denise: Image: Me, facing away from camera, on top of the Castel Sant'Angelo in Rome (Default)
Denise ([staff profile] denise) wrote2009-04-10 01:49 am
Entry tags:

The "who I am" entry!

We're adding new people to our closed beta in leaps and bounds, so I figured I'd write an entry about this journal and who I am so people know. :)

Hi! I'm Denise; with [staff profile] mark I own and operate Dreamwidth Studios. This is my "staff" account; my personal account is at [personal profile] synecdochic, which is where I post about my life (infrequently) and my fannish stuff (way more frequently).

During our closed beta phase, I've subscribed to every personal account that's been created, because I know some people are reluctant to contact us with their questions or don't think that something they've noticed is actually a bug. I wanted to make sure I caught those sorts of issues.

When we reach open beta, I'll be dropping most of the subscriptions on this account, because I don't want people to feel like Big Brother (or, okay, Big Sister) is watching. You're welcome to stay subscribed to me! I don't plan on posting much to this account -- it'll mostly be used for making posts to official communities and commenting in situations where it needs to be clear that I'm speaking as staff. (I may keep doing the bug counts, though. I've found it's really awesome to be able to read back over and see what kind of progress we're making.)

I am, in no particular order:

* thirty-two years old;
* queer;
* in an exceedingly committed relationship with the fabulous [personal profile] sarah, which we will get around to making official as soon as Maryland legalizes gay marriage/civil unions or we can get off our asses to get to a state that does;
* disabled (I have Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome, a genetic disorder involving a defect in the connective tissue leading to joint pain, frequent joint dislocations, and a whole host of other associated side effects that make life a bit of a challenge, and have recently started using a wheelchair for mobility assistance outside the house);
* possessed of perhaps the worst case of Non-24-Hour Sleep-Wake Syndrome you will ever find; my average 'day' runs on about a 36-hour cycle these days, which means you will often find me around at odd hours;
* a writer of both fanfic (mostly Stargate SG-1) and science fiction/fantasy;
* incapable of answering any kind of question without degenerating rapidly into tl;dr territory;
* powered by Diet Coke with Lime and Marlboro Lights;
* fiercely protective of my friends, my loved ones, and my people;
* open to being told when I have fucked something up, and willing to take whatever steps I need to take to make things right (and I'm even working very very hard on quickly getting over the immediate defensive reaction, or not getting immediately defensive at all, as well!);
* so incredibly, passionately, tremendously in love with the idea of online community, social networking, and social media, while at the same time hating the profiteering, advertiser-centric, sell-out attitude so prevalent in the Web 2.0 world;
* amazingly excited, and at the same time amazingly terrified, about Dreamwidth and what [staff profile] mark and I are accomplishing.

(Excited because this is what I have always, always wanted to do with social media, with LiveJournal, and with the internet in general. Terrified, because -- oh my God, what if we fuck up. I've been joking for a while that every time I think about what we're doing here, I need to go hyperventilate into a brown paper bag for a bit. In fact, a friend of mine recently shipped me a package of brown paper bags for that very purpose.)

I was raised by parents who were self-employed; they say your work ethic is set by the age of seven, and hoo-boy, it's no wonder I turned out like I did. You can read an older entry of mine -- (really, i'm just noodling around here) -- for some of my thoughts about the kind of business I want Dreamwidth to be. [staff profile] mark and I are looking to create something that will support our families and let us work at home in our pajamas, not something that will ever make us millions. Watching the energy and enthusiasm that everyone's been bringing to this project, the sheer amount of talent that has assembled around this project, is amazing.

I hope we can be worthy of you all.
kiezh: Tree and birds reflected in water. (tree water sky)

Doing the OpenID thing was clearly a good idea :)

[personal profile] kiezh 2009-04-14 07:29 pm (UTC)(link)
Hi there! Thanks for the DW invite. I was definitely planning on noodling around here and seeing if I wanted a paid account; now I can do that more effectively. (Exploring options for customizing the interface is a priority, and I'll be doing that as soon as I finish this comment.)

A lot of your list is also true of me: queer, disabled, into fanfic and sf/f (reading, not writing), in Maryland, prone to tl;dr, excited by the possibilities of Dreamwidth, etc. (The least applicable are Diet Coke and a committed relationship.) I've read and loved a lot of your fanfic, though I'm often delinquent in feedback.

I plan on playing around on the site and letting you guys know if I find something that doesn't work (or works really well). Thanks for doing this amazing project!
djkittycat: (cat!)

[personal profile] djkittycat 2009-04-15 02:25 am (UTC)(link)
Where in Maryland? (If you don't mind.) Maybe you can be general. Like DC metro or Balt metro or Eastern Shore, or? I'm in Balt metro.

[personal profile] inkbabies 2009-04-15 06:02 am (UTC)(link)
nice to meet you Denise! I think Dreamwidth is pretty amazing!

[personal profile] whatistigerbalm 2009-04-15 07:57 am (UTC)(link)
Brava! This looks impressive and I trust it'll work. Thank you for your time and effort!
ashi: This is me, dressed like a pirate.  Arrrr. (arrrr!)

thank you!

