#federated fandom

[iffeelscouldkill]

I've been thinking of doing some kind of "current Tumblr alternatives" post and I might as well attach it to this. But I'm also not an authority on most of them, so I'll just talk about the one I'm most familiar with, Mastodon.

Yes, it's still a thing. The main thing I would want people to know about Mastodon is that it's not Twitter. The UX is similar but most people who join expecting a Twitter-like experience are disappointed. It doesn't have that big, bustling, always-on energy that I think appealed to people about Twitter (I say "I think" because I never really did fandom Twitter so I can only guess based on what friends have said).

You CAN get a more Twitter-like experience by going to a bigger instance (instance = a sub-community of Mastodon that you make your "home base"). But the bigger ones tend to be more chaotic and less well-moderated. For me, the strengths of Mastodon come from having a smaller, interest-focused space where I can actually get to know people. That won't be the appeal for everyone, but that's what's kept me coming back.

My instance (my personal "home base" on Mastodon) is fandom.ink. It's a generally fannish space and has cool people and is well-looked-after by its mod, Alis. It's invite-only to make the growth manageable but any existing user (like me!) can grab you one if you want to join. There are some other fandom-focused instances too like blorbo.social - folks there seem pretty cool, the mod is good - and federatedfandom.net. There are also some fandom-specific instances; Fanlore has a list though it's infrequently updated (mostly by me).

Anyway, you should explore and check out the different options - you can make as many accounts as you feel like. Each instance has slightly different rules for content and posting so do make sure you're familiar with those, but the good fandom ones are fine with NSFW (generally behind a content warning, which is like a cut) and encourage people not to be dicks.

This isn't a "how to Mastodon" post, though I'm always happy to help people get to grips and can answer questions based on my own usage for close to 5 years. What I like about Mastodon is that the instances give you a smaller-feeling space to vibe and post but you can also interact with a wider "world" of other instances and people. There's some granularity in terms of post visibility, in that you can make your posts visible to only people you follow, only people in your instance, everyone, or just one person (NOT the same as DMs - it's the closest equivalent but the admin can still see those messages).

A note about Pillowfort - I don't use it myself (yet - I just made an account) but in a moment of unfortunate timing (or maybe not, if this gives them a bigger audience?) they've just posted a fundraising plea because they rely on community donations and they're running out. They seem like good people - they're committed to providing a space for NSFW and they don't want to run ads - but if you're looking for somewhere that's not financially hand to mouth, I'm not sure that Pillowfort is it. However, I kicked in $5 to skip the invite queue and I intend to explore it a bit.

Please add onto this with your Mastodon/Pillowfort/Dreamwidth/Bluesky/Cohost experiences since I can only speak to mine, but I hope they're helpful to someone!

Out of curiosity, where do you plan to head if Tumblr no longer becomes an option? Tumblr moving most of their staff to other projects isn't an immediate death knell, but it's definitely not a good sign for the longevity of this place and it may still be around for a long while yet, just buggy and slow as hell--do you have a place you'd settle into? I still haven't seen the perfect place to move come along yet (though, I'm on dreamwidth or on Discord ( lumigffa ) and those will be around for awhile. How's Pillowfort going for people? Bluesky? Is Mastodon still a thing?

[radioactive-yuri]

dominik mysterio is a crazy character cuz how often do you get someone with daddy issues actually just beating the shit out of their dad. in what other media can you have a character go "dad, you abandoned me when i was a child....square the fuck up". only on wwe

[stardustcentral95]

[onwhatcaptain]

so does anyone else constantly get recommended garbage clickbait star trek articles on their homepage, or what

[happy-mountain-goats]

"zam was the sun in eclipse!!" "zams the star in eclipse!"

WRONG!!! a solar eclipse needs three bodies, the sun, the moon, and THE EARTH to align, zams the earth to subzs moon and vi's sun

[gruhnivore]

He's so autism-coded it's not even funny, he's just like me fr!! Why did they have to take his cryptid swag away? </3

Bonus Taker!!

[lifestealzine]

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[insaneschizophrenic]

Christopher "Chris" Michael Benoit (May 21, 1967, Montreal, Quebec – June 24, 2007, Fayetteville, Georgia) was a Canadian professional wrestler. Benoit worked for wrestling companies such as Stampede Wrestling, New Japan Pro Wrestling (NJPW), Extreme Championship Wrestling (ECW), World Championship Wrestling (WCW), and World Wrestling Federation/Entertainment (WWF/WWE) using his own name as a ring name and also using the stage names Pegasus Kid and Wild Pegasus. In a three-day period, Benoit committed a double homicide-suicide, murdering his wife on June 22, 2007, his 7-year-old son on June 23, and hanging himself on June 24 at the age of 40. Subsequent investigation suggests that depression and brain damage known as CTE resulting from numerous blows to the head during his career as a professional wrestler were the primary contributing factors to the tragedy. Vince McMahon made the decision to erase Chris Benoit from WWE history,once the details of Benoit's actions became apparent, WWE made the decision to remove all mentions of the wrestler from its website, future programming, and publications. There will always be theories about whether he did it and the publication on Wikipedia of his murder days before his death. Chris Benoit has a son and a daughter from his first marriage, David Benoit and Megan Benoit.

