[ SECRET POST #2496 ]

[case]

⌈ Secret Post #2496 ⌋

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

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Notes:

Secrets Left to Post: 03 pages, 071 secrets from Secret Submission Post #357.
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

[fscom]

01. http://i.imgur.com/o9qskqq.png

[kaijinscendre]

...ask here? I mean, people ask stuff like that all the time. Just make an anon thread.

[(Anonymous)]

Yeah I have no idea really either. I mostly just scan Tumblr and for fic on ao3. But I can't figure out where to actually get involved. :\

[(Anonymous)]

You get involved by doing anything that is not lurking. Really, that's all.

[aralias]

depends what fandom you're looking for. some of them just aren't around very much and so there is nothing to find. generally there will be an LJ community, though, and even if it's quiet if you comment someone will show up and say - hey, i'm interested in this thing! and then (if nothing else) you can chat in the comments of that post. and from there - the universe!

[dreemyweird]

I think that sometimes the answer is definitely "nowhere". Sure, the bigger fandoms have separate LJ/DW comms and active tumblr discussion, but fandoms like Lewis or Poirot? Are essentially the sum of some dozens of tumblr posts, AO3 and FFN fic, and maybe a couple of communities that went into rigor mortis quite a while ago.

In this case, your "participation" comes down to how popular you are/how many followers you have/how many comments you write on other stuff.

[(Anonymous)]

Nope: Livejournal is where it's at. There is a relatively active Lewis LJ comm. Most of the current Lewis authors participate in it.

Cannot answer specifically about Poirot, mostly because it looks like there is not much activity. But the new TV series is likely to change that!

[writerserenyty]

It's kind of hard. If you're looking for a specific fandom then ask, but right now things are kind of spread out.

AO3 is a really good place for fic, but if there isn't enough there (since you need an account and those are sometimes hard to come by) I usually search "*insert fandom* fic recs." That will come up with fics that people have recommended, sometimes with an explanation, so you can find fics that you like.

As for conversation, it really depends. LJ still has comms for fandoms, but they aren't super active, or might not be. My biggest fandom (JPop) centers around a couple of forums and a bunch of Facebook groups.

[(Anonymous)]

I don't think you need an account to read on AO3, just to upload or subscribe.

[pfefferminz]

Ugh, I refuse to delve into tumblr unless the link of fic has been given to me since I always end up getting so lost and confused and I'm nhft. The only places that I frequent is pretty much here, ao3 or the kink memes/comms.

[silverr]

Depends on the fandom, perhaps. Check out fandom-specific LiveJournal and Dreamwidth comms and forums on FF.net. The former will lead you to recommendation communities. Friend the people who participate, because the ones who blog about a fandom are more likely to want to meta.

There are also fandom-specific fansites/forums for some fandoms: Google can help here.

Livejournal

[(Anonymous)]

Is where you want to start: if it's a small fandom, start looking in the small fandom LJ comm then go on to whichever comm is of most interest to you, read the rules, check out the posting history to see who posts there and how, then join and have fun.

If it's a large fandom, you can just search by interest, and be careful to respect the rules of whichever comm you join: large fandoms are sometimes a lot to take in at first, not point stumbling just because you're new.

Then you can expend your search to Dreamwidth where a lot of people have migrated, though most LJ communities are still more active than DW communities in most cases.

Tumblr is more useful for the pics and gifs, frankly. Most of the really fun stuff (fics, news, discussions, recs, help and meta) happens in LJ comms, not Tumblr. The level of interaction with other fans is also a lot more fun than anything possible on Tumblr. This is not a value judgement on Tumblr (which I am not qualified to give), just a technical fact. Also using Tumbler seems a lot harder than using LJ for newcomers...

Re: Livejournal

[(Anonymous)]

Huh, I have more fun on tumblr than with the activities you listed *shrug*
And no, degrees of fun you can have are not technical facts.

For small fandoms

[(Anonymous)]

You can search here:
http://smallfandomfest.livejournal.com
http://smallfandombang.livejournal.com
http://smallfandomflsh.livejournal.com

or check Crack van:
http://crack-van.livejournal.com

The advantage of these is that you usually get a reference to a pimp post, which usually include where to find the other fans for your specific fandom!

Obviously, this will not help you if the fandom is essentially dead. But age is not the only factor to evaluate how active a fandom is. As a Professional fan (30+ years and counting!), I can tell you that Pros has a very active LJ presence which shows no signs of decreasing.

