Introductiona nd questions

[astridetal]

Hi, I'm looking for new friends and am an LJ refugee. In fact the only reason I still go on LJ is that I have a paid account there and can't get one here. Does anyone know why DW doesn't do PayPal?

Anyways, I'm 26 and live in the Netherlands. I love journaling, and have wanted to start writing fiction again a million times (I wrote YA stories as a teen), but never actually got down to it. I don't understand what fandoms are, which is my other question. I mean, is it that you pick a character from an exisitng media source and write based on that, or am I totally mistaken? I don't watch TV so I probably couldn't do fandoms even if I wanted to (which I've wanted just to connect to others somehow). I would like to connect to other people and get back into the habit of writing again. Also, I am a craftster, but since I don't have a paid account I can't upload my craft pictures here. I don't know what else I wanted to say.

Comments

[gehayi]

This is why they don't do Paypal:

We've seen a bunch of people questioning why we don't accept payment via PayPal. We used to, but PayPal closed our account with them, after demanding that we censor our users' content to remove material that did not violate our Terms of Service but that made them uncomfortable. We refused to place restrictions on our users over and above the restrictions placed by US law, and so PayPal refused to process payments for us. (The same thing then happened with Google Checkout, before we found a payment processor that was willing to accept our business without placing further restrictions on user-generated content other than "is it legal".)

This article suggests other ways of paying, though.

[astridetal]

Oh, thanks for explaining.

[ninetydegrees]

Denise explained it all here: http://dw-biz.dreamwidth.org/7022.html
Long story short: DW used to do PayPal until PayPal asked them to remove some content. DW refused to do so because this content wasn't against ToS or US law and had to say bye bye to PayPal as a result.

If PayPal is your only hope and you can't find a friend to play proxy, you may find someone who can help you at http://paidaccountfairy.dreamwidth.org/915.html.

[elf]

DW doesn't do PayPal because someone reported them to PayPal for hosting "adult content," and DW, unlike LJ, refused to modify their Terms of Service to demand that "adult content" be censored. LJ put in the mandatory flags for adult content; DW leaves it to the users to decide what kind of content is too explicit for underage viewers.

"Fandom" is a lot bigger than writing fanfiction about characters from TV shows and movies (and other things, but those are the largest categories), but that part of it is so large that it can eclipse the other types. Sometimes that gets called media fandom, although the name is somewhat problematic.

You wouldn't have to watch TV to participate... there's fanfiction based on movies, books, video games, and other things, and there are people who make costumes or just enjoy discussing their favorite books or even favorite tumblrs. But you certainly don't have to be involved in "media fandom" or fanfiction at all to enjoy Dreamwidth; several of my friends aren't.

You might check out dw_community_promo; it gets a lot of fannish communities, but other ones do show up. And while the LJ-->DW Friending Meme mentions fandoms, it's got a broad definition, and you might find people you'd like to hang out with. Or you could check out Latest Things, which runs heavy towards media fandom, but gets plenty of other content, too.

A lot of non-fannish DW comms are slow, but they are often avidly watched; the few posts are appreciated, and many of the members would like them to be more active.

stayintheroom is a writing-prompts community focused on original works.

[sharpiefan]

Fandom itself is way more than 'picking a character and writing about them'.

Fandom is, at its most basic, a group of people who have a common interest in a show, film, or other media source, and want to share that live with other people. Many fans write fanfic, but not all of them do so. There are other activities that fans get involved with apart from writing - you'll come across icons, art, videos, fanmixes (mix-tapes of songs for particular characters or 'ships' - relationships), picspams, podfics (stories read aloud), meta (essays about a fandom) and probably a whole ton of other stuff I haven't mentioned.

Fanfic very often fills in gaps in canon, or writing what-if scenarios - "what would Character X end up doing in this situation?" or carries on from where a series left off, if it were cancelled or something.

There is a lot of crossover fic as well, where characters from one canon interact with the characters and/or setting of another canon, for example, Dean and Sam Winchester from Supernatural meet Buffy from Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

You may well like different things than what I like, so we may well end up in different fandoms, but there is a shared culture and language between all fans.

Maybe one of the easiest ways of getting into fandom is by looking up communities for a film or TV show you like? Do be aware of slash fiction, though, and take heed of the warnings people put for their stories.

[astridetal]

Oh, thanks. I wasn't sure about the difference between fandom and fanfiction, but when chechking DW I foudn fan art communities too as well as other stuff.

