Moving to DW

[lizbee]

Following my post last night, I got a whole mass of circle-addings and access-givings on DW, and also a lot of comments saying, "Oh. I guess I should maybe actually use that Dreamwidth account I got last year and forgot about."

FEAR NOT, GENTLE N00BS! Here is a clear and useful guide to setting up on DW, including importing your entries, cross-posting, and generally making use of the place.

One thing I should say is that, from a cross-posting point of view, it's incredibly easy to use both DW and LJ. You don't even have to set up cross-posting on DW; you can just cue your Semagic (or whatever) to log into DW as well as LJ, and then select "post to multiple journals" from the file options instead of the main "post entry" button. I did this for a very long time before I sorted my DW settings so that it automatically sent all my posts from there to LJ. After that, I just logged my client into DW and let the rest happen automatically.

Now, Semagic only looks like it was put together using eggshells and rubber bands; it's actually one of the more sophisticated LJ clients. On Linux, I'm using LogJam, which doesn't have the "post to multiple journals" option. On the other hand, it was even easier to configure LogJam to log into DW than it was with Semagic. And at some point in the near future, I'm going to have a bash at iPhone apps for LJ.

Now, I wouldn't judge anyone who chooses to stay on LJ, for whatever reason -- I mean, I'm still on Facebook, which is ten times dodgier than LJ, because that's the easiest way to keep in touch with relatives and get new pictures of my nephew. (Okay, the argument that Dreamwidth is run by an evil cabal of BNFs is pretty hilarious, but I don't think I've seen that on my actual flist.) But if you're eyeing DW, but think it might be too hard, I am here to tell you that it is NOT.

(You know what else people think is hard, and that is totally a lie? LINUX. Apparently Ubuntu is like, Linux for girls people who just want to use their computers, without getting degrees in IT. It is AMAZING. It is a bit weird at first, but I have fallen in love. dvd::rip, which is ... actually pretty self-explanatory, now I think about it, is even better than FairUse Wizard, which is a really quite jolly good type of DVD ripper. The only thing that doesn't seem to exist for Ubuntu is a dedicated creative writing suite that's any good at all. If I ever become a Mac-user, it will be because (a) I suddenly found myself with a great deal of money and nothing better to do with it, which frankly seems unlikely and (b) SCRIVENER. I did find one similar program that worked in Linux, but it's profoundly ugly.)

Comments

[geek_anachronism]

Oh Scrivener, so very very pretty.

[kerravonsen]

You know what else people think is hard, and that is totally a lie? LINUX. Apparently Ubuntu is like, Linux for girls people who just want to use their computers, without getting degrees in IT. It is AMAZING.

YAAAAAAAY! (dances you)

I did find one similar program that worked in Linux, but it's profoundly ugly.
And the program is...?

What I tend to use for my writing is TiddlyWiki (http://www.tiddlywiki.com/). Of course it isn't a tenth as fancy as Scrivener, but I guess my needs are pretty simple. Why do I use it?
(a) All you need to use it is a web-browser.
(b) Everything is in one file
(c) I can have my notes and scene-fragments in separate sections to my story proper
(d) word-count plugin
(e) export to HTML
(f) I can send the file off to beta-readers and they can annotate it and not send me back a dreaded MS-Word document

[copracat]

Oh, Scrivener, Scrivener, how I love you.

[sabra_n]

You know what else people think is hard, and that is totally a lie? LINUX.

YES IT IS HARD. *cries* Okay, so Ubuntu didn't exist when I was dumped face-first into learning UNIX, which meant it had - as Neal Stephenson said - a learning curve like the Matterhorn. Maybe Ubuntu really does make it better, but I'm a bit leery of finding out, even if it makes me a Tool of Microsoft.

...Is it really that simple?

[fyrdrakken]

Also, just using the DW webposting form with crossposting set to default is happily no more fiddly than using the LJ webposting form. (Which I've been using for lo these many years, what with posting from work and not wanting to install Semagic there.) So I'm keeping my LJ account for commenting if nothing else, I'm cross-posting (though not yet to the point of disabling comments on LJ), and I should look into things like copying my mood theme and links list and more icons over to my DW account.

[rivendellrose]

Re: the Scrivener thing... it's not Scrivener, and it's nowhere near as pretty as Scrivener (alas), but YWriter is pretty damned awesome, and it's free-ware. I don't know if it has an Ubuntu version, but I'd be kind of surprised if it didn't. YMMV, depending on what features you were really lusting over with Scrivener (I want their storyboarding feature like burning, and nobody else has that), but it's something that might be worth looking into.

