The "who I am" entry!

[denise]

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 mark I own and operate Dreamwidth Studios. This is my "staff" account; my personal account is at 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 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 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. 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.

Comments

[pantswarrior]

You are, also, for the record, one of maybe a handful of people who I actually think is capable of making something like this work. Since I noted my interest in DW over at LJ, I've gotten plenty of people who go "Oh, another LJ-based site that everyone's jumping on the bandwagon for"...

And my biggest argument in telling them that no, really, it's not just more bandwagon-jumping (and seriously, I didn't jump any of the previous bandwagons, so if that's all it was, why would I jump this one?) is that it's not just attractive marketing points - I know you mean everything you guys are saying in the announcements and the wikis and the docs which makes it sound like exactly what I want in a social media site, and I know that you've thought this through and planned carefully, because you wouldn't do this any other way. Unfortunately "If you knew what I knew" is not a very convincing argument, but I'm trying.

At any rate, I have faith in you and Mark. And so do a lot of other people, many of whom are already contributing. This is going to work, and it's going to be awesome. =)

[denise]

Ooooh, thank you. :) I will admit, when we were starting this whole thing, we thought we were crazy to even think about it. We still think we're crazy to think about it, but now we're pretty convinced it's the good kind of crazy, and there are so many people who have looked at the project and said "YES. THIS" that we're really starting to get overwhelmed (in the good way!) by what we're creating!

[elke_tanzer]

It may be crazy, but it's the kind of crazy that the world needs. Thank you so much for all of this.

[turlough]

This, exactly!

[nightengale.livejournal.com]

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. ♥

[fuchs]

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! ;)