renaissance poisson

i am having a senior moment (*urm*. i bet my non-derogatory disabled terminology rule should strike that one too, eh), and i don't remember whether there is an easy way on dreamwidth to NOT have it turn a URL into a clickable link. "code" doesn't do it. i don't see anything immediately in the blasted RTE editor either.

please be not a link: http://google.ca

afuna is the hero of the revolution: <raw-code> does it:

this is not a clickable link: http://google.ca

if you want one, leave a valid email address in a comment (is screened, so no worries about spammers harvesting).

prunus cerasifera 'pissardii nigra'

the landlord did not actually forget about the discussion we had in the fall that having a tree in front might help shade the shack in the summer. so now they bought us a tree. a tree which flowers and will bear fruit! what it will not do is give much shade for the next N years. *grin*. but i don't mind. we have a fruit tree, *heh*! and it's certainly bigger than my thigh-high ginkgo. which survived our unusually nasty winter with very little damage and is leafing out now. also blooming: dogwood, apple tree, and scylla.

we're in open beta now, and i will no longer drive you nuts regale you with the daily good thing about dreamwidth. :) just that things are going well, thousands of new people have moved in and are exploring, and i feel good about helping a little to make it work. and i am very *bouncy* about the *poing* helping too!

i'll write about open beta night when i get some spoons, i can't even keep up with my reading list right now, nevermind LJ.

there were several problematic bugs:

people who tried paying by credit card without having a paypal account were unable to.

people who had no account yet couldn't buy an account at all.

people logged in with openID couldn't buy an account.

if you tried to buy an account and got an error of any kind preventing you, open a support request in category: account payments.
if the problems prevented you from buying a seed account, this will be taken into consideration.

also, there are now extra sales offered for seed accounts because of the problems. see http://dw-news.dreamwidth.org/5202.html.

and i want it right now!

OMG, it's open beta day. only 18 hours to go.

i love working on this project. i love how the people interact with each other, how we're all becoming more aware of not only accessibility issues, but also how flippant talk about subjects we diss can easily make somebody else feel marginalized. and people are mindful of that, and try not to be defensive when they've stepped on somebody's toes, but we change the subject, everyone calms down, and then we can begin again. i really like this attitude, and being with a lot of different people is training me way more than trying to do it on my own.

i love how so many get to help (the list of people who're editing the wiki is astounding), how everything that gets done is praised, how people are encouraged to stretch themselves a little, and are supported with some handholding. even during the stress of closed beta with open beta so close now, nobody is yelling at anyone. and i can see the seeds of the support system being laid, and while i know that support will get tedious when the 500th person asks the same thing, i also know that the attitude of the response will be friendly, acknowledging that for _this_ person, this is the first time they're dealing with this problem, and they will be treated like a human being, not a "luser".

once we're out of the inevitable chaos of the next couple of weeks, this will be such a cool environment. it'll be possible to get involved with working on a real open source project for people who always wanted to, but felt the learning curve was just too steep, and the other developers too technical.

it will rock.

daily dreamwidth goodie:

completely redone S2 (journal customization) system, along with the standardization of options across all styles and much better CSS markup (so you can more easily customize your journal just by using CSS, without having to learn S2).

it's not entirely done, but i see bits and pieces of it appear narly every day, and it's thrilling. i only wish i had time to play with styles right now!

another good thing about dreamwidth:

a streamlined process for creating new accounts (i am sitting on my hands to not make a snark about SUP here).

dreamwidth goodie:

quick reply comment box includes "preview" button. no extra clicking and page refreshing to go through!

i have a thing for rusty stuff that's lying in the woods, partly overgrown.

the daily goodie about dreamwidth:

the diversity statement is a good start, but not really great when it comes to gender identity and expression. somebody elsejournal complained about that, and the co-founder of DW replied, apologized for acting from cisgender privilege, and asked for input to make it better, if the other person was willing to do so.

now, the critique was IMO over the top (not the fact of the critique, but the way it was done). but the co-founder's response was a great example of not being defensive, but apologetic and willing to listen to better advice.

i sort of want to link it, but i also don't want a pile-on, so i won't. just that it was a great example (and one that i need to remember myself). that's the sort of thing i want from a company that i support, rarely get, and am totally thrilled about. features are good. features are important. but that attitude? i can't really put in words just how much that matters to me.

or rather, a set of polls about changes in technical features from LJ to DW, divided by those available at open beta and those planned for later.

the polls have linked explanations for the features, which might explain some things for you that you didn't know yet. you can also comment on those explanations.