It's not pretty, but it's clean, and that, IMHO, puts it worlds ahead of all the other junk that's trying to be Scrivener.

[danni]

Oh Logjam. I'm kinda surprised it still exists.

There was another client, Drivel, which I wrote a stack of code for early on (it's how I got involved in writing free software), but I think that's pretty much unmaintained nowadays.

It's not quite the same, but the GNOME Text Editor (gedit) has a full-screen mode. Also, there's a program called gnome-do, which is a lot like QuickSilver for GNOME, which I find very useful, cause I don't much care for application menus.

Glad you're enjoying your Ubuntu experience.

[jaythenerdkid]

I've finally imported all my LJ entries to DW, and a couple of my friends have followed suit.

I did have one question for you - on your LJ entries, you have a link thing at the end that directs people to reply to your comments here instead of over there, and also has a counter that shows how many comments you have on this post. How does one get that on the end of their entries? I think it's a neat little thing and I'd like to add it to my entries too, as many of my friends have said that if they're going to comment here with OpenID, they'd like a link to the DW entry to make things more convenient.

[blithespirit]

Oh hai! I had a random idea hit me out of the blue. Your posts about trying out/moving to Linux, and how you've found the different apps for vid editing, etc were really cool.
I realised today that it would be really cool to get you to do a talk for girl geeks (LinuxChix) and fandom geeks about this. Would you be interested in doing that? I'd probably organise it through LinuxChix. It would be a small-ish and interested audience. :)
(I'm an event organising addict, apparently. I organise Girl Geek Dinners and have helped do Linux Chix events too).
Let me know what you think. :)

[lizbee]

I would be really interested! Although I'm not sure how much I could actually tell the LinuxChix crowd; I am so very much a noob. But I could definitely do something on Fandom via Linux.

[blithespirit]

Yay yay yay! :)
It might take me a little while to build an event around this talk *grin* but I will start thinking about how to make it happen.
I think Fandom via Linux is perfect - I'm hoping we can attract a bunch of fannish types & get them interested in using free & open software to do what they do. :DDD
*bounce* :D

[lizbee]

Well, while you organise stuff, I shall do research and try software and whatnot.

If you wanted to make it a multi-speaker event, I know that hope has done a lot of work with the Organisation for Transformative Works, which is very much based on open-source concepts as well.

[blithespirit]

Oh cool, I'm certainly familiar with OTW, that's a good suggestion, thanks! :)

[blithespirit]

Hi!
Ok - I have found a possible event which this talk/tute would be PERFECT! Software Freedom Day at the State Library! They've asked me to do some WordPress stuff, but I actually want to suggest your talk and a couple of others - aimed at showing people how free open source tools can help them do the stuff they want to.
So - blogging stuff, video editing, pic editing, etc.
It's on Saturday 18 September 2010, 11am–4pm at the State Library of Victoria. If you're free that day, I'll go back to the SFD folks and talk about putting a schedule together. :D

[blithespirit]

*ping*
Hi! Did you get my message the other day? The Software Freedom Day folks are really keen on the fandom & open source talk/workshop. They're having a meeting on Saturday and I said I'd let them know if you are interested and available on Saturday 18 September, so can you let me know? :)

Cheers!

[lizbee]

Oh yes! Sorry, I got it while I was at work, made a mental note to reply, then TOTALLY FORGOT TO DO SO. One moment.

[lizbee]

I can definitely do that! How long should it be? Does this mean the time has come to finally learn how to use the OpenOffice version of PowerPoint?

[blithespirit]

Yay! This is going to be cool. Maybe we should have a chat about what you'd like to talk about/demonstrate. Would you like to come to the planning meeting on Saturday, or would you like to meet up with me for a coffee sometime to talk it over?
I'm not sure how long the session slots are for SFD, but I can find out.
I have to admit that I've never used OO's presentation software. I pretty much use Google Docs for everything these days!

[lizbee]

Coffee would be excellent. I'm busy this weekend, but I think I'm free for at least a morning or afternoon next weekend.

[blithespirit]

Cool, I don't really want to get drafted into their planning meeting anyway. :)
Can I grab your preferred email address, and I'll introduce you to the guy who's organising SFD. Hopefully they can hook us up with some other people who'd like to do tutes on different kinds of editing software, after your talk.
Cheers!

[lizbee]

Yes, I'm at liz.barr@gmail.com.