mark: A photo of Mark kneeling on top of the Taal Volcano in the Philippines. It was a long hike. (Default)
Mark Smith ([staff profile] mark) wrote in [site community profile] dw_news2017-01-01 12:48 pm

Dreamwidth News: 1 January 2017

Well, we made it to 2017. Congratulations.

The holiday promotion has ended. Thank you to everybody who bought points or a paid account or something, you're really helping to keep Dreamwidth going. We wouldn't be here without your support. (Quite literally -- we don't serve advertisements and we don't sell recommendations or anything, every single dollar we use to host the site comes from ya'll.)

The main reason I wanted to post today was to acknowledge and welcome the large influx of people we've been seeing in the past 10 days or so. We've seen a huge increase in new accounts -- over 100,000! This has translated into a raw increase in Dreamwidth usage of about 25% (i.e., our traffic is up 25% compared to two weeks ago). This is pretty exciting. I love to see people using Dreamwidth and settling in, making themselves comfortable, etc. I hope that you will find yourself feeling at home here!

So, business #1:

With any large influx of traffic, there will be occasional bits of site slowness. It takes a little time for us to provision hardware to adjust to changes in load, but don't worry: we're nowhere near the limits. In other words, even if the site gets slow for a little while it won't be a long term thing. Most of the particular issues we've run up against have been fixed already and the team will continue to investigate and fix any other issues that arise.

If you're worried about Dreamwidth falling over or crashing because of the traffic, it's okay. We are quite far from any limitations on Dreamwidth's ability to scale. But, even still, I'm sorry for the spots of slowness we've had. We've had to make a few tweaks but things look like they're doing pretty well now and we'll keep an eye on things.

(Note: whenever there are issues, we will update our Twitter feed: [twitter.com profile] dreamwidth, so please follow us there if you use that service!)

Financially, we're doing fine. We did just get new hardware and that incurred a pretty big line-item expense, but we've still got a buffer of cash in the bank -- particularly since we just finished the holiday sale. Of course, we've had to provision extra hardware with the recent arrivals but it will take a few months to see how the budget shakes out. (So, we're not asking for money right now! Just the normal business is sustaining the site fine and if that changes we'll let you know.)

Business #2:

Welcome to Dreamwidth, all newcomers, we're happy to have you! Many of you are joining us from Russia and Ukraine, so: Привет, добро пожаловать! Привіт і ласкаво просимо!

Unfortunately, nobody presently on Dreamwidth staff or volunteer speaks these languages and Google Translate leaves a lot to be desired. We've had at least one support request come in which is not in English and we'd love to be able to help out. If anybody who speaks these languages has spare time and is interested in becoming part of our volunteer group to help out from time to time, can you please comment here and let us know? Thank you!

Edit: I've started [community profile] dw_translate which [personal profile] kaberett will be administrating. We'll use that community to post to when we have something we need help with! Please feel free to join if you want to make yourself available.

Business #3:

I want to personally say that Dreamwidth is committed to openness and protecting the privacy of our users and their data. While we must of course follow United States law, we take a very strong position on the protection of your data. We'll do everything we can to be the best we can in this area. In other words, see the Electronic Frontier Foundation's Who Has Your Back? 2015 report. While Dreamwidth is too small to be evaluated by the EFF, I am committing us to earning all 5 stars. Stay tuned for more on this from us in 2017.

I think that particularly in the current political climate of the United States (and the world) it is very important for people to take a stand for what they believe in. So: I believe that real, honest privacy and using an online service should not be incompatible goals -- and as much as it is within our power, Dreamwidth will be a place you can have real, honest privacy.

That's all I've got for now. Thanks for reading and I hope your New Year's Eve went as well as mine -- we had a pajama party with some good friends and some champagne at midnight. It was pretty relaxing ... until the Roomba woke us up at an unreasonable time to begin its morning rounds.

