[ SECRET POST #3210 ]

[case]

⌈ Secret Post #3210 ⌋

Warning: Some secrets are NOT worksafe and may contain SPOILERS.

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Notes:

Secrets Left to Post: 02 pages, 045 secrets from Secret Submission Post #459.
Secrets Not Posted: [ 0 - broken links ], [ 0 - not!secrets ], [ 0 - not!fandom ], [ 0 - too big ], [ 0 - repeat ].
Current Secret Submissions Post: here.
Suggestions, comments, and concerns should go here.

Comments

[(Anonymous)]

I'm struck by how many people are saying "I miss the discussions even though I didn't participate in them". Effect, meet cause. Fandom on LJ died because it lost critical mass.

[dratinis]

Yeah, I'm kinda surprised to see a lot of lurkers, too. I mean, I understand to a point; I lurked for a while before finally plucking the courage to jump into the discussions. But I guess all the talkative people moved on to tumblr or whatever.

[(Anonymous)]

The thing is that you don't even need to have the courage to talk on tumblr. You just have to press the reblog button.

And there's not much discussion either. It's just reblogging some wall of text someone wrote, maybe just add a small comment. It's a mind-numbing echochamber.

[dratinis]

That's a good point, too. You can have a post with thousands of notes but not very much discussion going on. I think part of that has more to do with how messy conversation threads get once a lot of replies has been posted, though.

[(Anonymous)]

This and there's not much willingness to interact with different opinions. It's more the need to prove how clever your opinions are so people with different opinions are seen as a hindrance instead of an occasion for discussion.

I think this has to do with the fact that reblogs are the currency that counts today.

[dratinis]

And the fact that some corners of tumblr-based fandom can be really toxic and terrible to people who don't agree with them. That's not to say that it was any better back when LJ was king, but at least then it was easier to contain the toxicity within their respective communities.

[(Anonymous)]

I agree with this. At lj a discussion was contained to a private journal or a community. At tumblr it's basically available for everyone. And though people on lj could be massive dicks too, I can't remember that I ever came across the pure toxicity that can be found on tumblr. It's online-bullying and psychoterror of the worst kind.

And the way tumblr works, I get the impression that people foster and encourage this kind of negativity instead of overcoming it. It's scary to see, especially if you've been in fandom for over a decade and witnessed other platforms that weren't this extreme.

[(Anonymous)]

Yeesh. I'm cautious about saying anything at all on Tumblr, because it's not worth the emotional energy in case someone might somehow manage to read a problematic context into something I said. And I mean, if you're really trying, you can interpret absolutely anything as problematic, and a certain segment of Tumblr users seem to have developed this into a hobby of theirs.

Disclaimer: I'm not waah waahing about the fact that mean sjws aren't letting me get away with blatant bigotry or some such. I meant the thing where you say something genuinely innocent and harmless, and then someone takes the effort to somehow read that as having had a harmful intent/content that really isn't there.

Granted, it seems like the absolute worst of this is starting to pass, and tumblr is growing up a bit and realising that the "problematic culture" got a bit out of hand to a ridiculous extent. I'm not saying tumblr is great and fine now, but there is a bit more self awareness now than there used to be.

[dratinis]

In my experience, as long as you don't tag, the chances of someone finding a "problematic" post you made are pretty low. An instance of that was how I was belly-aching about Korrasami (tl;dr I'm a queer lady who didn't think the writers did a good job romantically coding their relationship), but I got no blow-back since I didn't tag it. But I definitely get where you're coming from; the call-out culture that has been fostered definitely keeps people from posting since they don't want to say the wrong thing on accident.

It kind of sucks because a lot of people there seem to be into feminist theory, but again, the culture makes it an awful place to get introduced to it.

[solticisekf]

I guess lurkers enjoyed reading LJ discussions.

[(Anonymous)]

To be fair, livejournal could be incredible cliqueish. It could take some amount of courage to just barge in into a discussion. Especially if you wrote neither fic nor meta.

I may be just my impression, but if one had nothing to offer but comments, you could be treated rather coldly.

[(Anonymous)]

Yes, it could be that way. But you also had these pockets of incredibly nice and welcoming people. I'm in touch with some of those still and have found new on the way. I'm interacting on LJ every day still. Not as actively as I once did, but nicely.

