Update, April 5, 2010
Hello, Dreamwidth! I'm Athena aka ![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
afuna aka fu, and I'm Dreamwidth's newest employee. I started this entry on Tuesday morning my time, halfway across the world from ![[staff profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user_staff.png)
mark and denise, but it was still Monday then for my bosses, so this totally still counts as a Monday update.
The update is running a bit late, because we were working out some final issues, but we're finally done, and I have fantastic news for you today: payments are back up! (I feel really lucky to get to be the one to tell you all this, OMG).
I've got a lot of other news, and I'm chasing time, so let's get started:
foxfirefey took charge of this week's code tour, which included a lot of styles cleanup to make things consistent across styles (thanks ninetydegrees!), and a lot of backend work to make life easier for us devs in the future (thanks exor674 and kareila!)
I'd like to highlight these changes, but take a look at the code tour, too, for the complete list of upcoming changes; there's lots of stuff I just don't have the space to talk about here. Notable changes:
* /tags redirects to /tag (I make this mistake a lot!)
* /calendar redirects to /archive (we're standardizing)
* Default View/Default filters are selected by default when adding from the contextual hover menu, and when subscribing via the normal way (I coded this patch, and I admit, I had very selfish, lazy, reasons for wanting this tweak out as soon as possible :-))
We also have been doing lots of work for the payment system; more on that below.
Not everything that improves Dreamwidth goes through the code tour. I keep getting linked to this fantastic illustrated tutorial for using your OpenID from other sites with Dreamwidth, and I just had to share (thank yousomnolentblue!)
When I say that "we" have been doing lots of work on the payments system, I meanmark! He's been working hard, and it's finally paid off. As of this code push, our payments system is back online.
Along with the payments system, we rolled out Dreamwidth Points. You buy points in the shop, and you exchange the points for account time or swag. I've been thinking of them as gift cards or prepaid debit cards, but much more flexible, and unlike gift cards there's no risk of credits being left over on the card (unusable).
The points system is described in our newest FAQ, What are Dreamwidth Points?. We've also updated the existing FAQs (What are Paid Accounts and How do I buy a paid account).
We also have a post in![[site community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/comm_staff.png)
dw_biz with common scenarios for using points; I'd like to ask that all questions about points go there, so that we have one central location for the information -- thank you!
As part of our change to a new payment system, we updated our privacy policy with this code push to remove mention of our old payment providers and add in information about the new one. The privacy policy itself states that major updates will be announced indw_news. The relevant changes are:
Recentlymark and denise discussed the idea of having an April fundraising goal in dw_biz. There were some great ideas suggested in comments to that post, and they've been thinking them over and trying to decide what would be best. They'll post a followup to dw_biz later on in the week outlining some more ideas and finalizing their plan for the rest of April.
And this seems a good time to remind you that you should all watchdw_biz as that's where mark and denise talk about Dreamwidth's business side, as well as soliciting feedback on feature design.
Google Summer of Code applications close April 9, so get yours in!
If you're interested in applying, but don't know where to start,mark has an excellent introduction getting started with GSoC on Dreamwidth, with a follow-up. And denise talks about what makes Dreamwidth tick in a way that makes me fall in love with Dreamwidth-the-project all over again (not that I need help with that!)
We've had several proposals and detailed project plans submitted for discussion todw_dev. I've been enjoying reading them all, and I'm looking forward to what comes out of this! The discussion posts so far are under the summer of code tag, if you want to read them.
To all the GSoC students on the site so far:anthonynonso, roshansingh, mrigeshpokhrel, arjunjain, panna, toonsuperlove, jens, abhishek0, jportela, kartik, onli, sundargates, dhasthagheer, plus anybody I might have missed or who will join us this week, welcome to Dreamwidth! We're glad to have you and I hope that you'll find a home here with us -- we have lots of great people here.
To all the great people here, meet the students who've come from GSoC. Feel free to stop by their journals and welcome them to Dreamwidth.
So it turns out that April is National Poetry Month in the US! To celebrate, and share the love, we've made available a tag bundle of "poetry", "poem", "poems", "national poetry month" for the Latest Things page.
April is also National Poetry Writing Month (thirty poems in thirty days). If you're taking part, then![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
napowrimo is just the community for you.
We recently got a question in Support from a student who is currently writing an article about the friending memes that appear on the various Dreamwidth communities and why they're popular.
She asks:
We've given her an official answer, but it seems like the kind of thing that you all might want to help out with, too *g* Let us (let her!) know what you think in comments -- and here's to hoping we help her write a great article.
(And speaking of asking questions / meeting people,katieastrophe asked us to remind UKers that she's planning a meetup for users the UK, and would like to ask who's interested/what you're interested in doing.)
Now I know whatmark and denise meant when they told me that news posts take a lot of effort, but also are so very worth it. I'm looking back at everything that happened this week, and I feel proud of Dreamwidth and so incredibly lucky to be part of all this.