(PS, as with all news posts, this may cause a delay in comment notifications for an hour or two after this is posted. I am posting this at 12:30PM PST, convert to your timezone.)
levkonoe: (Default)

[personal profile] levkonoe 2017-01-01 10:21 pm (UTC)(link)
Happy New Year! And thank you for good job
mousetail: Sleeping mouse with a pink box (Default)

[personal profile] mousetail 2017-01-01 10:28 pm (UTC)(link)
Native speaker of Russian and Ukrainian here, as well as an experienced translator. Willing to volunteer up to an hour a day to tech support translation as necessary, but outside of regular business hours only. Please be aware that while most users seeking to escape LJ's KGB claws are probably here in good faith, overall treatment of Ukrainian user population on social networks has been often problematic, with a steep pro-Russian lean when it comes to complaints against unlawful content, hate speech, etc. I hope your track record of handling things fairly will be upheld, even with current influx of users.
kaberett: Trans symbol with Swiss Army knife tools at other positions around the central circle. (Default)

[personal profile] kaberett 2017-01-02 12:19 am (UTC)(link)
Thank you so much!

If you would prefer just to translate, [community profile] dw_translate has just been set up! I intend to request translations (of original requests, and of support volunteer replies once problems have been diagnosed).

If you would prefer to act as a support volunteer in your own right I am very happy to provide an introduction and mentorship (and look into whether it's worth setting up a specific Russian-language Support category) -- but it's just gone midnight local for me, so please say if you'd like more information about this and I'll do my best! For starters, the Dreamwidth wiki contains (English-language only, sorry!) a Support FAQ, an overview of the Support process, and a guide to writing Support responses, among other things.
promethia_tenk: (love)

[personal profile] promethia_tenk 2017-01-01 10:28 pm (UTC)(link)
Thank you for the update! I appreciate everything you guys do.
slava68: (Default)

[personal profile] slava68 2017-01-01 10:29 pm (UTC)(link)
I am Russian, living in Bulgaria, speak a little English.
I would be interested to help you or to participate in some projects.

P.S. also like web programming and UNIX administration
Edited 2017-01-01 22:31 (UTC)
brainwane: My smiling face, including a small gold bindi (Default)

[personal profile] brainwane 2017-01-02 06:25 pm (UTC)(link)
Welcome, and I hope you'll take a look at how you can contribute as a programmer!
notabler: (Default)

[personal profile] notabler 2017-01-01 10:34 pm (UTC)(link)
Happy New Year! I can help with translation into Russian, from Ukrainian, Polish and Lithuanian. I live in UK, but my native language is Russian, also I learned several other languages good enough to understand them well, but I can't speak.
20_00: (Default)

[personal profile] 20_00 2017-01-01 10:48 pm (UTC)(link)
Главное чтоб нам в интерфейс перевода (https://www.dreamwidth.org/admin/translate/edit?lang=en) русский добавили. Тогда за несколько месяцев справимся :)

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slava68: (Default)

[personal profile] slava68 2017-01-01 10:47 pm (UTC)(link)
Перевод интерфейса помог бы многим пользователям.

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primwood: (Default)

[personal profile] primwood 2017-01-01 10:55 pm (UTC)(link)
So happy to hear all this great news, Mark. It's a huge relief. Thanks, and happy New Year to you.
keshwyn: Keshwyn with the darkness swirling around her (Default)

[personal profile] keshwyn 2017-01-01 10:56 pm (UTC)(link)
Thanks for following the EFF guidelines.
oryx_and_crake: (Default)

[personal profile] oryx_and_crake 2017-01-01 10:58 pm (UTC)(link)
Native speaker of Russian here, with some understanding of Ukrainian, willing to volunteer.
kaberett: Trans symbol with Swiss Army knife tools at other positions around the central circle. (Default)

[personal profile] kaberett 2017-01-02 12:20 am (UTC)(link)
Thank you so much!

If you would prefer just to translate, [community profile] dw_translate has just been set up! I intend to request translations (of original requests, and of support volunteer replies once problems have been diagnosed).

If you would prefer to act as a support volunteer in your own right I am very happy to provide an introduction and mentorship (and look into whether it's worth setting up a specific Russian-language Support category) -- but it's just gone midnight local for me, so please say if you'd like more information about this and I'll do my best! For starters, the Dreamwidth wiki contains (English-language only, sorry!) a Support FAQ, an overview of the Support process, and a guide to writing Support responses, among other things.

