#it's one of the reasons i moved from livejournal to dreamwidth

[bisexualbaker]

So it seems like some of you might be interested in learning more about Dreamwidth.

Listen, here's the thing: Dreamwidth is not slick. It is not fancy. Its base code was originally put together some two decades ago or more, and it looks like it. It can't do much with images and definitely not with video—like, I think there's some way to embed video, but I have no idea how to do it, and hosting it on Dreamwidth is, uh...

The point is! Dreamwidth is a lot different from Tumblr. It's closer to Tumblr than it is to Facebook or Instagram, but it's a lot more old-school internet than Tumblr is. And that means that, for anyone who wasn't on the internet some ten, fifteen years ago, there's probably going to be a steep learning curve. It can take more effort to post things there, and more effort to find your people, its image hosting capacity can charitably be described as both "limited" and "poorly organized", and overall it may still never be the kind of website where you, personally, will want to spend a lot of time or do a lot of things. Dreamwidth does not and will never have an app, for pretty much the same reasons as AO3.

But there is one thing I can guarantee, and that is that Dreamwidth is willing to fight for us and our rights. They're already doing so.

[not-poignant]

Is it just me or is censorship all across social media getting really bad lately? Pinterest just removed a whole bunch of my pins for sexual content - they were all fully clothed queer men and women showing vague intimacy, nothing overtly sexual at all. Like one they removed was literally just two men's heads leaning on each other. That's wacko right??? Have I missed something big going on?

Tbh it's been getting increasingly terrible for a long time, anon, it's not a lately thing, it's been since before the Tumblr purge, and it is at least in some part due to the SESTA/FOSTA law that got passed in the USA, and the increasing passing of laws in many countries that are specifically concerned with removing net neutrality and treating all of us like 3 year olds.

It will get worse, not better. And you've probably been missing a few big things! It sounds like you were most directly impacted by what happened with Pinterest, so you've just noticed it. Many of us noticed it around 2018 with the Tumblr purge. Some of us have been impacted by elements of it way earlier, due to Livejournal's Strikethrough which necessitated the invention of Dreamwidth and helped to really get AO3 off the ground. And this was back even before we now have many laws that scare a lot of big companies into removing adult content.

Steve Jobs famously hated / loathed pornography and was on a mission to literally try and remove it from the internet, and part of that mission was to - as much as possible - make it nearly impossible for apps that have it to get listed in the Apple store. This is partly why AO3 doesn't have an app. This is why Dreamwidth doesn't have an app. This is why the Tumblr Purge happened - so they could continue to have an app. And while some sites don't get targeted, as soon as you do get targeted by the Apple store, it's either 'provide your legal identity to prove that you're the age you say you are' to access adult content or it's 'goodbye adult content.'

We've also had an increasing rise of morally panicked, puritanical TERF-informed anti-shippers who believe that their emotional reactions to fictional content they find troubling are firstly valid moral judgements, and secondly, a valid reason to abuse, bully and send death threats to real people. And these people basically work hand-in-hand (often without realising) with extremely powerful Evangelical Christians who have government influence and a lot of money in the USA and literally work to change laws to make it reflect an extremely puritanical vision they have of the future. You know, the homphobic, transphobic, misogynistic, racist, kinkphobic, bigoted, antisemitic etc. etc. etc. one. (It's highly ironic and tragic that most antis are young and queer and just extremely uneducated).

I'd say people notice based on what impacted them directly. So some of us realised in 2007. Some of us realised again in 2018. And since then there's been a lot of blows from a lot of sites. In a way, Pinterest is joining an already very bloated bandwagon of sites cornered in the manner. The reason why people say 'unalive' these days instead of suicide, or 'r@pe' these days instead of rape is because of Tiktok censors. The reason so many folks moved their adult fanart and art accounts off Instagram, or they've gone dead, is because of Instagram censors. The reason so many adult writers on Patreon are very careful about what explicit words they write directly onto the site is because of Patreon censorship.

After all this, it's possible that Pinterest has a bug and are implementing a new AI algorithm for detecting adult content, and it's just broken. In those cases, reporting and appealing actually often does help. When Tumblr first implemented their algorithm, it wasn't very well trained yet, and like, pictures of fruit etc. were being banned because the AI algorithm was still figuring out what to do. Tumblr was in a rush in order to keep the app in the Apple store (over 70% of their income is from app users, the site would have literally died if they didn't act quickly), and so they ended up with an extremely overzealous and initially broken (and still sometimes broken x.x) algorithm.

If Pinterest is going through something similar, either with the app store or with having to address a sudden legal change, they may be having algo problems, and reporting will help them train the algorithm better.