I have a confession, though: I earwormed myself with the boom-de-yada song while going over the headings, and just barely suppressed the urge to rewrite/rearrange so that the headings would be of a proper meter. (The sacrifices I make so thatmark/denise don't change their minds about me and kick me off the team *sigh*)
With that out of the way, I suppose it's only polite that I introduce myself.
I'm better known asafuna, which I'm keeping as my day-to-day personal account, but I'll be conducting all official site business under fu. I just quit my day job; today is my second day employed by Dreamwidth, and it's still just settling in. I've been with the site much longer, though. I've been volunteering time and code since the beginning of closed beta.
When I started volunteering, I didn't have much Perl experience. I was familiar with the codebase because I'd been a volunteer for LiveJournal, and I'd had chance to poke around while investigating various issues; I also probably counted as an experienced coder because I knew other languages; but I hadn't had much experience with the writing of Perl code.mark, etc, didn't hold that against me though -- lucky for me, because once I'd gotten a taste of Dreamwidth's development culture, I was hooked *g*
Hmm, what else... I live in the Philippines, halfway across the world frommark and denise. Oh and I like chunky peanut butter, and shun the creamy. I'm not sure what that does for the balance around here (sorry denise!)
Whereasdenise is The Suit, and mark is The Geek, I am The Minion. I'm coming onto the team as another coder. I feel that that may be somehow obvious from how many times I've repeated the word "code" above. If it isn't, I'll gladly say "code" again (or better yet, code a feature/bugfix, because that's what I'm here for!)
So right now we have plans. Good plans I think! I'll let you judge their quality once they've been implemented, but to give you an idea of what's coming up, my first very big project is the update page revamp.
I'm joining Dreamwidth full time because I love this site, I love Dreamwidth's commitment to diversity, I love that Dreamwidth puts its money where its mouth is (the circumstances that proved this pains me, but hey good news now -- see the payments section above). And I'm really excited to be here *g*
I'd be volunteering for Dreamwidth anyway; the fact that being employed by Dreamwidth means I can dedicate the entire day doing what I love, to improve a place that I love, for people that I care for, well that part is just plain lucky :)
Before I get too sappy, let me now return you to your regularly scheduled programming. Next news post will be bymark. Next month's news posts are all denise's. I'll probably pop up intermittently to deliver news, though, so until then--!
afuna aka fu, and I'm Dreamwidth's newest employee. I started this entry on Tuesday morning my time, halfway across the world from mark and denise, but it was still Monday then for my bosses, so this totally still counts as a Monday update.The update is running a bit late, because we were working out some final issues, but we're finally done, and I have fantastic news for you today: payments are back up! (I feel really lucky to get to be the one to tell you all this, OMG).
I've got a lot of other news, and I'm chasing time, so let's get started:
1. We like code tours. We like documentation
foxfirefey took charge of this week's code tour, which included a lot of styles cleanup to make things consistent across styles (thanks ninetydegrees!), and a lot of backend work to make life easier for us devs in the future (thanks exor674 and kareila!)I'd like to highlight these changes, but take a look at the code tour, too, for the complete list of upcoming changes; there's lots of stuff I just don't have the space to talk about here. Notable changes:
* /tags redirects to /tag (I make this mistake a lot!)
* /calendar redirects to /archive (we're standardizing)
* Default View/Default filters are selected by default when adding from the contextual hover menu, and when subscribing via the normal way (I coded this patch, and I admit, I had very selfish, lazy, reasons for wanting this tweak out as soon as possible :-))
We also have been doing lots of work for the payment system; more on that below.
Not everything that improves Dreamwidth goes through the code tour. I keep getting linked to this fantastic illustrated tutorial for using your OpenID from other sites with Dreamwidth, and I just had to share (thank you
somnolentblue!)2. We like payments
Payment System
When I say that "we" have been doing lots of work on the payments system, I mean
mark! He's been working hard, and it's finally paid off. As of this code push, our payments system is back online.Along with the payments system, we rolled out Dreamwidth Points. You buy points in the shop, and you exchange the points for account time or swag. I've been thinking of them as gift cards or prepaid debit cards, but much more flexible, and unlike gift cards there's no risk of credits being left over on the card (unusable).
The points system is described in our newest FAQ, What are Dreamwidth Points?. We've also updated the existing FAQs (What are Paid Accounts and How do I buy a paid account).
We also have a post in
dw_biz with common scenarios for using points; I'd like to ask that all questions about points go there, so that we have one central location for the information -- thank you!Privacy Policy
As part of our change to a new payment system, we updated our privacy policy with this code push to remove mention of our old payment providers and add in information about the new one. The privacy policy itself states that major updates will be announced in
dw_news. The relevant changes are:- Removed mention of PayPal
- Added a section under a new header "Financial information and transactions"
Continuation of Other Payments Discussions
Recently
mark and denise discussed the idea of having an April fundraising goal in dw_biz. There were some great ideas suggested in comments to that post, and they've been thinking them over and trying to decide what would be best. They'll post a followup to dw_biz later on in the week outlining some more ideas and finalizing their plan for the rest of April.And this seems a good time to remind you that you should all watch
dw_biz as that's where mark and denise talk about Dreamwidth's business side, as well as soliciting feedback on feature design.3. We like mentoring, and GSoC
Google Summer of Code applications close April 9, so get yours in!
