Pondering again

[selenay]

I am, yet again, pondering whether to transfer my posts from LJ over to Dreamwidth and use that as my main posting platform. I could then put my LJ onto the unpaid service and pay DW instead (I need my icons!), with the advantage that I'd be sending my money to an organisation who's goals and philosophy I agree with rather than a money-grubbing corporation out to make a buck off everything I do.

Except...

A lot of the journals I follow on LJ aren't over here yet and giving up my paid status on LJ would mean ads. I hate ads.

Argh! I've been going back and forth on this one for months with no resolution. I can't justify paying for both, but I hate ads enough to dislike doing my LJ-reading with them right there. And if I'm using DW as my main posting platform, I want to support their work by having a paid account. Watch me continue to be indecisive :-(

In other news, I wrote and didn't post four things last week. I probably need to get better and finishing posts and posting them. Otherwise the entire debate in the first three paragraphs of this is pointless :-)

Comments

[nosila]

I would suggest Adblock Plus. It blocked all ads for me back when I used to frequent the mothering.com forums. They started putting ads right after the first post in any thread, big ones, and it was very, very irritating! But because I had Adblock Plus at home, I would never even have known about the ads, if they hadn't shown up when using another PC. Then you could go free on LJ and still not have any ads!

[selenay]

I've had multiple Adblock Plus suggestions :-) I shall play with it for a day or two and, if it defeats the LJ ads, I'll be making the switch :-) Seeing as I've been enthusiastic about DW since before it launched and love the ideas behind it, I should really put my money where my mouth is...

[bouldergirl]

I was really getting to hate ads on LJ. Even with a paid account you see them on the main page! I let my paid account expire a while ago out of pure frustration. However if I like this platform then I might get myself a paid account in Dec after NaNo crazyness is over and I have more time to explore.

[alyse]

DW are working on something that will enable you to read your LJ flist on your DW circle page, just in case that influences your decision :)

[selenay]

Now, when that's available then I'll definitely be making the switch! It's the one thing that keeps me on LJ regularly and keeps me paying them: reading my f-list without intrusive ads. If I only needed to pop into LJ to reply to things (or could reply using my DW ID) then I'd be switching who I pay money to in a heartbeat!

[alyse]

You can reply using your DW ID, under Open ID, but you wouldn't be able to see flocked posts unless that person had also given you access to their flocked material under your Open ID. Which they can do ::g:: [ETA: I mean you wouldn't be able to see them when you were logged into your DW open ID - you'd still see them when logged into your LJ ID]

I'm not sure whether you'll be able to reply on your DW circle page. I assume that if you click on the comment post it would take you to the full page on LJ, but I think they're still working on it.

[selenay]

The f-locked stuff could be the kicker. That's the stuff that I can't seem to get an RSS reader to read (the other option I've considered) and it's often where important announcements from friends (oh hai, I'm having surgery!) get hidden. I think if they do this then I'll need to go through and work out which friends I'm likely to need the access granted to my DW Open ID who don't already have a DW account that I subscribe to.

Ain't technology fun?

[alyse]

Okay, I think I need to be clearer ::g::

If you have crossposting enabled, which involves some conduit wizardry, and you set it up to pull your flist from LJ into DW, they're working on basically letting you see those posts with your LJ ID, and the DW posts with your DW ID. I am not a tech so I don't know how it will work, but basically you'll be able to see posts that are locked on LJ as long as your LJ ID has access to them.

For commenting, however, I presume that if you click on the comment button and it takes you to LJ to comment, you'll have access to that post to comment with your LJ ID. If you want to comment with your DW ID instead, it will have to have been given access to that locked post in its own right, or you won't be able to see it to comment on it when you switch IDs.

Does that make sense?

Like I said, it's one of the key things they're working on, but how it's going to work is a mystery.

[paranoidangel]

I thought you already cross-posted from DW to LJ. But why are you not using Ad Block with Firefox? I've forgotten that ads exist.

[selenay]

OK, now that makes sense and is exactly how I'd want it to work! Thank you :-)

[selenay]

Because I'm a lazy arse who keeps forgetting that she meant to install that?

[gmul.livejournal.com]

What's most important to you?
-Posting things
-Posting things which can be read by the people you'd like them to be readable by
-Reading things other people have posted
-Other web2.0ish considerations I've missed

Prioritise, establish which platform best meets priorities, you know where I'm going with this.

As long as the important stuff keeps cross-posting to LJ, or if the few other people I like to keep up with all move to DW at once then that'd be perfect for me. It's not like I post much of anything you might want to read. (I may manage an update about huge stuff going on at work in a few days but I'm sure you could safely skip that!)

[selenay]

Hmm, posting things that can be read by other people is rather important to me. As is reading things other people have posted. They're about equal :-)

I've come to the conclusion that I'll continue cross-posting everything to LJ and reading my f-list through LJ (blocking ads when my paid time comes to an end). It seems like the option that allows me to put my money where I feel most comfortable and continue doing the things that I want to do.

I'm just debating whether to allow comments on cross-posted entries or push people to comment on DW using their LJ for an Open ID.