[zingaplanet]

Christ Andy hold your horses will ya

[could-they-be-a-pro-wrestler]

If you want to get into pro-wrestling, one place I don’t recommend starting is the Wrestlemania 36 Firefly Fun House match between John Cena and Bray Wyatt. Don’t get me wrong, that’s a fun watch, but that’s also a horrible place to start if you want to get an idea of what wrestling is like. What I mean is:

1) John Cena wakes up in some bizarre hellscape that is controlled by Bray Wyatt and doesn’t know how he got there

2) Bray Wyatt forces Cena to relive his past memories as some sort of existential torture or something

3) There are evil demonic puppets in the background, either in view or reacting to Cena and Wyatt

4) It’s not really a match, it’s more like an analog horror video. And I’m being dead serious about that.

5) It’s a wrestling match, but no one actually wrestles lol. Cena takes like two or three hits and gets knocked out at one point.

6) Cena says, “Deez nuts” but the scene is supposed to be scary

7) Cena swings a chair at Bray Wyatt, but then Bray uses his demon fiend powers to teleport himself out of the ring

8) On top of being a straight up horror movie, it’s also a nostalgia trip down the old eras of WWE/WWF

9) Cena starts punching at Bray, but then it turns out he was hallucinating the whole time and that the thing he was punching was a puppet. Then, Bray Wyatt shows up behind him wearing his Slipknot mask and then, like a fucking slasher horror movie, kills Cena. Okay, he just does his finishing move, it’s not like he stabs Cena in the stomach. But then Cena’s body DISAPPEARS. He got deleted from existence lol.

[television-overload]

I'm just curious...

If yes: what media/characters specifically? I find this so interesting!

If not: have you ever considered a career choice based on a form of media you enjoy, but ended up not doing it?

[mal1ntent]

I have a question for lifesteal viewers more knowledgeable than me, what exactly did Vitalasy mean when he said “I know that it’s different” in reference to Zam talking to Subz vs Vi himself? I was planning on letting this question possibly get answered naturally, but with the public server returning and Subz being fully dedicated to it I figured I might as well ask

[otv-sonk-aus]

Foreign Swap - Shadow & Big

Here with another Foreign Swap pairing! This one I bet you didn't expect - it's Big and Shadow!

Shadow is a Black Arms infiltration unit - sent to earth in the disguise of a Hedgehog fifty years ago to conquer the planet. However, he fell in love with the planet and its people, and instead decided to lay low in a remote village. Recently, with the help of a kind and portly man who showed up in town calling himself Mister Tinker, he's gotten his hands on some Rings to inhibit his alien nature, allowing him to fully live life as the humble man he wishes to be.

Shadow runs an animal sanctuary, and is particularly fond of a little Dark Chao - one that keeps running off and getting into trouble all the time. As a result, he ends up stumbling into a lot of silly situations! Oh, how silly. Very... very silly. Generally he just ignores whatever's going on. It doesn't affect *him*, and there are more pressing matters at hand - he has a lost Chao to find!

Around the same time that Shadow landed on earth, Big was created. Originally a humble fisherman who lived with his beloved frog, Froggy, he volunteered for a government program testing the effects of Chaos Energy on living organisms after Froggy tragically fell ill, hoping that one of the scientists working on the project could save his friend. Thanks to the work of Doctor Gerald Robotnik, Big was transformed into the Ultimate Lifeform; though attempts to reverse-engineer a cure for Froggy from his newly-empowered biology sadly failed to manifest in the brief time they had before the project was completely shut down.

Froggy was assassinated by the United Federation Military during their raid on the Ark.

Big was captured and put into stasis, while Gerald Robotnik and his granddaughter Maria were taken into custody. Gerald was executed - Maria's fate remains unknown. After being awakened in the modern Day, Big has become a much more closed-off individual; he still has a kind and loving heart, but due to the death of Froggy and the loss of all connections to his happy past, he cannot bring himself to form friendships. In a way, he blames himself for Froggy's death - all the power and bulk in the world, and he couldn't even protect a measly frog.

[coff3w]

The irony of life.

[imheretoreadafic]

One of my biggest pet peeves in the killing Jokee discussion is the whole: "Well, he's not going to stop, and killing him is the only way to stop him!" Like... Just send him to an actual prison instead of Arkham?? We have murderers irl people, and they don't always stop because they're killed. They often stop because... They're in secure prisons.

Now, is escape possible in basically any prison if a person is dedicated enough? Yeah, I actually just watched a documentary about that it was really good, lmao (History's Best Escapes with Morgan Freeman). But at least a federal prison is TRYING and will slow him down, Arkham's security is glitter glue and hope, it ain't holding anyone in.

[gruhnivore]

I always love comparing the top talent of WWF and WCW at the time, especially when it comes to merch plugs. But more specifically, my two favs, Taker and Sting!(Ignore Hogan's leather couch looking ass)

*Grunt* "Please buy my merch"

Vs

"BUY MY SHIT!"