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Why I think Dreamwidth is a special Free/Libre Open Source Software Development Environment, and what I think is important about being a Dreamwidth contributor, by Azz, aged 29 3/4
Right, that's the soulless corporate drone version. Let me relate the history as I know it.
Basically, a couple people said, "You know, we're just waiting for you to start up your own blogging site." Dreamwidth's owners looked at each other and said "You know, we could do this." They did this not because the blogging end of social media was where the money was, but because they blog, their friends blog, and they wanted to see social blogging done not just reasonably well, but right.
Denise, the Suit, was previously a manager at LiveJournal.
Mark, the Geek, was previously doing things at Mozilla, LiveJournal, and Google.
( Doing things right that other places did halfassed or wrong. )
A year on down the line, I can still point to the diversity statement and say: "This. The site I now use every day called for my contributions, and this is the first mark that I made." Every time I hear someone praising the diversity statement, especially when they mention the part I contributed, I feel the clean pride of a job well-done. I think "It may not be much, but it makes a difference to me, and to other people who use the site every day."
Dreamwidth found itself in a delicate position as a startup, breaking into a niche already dominated by LiveJournal, the original project from which Dreamwidth was forked. The owners knew that while there was a not insignificant audience in users who had been alienated by various of LiveJournal's practices, that this audience alone was not a sustainable userbase -- nor would people (them included) ultimately want to use a blogging site that set out to define itself as "Not LiveJournal". They could not compete directly in terms of volume, and so did not set out to capture the exact same audience or attempt to become LiveJournal's replacement. Instead, they determined that they would become the type of blogging site that they themselves most wanted to use, and incidentally fix all the nagging things they'd never had time to fix when they were working for LiveJournal.
( And everybody pitched in. )
( Accessibility as priority, not afterthought. )
From the top down, there is very little distinction drawn between "user" and "contributor". The project takes the approach that every user, no matter how technically inexperienced, is either already contributing or has the potential to become a contributor. ( Anyone can learn, and even some of the smallest things are considered contributions. )
Developers come to Dreamwidth from two sources: existing users of the site who are interested in taking their contributions to the next level, and existing developers who have heard about Dreamwidth from friends who are involved or general buzz in the FLOSS community.
( Not all of the existing Dreamwidth users who enter Dreamwidth development were experienced developers at the time they began. )
Dreamwidth volunteer culture has significant differences from the general English-speaking technical community. ( Consider the sexism, racism, and more in the general culture. )
Because Dreamwidth is a social media site, people who develop for it, work on it, and volunteer for it also tend to spend recreational and social time on it, actually using the site as well as contributing. There is an ingrained reluctance to trust any would-be contributor who is not also willing to explore and use the site. If Dreamwidth development has any hazing rituals, it is this. A new developer has not really had the true Dreamwidth experience until they have run up against something in the site that drives them crazy when trying to use it, then turned around and filed a bug -- or found that someone else had already filed it -- or stomped over to Bugzilla and whipped out a patch to finally fix the damned thing.
But the true meaning of being a Dreamwidth contributor is being able to look at the site and say, "See that? I did that. This, here? That was me. I use this site, and I made it better for not just me, but everybody."
Dreamwidth is a social media platform with attention to diversity and accessibility.
Right, that's the soulless corporate drone version. Let me relate the history as I know it.
Basically, a couple people said, "You know, we're just waiting for you to start up your own blogging site." Dreamwidth's owners looked at each other and said "You know, we could do this." They did this not because the blogging end of social media was where the money was, but because they blog, their friends blog, and they wanted to see social blogging done not just reasonably well, but right.
Denise, the Suit, was previously a manager at LiveJournal.
Mark, the Geek, was previously doing things at Mozilla, LiveJournal, and Google.
( Doing things right that other places did halfassed or wrong. )
A year on down the line, I can still point to the diversity statement and say: "This. The site I now use every day called for my contributions, and this is the first mark that I made." Every time I hear someone praising the diversity statement, especially when they mention the part I contributed, I feel the clean pride of a job well-done. I think "It may not be much, but it makes a difference to me, and to other people who use the site every day."
Dreamwidth found itself in a delicate position as a startup, breaking into a niche already dominated by LiveJournal, the original project from which Dreamwidth was forked. The owners knew that while there was a not insignificant audience in users who had been alienated by various of LiveJournal's practices, that this audience alone was not a sustainable userbase -- nor would people (them included) ultimately want to use a blogging site that set out to define itself as "Not LiveJournal". They could not compete directly in terms of volume, and so did not set out to capture the exact same audience or attempt to become LiveJournal's replacement. Instead, they determined that they would become the type of blogging site that they themselves most wanted to use, and incidentally fix all the nagging things they'd never had time to fix when they were working for LiveJournal.
( And everybody pitched in. )
( Accessibility as priority, not afterthought. )
From the top down, there is very little distinction drawn between "user" and "contributor". The project takes the approach that every user, no matter how technically inexperienced, is either already contributing or has the potential to become a contributor. ( Anyone can learn, and even some of the smallest things are considered contributions. )
Developers come to Dreamwidth from two sources: existing users of the site who are interested in taking their contributions to the next level, and existing developers who have heard about Dreamwidth from friends who are involved or general buzz in the FLOSS community.
( Not all of the existing Dreamwidth users who enter Dreamwidth development were experienced developers at the time they began. )
Dreamwidth volunteer culture has significant differences from the general English-speaking technical community. ( Consider the sexism, racism, and more in the general culture. )
Because Dreamwidth is a social media site, people who develop for it, work on it, and volunteer for it also tend to spend recreational and social time on it, actually using the site as well as contributing. There is an ingrained reluctance to trust any would-be contributor who is not also willing to explore and use the site. If Dreamwidth development has any hazing rituals, it is this. A new developer has not really had the true Dreamwidth experience until they have run up against something in the site that drives them crazy when trying to use it, then turned around and filed a bug -- or found that someone else had already filed it -- or stomped over to Bugzilla and whipped out a patch to finally fix the damned thing.
But the true meaning of being a Dreamwidth contributor is being able to look at the site and say, "See that? I did that. This, here? That was me. I use this site, and I made it better for not just me, but everybody."
