starterpack

Step Two: Putting Your Face On

Mon, 01 Feb 2021 14:39:44 GMT

Yikers, it's been a while. Guess who got sandwiched between Bad Brain Month and accidental!gluten? But I'm on my feet now, will try to knock these out.

Next post I'll be covering how to find people/content on dw, but this round I'll focus on how you set up your space to make a good/clear impression.

Userpics
With a free account, you can upload as many as fifteen userpics(icons/avatars/what have you), though some only have one, and that's ok too! Whenever you make a post or comment on something, your icon is right there next to your username, and they're great for showing off your mood, or just your fave fandom honey. Really opens up a different avenue for expressing yourself in a fun way.

But like I said, just having a default icon is a ok too ♥

A few places you can find userpics:
icons - multi-fandom and stock icon community.
comicbook_icons - What it says on the tin.
smallbatchicons - multi-user community where makers post 5 icon batches on a theme of their choosing.
If you find a maker you really like, you can always subscribe to their personal community =)

All of these communities are well-tagged, making it easier to find what you're looking for. (adding /tag to the URL takes you to their list of tags for easy browsing)

But how do I do the thing?

On the dw homepage, you'll find Upload Icons in the upper left corner, Create/Upload Icons.

1: choose a 100x100/60kb or less icon from your computer, or copy the URL of an icon.
2: The keyword is what you see when choosing an icon in the dropdown menu.
3: People usually input the maker's credit here + poetry/lyric snippets/quotes/etc for funsies if you want.
4: Description of the icon, doesn't have to be fancy.

Voila! You have a fun page of userpics people can snoop into *g*

Userpics gives other people an insight into what fandoms/characters/interests you're into, and as a bonus they're just pretty to look at. In most layouts, clicking a user's icon will bring you directly to their userpics page. Happy icon looting!

Introducing myself via tiny images? Bit like interpretive dance, innit?

That's where an intro post/your profile comes in.

When you click someone's journal, you'll often see an About Me post stickied to the top. This is a very handy tool for letting people know who you are, what your journal is about, and what your approach to friending/following is. To sticky a post you go to Organize/Manage Account/Display, scroll down and you'll see a box that says IDs or URLs of Sticky Entries.

Examples of things to list:
Short introduction.
Why you're here.
Where you've been in the past on social platforms, where you are now.
What your current interests are.
Do you auto-follow back? Would you prefer people introduce themselves?
If you make fanworks, what's your transformative works policy?

Example A. Example B. Example C. Example D.

You can also input a small list of information on your profile page. Some do one or the other, some do both. Dreamwidth also lets you list various other social accounts in your profile, Create/Edit Profile, or click the edit button on your profile page. Under Contact Information you can input your username on a wide variety of platforms, and the link will be in your bio.

I'll be linking some profile codes in this entry's Side Quests, if you'd like to prettify things a bit.

How do I link to accounts on other sites?
For userpic credits,

In comments and entries,

As always, ask away if you have questions ♥
(side quests not up yet)

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The new year has arrived!

Fri, 01 Jan 2021 21:37:22 GMT

Do you have any resolutions, things you want to spend more time with in 2021? I've rounded up a few of the challenges and communities you might want to give a look =)

* snowflake_challenge has just started, and will run through January. Every day has different posting topics, and a lot of people do them daily or at their own pace. Good way to get in the journaling groove for the new year.

* Landcomms used to be a big thing back on lj, and there's still one ambling along on dw: lands_of_magic. Landcomms are super useful for engaging in various fannish activities, and the team spirit and camaraderie can be a lot of fun. Next round starts Feb 12th, Sign-ups here.

* Wanting to do some more painting or drawing? Want to start learning? drawesome could be the place for you!

* Remember rec lists? Great for finding new stuff (or shoving it someone else's face), and most excellent to look back on for some residual endorphin hits. You want to get your rec-fu going, recthething has weekly posts where you can just drop one or two recs, or link a rec list you've already put on your journal. fanart_recs are for, you guessed it, fanart recs. Sign up with a fandom, and post four or more fanart recs within a month.

* There's loads of writing communities on dw, but getyourwordsout has you sign up for the year using different pledge levels, and then follows you throughout the year. Deadline Jan 18th. (sorry, inkingitout closes sign-ups Jan 1st, so I missed that one)

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Hey all!

Mon, 28 Dec 2020 13:27:20 GMT

Welcome to starterpack ❤️

The goal of this place is to guide new Dreamwidth users, or people new to journaling in general, so the process of trying a new platform doesn't become too overwhelming.

Dreamwidth is a wonderful blogging platform, and the site has been built by fans for fans. No corporate overlords placating advertisers or stealing your data. Even free accounts are ad-free!

My favorite aspects of Dreamwidth?
* Dreamwidth's diversity statement.
* Communities!
* So. Many. Userpics.
* Full control of who sees what. Public, private, or friends only posts. The ability to have sub-groups within friends only.
* I feel entirely safe there won't be any strikethroughs/nipplegates/etc.

I'll be making a new post with an activity every two or three days, with additional side quests added in between for those with a bit more time on their hands. Every post a bite-sized chunk that won't take very long to complete, to make it as manageable as possible. By the end I hope more people will feel they get how dreamwidth works, and have found a bit of community for themselves and learned the tools to expand on that if they wish.

Now for Day One: we're making our account \o/

You're here, on Dreamwidth. Click the logo in the upper left corner.

You're now on the dw home page, and click Create Free Account. You pick your journal name, password, etc. Next page gives you various things to fill out, but we'll cover that in later updates so feel free to walk on by. Choose no thanks to the paid account on the third page.

