Dreamwidth style

[jack]

I currently write posts in dreamwidth and have them crossposted to LiveJournal. I hope to persuade as many people as possible to do something similar from dreamwidth, or wordpress/tumblr/blogger/etc or a private blog, etc for their medium-form and long-form blogging, so there's still some community if livejournal suddenly disappears.

I'd also like to help foster more of a sense of community on Dreamwidth by thinking of that as my primary platform rather than just an interface to livejournal.

But I keep not doing so, and I've been asking myself why. I think it's just that my default style on dreamwidth (the default home page and the default for my journal) I don't like as much as the default style for livejournal. And that for ages I've used the candle icon as my default icon, but it doesn't actually feel like "me".

So, can you customise a site skin? Any suggestions for good dreamwidth styles? I really want something really simple, with a white background, a splash of light blue colour, that shows user icons but otherwise looks as much like a minimalist professional site and as little like a blogging platform as possible... Any suggestions?

Comments

[chess]

I find my problem is that people who moved to DW usually crosspost to LJ, but people who are still on LJ usually don't crosspost to DW, so it's optimal to read on LJ rather than DW...

[ptc24]

Well, I read both, there's some stuff on DW not on LJ. LJ/DW integration is not as good as it should be. I used to have comments on DW only, but that didn't work for some LJers, so I moved back to having comments on both sites. It's funny how you get parallel comment threads.

The killer application for LJ/DW is access control, at least for me. Getting the LJ and DW access control to interoperate seamlessly would be seriously awesome. I thought it was going to be that awesome... alas, it didn't work out like that.

[liv]

Hmm, glancing through I think the most likely to suit you are Dusty Foot: Argyle or Palettable: Descending. (I am not sure I can actually get away with passing on those links to you, if they don't work, search for those names on the customize page.)

You can customize site skins, but only unofficially, you need to use a Greasemonkey / Stylish type extension, I think. There's a few here, for example.

[jack]

*hugs* Thank you!

[liv]

Ooh, Drifting! I'd rejected it as too blocky and old-fashioned, but actually it really suits you. You do need a more you sort of icon, though; the wineglass and the candles are both lovely, but not exactly you. How do you feel about actual pics of you?

[jack]

I was thinking maybe of a colourful-but-simple "jack" against a white/transparent background, what do you think?

I quite like icons which are sort-of pictures, where it's obviously you to people who know you, but not quite a mug shot.

I wouldn't mind something based on a picture of me that I liked, but I find it very hard finding pictures of me I like. I guess, it's mainly for the benefit of other people so I should just not care, but it's still difficult to get over :)

[liv]

Here's a sort-of picture that isn't a mug shot:


And here's one of your actual face, which I am quite fond of, but you may still not like it:

[hairyears]

Hmmm… Visual puns and icons. Most people would 'get' an hydraulic trolley-jack for a car, if you used it as an icon. Likewise, a Jack-in-a-box; but how many would get a Jack O'Lantern, jackrabbits, frost, or a headphone jack?

[jack]

Hmmm... Thank you, but although this may come as something of a surprise, I'd rather have something that plausibly represents me (either my name, or a silhouette or blurred picture or something), and not any sort of pun... I'd rather have something a little bit meaningful for most people than something that was awesome for a few people but most people didn't get, and save any puns for alternative post-specific icons...

(I appreciate your icon :))

Beyond the pail

[hairyears]

Yes, I think I can see that: puns would represent me rather well; you, less so.

Meanwhile, I am represented in icons of Arctiid caterpillars, which are small, hairy, and venomous.

Re: Beyond the pail

[jack]

Meanwhile, I am represented in icons of Arctiid caterpillars, which are small, hairy, and venomous.

LOL.

I do like puns, very much, but not all the time... I guess a medley of yellow things equivalent to the axiom of choice would be appropriate.

But I may be unusual, but whenever I see someone's icon or username, I never bother to decipher it, because even when I do, most don't mean much to me and sometimes to the person who chose them, so I just use them as a mental visual representation of the person, in which case any amount of cleverness is wasted, but something plausibly appropriate is useful.

[rmc28]

You can set the style here:
http://www.dreamwidth.org/customize/

I use "Blue by Jennie Griner for Drifting" - I could further customise it but this gives me white background, black main text, blue headers and shading, and all user icons. I think I tweaked my page layout a bit. I like it and it suits me, anyway.