#I'm v happy with the layout and the vibes

[ahollowgrave]

Odette's Ishgard Rooms

[thisweekinfandomhistory]

omg i just found your podcast and it’s incredibly cathartic to listen to as i have felt the loss of fandom spaces over the past few years (tumblr dying and twitter being hard to use for that). livejournal sounds so nice. I wish there was another social media site that would allow that sort of community again for art and fandom and connection.

Thank you so much for listening and writing in! The loss of fandom spaces is always so hard and sad -- I (V) still mourn the landscape of individually run HTML fansites that ran all the way to the horizon back in Web 1.0. I miss fun layouts! I miss image galleries! I miss fandom mailing lists! (And I highly recommend The Rec Center if you don't already subscribe to them).

I actually think that Tumblr isn't dying so much as accepting its size and scope -- it ISN'T a social media site, and it's never been something that was going to be able to compete with social media sites like Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram for mainstream, everyday-Joe users. People who don't have a hyperfixation or a fandom want to see a variety of content and are easy for The Algorithm to feed. Tumblr users... are not.

Tumblr may have started out with the goal of being a hub for Srs Bsns Photographers & Poets/Writers, but everything about its format makes it the perfect site for fandom to flourish.

I'm really happy that Tumblr itself is embracing that now! AFAIK their actual slogan on the Apple App Store is "Tumblr: The Home of Fandom." Fandom is a niche subculture. We're just not gonna have the numbers of a Twitter or a TikTok. (And honestly, thank fucking god. Can you even imagine the chaos. I shudder to think.)

Tumblr is a microblogging site. It's for people who write too much for Twitter and whose images aren't the vibe of Instagram. It's for gifsets, which are an art medium unto themselves that social media sites wouldn't have any use for, really. And it's definitely not for Norbert in Accounting to connect with his grandma on like Facebook.

The anonymity of Tumblr is antithetical to modern social media sites -- even though IT IS INSANE TO ME THAT PEOPLE PUT THEIR REAL NAMES AND PHOTOS ONLINE, DID WE NOT LEARN ABOUT STRANGER DANGER??? -- and the fact that Tumblr is inherently ABOUT transformational, shared, "yes and" content, rather than mostly original pithy content like Twitter and IG and TikTok, makes it attractive to people with the hyperfocus of fans more than people who want to scroll and scroll and just see Stuff. I mean, obviously on Tumblr we're all looking at Stuff, but you can CURATE your feed on Tumblr in a way that you can't on social media. Curation is the enemy of The Algorithm. And Tumblr users fucking hate The Algorithm.

And honestly? The Algorithm hates fandom, because it's really hard to market things to someone with a hyperfixation. I don't CARE about your product, and seeing it instead of the thing I want to be looking at makes me HATE your product. The Algorithm really needs to be able to feed you a lot of different types of content to see what you're interested in. If you go into a site already knowing what you're interested in, then... ::shruggie:: Sucks to suck, Algorithm.

All of that said, yes -- community is definitely an aspect of Web 1.0 that feels like it's missing, or very hard to find, on Tumblr. I know a lot of people are finding great fannish communities on Discord these days, but I am elderly and don't know how to find Discord communities in the first place and also I'm painfully shy, so. I just Tumbl.

But I think that the loss of a sense of community is also part and parcel of Web 2.0, from the formats of websites to their function. It was easier, in Ye Olde Days, to feel connected to other people who found your fandom online because... not everyone WAS online. There was a sense that if you loved a thing enough to find your way to a fansite, or to LJ, or whatever, that was already taking the first step towards opening yourself up to friendship. Now, with social media and with smartphones and whatever else, literally everyone is online all day long. It isn't already a little club of nerds, yk?

I don't know. The internet as a whole has changed its shape and scope so much in the last ten years, let alone the last 20, that it's a whole different arena than it used to be. I don't really have any solutions or suggestions. Maybe once we get our Patreon up and running or something we'll start a TWIFH discord that people can join and make friends on.

But all of that is to say --

tl;dr, Fandom itself is antithetical to "social media" sites, and it needs blogging sites like Tumblr or LiveJournal or hand-coded HTML fansites to BE ABLE to exist. /opinion

[gretavanfleetposts]

hello besties. i am here because i love the sweet, sweet validation of a ship in the evening. i also love to overshare so i'm really going to be spilling the beans here for overall accuracy™. congratulations on hitting 300. you guys deserve it so much, and i am so proud of you!

so, i am a virgo sun, gemini rising, aquarius moon - and i feel the need to include the other three from the big six because i am very much not virgo energy, i think, so i've got a leo venus, leo mercury, and scorpio mars. i'm super into astrology and the symbolism behind it all, i've always loved the stars and the myths for the constellations. the planetarium was my absolute favorite field trip when i was younger because it was just so mystifying and interesting to me. there is so much we don't know, and i need to know more. i've posted selfies before but for the sake of not searching: i have kind of strawberry blonde hair, hazel eyes, i'm 5'5 and plus size! :)

i have the weirdest taste in movies, and i'm not embarrassed about it. my go - to comfort movie has always been the first live action scooby doo, i actually have majority of the script memorized from one summer where it was the only thing i watched. i also love lilo and stitch, which was my go - to movie when i was a lil kiddo, and i think i modeled a lot of my personality on lilo. it also definitely helped me cope with having a family that was definitely messy and not perfect, but no matter what in lilo and stitch, they were happy. and i looked up to that so much. favorite christmas movie is definitely the santa clause, favorite halloween movie is hands down halloweentown high.

