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

[thistleingrey]

Hello! DW is a very exciting undertaking to this user, too. :)

(Eek, the sleeping rhythms sound complicated. I have much sympathy for the EDS; I have a "benign hypermobility" diagnosis, but whether or not that's == EDS3, repeated accidental reinjury is not terribly benign, I find.)

[denise]

The sleep stuff is really interesting, I'll say that much. There was the one time (back when I was still trying to work 9-5 in the corporate world) when I overslept through my alarm ... until 2PM.

If you've got any form of the hypermobility, and you have joint pain, by the way, ask your doctor about Lidoderm -- they're topical lidocaine patches, and they work wonders for joint pain. They often mean the difference between getting out of bed and not getting out of bed.

[jecook]

You forgot 'I provide outstanding conversation material during scenic drives'. :D

[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. =)

[pgwfolc.livejournal.com]

Wow. Someone whose sleep schedule is even more frakked-up than mine. Impressive.

Diet coke with lime rocks. Although I wish Diet Cherry Coke hadn't been all but entirely replaced with Cherry Zero. :p

Anyway, nice intro. :)

(And now back to checking that thing about bolded interests...)

[ladyjax]

I think what you're doing rocks.

[ladyvox.livejournal.com]

That's a nice post! Tis always nice to know a bit about those behind projects like this (though I say 'like this' - I have not really ran into any similar projects.. There are so many lj-based offshoots but NONE of them give me the feeling that DW has given me since I started keeping up with you guys a while back). And well, I am sure you gals&guys can make it work - and for what it's worth, as soon as I am able to do some volunteering myself to help out here or there I will.

You must psyched over the Vermont Legalizes Gay Marriage (http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2009/04/07/us/AP-GayMarriage-Vermont.html?_r=4&hp) then! :) I know I am, and then I myself actually am from the country that was the first to legalize same-sex marriage. For 5.5 years I have traveled back'n'forth between the Netherlands and the States to keep my (same-sex) relationship working, as due to too little income marriage with someone from out of my own country wasn't available to us in my own country and well, marriage in the States for sure wasn't gonne happen. So I never managed to get hold of a proper visa, and well, eventually the long-distance thing put too much strain on the relationship so .. yeah. It makes me sad thinking about all this, and how different everything could have been if people would just allow others to live their lifes the way they think is best, instead of having to abide the rules of those too short-minded to see tis really none of their business to have a say in stuff like this. /steps of her wooden box and giggles

[ladyvox.livejournal.com]

"Wow. Someone whose sleep schedule is even more frakked-up than mine. Impressive. "

/giggles
I was thinking the same!

[denise]

That too!

[naraht]

You're doing, as far as I can tell, an absolutely wonderful job. Thank you for answering my questions and for having created this amazing thing. :)

[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!

[denise]

We've actually been storing the data on my sleep schedule for about a year now -- my girlfriend graphed the first few months of it, hasn't been able to update the graph itself in a while, but we have the raw data and keep meaning to sit down and analyze it.

One of my doctors, when he saw the graph, looked at it and said "...This should not happen unless you live in a cave."

[denise]

Thank you! It's really starting to feel real, you know?

[denise]

I was so happy when I saw Vermont made that decision! And equally happy about DC's decision to offer full reciprocity. I just keep hoping that Maryland will follow suit soon.

And thank you. I'm really hoping that we'll be able to keep up the incredible energy and devotion people have brought to the Dreamwidth project so far. Everyone's just been so incredible; I look at this whole project and marvel at what we've accomplished already on a near-daily basis. We have been so blessed with such wonderful, wonderful contributors.

[denise]

Oh, you're welcome! And thank you for the encouragement. :) It's always lovely to hear when we're getting something right.

[sohotrightnow]

Thanks so much for the intro! :D My main problems thus far stem from my own laziness (I never remember what password I'm using here, and I haven't been bothered to prettify my style yet), so I really have nothing to report. I'm totally jazzed about this, though -- to say "thank you for all the work you're putting into this" just doesn't seem to quite reach the level of work you've put in or excitement I've got, but it'll have to do.

[troubleinchina.livejournal.com]

Oh, that's you! My offline friend Katie reads your fic, IIRC - she made a cross-stitch inspired by one of them. (I, not having watched SG-1, can only smile and nod.)

[bethac]

Hi, I have a question. I checked the "not right now" box on the would you like to buy an account now question when I made my DW journal after an invite. That was mostly so I could just get my bearings and set up, but when I am ready to pay for the year where do I go? I'm thinking it is not an option again until after it opens on the 30th? I'm sorry if this is covered somewhere else, I checked and did not see it, and checked the tags on my profile box, etc.
I hope that made sense.
Thanks so much, and I am really loving the DW setup.
Elizabeth

[sky]

Diet Coke? BLASPHEMY. (I kid, I kid.)

I find this whole project so amazing, though, and I don't think I'll ever be able to properly express my gratitude and awe for everything you guys have done already. I mean, even if Dreamwidth stayed at the level it was now, with the beta journal importing and the subscribe/access split and the other stuff that's out for us to test, and your guys's general philosophy... I would've been a convert with just that, but to think it's just going to keep getting better and that there's more features down the pipe, that you guys want to provide what the users want and you really have a passion for this that I don't seem to sense in the LJ staff these days... well, I'm rambling, but it all makes me very bouncy and giddy and excited with all the possibilities. :)

[thistleingrey]

Thanks for the tip about Lidoderm--good to know.

[forthwritten]

You can't purchase an account right now, but will be able to do so when DW goes into open beta on the 30th. Here's a link to the account levels and pricing structure.

[kate]

I'm sort of ridiculously excited about this. (Underneath all the stress from work.)

You're awesome, and your awesomeness is infectious, which is a really cool thing to see - especially when it results in something like Dreamwidth. This is going to be spectacular. ♥

[ase]

I'm so excited you're doing DW. BTW, is that diet Coke, lime flavor, or diet Coke with real limes? (The coolest summer thing I have seen done with limes: squeeze into ice cube tray and freeze. Your drinks get more deliciously citrusy as they melt. Yum.)

I hope MD will get off its high horse and legalize gay marriage soon. We have to stay ahead of Virginia on this one.

[turlough]

This, exactly!

[bethac.livejournal.com]

Thank you!