Too many freeloaders?

[charmian]

Jennyo makes a post here about 'freetards' and DW. Her argument is, what is DW going to do if they end up with an ONTD, which she sees as a big financial liability.

http://jennyo.livejournal.com/1048813.html

She says: 'What's so valuable about Dreamwidth that I should pay them to host content that isn't very fannish and isn't gonna get me kicked off by SUP? If I'm creating content I want to monetize/use on a resume, I can't use DW. If I want to read content at work, I can't use DW.'

Why is it that you can't create content that you want to monetize or put on a resume on DW? Why can't you read DW at work? Are you allowed to read Jezebel at work? (I have no idea?) I think though, there IS that aura. LJ is not considered a respectable forum in many industries, although it does seem to be so to some extent in the publishing industry. Blogspot and wordpress.com are. I don't know why this is, but I think it IS a problem (and one that I think could be fixed to some extent by allowing persistent domain name aliasing). (I have no idea what the DW attitude towards professional uses of the site is)

So far, because the policies haven't been published, I'm not sure what Dreamwidth's attitude is towards people who can blog 'professionally.' A lot of the technical needs of media-slash-fanfic-fandom are driven by the way that it is a) often NSFW or b) illegal to sell/of dubious legality. However, in places like anime blogging, a lot of people do put ads on their sites, and there is no legal problem with it because it's not fanfic, but reviews. Has the inability to put your own ads on your own LJ been one of the things contributing to LJ's image as an 'unprofessional' site? Or is it simply because you cannot run a business off of it? (However that is defined)

Now, I guess I'm going to out myself as someone who has a different opinion from media fandom. I don't really care if a site puts ads on my blog, as long as they are up front w/ me doing so and don't put up malware. I don't care if other people want to put ads on their blogs. I know Denise has explained why advertising doesn't work on social networks. But, does it work on forums and blogs? I have no idea.

There is indeed the problem of some users using vastly more resources than others, and what the service does if that happens. In those cases... is there an escape clause saying 'you've moved beyond the limits of shared hosting, you're going to have to either reduce your usage or upgrade'? Or is that all built in?

Comments

[troisroyaumes]

Mm, I agree that LJ sits at an awkward intersection between social networking and blogging. I think DW might actually do a better job of integrating the two (especially if it implements more CMS features), and if they really want to market themselves to non-fandom users, that might be the part to emphasize. I know plenty of people who would like to start a blog to just keep up with friends, but find, say, Blogger insufficiently interactive and Wordpress intimidating. Of course, LJ has the closed-wall feel, not to mention the emo!teen reputation.

[charmian]

Yep, I think think the thing is... if you can't use your real name and want to be on the down-low, something like LJ might work. But if you are using your real name, everyone is on facebook or myspace already, so it makes more sense to use those.

Though personally I don't find WP.com intimidating? It's a pain in the butt to deal with WP when you self install it, but WP.com is fairly pain free. Probably even more so when they get Buddypress really running.

[torachan]

But Facebook is really not very good for actual blogging.

[charmian]

Yeah, that is true. Although you can link your real blog there fairly easily.

[troisroyaumes]

There are people who find Facebook too exposing (also, Facebook isn't cut out for journaling). Not sure about Myspace since my offline friends don't use it.

I don't find WP.com intimidating either but I find that friends tend to use it for very focused blogs (like a travel blog or a topic-centered blog) rather than general blogs (which they tend to keep on Blogger).

[charmian]

Yeah, it isn't. Not really sure about Myspace; I've never used it.

Why is that?

[troisroyaumes]

You know, I'm not really sure. And I haven't really gone around WP.com enough to know if that's a trend or not. I do know that WP and WP.com by association carries a "I'm serious about blogging" association for a lot of people though.

[charmian]

Well, WP is the foremost blogging software, and the site is huuuuge and it's rather suitable for enterprise users, with lots of features dedicated to them. I suspect things get up a serious rep when they start being used for commercial purposes, perhaps.

[denise]

We do plan on adding a lot more CMS features -- LJ's awkward intersection is more than just social networking + blogging, it's one part CMS, one part social network, one part blogging service, one part social media service, and it doesn't do any of them particularly wonderfully but it does all of them serviceably well.

Our first year of development priority is getting much, much, much better CMS and blogging tools into the code, like scheduled/draft posts, better domain forwarding, better indexing/archiving tools, etc.

[troisroyaumes]

Yes, I'm definitely looking forward to those features, and I'm hoping that some of them may convince non-fandom friends to join the service. ^^