people need to know about the CAN EAT MORE

[bossymarmalade]

 At some point you just get tired of the echo chamber that is tumblr, y'know?

Seeing those kids shouting into the void makes me so, so thankful that my era of fandom was one that was infinitely more personal. Fic writers now barely get more than somebody hearting their stories; I'm old enough to remember when we'd write each other long feedback emails (or LoCs, if you like) and we'd even include what didn't quite work for us along with the general squeeing. It helped me learn how to accept constructive criticism and how to write more clearly and less self-indulgently.

I talk to younger writers on tumblr and they don't even read each others' stories. There's no real sense of community other than the -- I'm gonna say it -- mob mentality where everything's black and white and if you don't believe X or you dare to write Y, then you are automatically a paedophile/homophobe/etc. 

Which is to say, I'm super lucky to have gotten to fandom when I did, and I'm super lucky to have had the likes of you guys around me. <3

(On a bitchier note: OMG WHAT IS WITH THE 'IMAGINES', ALL OF THEM FULL OF DIALOGUE THAT INEVITABLY INCLUDES "I LOVE YOU, Y/N")

Comments

[muccamukk]

When I was on Tumblr, I had "imagine" black listed.

I'm finding decent community on AO3 itself these days. I write comments, other people read my stuff and write comments. It's better than screaming at people on tumblr anyway.

[bossymarmalade]

I am slowly returning to AO3 as the hub of my fannish involvement, although I have hopes for pillowfort.io as well!

I too have them blacklisted, lol. I assume that readers do a search-replace with 'Y/N' to put their names in? I just ... there's some hellish meta to be teased out there, as compared to good ol' Mary Sue fics.

[muccamukk]

I'm going to have a lot more hope for pillowfort when I think they have anything like a business plan.

Readerfic! I like it because it's clearly labelled. And then I can avoid it. Works on AO3, anyway.

[bossymarmalade]

I am blissfully ignorant of sensible things like business plans XD

Ah yes, I'm conflating the two, aren't I? Imagines are just vague banalities and readerfic are the Mary Sues.

[muccamukk]

I'm not moving content to a platform that's going to run out of money and go down in flames, or put on ads, within a year. I've done it, it annoyed me.

I think there is a good deal of overlap.

[jesse_the_k]

Amen.

Happily all my Tumblr exposure is second-hand through you bold pioneers. I like it here, even if it's quiet.

[bossymarmalade]

I'm craving the opportunity to return to less frenetic, more grown-up blogging. Even when I was in fandom in my 20s, there were older fans around to temper the madness, and tumblr sure as hell Ain't Got That.

[dine]

hey, hi, hello! nice to see you popping up

frankly, the more I hear about tumblr, the happier I am that I skipped the whole thing entirely - I just never really saw the point, as it wasn't geared for what I like best; connecting with people in real ways. one can't do that there, and I stuck around here (and still on LJ, to a lesser degree - mostly for the few folks who haven't moved over here). but you're not the only one who's dropped by, so possibly I will reconnect.

to sum - welcome back to a slightly more adult form of interaction and connectedness

[bossymarmalade]

I wonder if we're all slowly returning to DW, like sea turtles coming back to the beach where they were hatched? XD It would be great if we were! So many of us got burned out on Srs Bzness discussions back in the day, but now I am older and more mellow.

And yes -- fun as tumblr is for gifsets and pictures, this more adult interaction has it beat hands down.

[goss]

Hiii! Glad to see you round these parts. ^___^

[bossymarmalade]

You tooooo! And thank you for posting the Diwali pictures -- it's one of the times of the year that I get real homesick for how we Trinis does do it, oui. :)

[goss]

♥

Also, yay! I can finally use my Trini lingo icon with someone who will get it. :b

[bossymarmalade]

YES GYAL

[marej]

Maggie, wow, it's been a minute :)

Good to see you. And I agree with everything you said, though mostly in concept as I had never gotten into tumblr or twitter or any of that stuff, really.

I was thinking the other day how amazing and therapeutic it would be to have a fandom of old right now to distract from all the ...well, reality, if only sometimes.

And incidentally, just a few months ago I subjected my now 8yo (and still rather impressionable) kid to your douen stories, I still remember. You'd be pleased to know that he very sensibly decided to never ever respond to anyone calling him by name out of sugarcane fields :)

[bossymarmalade]

MARE MARE MARE!!!!

As you can tell it's good to see you too, hee. And lord, that's one of the reasons I miss fandom too -- there was always something going on to counterbalance the horridness of whatever was going on in real life. It was the perfect balance of close friendships that didn't exist in fleshspace, which are sometimes just what you need when in-person is too overwhelming. I'd really like to get back to talking about fannish stuff in a space where it's not just people saying "THIS" or calling actors who are three times their age "my son".

And speaking of sons, I am heartened to hear that you're teaching yours the real deal lessons that he needs to know. XD

[glass_icarus]

Hello, hello! ♥ Probably the main reason I abandoned tumblr years ago was because it's a horrible conversation platform... the more things change. :P

[bossymarmalade]

IT IS THE WORST FOR CONVERSATION. I mean, the tag-convos are kind of useful in certain ways, but more for meme-style quips, y'know? When I see people try to have ACTUAL conversations in the tags it puts my teeth on edge.

[glass_icarus]

... conversations... in... the tags? Suddenly I have a burning desire for a hip flask.