Trust me, there will be people behind the scenes - staff at all of these websites - who hate the changes as much as you do, even if they can't say so for professional reasons. But even the new owner of Tumblr got pretty close to saying 'it fucking sucks but we have to do it if you want the site to exist' (which honestly made it a lot more...possible to handle the change, because it's not usually the sites you have to hate/resent, but the laws getting changed around you. Also if anyone here is an adult and can do so - please vote!!!)

[brehaaorgana]

The thing is, websites being slowly destroyed because of capitalist greed is bad in general for many reasons, but I would like to point out that one of those reasons is that not every social website is built to handle the same kinds of engagement in the same ways, and this destroys spaces that can't simply be ported elsewhere because they are symbiotic to their origins.

You destroy specific kinds of communities and communication styles that rely on the uniqueness of individual platforms. You can't move that to somewhere else with a different structure without fundamentally changing something.

This has always been true, but I feel like not everyone is fully...aware or familiar with how this happens. It's not even entirely a Gen Z thing either - there are plenty of Millennials/Xers and older generations who did not have a ton of internet access in the early-mid 2000's and so don't necessarily have familiarity with what vanished. Internet access has only recently been "expected," for more people across the class spectrum.

As a Millennial(TM) who has been connected to the internet basically since infancy (my dad did IT/software engineer management stuff and would literally sit me on his lap while he was on the computer as a baby), I am keenly aware of a) the fact that there are entire internet social communities which I didn't engage with but are now gone and b) that there are ones I did engage in and are lost or no longer really the same because of capitalism.

Like...forums are just not as popular anymore as they used to be. They still exist, but it's harder to find them and they usually see way less activity than other platforms. And we lose so much knowledge/advice/engagement without them. Things like: I turned around one day and found a digital art forum I used to lurk on was totally gone, along with all the inspiration, tutorials, and tips. I remember one thread was this one guy wanting to learn to draw, and it was basically just his progress journal of learning to draw. It went over the course of YEARS of progress from like, stick figures to beautifully rendered art. Shit inspired me so much, and I think it just...vanished?

But then there's things like, entire social norms, jokes, and kinds of engagement that also vanishes or becomes a graveyard. Forums usually have karma systems (which reddit apes, sort of) and that could tell you a lot about an account lol.

Look at the slow death of livejournal! Dreamwidth sort of...tried to fill the gap but there's so many platform specific expectations and experiences that Livejournal had:

Icons that you change based on: interests, content or intent of your post/comment, that you can create and have others use and which change often.

Related: icons and graphics communities.

CAPSLOCK COMMUNITIES WHERE YOU DON'T LAPSLOCK EVER!! EVERYONE TALKS LIKE THIS

Locked communities (especially age based!) Or dedicated communities with moderation and agreed upon rules unique to that comm. Tumblr literally can't recreate that. It doesn't port to how Tumblr specifically works.

Comms like ONTD, stupid_free, or comedy shit like weepingcock, - or even like, scanlations comms. Shit that just doesn't translate to tumblr's style, especially without optional anonymous engagement and nested conversations. There's no such thing as FFAF on Tumblr. It doesn't work. You don't break the internet here the same way ONTD did when Michael Jackson died.

Dedicated fandom/ship comms. As someone who was quite literally harassed on Tumblr for years because I didn't like a specific non-canon ship between a literal teenaged child and an adult and talked about it without tagging it (and even censored it when just words suddenly showed in tags!) I miss dedicated fandom comms so much. Because I had way more control over who engaged with me on my personal LJ and NEVER would've bothered people on a comm about a ship I hated because it's shitty behavior and because people who do that got banned! Shared communities with moderation and better blocking settings were benefits I didn't have on Tumblr.

Just...it doesn't translate to Tumblr and now it's just a tiny space on DW and the zombie of LJ.

Similarly I don't think AITA translates very well to Tumblr because Tumblr doesn't:

Have nested comments/comment threads that can be collected all on one central page

Have easy to make throwaway accounts

Allow for anon responses to posts directly (it's only asks! They can't reblog anonymously!)

Have an upvote system

Have a "sort by most popular" or "sort by oldest."

Have autoretention/bot capture of the original submission.

A way to click through to someone's comments in other communities, or see what their responses to the thread as the op easily.

A collection of moderators and standardized community rules and community ability to report trolling/spam/fiction/shit posts.

Call me a killjoy but AITA won't fully translate to Tumblr for the same reason why ONTD isn't translated to Tumblr, and even a similar concept to ONTD looks totally different on reddit (see: deuxmoi). It will look different, it won't have the same community or feel simply because the platform itself is different enough that it inherently changes how we engage, what that engagement looks like, and what can even feasibly be done.

When a website dies, the unique communities and communication styles of that platform also start to die.

[deathchasing]

3, 4, 10, 11, 18, 22 !

