#dunno whether this is a funny post or a depressing one that’s up to y���all

[olderthannetfic]

I've been low key obsessed with your blog. You've managed to cultivate a lot of interesting conversations and topics, so I wind up always coming back to scroll anything I may have missed. So, out of curiosity, what motivated you to create this blog, and what kinds of conversations and responses do you enjoy the most?

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Heh. It's just my personal blog. I couldn't get my usual username, so the name is a random joke about some 1990s fandom wank I was reading about at the time. I don't really do side blogs or themed blogs usually. I just have a personal account wherever fandom has moved most recently.

What motivated me to join tumblr specifically was a promise I made to myself back in like 2003 to not be an embarrassing grandma next time we were all switching platforms and to try to be an early(ish) adopter of the next big thing instead of kvetching about it and needing to be dragged by my ear.

By now, I'm much more used to Tumblr, and Dreamwidth feels awkward and unfamiliar, which is pretty funny. I wouldn't have predicted that back in 2011.

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I enjoy meta. I like it when people have long text comments about how they see a fandom or a trend in fandom. I love it when people post about bits of fandom history I don't know about. I like hearing about fandom outside of English. I like people posting personal impressions and anecdotes as much as harder facts, but I don't like appeals to emotion. I like people celebrating their rare fandoms and underappreciated fannish interests but not guilt trips.

If you really love the thing, go make the thing happen! Don't bitch about nobody else doing it for you! In fact, that's the root of a lot of what I like in fandom: the DIY, can-do attitude of community and infrastructure builders that we see in niche subcultures. I think it's been diluted a bit as fic fandom has become more accessible and mainstream, but it's still around.

Basically, I like an oldschool Livejournal and mailing list vibe. I'm in fandom for conversation and discussion and longform text.

I want that oldschool style but without the depressive wangsting about being left behind or the full dose of 'offa my lawn' that sometimes goes along with it in the genuinely oldschool spaces. I want to see younger people picking up bits of that LJ vibe because they enjoy it and it's a cultural style that can be applied to any community, not because they think they were born decades too late.

It's never too late to go consume old media or research an interest or pick up a hobby! It's never too late to create new communities, using what we like of the old and discarding the shitty bits. Somebody made a Miami Vice discord not so long ago. I was shocked but pleased.

I like it when fans who build things tell me about their cool projects, whether it's a little discord or something as ambitious as bobaboard. I like it when people ask me for help with their research or tell me the results of research they've already done. I love those "how do I find fandom history thing X?" questions that let us dive down a rabbit hole of figuring out what platform the thing would have been on and if there are any wayback links.

I guess I prefer happy things overall. We all need more happiness in our lives. But I'm not someone for whom pure squee of the "So dreamy!" *swoon* variety works very well: I express my love by analyzing and making things, and I like other fans who do the same.

I keep meaning to go back through the BTS a/b/o fic I've read and pick out all the weird gender roles and fun worldbuilding ones and write some meta about how this style of fandom led me to liking a/b/o where before I hated it. That's the kind of happy + navel gaze-y fandom thing I most enjoy. When I find someone else writing this kind of thing, even for fandoms I don't care about, I love it.

I dunno... I think it's pretty obvious what I enjoy from what I spend my time on: longform text, intellectualism, history, telling sanctimonious bullies to stuff it.

[shaeshaetheravenclaw]

Here me out, the sides but ice skating AU.

Has this been done before??? I dunno and dont care

Roman:

Romans routines aleays tell a story

No matter who you are, you can pick out emotions of the story

Many can see the story as if it's being verbally told

He tries to keep going bigger and more dramatic

J U M P S

Very dramatic jumps. Always. Yes.

If someone asks for am autograph he will NEVER fail to doodle a little crown on it.

Logan:

Logans are always very flowy and graceful

He tends to relate them not to a story or himself, but he tries to show aspects of nature. He would center a routine around rain or the forest, a desert or thunderstorms.

He loves to do standing spins especially if he's open armed. Tends to spin and slowly put his arm up in the center. You know what I'm talking about. Hopefully.

Hes beauty, he's grace, he will give you an existential crisis with space.

Seriously though he loves writing little space/nature facts on whatever fans asks him to sign, if they give him permission to do it. Most do seeing as how he smiles and looks down at whatever it is with such joy on his face that they all know he loves it, so why stop him?

Patton:

D I D S O M E O N E S A Y J U M P S

He loves jumps with everything he has

He feels like a bird, how could he not love it??

His routines are always either supper peppy and happy or super slow and sad

No in between

His tell his emotions

Duh

He really loves skating though

Constant posts on every social media he has about how much he loves his fans.

He asks every fan he meets if he can hug them. Every. Time.

He tries to meet as many fams as possible

He gets really sad when he realizes it's impossible to meet every fan

He posts videos on social medias sometimes like "I'M SAD I CANT MEET ALL OF YOU GUYS I LOVE YOU SO MUCH AND I KNOW THERE ARE SOME OF YOU I WILL NEVER GET TO HUG??? AAAAAAH"

Virgil

Spins where he curls in on himself and grabs his foot or something are his favorite thing ever

Most of his routines portray his struggles with negative thoughts and emotions

He is the closest with his fans.

He's so awkward that they're open with him because they all relate to him way too much

He's super open with them

Ends every social media post (except when hes drowsy enough to forget) with "Have a day/night guys. Doesn't have to be a good one. As long as you lived it, thats good enough. Live another week for me, will you?"

"You've been suicidal? Me too. You struggle with depression? Hey me too! You're gay? bITCH SAME. You're terrified of social interaction? Oh hell yeah."

He ends every social media post with "have a day/night guys. It doesn't need to be good, just so long as you're living it, that's good enough. Live another week for me, will ya?"

Every. Post.

After routines he goes off into the audience when there's no cameras on him and finds fans amd just. Sits amd talks with them. "How's your day? Did you eat? You're taking good care of yourself, right?"

Spends hours on end writing sticky notes to give to people. "Live through whatever it is. Please." "You are valid And loved." "Don't listen to them. Whether they are inside or outside your head, dont lidten to them."

Source of either deep or idiotic posts on tumblr. At three am.

"Sleep is essential to a successful ice skating career? Tell that to my career and my body, because they dont know that yet."

I love this too much. It slowly because less and less about the routines and more and more about fan interactions. But seriously, o loved writing this. Funny how inspiration will strike for a very specific thing at four thirty in the morning.

And since i wrote it as virgil, im gonna start saying it when i can!

Have a night guys. Doesn't have to be a good one. As long as you lived it, thats good enough. Live another week for me, will you?