Hello again! Oh, Tumblr

[lokifan]

WOW it’s been TWO MONTHS since I posted. That seems insane because I actually have been mostly keeping up with DW! And with Tumblr at least enough to have my queue full, although I was never any good at it. But I’ve been very busy RL (holidays, then exams, then a randomly intense week at work) and then it felt somehow very difficult and taxing to post. IDK, it takes more social energy to do it the longer you’re out of the habit, and I did fall out of it.

Anyway. TUMBLR.

...I mean. This is a predictable disaster for those of us who’ve been around long enough to remember Strikethrough and Boldthrough on LJ, to remember Archive Of Our Own wasn’t named that purely as a feminist reference but also because it’s necessary to protect our content. Also predictable for those of us watching FOSTA and SESTA, and the new EU laws, and Apple’s walled garden, and who’ve seen the way Patreon gatekeeps sex workers out of their ‘professional’ tier and Dreamwidth got kicked off Paypal way back when.

But it being predictable doesn’t make it any less sucky.

I’m on Pillowfort and Dreamwidth as lokifan. I’m on Discord at lokifan #5709 and gonna try to be around there more. Staying on Tumblr for the moment but I’m terrible at it already, and… well the plan to make an effort with the platform, and talk to the people I like there more, seems pointless now.

Please do add me! It’s always the worst part of these things, the attrition rate.

Comments

[thisbluespirit]

well the plan to make an effort with the platform, and talk to the people I like there more, seems pointless now.

*nods* yes, I was working on that, and... yes. :-/

[lokifan]

Yeah :/ I had all these grand plans for spending the Christmas lull - which isn't normally a lull for me, but is this year - putting up links to my most popular posts and tags and things, and practising interacting there until it felt less like a foreign language. It really is a shame - in particular, for finding a wider audience, and being able to vaguely glance in the directions of fandoms you're not going to put real time into and find something cool. And Pillowfort is - well, I'm trying not to be pessimistic, but their approach to porn isn't positive either. Hopefully DW can evolve in ways that make it more appealing to the Tumblr crowd.

[thisbluespirit]

Well, I suspect it's not going to vanish overnight (yet), and if I can fish there and come back here to have the kinds of interaction I much prefer, then that's actually pretty cool for the moment, even if this mess and censorship is awful. But, yeah. tumblr...

[trepkos]

Can you tel me in what way Archive Of Our Own is a feminist reference? I hadn't heard of Discord - what's that like?

[nia_kantorka]

If I may butt in?

This is a quote from the ao3 wikipedia site:
"The site's name was derived from a blog post by the writer Naomi Novik who, responding to FanLib's lack of interest in fostering a fannish community, called for the creation of "An Archive of One's Own".[1] The name is inspired by the essay A Room of One's Own by Virginia Woolf.[5] AO3 defines primarily as archive and not an online community.[5]"

In case you didn't know. Naomi Novik is Astolat who still writes fics next to their books. There are lots of posts available on fandom history how it come to it - sadly most are on Tumblr :((.

The Discord is a former site for gamers. It's divided into different groups and you need invitations (=a link) for each. I'm currently using it as part of a group where a fannish anthology is created and two other groups from one fandom. It's definitely not like Tumblr where everyone's more or less able to see everyone's content.

[lokifan]

Thanks! V helpful.

Siiiigh fandom history posts on Tumblr. Like, of course they are, but I HATE IT. Comment threading and links that don't die all the time (oh, Tumblr urls) are SO VITAL for online community history projects.

[lokifan]

Basically as Nia said - it's a Virginia Woolf reference, and to me that essay is automatically a feminist reference, and it was certainly intended that way by Novik as part of the project of supporting and defending a largely-female community. Especially one having attempts made to exploit it (FanLib) and attack it for sexual deviation (Warriors for Innocence).

Discord, yeah, it's a chatroom basically. I haven't used it much but it's big for fandom in general rn and especially my current fandom, so I'm gonna try.

[giallarhorn]

My amusement from this whole mess is mostly in how there was a weird wave of anti-AO3 sentiments, and the weird trend with trying to turn fandom activities (ie, fic and art) into something akin to the gig economy (looking at you, Patreon) that everyone's now having a literal meltdown over. Plus, knowing this would happen eventually makes it less of a surprise, but does take away from some parts of the internet.

I don't think there's going to be a recentralization for a long while now, or at least until the New Big Thing comes that has enough BNF on it.

[lokifan]

My amusement from this whole mess is mostly in how there was a weird wave of anti-AO3 sentiments, and the weird trend with trying to turn fandom activities (ie, fic and art) into something akin to the gig economy (looking at you, Patreon) that everyone's now having a literal meltdown over.

Oh, the anti-AO3 people. *facepalm* They suuuuuck. I was going to post about that (and how the term Warriors for Innocence could so easily be applied to antis and there is a REASON the mere name struck a bunch of feminist queers as a supervillain name) before all of this...

I actually don't mind that trend at all. Don't do it myself and I don't think I ever will, but I think more creatives getting paid is great. (Patreon has issues but I don't count that among them.) I used to be anti-it, a while back, but the reason I cringed was the fear of C&D letters crashing down on us and I think that's vanishingly unlikely now.

I don't think there's going to be a recentralization for a long while now

I entirely agree. Particularly since fandom was already less centralised than it was before, and we have less need of centralisation now because of AO3. I don't think Tumblr could've become the behemoth it was in fandom without AO3; now having that form of accessing fanworks secure means that we can afford to fracture in a way that would've killed fandoms before. Still a genuine loss, ofc, but I do think this is gonna play out very differently because of AO3.

[giallarhorn]

Yeah, I don't think I'd mind the idea of making money from fandom activities in of itself, but the worry of C&D is always constant. Plus, considering the pains that AO3 went through in making sure that wasn't the worry always makes me wary. I guess it's the change in mentality with the making money as a new default, rather than it being more of a gift economy that bugs me the most.

AO3 definitely left the idea of a centralized hub in fandom for sure, but I dunno. Tumblr might've taken off in the way that it did just because it was a flat structured platform lent toward graphics, but AO3 definitely has done a lot of work. I don't expect the leftover of people on fandom to actually move for a while, so we'll see what happens.

[lunabee34]

Looking forward to seeing more DW posts from you.

[lokifan]

Thanks :D I have so many things to post about...!

[alafaye]

If I do get a pillowfort, I'll add you :) For now I'll still be here (and tumblr if my blog survives)

[bruja]

Hello hello! Yes, same here, fallen out of the habit, and the barrier in my head was suddenly very high.

Also, wow, Tumblr. As you say, not very surprising, still sucky.