hate DW and everything it stands for, and there are other people who hate the idea that there's anything posted to the internet not using their preferred platform, whether it's LJ or Facebook or Wordpress. If exclusivity's not something you do, then…don't post exclusively.

But you haven't explained what's inherently wrong with exclusivity except that you don't like it, and you assume that other people (people who presumably would, but for the temporary exclusivity, be willing to check out DW now) would also dislike it.

[stewardess]

I've realized my objections to exclusivity lie outside of this discussion, and aren't giving erda the needed feedback, so I'm going to post separately about it.