You push until you're shoving; you bend until you break.

Dreamwidth has actually managed to put me in a dilemma as to how I want to best go about presenting my journal. Usually, I place all entries under friends only, however given the option to subscribe and grant access to particular people while also filtering entries that I may only want certain individuals to read, I am at a stand still.

Do I keep my general relatively public with the exceptionally posts that can only be viewed by people within that access list or do I continue  on with the friends only journal, where all my posts, except select posts are friends only?

The advantages to having a journal that is pretty much open to the public with the use of access filters is that the opportunity to network would be much easier. If I have a friends only journal, that option while still plausible would be harder to initiate. So thoughts, to friends only or not to friends only? And specifically why the one and not the other?

In any event, those who were on my friends list on my Livejournal may not necessarily be granted access to my journal here. I ask that you not be offended by this, it just means that I do not know you as well as I like and until I can establish some type of relationship to identify you with, you will be subject to posts which are public. While I am not entirely sure how I want to set up the use of my Dreamwidth account, what I do know is that I want to comfortable with the people on my access list and not feel obligated to grant them access if I know nothing about them.

Expect a few points detailing the filters I will have on my journal as well as my policy on defriending and the like. I am really enjoying Dreamwidth and made the decision today that I will be purchasing a seed account. The money spent will go to a good cause and I know that this place will go fair. It's time that I do my share and help with that process.

On another note I cannot for the life of me figure out how to get hierarchical tags to work, so if anyone would be so kind to lend their hand in pointing a very confused Angel in the right direction, it would be very much appreciated! ^.^

& FILTERS

After a lot of thought, I have decided to make my journal semi-public, though if I sense that there are problems with that, I will immediately revert back to friends only. What this means is I will grant access to my journal to almost everyone, as long as we share common interests or there is something I feel I can learn from you as an individual. In this case, I felt it was only appropriate to describe the types of filters I have and whether they are opt-in or opt-out. If you're unsure as to what those terms may mean, I have described them below.

• Opt-In: These are filters were you will have to request to be added if you aren't already on these types of filters. I will be very selective of the people that I add to these types of filters as this is generally were a large majority of my more personal posts will be found.
• Opt-Out: These are filters were every person I have chosen to grant access to will be placed. For the most part these will contain a lot of my generalized posts which includes but is not limited to fandoms. If you do not want to be on a filter associated with this term then you must request to be taken off.

Now that I have described the differences between opting-in and opting-out of filters, below are the current filters I have. These lists will grow continuously as I begin to write on more subjects, people, places, things, etc.

Opt-Out Filters
Below you will find all filters that you may choose to opt-out of. Again, this list will grow so it is up to you as as subscriber to pay attention and to request you be removed if you do not want to read on particular posts.

• General
• General Rants
• Fandoms
• Electronics
• Plugs
• Photography
• Dreamwidth modifications, etc

Opt-In Filters
Below you will find all the filters that you may choose to opt-in to, if you have not already been added to those filters. Keep in mind that these are the majority of my personal posts, so if I know you in real life, do not really know you as an online contact, or don't trust you, you will not be considered for any of the filters below, depending on the filter.

• Contact Info
• Relationships
• Sexuality
• Marriage
• Insecurities
• IRL Rants
• Drunken Escapades
• Work

If you have any questions, regarding my filters or my filtering policy, please do not hesitate to ask.  I will do my best to explain my filter policy as to not personally offend anyone.