Case (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
case) wrote in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
fandomsecrets2013-11-02 03:35 pm
case) wrote in fandomsecrets2013-11-02 03:35 pm
[ SECRET POST #2496 ]
⌈ 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.
no subject
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.
no subject
You can have discussions on tumblr. The problems with that are:
The automatic quoting of everything in order, with ever-increasing (to absurd levels) indent in already-narrow columns
The fact that instead of labeling each participant, tumblr lists the author of each post in the thread in reverse order not counting the author of the post you're actually looking at
The fact that sometimes things get "reblogged as links" (meaning instead of a quote, tumblr links to the previous post)
The fact that occasionally reblogging as a link affects what shows up in the notes
The fact that the notes are shown in reverse chronological order, not threaded
The fact that all the likes get mentioned individually in the same list as the reblogs
Putting a long post up on your blog multiple times because of a conversation
:/ Lots of patience, scrolling and "show more notes" will help you find all the comments. If you use tumblr visually, you can use your cursor to help follow the line from the name to the quote; an access feature for users who don't is to preface comments with "[username] said:" (that way, the conversation sounds more like "[list of names] so-and-so said: great picture persony-person said: yes but what about the problematicness antisjdude said: sjws are ruining fandom.").
If you're determined, you can make it work, although it can be hard to find things again afterward if they're spread out over ten different posts.
Finally a helpful comment
(Anonymous) 2013-11-05 07:44 pm (UTC)(link)Or 'If you are determined, you can make it work'. Sounds exactly like a very PR way of saying it's actually pretty difficult. To me, anyway?
Bottom line, it's interesting how defensive Tumblr people are, since it sounds to me like everyone more or less agrees on the real response, but I notice that:
1) aggressive Tumblr people whose fandom needs are perfectly satisfied with Tumblr seem to be on this DW comm to have this discussion
2) they do not actually disagree with non-Tumblr people who say they cannot get into it, only take easy pot shots by calling us stupid. Thank you that's always nice and bound to give us a good impression of the level of friendliness to be found there...
The above is absolutely to aimed at you: your comment is one of the few helpful and polite ones I have seen so far in response to us old foggies pointing the way towards LJ and DW because you actually focus on the technical side instead of just saying, 'well, it's not a problem for me, so you can go to hell' which really does not help the discussion or the original poster.
Finally about the point made elsewhere that the answer depends on the fandom: yes, of course. I'll go even further and suggest that it's a function of the preferred platform of the biggest BNFs in said fandom. I think that is one of the reasons that fandom is harder to find since the LJ diaspora. So many of the biggest names in so many fandoms have left to other shores at the first opportunity, either to DW or Tumblr or real life. Oh well.
Not to say that I believe that oncoming adulthood/middle-age is any reason for fandom activity to decrease: first there are a few people who have been around since forever and are there to stay, and second, there are new additions all the time (OMG, kids! Teenagers popping up and joining fandom all innocent! Not knowing where the good stuff is! Heeeee!)
Sorry, it's a bit embarrassing and hilarious to know that some people posting here are a fraction of my age, but really invigorating too.
Especially the baby insults and the refreshing put-downs: in my time, we had real flame wars, this is nothing, kids. Makes me nostalgic for the good old times if anything: go ahead, give it your best shot! Heh heh heh.
Re: Finally a helpful comment
The thing is, some groups on tumblr routinely manage long, in-depth, multi-person discussions. I'm talking about some non-SJW tight-knit anti-marginalization communities here, where everyone in the conversation is following everyone else, and thus everyone sees every post as it shows up (or reads the conversation in reverse... which is why it's not smart to get very far behind on tumblr), and they all see each other's new (possibly-related) posts. It just doesn't work that way for everyone. (I also think the culture there and the self-defeating attitude don't help. And I mean the self-defeating attitude in other people because it takes at least two to have a discussion.)
Like I said, don't put all your eggs in that basket, but it's probably worth a try (not knowing your fandoms, though, I can't say for sure).
Re: Finally a helpful comment
(Anonymous) 2013-11-06 05:38 am (UTC)(link)Somehow, most of the fandoms which have exist exclusively in Tumblr are not really directed at older fans anyway and personally I get most of my jollies from fanfiction and discussions; I have never been a big fan of fanart and fanvids anyway - I admit to being a lot less forgiving of the amateurishness of a lot of fan artists than most fans (my bad). Even pics of really hot actors are a lot less interesting to me than a really hot fic? Everyone is different that way of course...
Even in the case of some of my fandoms which seem a lot more active in Tumblr (eg: Les Miserables), it's not really worth my time following the Tumblr accounts of most authors since they all post to AO3 - the only fics which do not get posted to AO3 are the results of the kinkmeme. Which is - you guessed it!- an LJ comm.
So, I don't know... it looks like a lot of effort without a clear benefit since Tumblr doesn't seem to have any fans who post their fics exclusively there?
But you are right, whatever the true answer is, possibly a different one for different fans or fandoms, we might as well be positive and courteous while discussing it instead of simply being aggressive at each other. If we just wanted stupid, deaf nastiness, we could just go into politics. Fandom is for fun, not nastiness!
And your conclusion is also correct: as I posted below in response to another comment, nowadays one should simply follow the fandom of one's choice in whichever platform it exists (or create it oneself if it truly does not exist anywhere). Diversify, as you put it very cogently. Which is exactly why I found your comments so helpful: the fact that I am currently dragging my feet and being lazy about it doesn't mean I won't do it eventually, we'll see!
Re: Finally a helpful comment
(Anonymous) 2013-11-06 06:27 am (UTC)(link)My single Tumblr diversification example so far:
http://ghostbees.tumblr.com/
And I am not even in SH fandom of any kind!
I mean, I have read the books, seen dozens of movies and TV shows and even read some classic Holmes fics, but I am not actually in the BBC Sherlock fandom which seems to be one of the biggest around nowadays, based on the number of fics posted to AO3?
Unfortunately this guy (who is actually more into classic Sherlock Holmes rather than BBC Sherlock, as far as I can tell) seems to post exclusively to Tumblr, so... :D