𝒂 𝒎𝒖𝒏 𝒂𝒔𝒌. 𝐚 𝐜𝐨𝐥𝐥𝐞𝐜𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐨𝐟 𝐚𝐬𝐤𝐬 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐦𝐮𝐧𝐬 𝐛𝐞𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐝 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐦𝐮𝐬𝐞𝐬 𝐨𝐟 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐫𝐩𝐜. | (Open)

3. what fandom do you primarily favour? this one's easy! apex! my interests expand beyond apex obviously but i'll be the first to admit i have zero AUs for my lil man and i'm not sure about the reason for this. i think a lot of it is simply memory issues and not being able to remember enough lore details to feel secure in my interpretations ... that being said, if i made any AUs, they'd probably include tron, borderlands, the elder scrolls, and fallout. maybe dead by daylight but octane would just be frank legion anyway so idk. i also thought about an overwatch AU once but then blizzard stopped caring about the lore and so did i LOL

4. what genre do you primarily favour? i write/draw a lot of scifi these days but my background is actually in fantasy and horror. i really dig writing about psychology and dark themes in general. scifi can often encompass these things but sometimes i feel like i swing a little too hard in the thriller/horror direction and that maybe i'm writing in the wrong genre :')

10. what year did you join the tumblr roleplaying community? not that long ago. 2019ish

11. what other platforms have you used to roleplay? i started rping when i was like. eleven years old. on MSN messenger & AIM. then on neopets boards. and then i moved onto actual forums like proboards and invisionfree. funny story btw, in the process of answering this one, i went on a deep dive to find my old invisionfree RP forum and apparently they all shut down in 2019 and i might have lost four years worth of writing from high school. FUN. anyway then i moved to livejournal and dreamwidth for a bit and finally tumblr.

18. how did you come across the roleplay community? that's a good question. i have no idea. PROBABLY just from browsing neopets forums if i had to guess.

19. what have you learned by proxy of roleplaying and rp researching? i never used to research anything for RP because it was all fantasy and OCs up until tumblr and i did what i wanted. BUT with octane i have had the opportunity to learn lots of miscellaneous things. random spanish phrases and expletives. what being electrocuted feels like. how long it takes to die from asphyxiation. y'know just octane things

[simgaroop]

Not really a question but I just wanted to say thank you for all your work. 　 I've been following you for many years since I was a child but never know why you're not active on LJ anymore until I've stumble across your simblr today. You're like an inspiration to me, since I love recreating family, especially the Goths and Brokes and yours are just so good -- Also, is it possible for you to pack entire family conversion into one dl? It's a must-have in my game but I've uninstalled a long time ag

First of all, I am glad to meet you! Thank you so much for your message, it warms my heart to read that you still remember my story from so long ago (14 years - it was first published on May 2007). I am not active in LJ anymore because pretty much all the Sims community moved to Tumblr a few years ago. One of the joys of being in this "fandom" is the interaction with other "Simmers", so losing that engagement pretty much forced me to ditch my LJ.

I still have my account, and if for some reason fandom returned to Livejournal I would gladly go back. That is unlikely, but you never know.

I would love to see your recreations if you reinstall the game. I still enjoy reading or watching about the Premades.

What families are you interested in? The recreations I made a while ago at Dreamwidth?

Have a lovely day!

[lilydalexf]

Old School X is a project interviewing X-Files fanfic authors who were posting fic during the original run of the show. New interviews are posted every Tuesday.

Interview with Jintian

Jintian has 21 X-Files stories at AO3 all posted during the original run of the show and all fics you should read if you like beautiful words and lovely character insights (and you do!). I've recced some of my favorites here before, including Argus, Diving, God's Breath, and Seven Days. Big thanks to Jintian for doing this interview.

Does it surprise you that people are still interested in reading your X-Files fanfics and others that were posted during the original run of the show (1993-2002)?

Many authors from the original run still loom large in my mind, so I'm glad to hear it. The show had great production values and cinematography and iconic characters, and I think that level of quality was reflected in fanworks. Good writing is good writing no matter how old. For myself, I'm happy if anything I made still resonates with people. What do you think of when you think about your X-Files fandom experience? What did you take away from it?

Just doing the math, I first discovered XF over half my lifetime ago. I was a sheltered introverted young'un. Online fandom introduced me to a diversity of people and perspectives I couldn't have found in my "real" life at the time. I'm especially grateful for the wisdom of women who, over the years, advised or supported me or simply led by example – not only with writing, but with everything from relationships to job interviews to finances. And I love that in so many places I've lived or traveled, I've been able to meet someone local who already feels like a friend.

Social media didn't really exist during the show's original run. How were you most involved with the X-Files online (atxc, message board, email mailing list, etc.)? The Scullyfic mailing list, ATXC, and archives were my main venues. Scullyfic was such a well-run group, with structured discussion topics, post-episode commentary, and writing challenges.

