101 Ways to Help Dreamwidth Grow

This page is about ways someone can help Dreamwidth grow and thrive, without volunteering. This is not meant to be a tasklist; some of these things will work for some people but not others.

Your journal

• Customize your journal's style, even if it's nothing more than customizing your colors. Look at a place like ColourLovers for inspiration if needed. You can also find something you like in dreamwidthlayouts or mintyapple.
• Fill out your profile's bio.
• Fill out your profile's interests.
• Upload an icon.
• Make a post to your journal.
• Make a public post to your journal.
• Respond to a comment made in your journal.
• Know your journal's capabilities! Read the FAQs.
• Make a custom icon for yourself.
• Fill out all the description (used as alt text) and comment fields for your icons.
• Tag your posts.
• Create or subscribe to a feed account.
• Add an interest that no one else has.
• Add an interest someone else has that looks lonely.

Your circle

• Read your reading page.
• Comment on a post on your reading page.
• Respond to someone's comment on a post on your reading page.
• Find someone interesting and subscribe to them.
• Recommend some content on DW you think would be interesting to someone in your circle.

Helping others

Here are ways you can help other people use Dreamwidth.

• Answer someone's technical question if you know the answer, or direct them to Support if you don't.
• Make an icon for someone.
• Help someone else with their layout.
• Respond to Dreamwidth questions/concerns on Twitter.

Outreach

Dreamwidth can't grow if other people don't find out about it!

• Tell someone about DW who doesn't already know about it.
• Give out an invite to someone who asks.
• Offer an invite to a friend.
• Give out an invite on dw_codesharing.
• Give out an invite on Twitter.
• Link someone not on DW to a post you think might be interesting to them.
• Post about DW on another website, if it's on topic or you think people might be interested.

Communities

Healthy communities are important to Dreamwidth's success.

Participating

• Join and subscribe to an interesting community.
• Make a post to a community you are a member of.
• Comment on a post made to a community you are a member of.
• Watch dw_community_promo for new communities you might like.
• Quote someone who said something clever or funny on metaquotes (with their permission)!

Creating

• Create a community that you think fills a need or interest.
• Make an appropriate icon for your community.
• Customize your community's style. You can just fiddle with the colors or find something you like in dreamwidthlayouts or mintyapple.
• Fill out your community's bio.
• Fill out your community's interests.
• Fill out your commmunity's description.
• Post about your community on dw_community_promo.
• Tag entries in your community.

Feedback

• Vote on suggestions in dw_suggestions.
• Make a suggestion to dw_suggestions.
• Send a cool report to dw_coolhunters.
• Comment in dw_news.

Funding

Dreamwidth depends on money from people like you to keep running.

• Buy a paid account for yourself.
• Buy a paid account for someone in your circle.
• Buy a paid account for a community that you think would be nice to search.
• Sponsor a random user.

Paid User

Paid users have other things they can do.

• Post a poll.
• Read your network page.
• Make a comment to a post on your network page. (Might want to say where you came from!)
• Make a custom mood theme for your journal.