I have been a member of LiveJournal for at least 9 years; I have a permanent account that I was fortunate enough to be able to buy when they came on sale. I enjoy being a part of that community and I read my friend's journals every day. However, a lot of people are becoming disenchanted by the service and are looking for something else.

Well, Dreamwidth may be the answer to their prayers. It is currently in beta and you can only become a member by receiving an invite code or buying an account. I have signed up just to see if it may be a worthy rival or successor. It really does not offer anything different than LiveJournal, just a change of scene.

Obviously, since it is still in beta it does not have as many bells and whistles as Live Journal does. User pictures are limited to 6 pictures right now; I'm assuming that will increase. There are also a small number of journal themes available. One thing I like is that you can import blogs or journal entries from LiveJournal, InsaneJournal, and JournalFen.

So many people have their own blogs now that services like these may be short-lived. However, I think that communities like Dreamwidth and LiveJournal have their uses still. Not everyone wants the hassle or extra work involved in maintaining a blog.

Anyway, I'm going to give Dreamwidth a try. I think I'll post some of my photographs there. I haven't really taken the time to check out the communities yet and I only have one friend; the one who sent me an invite. This brings me to the fact that I have two invite codes that I will give to the first two people who ask for them. That way you can try it out for yourself and make up your own mind.