Also, an image comes to mind: for some reason my dad put our computer in the garage, where we had a fan but no air conditioning, and we lived in the US southeast which feels like the armpit of hell in the summertime. I'd sit in that sweltering muggy heat for hours getting my fandom fix. And the only way to connect to the internet was via landline, which I couldn't tie up during the day, so that meant a lot of late nights as well. My fandom equivalent of trudging miles uphill in the snow?

What did you take away from your experience with X-Files fic or with the fandom in general? With regard to fanfic, I learned how to receive and give constructive criticism, before and after posting. Even if it was "just" fanfic, most everyone wanted to improve their writing. I think that was a good mindset for me to cultivate, personally and professionally.

With regard to fandom, I learned how to be an active and analytical consumer, and that there can be many (many!) interpretations of a text. What was it that got you hooked on the X-Files as a show? The fanfic, actually. Somehow in my internet wanderings, I stumbled across Gossamer. Dawson Rambo's casefiles were also early finds. Curiosity about the characters drove me to check out the show.

What got you involved with X-Files fanfic?

As far as writing my own, I had an image in my head which I jotted down, and over several months I kept adding to it – mostly navel-gazing, not much plot. The resulting story was a hodgepodge of different POVs and different tenses. *facepalm* But I received some lovely feedback, and I felt very welcomed. For me the XF community, with everyone's creativity and dedication, was just as inspiring and motivating for fanfic as the show.

What is your relationship like now to X-Files fandom?

I think of it like school. I learned a lot, I graduated, and now it's primarily occupied by a new generation. Were you involved with any fandoms after the X-Files? If so, what was it like compared to X-Files?

If XF was like university, then afterward was like graduate school. Sophiahelix and I started a multi-fandom mailing list called Glass Onion and met lots of folks. Livejournal/Dreamwidth became big public platforms which enabled tons of cross-fandom links, recs, and discussions – and sometimes clashes. Although it wasn't as intensely formative for me as XF, I realized that fandom in general has had an undeniable impact on my life. [Lilydale note: That’s a link to a wonderful little essay Jintian wrote about fandom.]

Who are some of your favorite fictional characters? Why? I love the sneak attackers, the ones who seem unassuming or perhaps disadvantaged, but they're actually out here killing the game. Dana Scully was a small-statured person who had to move the driver's seat to reach the pedals – like me – but she was an FBI agent, medical doctor, and forensic pathologist – unlike me, but goals. Other similar faves are Toph Beifong (Avatar: The Last Airbender), Mat Cauthon (Wheel of Time), and Jang Geurae (Misaeng). Do you ever still watch The X-Files or think about Mulder and Scully? Several years ago I had the notion to introduce my husband to the show, and it was totally enjoyable and could stand up with shows airing today. (Husband queried: "What is the deal with Mulder? He should have been fired 19 times already." We were in Season 2.)

Do you ever still read X-Files fic? Fic in another fandom?

No XF lately, but I'll check AO3 whenever I encounter a shiny new ship. Reading fic is my only fannish activity these days, so I stay happy and conflict-free.

Do you have any favorite X-Files fanfic stories or authors? It's been ages, but today I'm thinking of torch, Jane St Clair, Jordan, RivkaT, MustangSally, Khyber, nevdull, Justin Glasser, Vehemently, Nascent... On any other day it could be a whole different list. The fandom was so rich and deep in writers. What is your favorite of your own fics, X-Files and/or otherwise?

My XF stuff was kind of all over the place. I experimented a lot, with mixed results. I guess I'm glad about some of the subject matter I tackled, like Scully's trauma and post-abduction state of mind (and body) in Loss of Yesterday, and the thematically similar Longer Gone, which explored Samantha.

What's the story behind your pen name? Jintian means "today" in Mandarin Chinese. I was feeling existential. 🤷‍♀️

Do your friends and family know about your fic and, if so, what have been their reactions? I've only ever told an ex and my husband. They were allowed to read one story – which I chose. They thought it was cool, I guess. I can't remember clearly because I had my fingers stuck in my ears going "lalalala!"

However, I can always count on my husband to say something savagely funny about fandom mess, so I just try to curate his exposure. For instance, he could recap the Msscribe saga but couldn't tell you any of my usernames. He's also met a number of my fannish friends so he knows how we get, hah.

Is there a place online (tumblr, twitter, AO3, etc.) where people can find you and/or your stories now?

AO3 Is there anything else you'd like to share with fans of X-Files fic?

As I'm writing this, the world is grappling with COVID-19. I'm wishing everyone safety and health, both physical and mental. If fandom provides a positive escape, embrace and enjoy it!