YOU DONE DID IT. Welcome to Dreamwidth ☺️

Today's side quest?
A bit of a cheat, as I have two. One, subscribe to this journal so the new entries show up in your Circle/Reading Page.
Two, to get started on posting, maybe give others a bit of an idea as to who you are, I put together a small collection of memes. Do whichever ones appeal to you :) (my memory is absolute shit, so I love having End Of Year posts to look back on)

Feel free to introduce yourselves in the comments 🙌🙌🙌

STEP TWO HERE

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Memes

Thu, 24 Dec 2020 12:37:29 GMT

End of year fic meme

End of year general meme

What did you do in 2020 that you'd never done before?

Did you keep your new year's resolutions, and will you make more for next year?

Did anyone close to you give birth?

Did anyone close to you die?

What countries did you visit?

What would you like to have in 2021 that you lacked in 2020?

What date from 2020 will remain etched upon your memory, and why?

What was your biggest achievement of the year?

What was your biggest failure?

Did you suffer illness or injury?

What was the best thing you bought?

Whose behaviour merited celebration?

Whose behaviour made you appalled and depressed?

Where did most of your money go?

What did you get really, really, really excited about?

What song will always remind you of 2020?

Compared to this time last year, are you:

i. happier or sadder? 
ii. richer or poorer?

What do you wish you'd done more of?

What do you wish you'd done less of?

How did you spend the Holidays?

Did you fall in love in 2020?

Did your heart break in 2020?

What was your favourite TV program?

Where were you when 2020 began?

Who were you with?

Where will you be when 2020 ends?

Who will you be with when 2020 ends?

What was the best book you read?

What was your greatest musical discovery?

What did you want and get?

What did you want and not get?

What was your favourite film of this year?

What did you do on your birthday, and how old were you?

How many different states/cities did you travel to in 2020?

How would you describe your personal fashion concept in 2020?

What kept you sane?

Which celebrity/public figure did you fancy the most?

What political issue stirred you the most?

How many concerts did you see in 2020?

Did you have a favourite concert in 2020?

Who was the best new person you met?

What are your plans for 2021?

Year in fandom meme:

Catch Up meme

Best In Books (of the year)

Looking Back

1. Best Book You Read In YEAR?

2. Book You Were Excited About & Thought You Were Going To Love More But Didn’t?

3. Most surprising (in a good way or bad way) book you read?

4. Book You “Pushed” The Most People To Read (And They Did)?

5. Best series you started in 2022? Best Sequel of 2022? Best Series Ender of 2022?

6. Favourite new author you discovered in 2022?

7. Best book from a genre you don’t typically read/was out of your comfort zone?

8. Most action-packed/thrilling/unputdownable book of the year?

9. Book You Read In YEAR That You Are Most Likely To Re-Read Next Year?

10. Favourite cover of a book you read in YEAR?

11. Most memorable character of YEAR?

12. Most beautifully written book read in YEAR?

13. Most Thought-Provoking book of YEAR?

14. Book you can’t believe you waited UNTIL YEAR to finally read?

15. Favourite Passage/Quote From A Book You Read In YEAR?

16. Shortest & Longest Book You Read In YEAR?

17. Book That Shocked You The Most

18. OTP OF THE YEAR (you will go down with this ship!)

19. Favourite Non-Romantic Relationship Of The Year?

20. Favourite Book You Read in 2022 From An Author You’ve Read Previously

21. Best Book You Read In YEAR That You Read Based SOLELY On A Recommendation From Somebody Else/Peer Pressure:

22. Newest fictional crush from a book you read in YEAR?

23. Best YEAR debut you read?

24. Best Worldbuilding/Most Vivid Setting You Read This Year?

25. Book That Put A Smile On Your Face/Was The Most FUN To Read?

26. Book That Made You Cry Or Nearly Cry?

27. Hidden Gem Of The Year?

28. Book That Crushed Your Soul?

29. Most Unique Book You Read This Year?

30. Book That Made You The Most Mad (doesn’t necessarily mean you didn’t like it)?

Looking Ahead

1. One Book You Didn’t Get To This year But Will Be Your Number 1 Priority Next Year?

2. Book You Are Most Anticipating For YEAR (non-debut)?

3. Next Year Debut You Are Most Anticipating?

4. Series Ending/A Sequel You Are Most Anticipating?

5. One Thing You Hope To Accomplish Or Do In Your Reading/Blogging Life In YEAR?

Get to know the Vidder

01. What program do you use?
    02. Favorite fandom to vid for?
    03. Favorite ship?
    04. Vid you’re the proudest of?
    05. Hardest vid to edit?
    06. Have you participated in any collabs/meps?
    07. Have you made a vid for a fanfic author?
    08. How many wips do you have?
    09. What are some fandoms and/or ships you’d like to vid for but haven’t yet?
    10. What was the best comment you’ve received on one of your vids?
    11. Have you vid any ocs?
    12. Most underrated vid that you wished had gotten more views?
    13. Vid that took you the longest the edit?
    14. Longest vid you ever made?
    15. Shortest vid you ever made?
    16. Favorite thumbnail for one of your vids?
    17. Most used artist?
    18. Favorite artist to vid to?
    19. Vid with the most views? The least?
    20. How many subscribers do you have?
    21. How would you describe your vidding style?
    22. Have you made any aus?
    23. Have you made any friends from vidding?
    24. When and why did you get started?
    25. How long have you been vidding for?
    26. Any vidding rituals you have?
    27. Advice for anyone just starting their channel?

+ S H O R T E R + M E M E + Qs

Playlist meme

Crucial Movies meme

What would you do?

The Five Questions Meme

Fib or Fact?

Sharing (appreciation) is Caring!

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