DW for tumblrites masterpost

[potofsoup]

Here is the tag on my blog, where you can scroll to see everything in order: https://potofsoup.dreamwidth.org/tag/dw+how-to

Here it are the links to individual posts:

Part 1: How do I follow a blog?
Part 1.5: How do I find people to follow?
Part 2: Posting and HTML basics
Part 2.5: Images
Part 2.8: Backdating and Drafting
Part 2.9: Scheduling Posts
Part 3: Dash/Reading Page curation (Subscription Filters)
Part 3.5: Access vs. Join vs. Subscribe, and targeted friends-only posts (Access Filters)
Part 4: Likes and Reblogs
Part 4.5: Stickies, Sidebar, Anon Askbox
Part 5: I miss yelling in the tags! (subtext, icons, and moods)
Part 5.5: Actual tags tho
Part 6: Themes and mobile
Part 7: Sideblogs and tag filters
Part 8: Paid features

Comments

[inky_magpie]

<3! thank you for putting this all together

[daphneblithe]

these are honestly pure gold.

[sophus]

This entire series is gold, and you deserve gratuitous praise for writing it.

[girlbookwrm]

This series is a fricking godsend THANK U

[kore]

These are great, thank you!

[brin_bellway]

This guide is fantastic, and I have put it in my link roundup. <3

[honigfrosch]

Added to memories. Thanks for writing this series!

[falena]

So, I have been here on DW since day one, basically, and never could get into Tumblr, and yet I am getting so much out of these posts too! I especially like the ones about reblogging and mobile, because they forced me to stop and think if there are things I can do to improve my mobile experience (I read and comment almost exclusively on my smartphone), and also what I could do to make DW more active.

So, thank you so much. You are a hero. <3

[goodbyebird]

Excellent stuff ♥

[muccamukk]

I've been reccing this post for actual years now.

Comment notifications

[azurelunatic]

As a local Dreamwidthian, this is super enlightening to me about how incoming Tumblr people use the site!

One thing I didn't see is about how comment notifications work.

Tumblr doesn't really have threaded comments; the closest is branching reblogs, I think.

Dreamwidth does.

OP of the entire entry by default gets notifications of all comments to the entry (unless they've turned off notifications in general or for that entry).

Any other users in the comments only get notifications of new comments when the Reply link for their comment is used. A comment directly below them (forming a new comment thread, or using the reply link for another user's comment) will not generate a notification to them. On Alice's entry, if Bob posts comment 1, he will not get a notification if Carol posts comment 2, he will only get notifications for comments 1a, 1b, etc.

Using a someone's username like potofsoup or azurelunatic will not add a notification, it just makes a convenient link. There is no such thing as snitch-tagging, you do actually have to use another method to send up a batsignal. There is no way to reply and guarantee a notification to everyone else already in the conversation if there are more than three people.

Even if a long thread develops, the thread originator doesn't get notifications except if: they're also OP of the entry, or they have actively subscribed to new comments on that thread or on that entry, and that's private information that doesn't get shown.

This does mean that threads can develop where it's just two people replying to each other, and that's not generally considered rude unless it's gone so far off in the weeds that OP probably doesn't want to hear about it anymore. But OP does have the power to freeze threads and could stop the conversation.

Turning off replies to an entry will hide previous replies, so that's for if OP really, really, really doesn't like what's going on.

Exception: in paid communities, you can subscribe to all new comments left in that community. That can be high volume, but can be worth it if you want the firehose. This is also private information so you don't know who might get notifications in a paid community.


Freezing comments or threads: leaves the comments visible, but no one can reply to those specific comments anymore. OP and/or community admins can do this. They can also unfreeze specific comments after freezing a whole thread.

Screening comments: no one except OP and the person who left the comment can see screened comments, unless OP replies to your comment with a screened comment in which case you can see OP's reply. Comment screening can be done preemptively or after the fact.

Preemptive screening of a specific person's comments: if someone doesn't warrant a ban in your opinion but you want to moderate their comments in advance, use this. Also if one of your mutuals doesn't want to leave public comments for the most part. Autoscreened comments don't generate notifications to third parties. This also applies when anonymous comments are autoscreened.