I Made a Graph: New Dreamwidth Users by Year

[florianschild]

I was curious about how many people actually use Dreamwidth, and I found a lovely stats page that shows how many users have joined on every day the site has existed. I love the transparency!

So I downloaded the data into Excel and made this graph:



Thoughts on the decline of new users joining? Has anyone noticed a dropoff in traffic? Are people concerned or is having a larger user base not much of a priority for those of us who like our quiet internet corners? I personally would love to see Dreamwidth have more users and be more active.

The platform has limitations of course; many users these days don't want to use HTML or have to self-host their images. And while I understand the reasoning for not having an app, it's probably a limit to drawing in new users as well. I wonder what, if anything, it would take for this site to actually grow it's user base instead of maintaining/losing users year over year. I'm also not sure if the owners actually want growth either. There's something to be said, of course, for a business model built on sustainability rather than growth.

Comments

[jenett]

denise has said multiple times that she wants this to be the corner restaurant of the internet: sustainable, not looking for substantial growth. It's not going to be the amazing place for everyone, and that's okay.

If you rummage back through dw_news (and often the comments) over the past couple of years, there's comments on some specific pieces of this.

For example: hosting images has a significant cost increase in terms of hosting/delivery, but it also has a significant increase in terms of demand around Trust and Safety and Terms of Service issues. Having a little friction for images hosted on the site or having them embedded from other established sites has some benefits for both of those in different ways.

Similarly, having an app (and specifically an app that could be available on any of the main app stores) would mean changes to the site that the owners philosophically opposed to, in terms of permitted content, how some kinds of content are handled, etc. There isn't really a way to compromise on that one without compromising on the site principles.

(The Guiding Principles give a pretty good overview there.)

My own experience (I've been here from the day it opened), there are ebbs and flows in activity. Because of how I use DW, I don't necessarily wave it around in specific as a 'here's my home on the Internet', but I do bring it up if people are looking for ways to make a space they would enjoy.

I do also talk about how - like any site without an algorithm - you're going to have to do some work to figure out how you want to use the site, and how to connect with people you're interested in. (And if someone's interested, obviously point them at some resources.)

The one thing I really miss from the LJ days is the community activity: while there are certainly some active ones, for a lot of topic-based stuff, in a lot of cases they never really caught on here or became super active.

[florianschild]

I'm glad to get that context, because understanding the goals of the site owners does make a difference in how I personally feel about the future of the site overall. Not that I think it's going to disappear overnight or anything, but I like to think I'm investing in a platform that will stick around.

I have seen discussions around hosting images and why Dreamwidth doesn't have an app. I only mentioned those in this context because they seem like features that many users these days kind of... need? Or think they need at least. I'm not arguing *FOR* the features necessarily, but rather just trying to brainstorm some barriers to entry.

I completely agree with you on the lack of community activity. It was a huge part of LJ culture for sure. I'm always really surprised by how dead communities are here and I think that might also contribute to how new users can feel isolated when they first join. When I look at communities related to my interests and they haven't updated in 255 weeks it's a little disheartening.

I appreciate your thoughts!