(Posted by Lilydale on October 6, 2020)

[danieyells]

I need to go through all my new followers and check out blogs lol i've gotten a decent amount recently that I haven't checked out but

Hello new friends! (And old friends who've come back into my life!!)

For the uninitiated, I'm Danie! o/ you probably followed me for Obey Me! content and that's probably the bulk of consistently appearing things you'll find on my blog lol if you know me from previous fandoms(depending on how long ago I may have gone by Spires or Tara, please do not use the latter) you may know me from the Pokémon RPC(namely as @gruntadminloch-moved , my Team Skull OC, or @oppressiveliberator , Ghetsis) or, if you know me from even further back, the Neoblogging community(@firespires here, and either exinspired or taradanie on Neopets itself, though I had like five accounts lol), or the Hetalia fandom(tarafishes or exinspired or a shitton of rp accounts from livejournal and dreamwidth that I don't recall.) I was in Ace Attorney and Naruto fandom when I was much younger but I doubt I'd be remembered from there as I contributed nothing of note.

I'm your local black, pro-shipping, nonbinary grayromantic asexual Eevee(not kin, but I forgot the word for 'identifies with something but not as that thing'.) I use they/them and he/him pronouns.

I won't tell you where to go and where not to go and if you can or can't follow or interact with me(communication is how we all coke to understand things, and I'm down for being someone who's part of that communication), but do know that, while I may not post about it a ton and may not openly talk about certain fictional ships or kinks I enjoy very much, if you're an anti-shipper your views are not upheld here and will be openly challenged now and then(though I'm not a discourse blog and thus discuss more using reason and sense and logic than articles, though I've read at least one proving points I'm in favor of.)

Please come and go and ask questions as you need/desire(though I'm bad at remembering to answer them and bad at responding to things sometimes)! It's nice to have you here, no matter how long or short you may be here for. o/

[attackfish]

5hc AU w Hama as Katara's master (Katara probably got separated from Sokka cos of some tragic event? So Hama is the only person she has left and is starting to get affected by her ideas).

So I do have an AU where Hama is Katara's master, the Life Spirit AU, where the Avatar is the spirit of life and fertility, and when Aang was frozen, fertility of all life took a nose dive. In it, the Fire Nation doesn't have the strength to go rounding up waterbenders, so Hama teaches Katara at the South Pole. This universe is old enough to have started in Livejournal, so the first four drabbles are on Dreamwidth: [Link], [Link], [Link], and [Link]. There is also a short story in this universe called "Where the Morning Light Shines": [Link]. And last but not least there are the Tumblr posts: [Link], [Link], [Link], [Link], and [Link].

1. As already mentioned, Katara starts out her journey already a waterbending master, but one who gained her mastery in one of the cruelest ways possible. Worse, because she was a child, Hama was able to convince Katara that what and more importantly how she learned was to be kept secret. This means nobody in her family including Sokka, or Kanna, or even Hakoda, has any idea what katara's training was like. It's only after Sokka, Zuko, Iroh, Aang, and Katara have been traveling together for a while that she is able to open up about what her training was like and what she learned.

2. Iroh starts to have qualms about just how Katara learned to bend almost as soon as he sees her teach Aang for the first time. There is a malicious edge to the bending she has learned. There is a brutality to how she thinks about waterbending that unsettles him. Fortunately it also unsettles Aang. Part of the reason Iroh and Zuko offered to escort them North is that Iroh hopes that at the North Pole, they will be able to find waterbenders who might be better suited to teaching the Avatar.

3. Instead, with time and space, Katara comes to develop a relationship with her bending that is hers, that is informed by what she went through with Hama, but not consumed by it. She takes the first steps towards this understanding before she reaches the North Pole, and realizes something needs to change.

4. Hama was no healer, and healing was lost to the Southern Water Tribe because of this. But there are still healers in the North. Katara hopes against hope that when she gets there, she will be able to learn, that Hama didn't ruin her. But she is able to heal, and being able to emerse herself in a waterbending made to help others, made to restore and renew what has gone wrong is an important part in healing her own enotional wounds, and restoring her faith in herself and her gifts.

5. The Foggy Swamp, much like the poles, is so fertile that a reduction in fertility still left it mostly livable, and there are waterbenders eking out a living there. They have such a different conception of waterbending from either the Northern or Southern styles, a style about moving with the living water and the living things in the water, and the water in living things, that Katara convinces them to stay in the swamp for several weeks while she takes it in.

[avanalae]

Darkfic Saga Installment 9

The 9th installment of my old Darkfic Saga! It’s only been, like, five years. :| I hope you’ll all forgive me. 

And to those who aren’t familiar with this series, please be wary as this is pretty much my series where I abuse the heck out of the characters that I love. Mostly Tim. Most all of them are pretty darn dark. 

