How to Auto-Post an RSS Feed to Dreamwidth (2026)

Updated: 2026-09-28

Short answer: enter your Dreamwidth username and an API key created in your account settings into PostRSS under Accounts → Add new Dreamwidth account. Then open टारगेट्स → Add feed, choose Dreamwidth in Target settings and add your feed under Add source (Type = RSS feed, Link = your feed address). Each new feed item is posted as an entry in your Dreamwidth journal. Dreamwidth is included from the Professional plan.

Dreamwidth is what happened when a group of LiveJournal developers and users forked the code in 2008 and built the version they wanted: no advertising, no venture funding, no algorithmic timeline, and a governance model that has not changed hands since. Nearly two decades later it is still running, still adding features, and still hosting communities that have been in the same place since before most social networks existed. This guide is the long version; the auto-post RSS to Dreamwidth page has the short one.

A journal, not a feed

The word Dreamwidth uses is journal, and it is not a euphemism for blog. Entries are long by default, comments are threaded and actually used, and access is controlled per entry — public, friends-only, or a custom filter you define. The culture assumes people read rather than scroll.

That shapes what belongs there. An entry per article works when your articles are worth reading in full; a feed of short announcements posted to a journal reads as noise in a way it would not on a timeline. If your site publishes both, point the Target at the category feed that carries the substantial writing.

Username and API key

Two values: your username, and an API key generated in your Dreamwidth account settings. There is no OAuth consent screen and no application to register — an API key is something you create for yourself, and revoking it in the same settings page ends access without touching your password.

That is worth noting because the platform predates the pattern of app marketplaces entirely, and on Dreamwidth that turns out to be an advantage: no review process, no approval queue, and no third party deciding whether your use case is permitted.

Who is actually there

Dreamwidth's population is smaller than any mainstream network and unusually durable. Fandom communities, writers, roleplayers and people who left commercial social media on principle make up most of it. Several of those communities have been continuously active for fifteen years.

The practical implication is that this is not a reach play. Nobody automates a journal for traffic. What it is good for is keeping a presence current on a platform where your readers already are, without the weekly task of copying posts across — which is the task that quietly stops and leaves a journal reading as abandoned.

Etiquette, because it matters more here

Dreamwidth is small enough that people notice. Two things keep an automated journal welcome:

• Say that it is automated. A line in the profile explaining that entries mirror your site removes any ambiguity.
• Answer the comments. A journal where entries appear and nobody from your side ever replies is a broadcast feed on a platform built for conversation, and it will be read that way.

Neither is a technical requirement. Both are the difference between a journal people subscribe to and one they filter out.

Dreamwidth next to the other open-web destinations

PostRSS can publish full posts to several places that share Dreamwidth's independence without sharing its shape. WriteFreely is minimalist and has no comments at all. Micro.blog is built around owning your own domain. Telegraph is a page and nothing else.

Dreamwidth is the one with a community attached. Entries are read by subscribers who will reply, and the access controls exist because people use them. If what you want is an archive, one of the others is simpler; if what you want is to keep a presence somewhere people talk to you, this is the one.

All four are on the Professional plan, and one feed can reach all of them from four Targets — though for a platform this conversational, it is worth asking whether the same content suits every audience.

Setting it up, step by step

1. Create an API key in your Dreamwidth account settings, and note your username.
2. In PostRSS, open Accounts and choose Add new Dreamwidth account. Enter the username and the API key.
3. Open Targets and click Add feed. One feed going to one destination is one Target.
4. In Target settings, choose Dreamwidth and the account you just connected.
5. Click Add source. Set Type to RSS feed and paste your feed address into Link. Save.
6. Check the first item that arrives. PostRSS checks the feed every 5 minutes, and every minute on Enterprise plans.

PostRSS publishes items that appear in the feed after the Target starts running. It does not import the back catalogue — the alternative would be a destination flooded with years of archive on its first day.

Get the source feed right first

The feed decides the quality of the result more than any setting does.

• Full text, not summaries. A summary-only feed produces stubs, and nothing downstream can restore text the feed never sent.
• An image inside the item, if you want one — in the item content or as an enclosure, not merely on the page it links to.
• Absolute links. Relative URLs work on your site and break everywhere else.
• Anything new since you connected it. Only items appearing after the Target starts running are published.

Which plan includes it

Dreamwidth is included from the Professional plan. Each destination you connect counts as one Target, and your plan decides how many Targets and how many posts a month you get. An annual subscription is cheaper than paying monthly. Current limits per tier are on the pricing page, and the full lineup of 66 networks is on the supported networks page. The Dreamwidth page has the short version of the setup.

When entries stop appearing

• The API key was revoked. Keys are managed in your Dreamwidth account settings and stop working the moment they are removed.
• The username is wrong. Check the exact account name rather than the display name.
• Entries arrive truncated. The source feed publishes summaries rather than full text.
• Nothing new in the feed. Only items appearing after the Target starts running are posted.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is Dreamwidth the same as LiveJournal?

No, though it began as a fork of the same codebase in 2008. Dreamwidth has been independently developed since, with no advertising, no algorithmic timeline and unchanged ownership.

Do I need to register an application?

No. You create an API key in your own account settings, and revoking it there ends access without changing your password.

What does each feed item become?

An entry in your journal. Dreamwidth entries are long-form by default, which is why a feed of substantial articles suits it better than a feed of short announcements.

Can I control who sees the entries?

Dreamwidth's own access controls — public, friends-only or custom filters — are set in the platform. PostRSS posts the entry; the visibility model stays where it belongs.

Is it worth automating a small platform?

For reach, no. For keeping an existing presence current where your readers already are, yes — that is exactly the task people stop doing by hand.

Should I mention that the journal is automated?

Yes. Dreamwidth is small and conversational, and a line in the profile saying entries mirror your site is the honest thing and the thing that keeps subscribers.

Which plan includes Dreamwidth?

The Professional plan, alongside the other open-web publishing destinations.

The bottom line

Dreamwidth is a small, durable, deliberately non-commercial platform, and automating it is about presence rather than reach. Two values from your own settings, a source feed carrying your substantial writing, and a line in the profile saying what the journal is. It is included from the Professional plan.