[sharpiefan]

I've had a quick look at your profile and, though I don't know what sort of films or TV programmes you watch, you'll possibly be more interested in the fic side of things as being more accessible to a screen-reader. There is podfic out there, too, but it's a very very minor thing at the moment, though I've got people on my flist who are passionate about it. There are several communities specifically for podfic and the people who create it - pod_aware, pod_together and podficmeta - I don't know what they're like but they might be worth checking out?

(Edited 'cause I got one of the comm names slightly wrong. Oops.)

[melannen]

You don't need a paid account to post pictures on DW! Unfortunately, DW doesn't (yet) have a gallery system like LJ does/did, but if you upload a photo to some other hosting service (like instagram or tumblr or tinypic or even livejournal) you can add that photo to an entry using the html tag <img src=[address of photo]> The FAQ for this is here: How do a post an image to DW?

You can also now post photos using the post-by-email function, without uploading somewhere else first (this is still early beta, so it's not well documented). There's an explanation in this dw_news post: Suprise #1: images.

(Also, there are lots of crafters on DW! What sort of crafting do you do?)

[februaryfour]

People have answered the Paypal question. Dreamwidth accepts postal money orders denominated in US dollars if you want a paid account; I assume that in the Nederlands you can buy US dollar postal money orders (I could do that in Malaysia many years ago.) The FAQ has detailed information on how to pay with a money order, but you will need to scroll for a bit. http://www.dreamwidth.org/support/faqbrowse?faqcat=paidaccounts

Fandoms are (unofficial) groups of fans who like something (like Harry Potter, or Lord of the Rings, or a TV show like Lost, or anime/manga like Naruto). Fans share art, fic, or anything else they make that is inspired by the source material (aka "canon"). Some fans host discussions; the hikarunogo community is a great example of a fandom that is very active in encouraging connection with other people. The unspoken requirement is that you know the source material (even if all you do is watch it once) because people will definitely be discussing it and you may feel rather left out if you don't know who all these people are or how they are relevant to the conversation. ^_^

Not watching TV is not a problem. There are plenty of book fandoms. (There are video game fandoms. There are even fandoms for celebrities like pop stars and rock bands.) As mentioned, Harry Potter is one of the BIGGEST fandoms there is. There is, I'm sure, Hunger Games fandom, Stieg Larsson's "Girl Who--" fandom, etc. Just be careful, you may occasionally run into fandoms that are so big they branch into TV, book, anime, movie, etc fandoms. XD

There are plenty of writers who don't necessarily do anything in fandom. Writers (published ones at that) have DW accounts too. jimhines is the example that popped into mind immediately, but catvalente is another one that followed closely behind.

As for uploading pictures, I suggest getting a Tinypic.com account (it's free) and learning to post images using HTML such as <img src="">. You don't need to know a LOT of HTML to do something like this, since it's like learning "lj-cut" (or just "cut" on DW.)

Welcome, and have fun!

[kshandra]

How did I not realize that jimhines was on DW as well? *adjusts where she follows him*

[sepdet]

Welcome to DW!

If you love to talk about any particular TV show, movie, book or series of books, video game, or other form of media, there's a fandom for it out there where people enjoy discussing it. Many but not all members of fandom are inspired to make creative works related to their fandom.

If they love Lord of the Rings, for example, they might discuss the diffeerences between the books and the films (and what they like or don't like in the films, or the Elvish languages, or how to make a hobbit cloak, or all the backstory in the author's other writings.) If they like Japanese anime, they might be creating fanart or costimes of their favorite characters. Fanfiction gives people a chance to keep exploring the story, characters, or world so that "the end" doesn't really mean "the end."

So if you love talking about or thinking about or getting more of any particular books, movies, etc, try searching Dreamwidth for Interests at top right. You may find other people who share your interests, or, if you're lucky, you'll find a community dedicated to the topic (indicated with a little globe icon.)

There should be crafting communities!

[starfleetbrat]

I think everyone else has summed fandom up well. But. Fandoms (fannish communities/groups) can be hit or miss, and some fandoms can have some... *ahem* creatively disturbing/obsessed people in them, and fandoms can also have their share of drama. So if you do join some fannish communities, try not to judge the entire fandom based on those people or that group.

Sometimes you need to hunt around to find a group that fits you. Or you may need to persevere in a group in order to find a smaller selection of friends that you mesh with.

Its totally worth it when you do though. I have made some great friends from being part of fandom - several I have now known for over 15 years and we became friends offline too.

[pne]

If you can do SEPA bank transfers (using IBAN and BIC), then I’d be willing to buy you a DW paid account and you pay me back (in euros) by bank transfer. PM me if you’re interested.