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theoretical_cat: Two metal faces erected in a field, targets in their eyes, lights from a distant structure forming a communication. (Division Bell)

[personal profile] theoretical_cat 2017-01-01 11:03 pm (UTC)(link)
If anybody who speaks these languages has spare time and is interested in becoming part of our volunteer group to help out from time to time, can you please comment here and let us know? Thank you!


I am a native (American) English speaker who speaks Russian with limited working proficiency. I can definitely help with translating to English, but I would recommend having someone truly fluent in Russian write translations from English to Russian.
kaberett: Trans symbol with Swiss Army knife tools at other positions around the central circle. (Default)

[personal profile] kaberett 2017-01-02 12:20 am (UTC)(link)
Thank you so much!

If you would prefer just to translate, [community profile] dw_translate has just been set up! I intend to request translations (of original requests, and of support volunteer replies once problems have been diagnosed).

If you would prefer to act as a support volunteer in your own right I am very happy to provide an introduction and mentorship (and look into whether it's worth setting up a specific Russian-language Support category) -- but it's just gone midnight local for me, so please say if you'd like more information about this and I'll do my best! For starters, the Dreamwidth wiki contains (English-language only, sorry!) a Support FAQ, an overview of the Support process, and a guide to writing Support responses, among other things.

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allen: extras (extras)

[personal profile] allen 2017-01-01 11:07 pm (UTC)(link)
Happy New Year, Dreamwidth!
blackmetal: (MINE MINE MINE)

[personal profile] blackmetal 2017-01-01 11:17 pm (UTC)(link)
Many of you are joining us from Russia and Ukraine, so: Привет, добро пожаловать! Привіт і ласкаво просимо!

Welcome, guys, I hope that DW provides a safe haven for you and nothing happens in the midst of it!
coffeetime: (Default)

[personal profile] coffeetime 2017-01-01 11:33 pm (UTC)(link)
I love you guys. I'm buying a paid account tonight. Thanks for being there for all of us.
conuly: (Default)

[personal profile] conuly 2017-01-02 12:03 am (UTC)(link)
What. An. Awesome. Icon!

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bytebuster: (Default)

+1

[personal profile] bytebuster 2017-01-01 11:42 pm (UTC)(link)
Mark, thank you for your hard work keeping and improving DW.

I'm an Ukrainian national who has Ukrainian mother tongue and fluent Russian. I'm also an IT PM who has some exp working with support team.

I'll be glad to assist your team with support tickets, so please count me in.
kaberett: Trans symbol with Swiss Army knife tools at other positions around the central circle. (Default)

Re: +1

[personal profile] kaberett 2017-01-02 12:21 am (UTC)(link)
Thank you so much!

If you would prefer just to translate, [community profile] dw_translate has just been set up! I intend to request translations (of original requests, and of support volunteer replies once problems have been diagnosed).

If you would prefer to act as an independent support volunteer I am very happy to provide an introduction and mentorship (and look into whether it's worth setting up a specific Russian-language Support category) -- but it's just gone midnight local for me, so please say if you'd like more information about this and I'll do my best! For starters, the Dreamwidth wiki contains (English-language only, sorry!) a Support FAQ, an overview of the Support process, and a guide to writing Support responses, among other things.

Re: +1

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dmarck: (Default)

[personal profile] dmarck 2017-01-01 11:50 pm (UTC)(link)
Mark,

Thank you very much for your accurate and balanced message. Hope everyone here could find a comfortable place.

Have a beautiful year!
ninetydegrees: Text: thank you! (thanks)

[personal profile] ninetydegrees 2017-01-01 11:50 pm (UTC)(link)
Thanks Mark and all the Dreamwidth staff for always fighting the good fight! It's good to be home. :)
conuly: (Default)

[personal profile] conuly 2017-01-02 12:02 am (UTC)(link)
Got another problem. I have a few LJ friends who want to make the move (or at least start backing everything up/crossposting) but find themselves flummoxed by differences in how DW does things and how LJ does things - posting entries, making comments, that sort of thing. Nothing major.

