Hi! Your post came up on Icerocket, which I try to watch to make sure that people asking Dreamwidth questions get them answered.
Right now, DW is actually is closed beta, but has been giving away invites as they get closer to open beta, which is April 30th. This includes giving out random invites (around 50-100 a day) to people who have signed in with OpenID and validated an email address. Although invite codes/pay only can have a exclusive effect, that is not their purpose: they're meant to make sure the service doesn't grow faster than it can support itself. (A side bonus might be that spam bots will be much less present.)
People without accounts actually have access to much of the service with OpenID. OpenID accounts can't post, but they get 6 icons, get their own reading page, can subscribe to users on the service and can be given access to their locked content. They're very good for people who aren't interested enough in Dreamwidth to have an account, but still want to follow some people on there.
You're right in that Dreamwidth isn't a fan service and that it's a business--they've always tried to make that very clear. You can see the business FAQ here. They're not trying to pull wool over anyone's eyes or pretend to be a charity. Basically, they're a couple of people who want to run a web service that's as good as they can make it. Like any endeavor, it is bound to have its share of issues and problems.
The main drive for making Dreamwidth, besides taking service management in a different direction, is to take LJ and improve it by adding certain features some people have wanted. You can see a summarized list of them here. Not all people will be interested in these features--there's nothing wrong with being satisfied with LJ the way it is. But for people who have wanted them, Dreamwidth is exciting.
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Date: 2009-04-14 05:46 pm (UTC)Right now, DW is actually is closed beta, but has been giving away invites as they get closer to open beta, which is April 30th. This includes giving out random invites (around 50-100 a day) to people who have signed in with OpenID and validated an email address. Although invite codes/pay only can have a exclusive effect, that is not their purpose: they're meant to make sure the service doesn't grow faster than it can support itself. (A side bonus might be that spam bots will be much less present.)
People without accounts actually have access to much of the service with OpenID. OpenID accounts can't post, but they get 6 icons, get their own reading page, can subscribe to users on the service and can be given access to their locked content. They're very good for people who aren't interested enough in Dreamwidth to have an account, but still want to follow some people on there.
You're right in that Dreamwidth isn't a fan service and that it's a business--they've always tried to make that very clear. You can see the business FAQ here. They're not trying to pull wool over anyone's eyes or pretend to be a charity. Basically, they're a couple of people who want to run a web service that's as good as they can make it. Like any endeavor, it is bound to have its share of issues and problems.
The main drive for making Dreamwidth, besides taking service management in a different direction, is to take LJ and improve it by adding certain features some people have wanted. You can see a summarized list of them here. Not all people will be interested in these features--there's nothing wrong with being satisfied with LJ the way it is. But for people who have wanted them, Dreamwidth is exciting.