On the contrary, I appreciated your comment a lot! The distinction you make, between accessibility and availability, is a great point. And yes, Discord servers can be backupped, but it can only be done by admins afaik; the work you mention, expunging personal/sensitive details to just save the fannish, is also on point -- this is not something that can work. Chats are easy to use and great for person-to-person communications but they cannot be the core of a history.
One thing LJ offered which I haven't encountered since its demise is precisely that: active, flourishing fandom-specific communities. Things are fragmented nowadays, scattered in different platforms and even on people's personal pages (be that X, Bluesky, Tumblr, what have you) as they don't really have much of a focus on anything anymore. It's not being multifannish that's the problem (not at all!!) but just a seeming total lack of direction, jumping off into the next bandwagon all the time because, oh, look, a new show and then another and another as they get cancelled after one season and the poor, shy, nascent fandoms attached to them die alongside canon.
All of this. And consider that the "jumping off into the next bandwagon" is often done because 1. we buy into the power dynamics of social media, and 2. we are somehow forced to buy into it even if we know it's not good because of where we stay, e.g. fanartists want their art not just to be seen, but they don't want to be buried (missing from the timelines of their subscribers even). If they want to stay visible, they need to be consistent in output and also on trend. Fan writers: ideally on AO3 we are not subjected to algorithms, but oh, if it doesn't show how quickly engagement decreases once their canon is no longer the hyped one (e.g. the series is now off air). It's easy to think "I'll just write for a newly popular fandom so that I can get a (false) sense of community."
(Also you easily lose fandom friends once you or they jump etc. etc. -- nowadays that's a given)
I see that at the moment the best way to find resources and people for a fandom is Reddit.
I love going to the Livejournal entry and reading over the links to Meta/Additional reading, also because there's a lot of stuff that is still relevant today despite having been discussed over twenty years ago.
Great resource, thank you!
Discussing a season of something with others seems a lot more comfortable on Dreamwidth than Tumblr to me
I agree completely on this; I mentioned Tumblr because people are there (to reblog etc.); it would be useful to link it there, I think. Also, thank you for mentioning the setting for disabling IP logging.
I successfully hosted an event for a very recent fandom on DW last year but sadly didn't retain any of those people over here -- it would take their cooperation and interest to change things around and choose websites a little more appropriate for fandom dealings than whatever they're using at the moment
It's great that you managed a full event, still! Good work.
As I say at every new wave of "let's abandon Twitter" -- yeah, it'll happen if you manage to migrate whole communities, and you manage to migrate whole communities only if you bring all the other things they have on Twitter onto the next platform. That, or the other platform must have something that motivates you all the way. (E.g. I use facebook for just one hobby, a hobby that couldn't been done without the interaction with all those others who are also on facebook for that very reason). I see people using Bluesky with joy but I don't remember to go there very often, although I'm sure there are better, more relaxed conversations over things (but maybe... not exactly the one I'm looking for?).
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Date: 2025-01-05 08:24 pm (UTC)On the contrary, I appreciated your comment a lot! The distinction you make, between accessibility and availability, is a great point. And yes, Discord servers can be backupped, but it can only be done by admins afaik; the work you mention, expunging personal/sensitive details to just save the fannish, is also on point -- this is not something that can work. Chats are easy to use and great for person-to-person communications but they cannot be the core of a history.
All of this. And consider that the "jumping off into the next bandwagon" is often done because 1. we buy into the power dynamics of social media, and 2. we are somehow forced to buy into it even if we know it's not good because of where we stay, e.g. fanartists want their art not just to be seen, but they don't want to be buried (missing from the timelines of their subscribers even). If they want to stay visible, they need to be consistent in output and also on trend. Fan writers: ideally on AO3 we are not subjected to algorithms, but oh, if it doesn't show how quickly engagement decreases once their canon is no longer the hyped one (e.g. the series is now off air). It's easy to think "I'll just write for a newly popular fandom so that I can get a (false) sense of community." (Also you easily lose fandom friends once you or they jump etc. etc. -- nowadays that's a given) I see that at the moment the best way to find resources and people for a fandom is Reddit.
Great resource, thank you!
I agree completely on this; I mentioned Tumblr because people are there (to reblog etc.); it would be useful to link it there, I think. Also, thank you for mentioning the setting for disabling IP logging.
It's great that you managed a full event, still! Good work. As I say at every new wave of "let's abandon Twitter" -- yeah, it'll happen if you manage to migrate whole communities, and you manage to migrate whole communities only if you bring all the other things they have on Twitter onto the next platform. That, or the other platform must have something that motivates you all the way. (E.g. I use facebook for just one hobby, a hobby that couldn't been done without the interaction with all those others who are also on facebook for that very reason). I see people using Bluesky with joy but I don't remember to go there very often, although I'm sure there are better, more relaxed conversations over things (but maybe... not exactly the one I'm looking for?).
Thank you again for the input!