They're all clever enough to use FAQs but it's just One More Thing that doesn't seem to be working. Is anybody interested in making a very simplified pictoral guide to How To DW? Very handholdy, I mean? Very, very handholdy. I'm not in a place where I can do that either - it's been a long few months and I tend to snap at people or condescend.
Edited 2017-01-02 00:03 (UTC)
darjeeling: (Default)

[personal profile] darjeeling 2017-01-02 12:14 am (UTC)(link)
I don't think any of them are image-based, but these are some posts I fav'd back in 2011 when we started coming over to DW. Maybe these will help until there's a pictorial version?

1. Some help to settle in at DW via [personal profile] crosspistols
2. Dreamwidth resources, FAQ, open question-and-answer post via [personal profile] sky
3. [community profile] getting_started

Fair disclaimer: I don't know how up to date these posts are, they're from 2011. But every little bit helps, right? :)

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lenaku2000: (Default)

[personal profile] lenaku2000 2017-01-02 12:08 am (UTC)(link)
Спасибо. Ваша доброжелательность, ваши общечеловеческие принципы имеют огромное значение для нас.
Именно это мы искали, уходя из захваченного КГБистами ЖЖ.
slava68: (Default)

[personal profile] slava68 2017-01-02 12:18 am (UTC)(link)
мало им Крым захватить....

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marahmarie: (M In M Forever) (Default)

[personal profile] marahmarie 2017-01-02 12:08 am (UTC)(link)
I just want to say a heartfelt thank you to Mark, Denise, staff and volunteers for making this site possible, and for all of the hard work and sometimes, perhaps arduous decision-making that must go into making it the best it can be. I'm so grateful for this site; to me it often feels like a safe harbor amidst a sea of chaos, of increasing uncertainty.

Wishing Dreamwidth all the best in 2017 and beyond.

ladydi9449: (Default)

[personal profile] ladydi9449 2017-01-02 12:46 am (UTC)(link)
Hi, Mark. Happy new year!

I think, you know about Russian propaganda "troll factories". Trolls will follow us. You should be ready to dozens of complaints from these people. It easy to recognize them according to they IP addresses. They have offices in:
http://ic.pics.livejournal.com/otakvot/70539108/117921/117921_900.jpg

and in Savushkina st. in St. Petersburg.
Edited 2017-01-02 00:49 (UTC)

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cloudsinvenice: "everyone's mental health is a bit shit right now, so be gentle" (Default)

[personal profile] cloudsinvenice 2017-01-02 02:01 am (UTC)(link)
Thanks for making DW the kind of site I can unreservedly recommend to friends, and for all you do for users. Just got another year of paid time and I'm very happy to support Dreamwidth.

[personal profile] finalmemory 2017-01-02 02:49 am (UTC)(link)
Does DW have a plan in mind already to handle the DDOS attacks that plagued Livejournal?
hurf_durf: (Abe Eats Babies)

[personal profile] hurf_durf 2017-01-02 02:54 am (UTC)(link)
+1 to concern about this

+1

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+1000

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sciuro: (Default)

[personal profile] sciuro 2017-01-02 03:01 am (UTC)(link)
Happy New Year and many thanks for welcoming our crowd here! I'm headed over to [community profile] dw_translate now :)
kaberett: Trans symbol with Swiss Army knife tools at other positions around the central circle. (Default)

[personal profile] kaberett 2017-01-02 09:48 am (UTC)(link)
Welcome and thank you! :-) Happy new Gregorian year.
sam_gardener: The catbus from My Neighbor Totoro. (Default)

[personal profile] sam_gardener 2017-01-02 03:06 am (UTC)(link)
Happy new year! Thank you for this.
doggiesushi: (Default)

[personal profile] doggiesushi 2017-01-02 03:13 am (UTC)(link)
I'm one of the many who created a new account in the past few days. I just wanted to thank you for creating and maintaining an awesome safe space here. I had forgotten how much I missed the management-drama-less-LJ of old until I found that it could exist again somewhere else.

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