necessary info

[sinew]

hello! welcome to neocities_users!

what is this?

this is a dreamwidth community created by and for neocities users, intended to be a more static communication and information hub! (with the added bonus of getting more users on dreamwidth lol)

if this seems familiar, perhaps you've seen sadness' guide on integrating a dreamwidth journal with neocities?

what is dreamwidth?

a journaling platform based off of ye olde livejournal, which was what i'd describe as one of web 2.0's biggest social platforms. think of it like a mix of a personal blogging platform, forum, and archive!

a neat feature is anyone can post on dreamwidth, regardless of how well-versed in html they are. there is the option of using a rich text editor, or if you want to you can use html in entries themselves! (and i mean you can style things like divs and tables, not just make text bold)

but why tho?

the neocities activity feed itself is nice enough to follow updates from your favorite users, but it's really lacking in that things aren't exactly static or good for involved discussion. neocities' feed doesn't even allow for notifications of when someone responds to you, for god's sake

the same applies to platforms like discord; it's difficult to keep info on hand, or keep certain discussions in certain spots when a conversation is happening via instant message and the conversation keeps bumping and/or getting derailed

then when it comes to personal sites, while we definitely love linking each other, stumbling across a cool resource via someone's button wall isn't the same as having a user-made dynamic directory

so... tl;dr i thought it would be legit useful

how do i use this?

the basic steps are as follows:

• create dreamwidth account (if you don't have one already)
• join the community
• post in it or in the comments of other posts
• profit!

eventually i will make a getting started guide for dreamwidth with the most essential basics!

what's allowed here?

anything and everything neocities (and web design in general) related!

some examples:

• questions and answers about neocities itself
• info on happenings on neocities or the indie web in general
• questions and answers about web design
• discussion of dreamwidth
• sharing of resources and tutorials
• plugging of your site

but it's nowhere near intended to be limited to just that!

are there rules?

yes, but hopefully not really restrictive ones

• don't be a dick. y'know, the most common rule of....... everywhere lol
• keep things on topic when making posts. since "on topic" is a pretty wide subject in context, it's probably easier to give examples of what's not appropriate here. using this community for personal status updates, asking for anime recommendations, etc. also, you don't have to strictly stay on topic in comments, this is just for primary posts. when in doubt, you can always ask a mod if what you want to post is appropriate
• tag your posts. this will help keep things neat, and most importantly, findable again later!
• try not to be redundant with posts. because there's a tagging system, it's helpful to check and see if your question or chosen topic of discussion has already been posted. while it's totally fine to have posts asking "how do i change my page's background?" it can be annoying for that same question to be posted several times on the front page when that real estate can be used for various topics, for example
• don't be pretentious or elitist. everybody starts somewhere, and maybe others don't know as much about web design as you. don't act like everybody else is going to know everything
• give credit where it's due. if you post a code or graphic you didn't make, credit the creator! likewise, if someone posts a resource they made here, be sure to credit them on their chosen platform!

rules are subject to change and get addendums as time goes on

wait, tags?

yeppers! right now, keeping it simple seems best, but maybe things will expand eventually?

you can view the tags list here, and this is a little guide to what they mean:

• ! mod post: where mods will post important stuff like info and updates (don't use this tag if you are not a mod)
• - dreamwidth: for entries regarding dreamwidth
• - neocities: for entries regarding neocities
• - general: for entries regarding the web and web design in general
• discussion: for discussion posts
• misc: for things that can't be quite placed elsewhere
• plugging: for posting links to your sites to get word out and generate traffic
• questions: for posting questions
• requests: for specific requests for specific things
• resources: for resources such as graphics, tutorials, codes, etc.

regarding tags marked with "- ": the "- " in front is a part of the tag itself. this will group them all together at the start of the tags list so folks can peruse things easier

who are the mods?

right now, there's... just me :,) but as the community gets more active, i hope to get some fellow mods to help!

hopefully this covers some of the basics about this community. i'm so excited to see it grow! :)