All of a sudden Dreamwidth has become really popular, maybe because it's going live soon, maybe because more and more people are getting invited into closed beta, and people keep asking what it is. So this is my guide, based on why I like the idea of it and my memories of things what have been discussed on the mailing lists.

In a nutshell, it's Yet Another LJ Clone^TM. It's Open Source which means that (in theory anyway, in practise it remains to be seen) if there's something you want it to do, it will do it. It's like what Firefox is to IE in that respect.

When it was first mentioned, back before I had this computer and I archived emails older than 2009 so I can't be bothered to look at when (although I have just searched my blog and found I mentioned it in August 2008, so that's a long time ago now!), the thing I liked most was that the friends list was no longer called that and split into two parts. So you have a list of people you're reading and a list of people you allow to read your locked entries. Which is the most fantastic invention ever, because there are people on LJ who have friended me who I will quite happily allow to see my (extremely rare) locked entries, but I don't particularly find their LJs interesting, so I don't have them friended - I dislike having people friended that I don't read, I find it really dishonest.

There was also talk of being able to link accounts, so if you have more than one you only ever have to log into one (so if you have a fic or icon account or for RPG accounts). This is something for the future though because they've had a lot of things to resolve in time for open beta starting.

Doubtless there are other things, but those are the two that stuck out in my mind. There has been a lot of talk on the mailing list from people being annoyed at certain things that LJ does (eg customised comment pages - I'd be fine with them except that I can't read 99% of LJ styles, mostly because they're obsessed with tiny text), so in the future there's bound to be improvements.

Also, some of the techy people who have written LJ add ons for Firefox and Greasemonkey scripts are doing some techy stuff in Dreamwidth so they'll be adapting them. Including hopefully the LJ crossposter, so then my blog, LJ and Dreamwidth accounts will all be the same and everyone can continue to read it wherever they like.

It's going into open beta on 30th April - 1st May if you're in Australia and probably here too as it's likely to be in the evening, American time. To get an account you either need to buy a paid account or find someone with an account who can give you an invite code on that date.

I'll be away at Conference from 1st-4th May, so when I get back there'll be, well, just gratitude really, for anyone who can provide me with an invite code so I can play on my week off while I recover from Conference and read my birthday presents. And I really hope no one nabs paranoidangel before I can get to it.

But the most important thing about Dreamwidth is: the current default site layout is read. Not as bright as the red on my website, but more of a tasteful red. But still, red. See, it tells you they have taste - only cool people can carry off red (cf my car, my website, my clothes, the carpet in my flat (ok, so it's rented but it was the first thing I saw when I walked in and made me like it before I even saw the rest of it)).

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