[bossymarmalade]

The kids' idea of AO3 tags is enough to make my head explode omg.

[ladyjax]

I need to make more of an effort to be here so I'm glad to see you again. I'm with you about Tumblr. I started by name squatting then crossposting. The few times I'd engage with some of those folks (sadly, not always fannish), I found myself growing annoyed.

I was used to LoCs and lots of involvement with groups of people, some of whom became friends but a lot more that I respected even if I didn't agree with them.
I miss community and building that community from the ground up.

All this to say, you are totally welcome to join me on my porch where I shake my cane at passersby while I drink a beer ;)

[bossymarmalade]

I'm glad to see you too!! I'm honestly happily surprised by how many familiar peeps have answered this post, it makes me feel all warm and cosy. :)

some of whom became friends but a lot more that I respected even if I didn't agree with them

GOD YES. And I was friends with people whose fic I didn't particularly read, or whose fandoms I wasn't in, and all sorts of cross-sections like that. Tumblr is not good for friend-making, at all. There's no available way to have any sort of concerted conversation among multiple people. And it sure ain't a good place to give substantial feedback of any kind.

Listen I will bring some cider and my own cane and camp out on that porch with you anytime :D

[sabotabby]

Yeah, old school fandom was weird but I feel kinder, for the most part? That could just be the glow of nostalgia. To the extent that I'm involved fannishly at all, it's with very small fandoms where everyone is cool, and largely not Tumblr-based.

Imagines are weird. I think I dislike them.

[bossymarmalade]

ahahahh it's nostalgia! Old skool fandom could be pretty vicious -- but the thing was, you couldn't just bahleet and start again with barely any effort, like in tumblr where you don't really make a network of friends. So I guess it came with more of a consequence, being bitchy back in the day. As I should well know from having foolishly brought hellfire down on myself a few times XD

Imagines are so pointless! There's nothing wrong with "I have this fic idea and it won't leave me alone" posts, of course, but imagines are always so mundane. "Eddie wakes up and finds Venom turned pink!" Like wtf, why.

[thissugarcane]

dumblr has a lot of (well okay like six?) original writing sources that are interesting for process. I guess. but like, the rest is trrrrble.

[bossymarmalade]

Yes! There's certain things that tumblr is absolutely brilliant for, if you have a mind to use them, but for proper fannishness and especially community? It's just a big pit of freshly-cloned raptors, all of them fighting to be the next Blue.

[monanotlisa]

Heheheheh.

But, yeah. I still feel so lucky to know y'all, to have met you then.

[bossymarmalade]

I feel pretty sad for these kids who want so desperately to create, who have all the available platforms (they DO NOT KNOW what it was like before we owned the servers!), but have no community to help bolster and teach them. It's pure chaos out there.

[torachan]

Haha, yeah, I'm glad I got into fandom when I did and honestly I'm also glad I'm not really in fandom anymore. Admittedly I really only hear about the bad stuff, but it just sounds so, so awful.

(PS I love your subject line. We use that one a lot at my house.)

[bossymarmalade]

Lucy Liu was so brilliant in that episode XD

I haven't missed fandom for quite a while now -- possibly because I was so deeply entrenched in it for so long -- but man, seeing what it's become out there has made me long for the old ways.

[copracat]

I talk to younger writers on tumblr and they don't even read each others' stories.

That's a big change.

Hello :) It's lovely to see you post. I loved early tumblr because it was all pretty pictures. When it became disconnected conversations and kept crashing my browser I kind of stopped going there. I miss the pretty, though.

[bossymarmalade]

I have a roleplay game on tumblr and it's great for that, because you can incorporate a lot of media, and I have a tumblr for pretty pictures, but as a platform for interacting? It's pretty much worthless.

The not reading each others' stories, though, that blows me away. How is that a fandom? That's barely a common interest.

[dirty_diana]

Tumblr is the weirdest place. Yet I still hang out there. Also, hi.

[bossymarmalade]

Hi hi!

Tumblr has its uses, but man -- compared to DW, it's just a mosh pit. Not that any of The Kids there would know what a mosh pit is, heh.

[ex_halo669]

Maggie! When did we get so fucking old? I mean, I'm a GRANDMOTHER now, for fucks' sake- I can legit tell people to get off my fucking lawn.

Anyway, it's nice to see you. :)

[bossymarmalade]

MS HALO OF THE JC! Congratulations on the grandchildling and the authority that grants you when it comes to the damn kids on your lawn. XD

Nice to see you too. We're all heading to the Bitter Old Fandom Queen Retirement Home together, hee.

[turps]

Hello!

I've never understood tumblr, so just keep on clinging to this place. It's quiet, but I'm comfortable.

[bossymarmalade]

I am craving the quiet now. Tumblr's ease in posting pictures does not outweigh the more genteel features of dreamwidth, that's for damn sure.

[pearwaldorf]

I suppose it's all dependent on who you befriend? Granted, most of the people I talk to on Tumblr are my age or older, but I feel like I've carved out a bit of a community that is comfortable and sustainable. It also helps that we can talk over other mediums, because Tumblr really is fucking shit for conversations.

Tags are the worst though. Either they're really high-traffic or dead, and it's impossible to actually find interesting people. I usually end up on people's Tumblrs via AO3 tbh.

But I hear you. So much of Tumblr is performative void shouting and it becomes tiring. But I do know good people, if you have interest. <3