Dreamwidth.org is amazing. The staff is really responsive about things that need fixing (though the fixing is expected since it is still in Closed Beta) and they tell the users and people on the mailing lists everything about what's going on. Unfortunately I don't think there are any invite codes up for anyone to give right now, but that will change on Thursday night at 9:00 EDT when the site launches its Open Beta phase and opens up for everyone to grab an invite code. Currently, they don't have the shop for buying paid time/icons open but that will change on Thursday.
For more information on pricing for accounts and such, you can find them here: What are paid accounts? :D
[Note: I'm a beta-tester on Dreamwidth, so that's how I know all this. XD]