You can find the rest of the series on AO3. I started it on Dreamwidth and Livejournal aaaages ago. I uploaded everything to AO3 in one story right HERE, but the previous installment is on tumblr right HERE.

Enjoy!

__________

Title: The End of my Lover Fandom: DCU Pairing: Jason/? (written with Tim in mind but is open) Rating: T Warnings: Insanity, Implied Death or Major Injury, Blood Prompt: Madness (Darkfic 056)

Jason doesn’t remember much from his brief episodes of insanity. It’s a leftover from the pit, of course, these episodes. They’ve been getting shorter with longer periods of time between them, but they terrify him.

He has every right to be terrified.

During one of his episodes, he’d… Jason blinks back the tears. He can’t even think it. All that he can see behind his eyelids is that scene he woke up to.

Blood, blood everywhere, staining their bed and covering his lover’s body. His eyes were closed, and Jason’s heart felt like it had stopped in his chest as he stared.

He reached out to touch him and flinched back when he saw it.

Covered in blood.

Hoarsely he muttered his lover’s name.

There was no response.

The madness returned.

__

Title: Pretty Please Fandom: DCU Pairing: Slade/Tim Rating: Explicit Warnings: Non-Con/Rape Prompt: Please (Darkfic 057) 

“P-Pl…” he gasps, cutting himself off from finishing the word.

The pace slows, still hard enough to jerk his body with every thrust, but it drags and he whines. “No…!”

A deep chuckle rattles him and he tries to thrash but is held down easily. “Down, little bird. Just say it.”

Tim shakes his head frantically and tries to free himself, only making the man laugh again. He thrusts hard making him choke and nearly bite his tongue.

“Careful there, little bird,” he traps both hands in one of his massive ones. The other gleefully explores the small body beneath him. “Now, just say the word and we can get this over with. But, by all means,” he thrusts again and draws out a little whine before leaning over him and mutters against bitten lips, “take your time.”

Tim surges up and attempts to bite those lips but he backs off with a bark of laughter. Tim grunts at the movement and groans, “Slade, no…!”

“Mm. Slade, yes.” He twists one of Tim’s nipples harshly and Tim wails. “Go ahead, little bird. Just say please.”

A fresh bout of tears spill from Tim’s eyes and Slade wipes them away in a gesture of mock kindness. “Just say the word and I’ll end this,” his free hand brushes ever so lightly against Tim’s groin and Tim flinches with a whine.

“N-No!”

Slade smirks, “Then be ready for a long night.”

__

 Title: Come Play with Me Fandom: DCU Pairing: Jason/Tim Rating: T Warnings: Implied Drugging, Dark Implications Prompt: Mask (Darkfic 058) 

The slim body sidles up to him, fitting ever-so-nicely against him. Chest to chest slender arms come up to wrap around his neck and he leans in, noses brushing.

“Jay,” Tim drawls, “What are you doing here?” One hand caresses his cheek, thumb skimming along the edge of his mask.

Jason growls, “You’re drugged, birdie. I’m taking you home.”

“Oh, truly? Mm,” Tim pulls him down closer by his neck and nuzzles him, “What will you do to me there?”

Jason tries to push him away but Tim rolls with the movements. There must be something wrong with him, too, because he can’t bring himself to be rough with the man. “Red Robin, you need to stop.”

Tim sighs and rubs against him, “Will you make me?”

“Red-” Jason groans and finally manages to push him away, though likely only because Tim let him. “Come on. We need to get whatever is drugging you tested and get an antidote ready.”

“Mm,” Tim sighs and stretches, “Won’t you play with me? Please?”

“No, Red, I don’t even know what you were drugged with.” Jason huffs and then grunts as Tim moves and knocks him out with a swift jab.

Tim smiles at the passed-out form of the bigger man, “You should have just said yes, Jaybird.”

__

 Title: Burn, Baby, Burn Fandom: DCU Pairing: Ra’sTim Rating: T Warnings: Death, Fire, Burning cities, Destruction Prompt: Destruction (Darkfic 059) 

Ra’s brushes a few kisses along Tim’s temple, arms wrapped around the man sitting between his legs. Tim hums contentedly and continues to run his thumbs across Ra’s’ knuckles.

His kisses trail down to his neck and Tim sighs, tilting his head just so to invite the ministrations.

Ra’s takes the opportunity and continues to explore his lover with his lips, inhibited only by the clothes he wears. The neck of his shirt is wide, however, so he has plenty of skin to adore. And adore he does.

Tim turns his head in a plea for a kiss and receives one, a lingering thing that makes him sigh. Ra’s smiles into it and Tim licks those tempting lips.

“Come now, Timothy, I thought you would desire to view the scenery.”

Tim grumbles but does look out at the skyline.

The sky is red and black, filled with smoke and the reflections of flames. Flickers of flame are scattered around, bright red and orange, giving off a glow.