The peel off seems to have stopped too, at least where I am. Actually some people I thought was long gone have gotten back in lately.

[(Anonymous)]

Those pockets were few and far between. LJ was as much a cesspit as Tumblr is.

[elaminator]

There are a lot of lurkers in fandom who don't feel comfortable talking to others but still want to hear what others have to say. I've been there before too, but I do think there's truth in what you're saying. It's unfortunate.

[(Anonymous)]

And I don't think that it was just the lack of commentors that ended livejournal.
Livejournal killed itself by continously dicking around until it had alianated its most loyal userbase.

[elaminator]

I agree with that as well. While I think lack of active users was a problem, LJ didn't do a good job of satisfying those people.

I mean, I'm not happy about it, but I don't blame people for leaving because there were a lot of problems with the site and folks got fed up and moved on.

[(Anonymous)]

I agree, but I'm still sad they moved to tumblr instead of dreamwidht.

[elaminator]

I would've preferred people move to DW too, anon. The fact that we keep getting secrets and posts about this kind of thing says that quite a few people feel the same! We'll always be bitter, apparently. lol.

But what can you do? :/

[dancing_serpent]

But what can you do?

Yeah, that's the thing, isn't it? Even if you do something, it doesn't always work. My dwircle tries - we do things like Posting Pacts frequently (post at least one entry per week to your journal, post at least one entry per week to a community) to generate content, and it helps for a while. People are motivated, we throw around slogans like "Be the change you want to see." and so on.

And then it slowly peters out again. Because of analogue life problems, because lack of comments, whatever. People become discouraged, and I don't blame them. I mean, I run several communties. Only one of them is active. Others...not at all.

For the past fifteen weeks I managed to post one entry per week to a certain community. But I'm the only poster, and I get no comments, and it feels like I'm calling out into emptiness. Of course, it doesn't help that the fandom has been dead for over a decade, but well...I didn't plan on falling in love with it again, but it happened.

Uhm, sorry for rambling at you like that.

[elaminator]

Late, but you don't need to apologize for rambling! That's what this community is for!

And I'm sorry about your fandom. :/ (For most fandoms) After a certain amount of time they fall apart, and about the only way to revive them is with new canon material. In most cases that isn't a possibility or doesn't happen, so they just lie abandoned. Does the fandom have any presence on tumblr (or reddit, etc)? The only thing I can think to do to help is check the tags, and if you find anything recent-ish then maybe advertise your community. (If you haven't already done that.)

You're right in that if you want to see change you have to make an effort, but that's often easier said than done, especially since it requires a certain degree of time and attention, and of course enthusiasm which can degrade as time goes on and things start to feel less hopeful. I think it's neat that you've put forth an effort, though sometimes there aren't people around to follow. :/

[dancing_serpent]

I hate Tumblr with a passion, but yeah, I was desperate enough to go there looking for my fandom. Found about two handfuls of picture posts, the youngest about three years old or so. And yeah, I advertised, even posted links to my fics. I can be persistent with promoting the things I care about.

I had hoped for new influx of fans because the series just got a re-run after almost ten years, and a DVD release in Germany for the first time ever. I mean, that's why I fell in love again in the first place, because suddenly it's available again.

but that's often easier said than done
It is, especially when you're usually not amongst the creator-types. Like I am. Normally, I consume and comment. I rarely, rarely manage to produce something. So keeping a comm alive by producing fic/icons/meta? Ack! Fail!

[sarillia]

Eh if I had tried to post back when my anxiety was bad enough to hold me back I would have ended up with a very different reputation than the one I have here and I doubt people would be thanking me for contributing.

[(Anonymous)]

Omg, this! Not only did I feel anxious, English is also a foreign language to me. So back then it really was difficult to say the things I wanted to say and also make sure people understand what I meant.

[(Anonymous)]

I mean, even the other day a friend of mine posted something about how there's no discussion anymore, and I posted ideas on how to boost it.

Every single comment agreed with her that no one wanted to talk about things, but no one acknowledged my ideas. At all.

People complain, but no one wants to initiate anything.

[(Anonymous)]

I actively promote the comms/blogs/feeds I like and know has active users. Most people are positive in their responses to me and maybe one out of ten follow over. A few answers with "Why do you bother?" and I just don't answer them. But secretly want to ask them the same, of course.