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Posting Meme: what is something you'd want to revive in fandom?
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lannamichaels - what is something you'd want to revive in fandom?
Not going to lie, it's been a very long time since I was properly active in any fandom. In general I find the pace of Tumblr/Twitter too rapid and chaotic for me; it certainly increased my consumption of things, but only really of art. I read less. I discussed things with people less; more at them than anything. I miss just having a conversation!
I also miss fandom promo posts, though I know they still happen. I still remember the really hilarious one that got me into Prince of Tennis (right, a million years ago), and then also into Highlander. Good times.
In general, though, I think things change and the way people interact do too – I'm happy for people who find Discord servers a great community. I think a lot of my lack of involvement is personal: lack of time, changing interests, not participating when I could, that sort of thing. Fandom is splintered more now, and that's not necessarily a bad thing, but yes, I do miss the days where threaded conversations were more of a thing.
There's a small part of me that thinks: if only we could really combine Tumblr and DW and AO3 in a smoother, more fandom-user-friendly way...
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lannamichaels - what is something you'd want to revive in fandom?Not going to lie, it's been a very long time since I was properly active in any fandom. In general I find the pace of Tumblr/Twitter too rapid and chaotic for me; it certainly increased my consumption of things, but only really of art. I read less. I discussed things with people less; more at them than anything. I miss just having a conversation!
I also miss fandom promo posts, though I know they still happen. I still remember the really hilarious one that got me into Prince of Tennis (right, a million years ago), and then also into Highlander. Good times.
In general, though, I think things change and the way people interact do too – I'm happy for people who find Discord servers a great community. I think a lot of my lack of involvement is personal: lack of time, changing interests, not participating when I could, that sort of thing. Fandom is splintered more now, and that's not necessarily a bad thing, but yes, I do miss the days where threaded conversations were more of a thing.
There's a small part of me that thinks: if only we could really combine Tumblr and DW and AO3 in a smoother, more fandom-user-friendly way...
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Idk. It’s just .... ah.
LJ, going back to those pre-DW days, was very much a thing of its time (2000? 2001?) but threaded conversations under posts moderated by a person/small-ground, with the option for email notifications Really Just Work Well for people who want to have conversations that aren’t bound by the constraints of time.
The whole immediate and continuous engagement model that drives Discord, Twitter, Tumblr, Facebook, etc., requires far too much of my attention — far more than I am willing to give. I’ll dip in and scan, but I just cannot commit.
Also, I find those kinds of interactions too sound-bitey. Not that LJ/DW isn’t a place for /is immne to shallowness or flippantness or flyby comments. But (slightly, lightly, or heavily moderated) threaded comments ALLOW discussion to happen at a reasonable pace.
As for combining the best of Tumblr, DW, and AO3:
AO3 has always been a mixed bag for me. I have always WANTED to like it and I appreciate the concept & mission in theory but the implementation? Mehhhh. The UI isn’t what I want. The metaphors/structures they use for collections, etc., aren’t set up in a way that inspires the sort of community that existed long ago on FF.net. AO3 has always had this “ssshhhhhh! Library!” Feel to it that just doesn’t promote community. Also, I really just do not like the comments on the same page as the chapter/story. I prefer ff.net’s approach to hiding the comments away on a separate page.
Tumblr. Lol. I feel that if DW was rewritten to keep its exact same structure and metaphors (journals, posts w/threaded comments, etc) BUT was modernized to have all of the images and video facilities that tumblr has, and it worked on mobile, it would be a complete hit.
The bad thing is this: I am pretty certain I could reasonably-rapidly design something (on paper, and code a prototype) that would work well for fandom, co-design the architecture with a few people who are more technically up-to-date than I am, open the idea to fandom for design comments and feedback, employ that feedback in a smart manner, work with the architecture team to attract and train good devs who are also fans, supervise the UX design, find a legal/org mini-team to create all of the non-profit structure, wheedle [company name redacted] to help out financially with some of the initial server costs while donations are being raised to staff a few fulltimers, and then PM/GM the dev while planning my fade into blissful obscurity. Like, according to my C.V., this is precisely what I (used to) do and why the recruiters for FAANGs still harass my inbox years after my “retirement” from tech and tech-academia. I have pondered this fandom need for 10 years — first thinking about it back when AO3 had some serious missteps during its earlier years — but .... this thing I **want** will require a lot of time I’m still very strongly **not** certain I want to give that time away. (I suck). I probably haven’t found the right front person (or front mini-team) who are willing to put in the EPIC ENERGY that it needs — energy I don’t want give.
Hesitantly posts this.
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Heck yeah!
I'd be satisfied with just combining the best features of Tumblr and DW!