The city is burning.

The sounds of screams are distant, but audible and Tim closes his eyes. He can’t feel the heat of the flames from this distance, but he likes to imagine he can.

Eventually Tim huffs, “I do very much enjoy the sights, but I can imagine a better way to spend our time.” He rolls his hips back into Ra’s’ groin and leans back fully, dropping most of his weight onto the older man.

Ra’s chuckles and his hands slip down to spread Tim’s thighs atop his own. One hand squeezes his inner thigh and the other grabs one of Tim’s pecs, caressing firmly. Tim groans, pleased, and drags his nails along his lover’s arms.

Sirens wail in the distance and Ra’s nips at Tim’s neck.

People scream and Tim moans.

Chaos reigns and their kings kiss with a ferocity that is second nature to them.

__

 Title: Venom Fandom: DCU Pairing: None Rating: PG-13 Warnings: Implied murder Prompt: Poisonous (Darkfic 060)

Tim knows what’s wrong with him. He’s never not known. And he doesn’t consider it to be something wrong with him, either. It’s just a part of him.

He’s venomous. It’s easily controlled now, but he can still slip.

It’s always an accident, he would swear if anyone knew it was him.

Mother was both venomous and poisonous, but he is glad he isn’t, as it would make getting all those injuries a terrible inconvenience. Not only that but he’d be outed rather quickly as something abnormal.

Mother taught him all the ways to use his venom and he collected it on a regular basis to run tests on and for… other reasons. He always keeps a vial on him with a small injector.

Just in case.

Tim stares down at the unconscious criminal before him. Not one of the supervillains, for sure, but he apparently aspires to be one. Now then, whether or not to nip the problem in the bud.

He draws out the vial and swirls it.

Whether or not to waste a bit of himself on such trash.

These are the tough decisions he must make.

__

Title: By the Light of the Moon Fandom: DCU Pairing: Jason/Tim Rating: M Warnings: Werewolves, beastiality, rape Prompt: Feral (Darkfic 061) 

“J-Jay, Jaybird, hey,” Tim is on his knees in the best submissive position he can manage, “Hey, it’s me, Tim. Jason it’s Tim.”

The beast before him growls right in his face, long muzzle scrunched up to bare wicked-looking teeth. But praises be, he snuffs and sniffs and seems to recognize Tim on some level. His nose tucks into Tim’s armpit and then his hips, rubbing his groin which startles Tim.

The jerky motion brings a growl from Jason, this werewolf before him, and he stills.

But the next thing he knows he’s being pushed onto his back and large paw-like hands are holding his wrists down. “Jay- What are yo- eep!”

Jason tears off Tim’s pants in one swift motion with his jaws, ripping the fabric beyond all hope.

“Jason-!” He licks a broad stripe along Tim’s groin and stomach, making Tim yelp. “Oh no oh no, Jay, please-”

But the pleas fall on deaf ears as Jason takes position to mount him. Tim’s panic is blatant, but his struggles mean nothing against a 400-pound beast.

His scream echoes among the trees as Jason takes him.

__

Title: In the Night Fandom: DCU Pairing: Bruce/Tim Rating: M Warnings: Underage, Masturbation, Rutting Prompt: Shadow (Darkfic 062)

Bruce is always there, even if not physically. He’s always watching and always present, just like a shadow. He stalks and prowls and sees everything.

Tim knows this, but he can’t help it. He’s a healthy young teenager with an active sex drive.

So when he masturbates, he makes sure the cameras have the best view, no matter what he’s doing. Whether he’s pulling himself off to a release or fingering himself or playing with one of the many toys he’s gotten, he angles himself just right.

And it all comes to a head one night after patrol. He’s terribly horny and he’s rushing through clean-up so he can run up to his room and have a quick release when he’s stopped by Bruce. He draws him into conversation about their patrol all the while eyeing him, so Tim has no doubts that he’s doing this on purpose.

Feeling bold, Tim steps into Bruce’s space. He backs up until he’s sitting in the chair at the computer and Tim climbs onto his lap. Bruce’s stare is passive, but his eyes are burning so Tim grinds against his stomach. His moan is loud and echoes in the cave and suddenly he’s shy, covering his mouth with one hand.

But Bruce’s large hands grab his hips and pull him into thrusts. Tim gasps and starts following the rhythm, moaning louder and louder as his hands come away from his mouth to grab at Bruce’s shoulders.

He comes hard, his thrusts stuttering against Bruce’s toned stomach and he whines.

Tim eventually manages to open his eyes and he sees Bruce’s pants fighting against his own erection and-

He swallows. Bruce must be huge.

But something lights in his stomach, even after his orgasm, and he looks up to see Bruce staring him down.

