Site tour

[denise]

So, sophie and I are sitting down to work out what the site tour should consist of (bug 209) and I thought I'd open it up to dw_docs -- what kind of things do you think should be highlighted in the tour?

This should not be a "what's different from LJ" -- it should be a feature-based "what makes us a good place to be". (We'll do a "switching from LJ or other LJ-based site" Guide, as well as a "switching from Wordpress", from TypePad, etc, etc, all as separate documentation.) It can reference our ideological differences, but for this part of it I want to concentrate on features.

Comments

[azurelunatic]

Starting it off with the easy: WTF, of course. And how very easy it is to be an OpenID user (feel free to raid my post on that). And why is there a beetle on my ceiling?

[rainbow]

This might be too detailed for what you want...

Explanation of account levels, features, and prices. Open ID info (and pseud info as per zvi's entry, if that ends up being added)

Journal/Account: How to create one, how to set it up (including how to set styles/themes, adjust colors/fonts/other options, set default security level [and what that is]). How to post entries, how to edit entries. Entry settings for security, icon, mood, music, tags, etc on entries. How to reply to others' entries. Info like "if you click the little head in front of someone's name, it takes you to their profile; if you click their name it takes you to their journal".

Profile: What it is, how to edit it, how interests are used to connect with other users (possibly what the magic index is), how/what info can be set so only trusted people see it, what info is required vs optional and why they might want to include the optional. What the different things mean on other ppl's profiles (like clicking the default icon to see all icons, clicking other ppl/comm/feed's name in a profile to get the profile for that entity).

Overview of relationships: subscription vs access. Custom security. How to create/use custom access groups and custom reading lists.

Overview of communities: what they are, how to create one, what administrators do, differences between moderated membership/posting access and unmoderated.

Overview of feeds -- how to add to/remove from reading list, how to create

[denise]

Yeah, we're looking more for a very shallow "this is what makes us special" type tour, not documentation. That kind of stuff will go into guides, though.

[zvi]

Communities

Control of interaction with others (entry locking, pm locking, etc.)

Icons

Rapid, user-focused development

[damned_colonial]

The main thing I would like to see in this guide would be "how is DW different from blogging, or from facebook?"

From my experience on LJ, the fundamental difference is that everyone in your circle is both a journaller and a commenter, which differs from blogs where people are either the host/blogger, or a commenter on the site. There's a sense of equality and reciprocality: I share my life/work/writing/creative works with you, you share yours with me, and we comment on each other's stuff as equals.

[forthwritten]

"how is DW different from blogging, or from facebook?"

I like this approach - so things like threaded comments, reciprocality and communities. I think emphasising the kind of control you have over your account is also something to emphasise - for example, the ability to lock or custom filter content.

[damned_colonial]

Yes, absolutely. Circles of friends, sharing, not sharing.

[snakeling]

Those are things that are also true for LJ, but if you're trying to get people who're *not* from LJ, that might be useful:

- comment threading
- neither blogging not social networking, but the best of both worlds
- WTF
- highly customisable experience (lots of settings, journal layouts)
- possibility to post locked content
- Free vs Paid vs Premium; while you do get less stuff with a Free account, it's still quite decent and usable

[niqaeli]

I think I would emphasise the logged-in user's control over their experience -- cover all the various ways controls they have and the fact that a philosophical and policy choice drives this means that the logged-in user will always be given control where possible.

Because that is something that makes dreamwidth fucking shiny from a usability/accessibility point of view and is a far from insignificant part of why I will never fucking read blogs natively again. RSS feeds fed into my reading page, thank you.

[bohemianeditor]

Also from the not-Facebook/not-Wordpress side of the spectrum:

Simplicity. You don't have to keep up with a zillion widgets or applications or other ways to interact with your friends and groups/communities. Everything slots nicely to your reading page. (Though different methods, like reading top-to-bottom or bottom-to-top, might be worth a mention.)

[miss_s_b]

That it's a feed reader and blog platform in one: the number one marketing thing that LJ missed.