i would say i'm relatively middle ground in terms of introvert v. extrovert. i like to say i'm incredibly extroverted, and i can be! i typically am. but in situations where i'm uneasy or i don't necessarily know that layout, i am incredibly shy and quiet. but i've been told me being quiet is uncharacteristic of me, so i'd say that i lean more towards extrovert.

i can touch my tongue to my nose :) i can also play the clarinet. a quirky thing i can do is write pretty well, or so i've been told. i am also a master at karaoke. please believe me.

listen, i was definitely a harry potter kid growing up, so if we're talking one that i would reread a million times over, i would probably place it more on harry potter. there is just so much universe beyond the main plot that leaves you wondering what you can experience next. however: i am a huge fan of the book eleanor and park. as a plus sized individual, i struggled a lot with acceptance in my appearance, and the quote, "eleanor was right, she never looked nice. she looked like art, and art isn't supposed to look nice; it was supposed to make you feel something," really resonated with me in high school and was a grand comfort. i also like lord of the flies :)

i am an early 2000's pop junkie, so generally anything by natasha bedingfield - but especially her song with sean kingston. love like this puts me in absolute TEARS - it is so embarrassing, but i love that song. also what a feeling by one direction, especially now. it reminds me of my best friend, and the vibes in it are just so good. typically, in terms of music, i listen to more indie pop, for sure. my friends have described my music taste to be 'lesbian cottagecore' at times, as well, which i've been fleeting from lately due to just basking in nostalgia for a while, but i always go back to my cottagecore roots.

i am a salty person, for candy i actually prefer sour candy, so i'm rarely a big sweet person at any point. but i would rather have something savory than something sweet at any given moment. but i will say i was not one of the kids that ate salt packets at the lunch table, i was respectable.

i have been collecting earrings lately, so i hope this counts. right now i have this big late eighties, early nineties style earrings and they're purple with neon pink and green flowers painted on them and i got them at a thrift store lately, and i've been pairing them with everything i can - they are just so adorable.

my pet is my sweet baby angel patches. when things got rocky at my house, my sister brought home patches, and she and i instantly clicked. she knows when i'm sad or upset and she comes to me and cuddles - she knows how to open doors and cabinets. she refuses to eat dry food and will only eat wet food - but only chicken and turkey because she gets sick from beef and fish. she is a super picky and personality filled cat, but she is my best friend and i love her.

i've got three ideal dates and i will describe all of them.

001: going to the planetarium but it is just me and my date. we sit in the walkway instead of the chairs and lay back ( because the planetarium in my town has those really long ass steps ) and stargaze at the fake stars and then watch the space documentaries until the planetarium closes.

002: arcade date where we spend way too much money on the games and earning tickets so we can spend all of them on each other, and we would get matching mood rings or necklaces and then end the date in the photobooth taking ridiculously cheesy photos.

003: so, in wisconsin we have the betty brinn children's museum and it is just a big ol' interactive museum and when i went they had a bunch of little activities and places to take photos and stuff and i genuinely think it would be so fun to go there and relive a childhood memory and like experience that with someone i actually like. also the photos would be so cute.

other fun and quirky facts about me: i know every song from high school musical by heart and i will sing it if someone mentions it to me, i love thunderstorms and rainy weather and i will sit and watch the rain for hours, i still play toontown :(, i really want to join the circus one day and i probably won't but it sounds really cool, i am extremely sentimental and keep physical memories from good days: like a movie ticket stub, or confetti from a concert, i have dozens of photobooth pictures store away in a box. i love just having a physical reminder that i had a good day with someone.

okay that was so much of me to say, i am so sorry, but thank you very much for your time :)

Hi love!

❤: First of all, I've seen your selfies and you are absolutely gorgeous. Literally so cute. So let's start there. I was reading through this and was just so impressed by your writing, too. You are incredibly talented, my dear. I would be fine with being best friends, just throwing that out there. You just sound like so much fun.

Ship: Sam

Because: I think you and Sam would have nonstop fun together. He would watch live action Scooby Doo with you literally whenever you ask. I think he would love how outgoing you are. I can see him going thrifting while on tour and finding you earrings to add to your collection. And he would be the perfect date to spend hours with at the planetarium.

Scenario:

The first time you and Sam kissed was in a photo booth

He had taken you on a date to an arcade where the two of you proceeded to spend far too much money on tokens

At some point in the night, he had dragged you into a cramped photo booth, pulling the curtain closed behind you as you both sat down on the tiny bench

"Let's show off our rings in this one," he said gesturing to the matching mood rings the two of you had bought with your tickets after a particularly good game of skee-ball

You touched your rings together for the first picture, cocking your heads so they were angled in towards each other

*Click*

For the next picture, Sam took your hand in his and put his other over his mouth, feigning surprise over your ringed finger

*Click*

You threw your head back in laughter, catching his gaze as he shuffled in his seat for the next picture

He was caught up in you, smiling at you like he was in love as you laughed

*Click*

Your laughter subsided into a light giggle as your chin dropped back down and you met his gaze

For a second, the two of you just stared at each other

Then, in the heat of the moment, Sam leaned in and connected his lips to yours, moving his hand to cup your jaw

*Click*

Ignoring the noise of the photos printing out in front of you, he deepened the kiss, pulling you closer to him

The two of you were finally broken out of your trance when someone knocked on the photo booth, asking if you were almost finished in there

You giggled again, bringing a hand up to Sam's mouth to wipe away the lipstick smeared across his lips

He pulled the photo strip out and handed it to you, letting you add it to your collection of memories

You didn't really need the physical reminder though. You were never going to forget this moment

I hope you liked it! Thank you for the request!

-⭐

get shipped here!