#hosting icontests or “stills” challenges as they were called

[hypnotisedfireflies]

I'm seeing stuff about how it was a "simpler time" and I call bullshit on that right now. LJ was fucking wild, there were communities like bad penny, fandom snark, encyclopaedia dramatica and others dedicated to chronicling all the drama. It was a full time job for those mods.

And also?? Secrets communities were out of sight, people used their icon making skills to make graphics and then add their secret text on top before submitting inflammatory secrets to fandom secrets, which was based on Post Secret. None of this swap to anon and submit in an ask box. You had to commit with detailed artworks that you'd honed through making icons and headers and Friends Only banners and moodthemes and colour boards and "is love" banners and skins (flexible squares).

.... I still have my permanent account from the Brad Fitzpatrick days AND the old header. And my userpics limit keeps going up (basically the only perk left of a permanent account, besides being ad-free) so I am currently using 248 of 274 available slots omfggg

Remember how LiveJournal let you have several icons (or avatars or "pfps" as you might call them now)? And you'd carefully choose an icon to fit the subject matter, your tone, and the blog on which you were commenting or posting?

And it could make your argument look that much snarkier if you used a rude one? Or you could use it to add a multiplier to a joke?

And icons, alongside banners and wallpapers, were a whole genre of fanwork with its own design language, conventions, and norms, including carefully crediting people for them?

That was neat.