[personal profile] ashi 2009-04-15 06:20 pm (UTC)(link)
Thanks for all the hard work putting this together. I look forward to great things. :)
magistrate: The arc of the Earth in dark space. (Earth in darkness)

[personal profile] magistrate 2009-04-15 06:41 pm (UTC)(link)
Hello! I followed you back on LJ, and I remember some of the early posts wondering about the potential for a site like this. It's terribly exciting to see it coming to fruition!
tweedy: (Default)

[personal profile] tweedy 2009-04-15 06:55 pm (UTC)(link)
:3 what a lovely post. thanks for posting this. i really enjoyed reading it.

-s
inspiral_rose: faery with red wings (Default)

[personal profile] inspiral_rose 2009-04-15 11:43 pm (UTC)(link)
Totally, totally impressed and thrilled to be here. Wish I was still working in mainstream geek media so I could write about this project. Hell, maybe I'll get off my new-mama bottom and get back into writing for mainstream geek media just for this.

Let me know when you want Australian mainstream coverage...
lady_ganesh: A Clue card featuring Miss Scarlett. (Default)

[personal profile] lady_ganesh 2009-04-15 11:49 pm (UTC)(link)
So that's who you are! I understand why you don't want to keep us all friended forever but I confess having an insta-friend is very, er, friendly.
mark: A photo of Mark kneeling on top of the Taal Volcano in the Philippines. It was a long hike. (Default)

[staff profile] mark 2009-04-15 11:52 pm (UTC)(link)
Yeah, I've taken to calling her Tom.
lady_ganesh: A Clue card featuring Miss Scarlett. (Default)

[personal profile] lady_ganesh 2009-04-16 12:00 am (UTC)(link)
...I think I am too dumb for this joke.
lady_ganesh: A Clue card featuring Miss Scarlett. (ganesh)

[personal profile] lady_ganesh 2009-04-16 12:09 am (UTC)(link)
THAT explains it I never had a MySpace.

Hee!
bunnyhero: (Default)

[personal profile] bunnyhero 2009-04-16 05:00 am (UTC)(link)
what is your sleeping/wake ratio in those 36 hours? i have often thought that my own ideal wake-sleep cycle would be 24 hours awake followed by 12 asleep...
kadothecat: (Default)

[personal profile] kadothecat 2009-04-17 04:11 am (UTC)(link)
Hello! You sound like my kinda people --- and have serendipitously just added me. You have hereby been granted access. Thanks for Dreamwidth!
crystal: (Default)

[personal profile] crystal 2009-04-17 09:35 am (UTC)(link)
This project is awesome, and you sound awesome as well *smiles at* =)
la_rainette: (Default)

[personal profile] la_rainette 2009-04-18 11:09 pm (UTC)(link)
*raises hand* I am one of the non-fannish people, and I am very happy to be here. From your other post (the post where you talk about your parent's businesses and your hopes for DreamWidth), I can tell that this is exactly the sort of place I am looking for. :)

It's a breath of fresh air, really. Thank you.

[identity profile] nightengale.livejournal.com 2009-04-19 03:24 am (UTC)(link)
This. EXACTLY THIS.

(Sorry for threading you, but, yes and yes and yes.)

Denise, hey, I just left you a comment over on LJ which you so kindly answered, thanks!, and then I put another one over in dw_docs when dw_volunteers directed me in that general area, and, um. I'm not sure that went in the right place, but hopefully I can get my wristband and start helping out somehow.

I will stop spamming you with comments (this is what, comment #3, that's not spam) but I just wanted to say, hi, thank you for the introduction ♥ And I really hope that you can feel and can KNOW how many of us have faith in you.

Mine was sprung only tonight, but I still think it counts. ♥
howeird: (Default)

Bug report - icon loader

[personal profile] howeird 2009-04-19 07:35 am (UTC)(link)
When I uploaded a very big jpg image to the icons page, instead of the image I get the X placeholder, and a frame marker which refuses to resize. Just for the heack of it and because I break things for a living, I clicked the "create" button anyway, and got a 404 error instead of a "you fool, read the effing size limit specs for icon pix" message. The image is 2100x1400, 2.39MB 300dpi, 24-bit. And BTW, a box on the icon loader page with the max size would be a nice feature.
psyche: (SV | Lois | Breathe)

[personal profile] psyche 2009-04-19 08:57 am (UTC)(link)
I lucked out and got an invite via the random draw. This looks like an interesting place and I look forward to exploring it further now that I have an account.

Thank you very much.
fuchs: (Default)

[personal profile] fuchs 2009-04-19 12:22 pm (UTC)(link)
Well, I didn't know them personally at all, never had any urge to jump any of those bandwagons you mentioned, and still they inspired the kind of faith in me that lets me spend time an money on this! I'm actually trying hard to hold back my enthusiasm a bit, because, as I mentioned, I don't even know these people! ;)
ext_20852: (Skiing-2008)

[identity profile] alitalf.livejournal.com 2009-04-19 01:36 pm (UTC)(link)
Hmm, gay marriage "civil partnership" is already part of UK law, and my sister in law is to marry her girlfriend next year.

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