Re: Livejournal

[(Anonymous)]

"Tumblr is more useful for the pics and gifs, frankly. Most of the really fun stuff (fics, news, discussions, recs, help and meta) happens in LJ comms"

lol I love it when people show how little they understand of tumblr

[(Anonymous)]

It depends on the fandom, but usually, the places to be are either specific message boards (if you can find ones that remain active - they can be cesspools of idiocy but hey, so can any place online). Some fandoms still have semi-active Livejournal communities, too, I think.

As for how tumblr fandoms operate, I think you just start posting your views. If you tag your posts and make coherent points, people will start finding your posts and following you. If you find people who post a lot of meta, you can follow them and see their takes.

Is it ideal? No. Tumblr makes for a very random, cluttered fandom experience. You can track tags but then you get every goddamn post (including the confessions blogs, the random idiots, the angry posts with absolutely no reference to which post they're actually upset about etc). If you follow people, they might post about every fandom under the sun, or reblog things you don't watch, or haven't watched yet, and thus get spoiled for. Some people also post/reblog a lot, making your dash really hard to keep up with, unless you have unlimited free time.

My advice: get in there, but be prepared for the good with the bad. In my experience, if you can find 2-3 fandom friends who you dig and who dig you, that's usually good enough to make for a fun fandom experience. Good luck!

[ariakas]

Depends - do you like video game fandoms? Then the forums of gaming sites are where you'd go for discussion (while fic is still on AO3/the pit/etc). As for tv and movie fandoms, I'd imagine tumblr these days but I have yet to see any prolonged discussion there that wasn't a nightmare to follow o_O

Well, you could make some secrets here about whatever fandom.

[(Anonymous)]

People here are usually up for some discussion. You could even pique someone else's interests. But you could also ask in General Comments - where's a good place for AwesomeFandom? Any comms out there for CoolCharacter/DelightfulCharacter? Or even something like: I really liked (Spoiler)ShockingPlotTwist in AmazingEpisode of AwesomeFandom, anyone else?

[(Anonymous)]

There is no general reply to this. It really depends on the fandom. Some fandoms are on LJ, others are only on tumblr, others are on forums somewhere, some fandoms don't have active communities but only people who post fic without interacting with each other otherwise ... You'd probably get a better answer if you told us which fandoms you're looking for.

[rbhudson]

For fanart I recommend DeviantArt. And honestly just Google "fanfiction," everybody has their site they prefer. I like LiveJournal.

[mimi-sardinia.livejournal.com]

The current state of Fandom is a bit decentralized.

LJ used to be a big centre, but after Strikethrough/Boldthrough, then the sell-off to Russians and the crappy management since, Fandom has left in droves, giving rise to what people say about it being rather dead.

I disagree that it's totally dead, parts of it are still ticking over, but it's far slower these days than it used to be. Fanficrants used to have a dozen posts a day but now is lucky to get 2 or 3. The kink meme I am on (The Hobbit) is ticking over, but as it's almost a year since the first movie came out, it's slowed down a bit. I expect it will get a new rush of prompts when the next movie comes out.

Fanfic will always be found at FFN or AO3.
FFN is not conducive to open discussion, with any replies to reviews and further discussion being booted to PM. Still, if you come across an author who is up for a chat, it's not bad for one-on-one.
AO3 is more open on that front - it's comments are out in the open where other commenters can see it and pitch in their opinion, if they want (it doesn't feel like doing so is a huge part of the culture there).

Art is best found on dA. Like FFN and AO3, it's an archive. You can keep favourites there. You can post your own, and also keep a journal there as well.

Twitter is fun but it can go by so vary fast that you can lose track of things, and if you favourite things a lot, you can even lose track in your own favourites.

Tumblr... I can't speak of this with any authority, since I don't have an account there. What I understand from an outsider POV is that, like Twitter, it can go by really fast, unless you have a filter (Tumblr Saviour), you can get bombarded by all sorts of things.
Also, from frequent comments I have seen on the matter, you can't really have decent discussions there. That is probably the big reason why I still haven't got an account there.

Basically, these days, if you want to get involved in Fandom, you have to be prepared to spread your attention across all those sites, and likely more besides. If you try though, hopefully you'll find a few people you can become friends with and share interests.

[dolorosa_12]

The vast majority of fandom friends I made years ago on forum-based platforms, which is not hugely helpful these days. The way I've gone about making fandom friends since Tumblr became popular is this:

1. Pick smaller fandoms, particularly fandoms for older canons that people are likely to feel affectionate towards and nostalgic about (for me these are mainly Australian YA book series from the '90s). This has the effect of creating smaller, more intimate fandoms which are less likely to be filled with wank and drama, and where everyone is so happy just to have someone else to discuss things with that they don't care so much if your shipping preferences are different or whatever. I've made friends through LJ, Tumblr and AO3 on this particular basis.