If you're interested in applying, but don't know where to start,
mark has an excellent introduction getting started with GSoC on Dreamwidth, with a follow-up. And denise talks about what makes Dreamwidth tick in a way that makes me fall in love with Dreamwidth-the-project all over again (not that I need help with that!)We've had several proposals and detailed project plans submitted for discussion to
dw_dev. I've been enjoying reading them all, and I'm looking forward to what comes out of this! The discussion posts so far are under the summer of code tag, if you want to read them.To all the GSoC students on the site so far:
anthonynonso, roshansingh, mrigeshpokhrel, arjunjain, panna, toonsuperlove, jens, abhishek0, jportela, kartik, onli, sundargates, dhasthagheer, plus anybody I might have missed or who will join us this week, welcome to Dreamwidth! We're glad to have you and I hope that you'll find a home here with us -- we have lots of great people here.To all the great people here, meet the students who've come from GSoC. Feel free to stop by their journals and welcome them to Dreamwidth.
4. We like poetry
So it turns out that April is National Poetry Month in the US! To celebrate, and share the love, we've made available a tag bundle of "poetry", "poem", "poems", "national poetry month" for the Latest Things page.
April is also National Poetry Writing Month (thirty poems in thirty days). If you're taking part, then
napowrimo is just the community for you.5. We like asking questions
We recently got a question in Support from a student who is currently writing an article about the friending memes that appear on the various Dreamwidth communities and why they're popular.
She asks:
It seems like a lot of users are posting 'friending-memes' on various communities these days. What makes these friending memes a good social media tool? Why do you think they're so popular?
We've given her an official answer, but it seems like the kind of thing that you all might want to help out with, too *g* Let us (let her!) know what you think in comments -- and here's to hoping we help her write a great article.
(And speaking of asking questions / meeting people,
katieastrophe asked us to remind UKers that she's planning a meetup for users the UK, and would like to ask who's interested/what you're interested in doing.)6. We like to write news posts...
Now I know what
mark and denise meant when they told me that news posts take a lot of effort, but also are so very worth it. I'm looking back at everything that happened this week, and I feel proud of Dreamwidth and so incredibly lucky to be part of all this. I have a confession, though: I earwormed myself with the boom-de-yada song while going over the headings, and just barely suppressed the urge to rewrite/rearrange so that the headings would be of a proper meter. (The sacrifices I make so that
mark/denise don't change their minds about me and kick me off the team *sigh*)With that out of the way, I suppose it's only polite that I introduce myself.
I'm better known as
afuna, which I'm keeping as my day-to-day personal account, but I'll be conducting all official site business under fu. I just quit my day job; today is my second day employed by Dreamwidth, and it's still just settling in. I've been with the site much longer, though. I've been volunteering time and code since the beginning of closed beta.When I started volunteering, I didn't have much Perl experience. I was familiar with the codebase because I'd been a volunteer for LiveJournal, and I'd had chance to poke around while investigating various issues; I also probably counted as an experienced coder because I knew other languages; but I hadn't had much experience with the writing of Perl code.
mark, etc, didn't hold that against me though -- lucky for me, because once I'd gotten a taste of Dreamwidth's development culture, I was hooked *g*Hmm, what else... I live in the Philippines, halfway across the world from
mark and denise. Oh and I like chunky peanut butter, and shun the creamy. I'm not sure what that does for the balance around here (sorry denise!)Whereas
denise is The Suit, and mark is The Geek, I am The Minion. I'm coming onto the team as another coder. I feel that that may be somehow obvious from how many times I've repeated the word "code" above. If it isn't, I'll gladly say "code" again (or better yet, code a feature/bugfix, because that's what I'm here for!)So right now we have plans. Good plans I think! I'll let you judge their quality once they've been implemented, but to give you an idea of what's coming up, my first very big project is the update page revamp.
I'm joining Dreamwidth full time because I love this site, I love Dreamwidth's commitment to diversity, I love that Dreamwidth puts its money where its mouth is (the circumstances that proved this pains me, but hey good news now -- see the payments section above). And I'm really excited to be here *g*
I'd be volunteering for Dreamwidth anyway; the fact that being employed by Dreamwidth means I can dedicate the entire day doing what I love, to improve a place that I love, for people that I care for, well that part is just plain lucky :)
Before I get too sappy, let me now return you to your regularly scheduled programming. Next news post will be by
mark. Next month's news posts are all denise's. I'll probably pop up intermittently to deliver news, though, so until then--!
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