Entry tags:

dreamwidth

 Hello! This is my little handy guide to help with all those questions you might have to ask. This is by no means an extensive guide so I've supplied links below to help with those. The reason this entry exists is because I keep seeing the same issues pass around on Plurk and it saves me repeating it. Who am I? I'm nobody. I made this as a reference for my friends. 

The purpose of this guide is to answer questions without forcing you to click plenty of links to get your answers.

Updated: 10/02/12

You can also expand and collapse cuts by clicking this image where you see it: 

 First of all a few good links:
There's a great community for asking basic DW questions over at: getting_started 
sky  has set up a link dump for Dreamwidth resources aimed at the RP community. I'd bookmark this or dump it in your memories.
If you're questioning why you should move over to DW from LJ, here is a helpful link I've contributed to. Please note that I  don't hate LJ in any way, it used to be a home for me and I'll always love it for introducing me to so many amazing people!
There is also an extensive guide to Dreamwidth and Livejournal functions under the help/support link on the main Dreamwidth site, which any LJ user should read!
If you're more of a wiki person, there's a little guide for some basic LJ to DW functions over here.
And this is what a 25 character username looks like mylongestusernamepossible 


Now let's do a quick rundown on those questions!

1. The default Dreamwidth layouts suck, I want my old layout from LJ back!
No problem! If your style is on any of the following then you can bring it on over.
Flexible Squares
Smooth Sailing
Expressive (listed as mixit)
Nebula
There's an illustrated guide along with all the codes you need over here at Starlit. I can verify that the codes do in fact work and will require a bit of tweaking on your end to make them pretty again.


2. My tables are all messed up?!
There's an official explanation for this on the Dreamwidth FAQ. Basically, the layout's default CSS over-rides the HTML inserted, meaning that you need to use Div styles yourself to fix it. Profiles are not as fortunate though. There's an alternative method down here thanks to glorious. griff  goes into more detail on her journal for those who don't understand styles. There is also a community entitled dreamcodes  for sharing profiles/muselists/cr charts and all those table things we love.


3. How do I turn off custom comment pages?
Ah, unlike Livejournal that section has been moved. Go to your account management and click the display tab (here's a link). If you scroll down just a little bit then you'll notice a section called "Entry View Style", change the little dropdown box to say "Site Skin" and you're all sorted! This will make every journal you view have custom comments turned off. Convenient! To guarantee that when people view your journal and that the comment pages are turned off, then you need to untick the little box above this option entitled: Journal Entry Style. For example: If a user has it set so that journal entries display in their own style, and they view your journal with the journal entry style box unticked, then it will over-ride their setting and display it in their default Dreamwidth layout. 

Basically, the first option lets you disable custom comment pages on the journals you view (even if they have it set so custom comment pages are on). The second disables it when anybody views your journal.

While you're on that page you might as well learn about the Sticky Entry. What it does is pin an entry to the top of your journal (just like setting the date out of order option). This only works for one entry, but it's great for Friends Only posts or HMDs. 
The way you make the entry stick is by going to your account management display again and scroll down. The last option before the layout is where you can past the URL (or enter the entry number) into the box to make it sticky. The best thing about this feature is that you can sticky an entry on a community (which won't let you date out of order)


4. Shut up I'm interested in more RP-specific stuff
Great! A user named relle  has set up a guide to help with just that. It covers everything from features to paid account prices. It's worth a read for any roleplayer.


5. I hate the way Dreamwidth is all compressed, how can I make it stretch to the edge of the page?
Ahh, the 80% width is a pain for those on widescreen monitors. Thankfully, you can install styles into your browser that will over-ride it, making the entries and comments stretch to the full width. You can also change Dreamwidth to look more like an LJ clone with the lovely blue back in place. There is a depository for these layouts at this link along with installation instructions.


6. How does Dreamwidth feel about all these roleplayers invading?
They don't mind at all! I went ahead and asked them about how it would affect their servers. You can read the thread here. If you're worried about what DW thinks of roleplayers then check the Diversity Statement on your footer. Also, this adorable comment.