2. Whenever there is a friending meme going around LJ or Dreamwidth, look for the people who share your fandoms who make a point of mentioning that they're in fandom for the meta and commentary. Make a point of mentioning that yourself in your own thread in friending memes. If you can, check out those people's journals to see how much meta they post (of course, if their journals are flocked, there's not much you can do).

3. I haven't hosted one myself, but I've thoroughly enjoyed participating in meta comment memes. I didn't make any new fandom friends, but the discussion was excellent.

4. Finally, anon memes are great for discussion and commentary, although you're obviously not going to make many friends that way.

Hope some of this is helpful!

[(Anonymous)]

Borgia: Faith and Fear (NOT The Borgias) comes to mind. Tumblr has a few posts dedicated to gifs and pics. But there are no fanart or fics for this show at all! Anywhere!

[tenlittlebullets]

I guess my advice for Tumblr would be to always tag your posts (not your reblogs--only posts you originate will show up in the tags) if you want them to be noticed/passed around. And if someone gets into a meta back-and-forth with you via reblogs, or you see a long reblog chain with a lot of people posting interesting analysis, click through to the permalink on their blogs and see if they have a meta tag you can raid. They won't always be worth following; some people post insanely frequently with a shitty signal-to-noise ratio, but sometimes you will end up finding someone whose Tumblr is a goldmine of interesting stuff in a high enough proportion that you can totally follow them, and sometimes you will find people who frequently reblog the highlights from a high-frequency poster's blog, allowing you to get sort of a filtered version.

This might not work for all fandoms; I've been spoiled in that there's a corner of Les Misérables fandom that's basically all meta and discussion all the time. But if non-trivial participation exists in a particular Tumblr fandom, this is pretty much the way to find it.

[chordatesrock]

I don't know your fandoms, but I feel the same way, and have taken steps to be able to have conversations. If we share any fandoms (Avatar: TLA, Jak and Daxter, Zelda, Animorphs... I'm a little irregular and unpredictable about what fandoms I like at any given moment), I like to have lots of discussions, and I write fanfic. I do fic rec lists, too, and know where to find some meta. Here's what I can offer you.

lalunatique writes interesting A:TLA meta and fic sometimes, and I wholeheartedly recommend lavanyasix's A:TLA meta. One of those two-- I think it was Luna-- has also posted Tolkien meta. attackfish writes interesting general fandom meta, A:TLA fics, White Collar fics, Harry Potter fics and I can't recall off the top of my head what else. I recommend checking out her fics, which you can find linked on her profile page on LJ. I also recommend reading the comments on her LJ, which have meta discussions sometimes.

ysabetwordsmith writes fanfic and original fic and occasionally meta, and often has interesting discussions. Aside from her original universes, she writes Avengers fic and Sherlock fic.

metanews is a weekly meta aggregation newsletter, for new meta posted within the last week.

tumblr took me a while to find useful for fandom. Meta discussions are hit-and-miss. Keep trying, track tags for your favorite fandoms, post meta, answer meta with thoughtful meta, and don't put all your eggs in that basket. Once you join tumblr, type in /tagged/yourfandomsname and see what's happening there. Don't use the search bar because apparently it's causing issues or something.

Let's see, people on tumblr... selfdeterminedsymbionts (Animorphs RP blog) seems to have gone inactive, but maybe it'll come back. allies-person sometimes posts meta about The Hunger Games, A Song of Ice and Fire (also check out asoiafuniversity for ASOIAF meta), Animorphs and Harry Potter. I'm on tumblr, same username as here, but I post more content on DW and LJ. (On LJ and DW, my meta is tagged meta and my fanfiction is tagged fanfiction. Take a look if we share any fandoms!) For Tolkien meta, check out universityofarda.

For Jak and Daxter meta on LJ, capslock_jak is essentially the only game in town.

Try gensplosions for gen fic recs. Panfandom.

Try fandom_stocking later in the year. It's a low-pressure holiday gift not!exchange, like Yuletide for people who don't want to commit to anything.

Check out my fanfic recs tag. If you find that any particular person has good taste in fics, check out that person's AO3 bookmarks. I try to bookmark all the goodfic I find on AO3 (same username as DW).

Also take a look at fail_fandomanon, an anon meme on LJ. There are fic recs threads and discussion threads. Various fandoms come up.