7. When will they add userpic packages like LJ has?
In the far future. I went ahead and opened a support ticket inquiring about userpic packages, this is the reply denise  gave me. And these are the links to the two reports she mentions: here and here. What it boils down is providing a fair service for those who pay for the accounts.

When you're importing your icons from LJ  be aware that if you have more icons on your LJ  than you do on your DW  then it will only import the default. If you have more than 100 icons you need a premium account import them all, if you have less than 100 then you can import them all on a paid account. DW allows multiple icons to be uploaded at once. So if you have somewhere between 100-250 then you can manually add them back. It's a lengthy process however. I recommend getting a premium then deleting any extra ones over 100 if you can't afford to keep a premium but can keep a basic paid.

You can also set uploaded icons with the same keywords as previous icons to not replace them. So you won't end up with a happy picture when you've actually made a sad comment. An option for this will come up when you add them. it's individual for each picture.


8. How do I  get the title="name" to work?
You don't. Unfortunately this is a feature that doesn't exist on Dreamwidth. The only way you can post a username is to use the code "[user name="user"]" (replacing the [ with < of course). Sorry, all usernames are displayed as usernames on DW. "lj user" works just as well too. denise  has left a comment here with some lovely information on how to link to Livejournal accounts, along with a workaround alternative for the title="name" code. There is an extensive list of all sites that can be linked in the FAQ.


9. Ok, I added someone to my circle, why aren't they showing on my reading page?
Because adding them to your circle enables them to read your friends locked entries. In order to view their entries on your page you have to subscribe to them as well. This can be an annoyance but also good if someone annoys you but you don't want to de-friend them.

Ok, let me explain this in a bit more detail as people seem to not fully understand DW's friending system.

Adding people to your access list:
This allows them to friend your access list (f-locked) entries.

Adding people to your subscribed list:
This means that their entries will show up on your reading page. (Like watching a community but for personal journals too)

An example:

Person-A adds Person-B to their access list and subscribes to their journal.
Person-B subscribes to Person-A, but does not add them to their access list.
Person-A appears on Person-B's reading page and vice versa
Person-B can see Person-A's locked entries on their reading page
Person-A can not see Person-B's locked entries, but they still display public entries on their reading page.

Here is a screenshot of the above in action. As you can see, the locked entry displays on the reading page without the user granting access to kazzisato on their own journal.


10. ADMIN CONSOLE, NOW.
Ah! OK geez. The admin console is avaliable at http://dreamwidth.org/admin/console/ Now there is a catch to this, the commands are different to Livejournal. The commands are explained on that page but there is one worth noting and is probably used the most, the friend adding function.

In order to add someone to your friends list it's no longer: friend add username
Instead it's this: 
manage_circle add_read username 
manage_circle add_access username

I know it's pretty hideous, but this is the only way to add someone to your friends list in the same way it would've done on Livejournal. These two codes will enable both the subscriptions (which tracks their entries) and the actual circle adding (which lets them read locked entries). Ideally if you're in a journal based game you only need to use the subscription one since that gets them on your reading page.

11. What's this about having longer entries and comments?
You heard right! Dreamwidth supports a much larger character count to be placed into entries and comments!
For entries the current maximum is: 300,000 characters!
For comments the current maximum is: 16,000 characters!


12.  I search any community for certain words?
Now this is useful. Instead of a site-wide search, you can search specific journals and communities for keywords such as "event" or "character" without having to search through tags. All you do is go to: http://www.dreamwidth.org/search?user= and add the username of the journal or community at the end. This works even if they have disabled the search box from appearing in any of their modules. Give it a go on this journal, search for "guide" and this will come up as a result! You can access this page any time by clicking the explore > site and journal search. You will have to add ?user= in order to search a specific community or journal though.

I've tried this on both a normal and paid journal, it appears to be a paid only feature. Also note that by default you can only search a personal journal if you are on their access list or they have changed their settings to allow anyone to search. Communities by default allow you to search. Please correct me if any of this is wrong.


13. My question isn't answered here.
Check the links at the top, if it's not there either then feel free to shoot me a question on this entry. Feel free to make suggestions and I'll throw them in here too! But try not to link me to other guides I should link to. I'm trying not to make this a link dump and I'm pretty sure a few of the links at the top will already be linking there themselves (especially sky  's journal)