Maybe just this once…

[writcraft]

Fandom Platform Migration: Fandom History and Why It Matters

I have been around in fandom for a decent length of time and have operated on multiple platforms. I also research platform migration, specifically in relation to Harry Potter fandom, one of the primary case studies for understanding how fandom movements across internet spaces have changed over the years. With the new content guidelines posted by Tumblr and the general panic stations around how this will impact fanart and potential future ramifications for fanfic, I wanted to set out a very cursory history and some thoughts.

THE (VERY) BASICS: SOME PIVOTAL MOMENTS

FanLib (2007). A commercial enterprise designed to profit from fanfic, widely condemned within fandom spaces. Led to the original post by @astolat proposing ‘An Archive Of One’s Own’, recognising the need for a platform with no potentially conflicting commercial interest, which understood and supported fandom content. You can read the original post on Fanlore here x and you can read about what we now know (and love) as AO3 in their own words here x 

Strikethrough/Boldthrough (2007). LiveJournal attempted to crack-down on journals which they deemed to be connected to child pornography, incest, paedophilia and rape. While the sentiment behind those deletions clearly come from a good place, fandom history has taught us that once the axe is wielded it falls with no rhyme or reason. Communities caught up in strikethrough/boldthrough included, for example, rape survival communities, book groups, and in a fandom context, hundreds of personal fannish blogs and fandom communities. You can read more about Strikethrough, and the later Boldthrough, on Fanlore here: x

Fanlore (2007). An AO3 project and a must read for anyone interested in fandom history. Essentially a fandom wiki. Many of the links in this post originate from Fanlore.

FanFiction.Net Purges (2002 and 2012). FanFiction.Net is an archive for hosting fanfiction which was mired by several issues over the course of fandom history, most notably in this context the banning of RPF and the purge of explicit content in 2002 and 2012 where explicit fanfic was deleted and removed without warning. You can read more about the purges on Fanlore here: x.

Dreamwidth. A fan-friendly journal alternative to LiveJournal. Established 2009 and exited beta in 2011. You can read more about Dreamwidth on Fanlore here: x

PLATFORM MIGRATION: WHAT IS IT?

From the early days of Internet fandom, fandoms have moved across platforms from Yahoo Groups to journals, to Tumblr (to name just a pithy handful of examples). When platforms have been deemed ‘unsafe’ for fandom activity, there are trends around fandom communities seeking alternative platforms. During Strikethrough/Boldthrough, for example, the more fan-friendly InsaneJournal was a site many communities migrated to and people backed up personal LJ blogs on IJ. As the journals became increasingly unpalatable due to clunky interfaces and new, restrictive terms of service in the case of LiveJournal (2017) a number of journal originated fandom participants moved to Tumblr, which by that point has established itself as a place where fandom activity could thrive. You can read about platform migration in this 2018 Slate interview with Dr Casey Fiesler, who is currently undertaking some fantastic research in this field. 

FINE. WHAT CAN WE DO WITH TUMBLR’S UPDATED TERMS?

Continue to do your thing. LJ was alive and kicking for another decade after Strikethrough/Boldthrough before things really started to shift. It’s very difficult to know what impact the changes will have on fandom activity at this point. However, here are a few things I’m personally thinking about in the context of one more nail in the ‘Tumblr as a safe space for fandom’ coffin.

SUPPORT SITES WHICH ARE FANDOM FRIENDLY. This includes AO3 and for more community oriented journaling, Dreamwidth. Please add other suggestions if you have them. If you’re not already using them in conjunction with your blog, find chat groups within your fandom like Discord which will help you connect with other fandom participants.

SUPPORT YOUR FANARTISTS. The journals have not been aesthetically brilliant for fanart, so check where else your favourite artists post and follow them there, supporting their works where you can. At present, fanart seems to be the most at risk kind of fannish content (together with gif makers producing NSFW edits). Keep an eye out for fanartists posting about alternative platform options.

INTERACT ON OTHER PLATFORMS. Tumblr took a long time to grow as a viable space for fandom activity. There are alternatives where you can find fandom communities that are lively, welcoming and approachable. Discord chats, Dreamwidth. Fandoms are increasingly fragmented, but your people are out there. Find them, and speak to them. I promise it works.

SUPPORT YOUR FANDOM. One of the biggest shifts I’ve seen is that in the ‘old days’ fandom policing seemed to come from the heavy hand of corporations. In the context of the new Tumblr guidelines, seems like we’re back at it again, where fandom could well feel the impact of commercial interests vastly outweighing the needs and desires of fandom communities. However, intra-fandom policing has been on the uptick on Tumblr itself, and a large threat to the ‘freedom to fandom’ comes from within our own communities. Think about what fandom means to you and how to support content creators in a way which resists purity culture that seeks to silence and shame. Support your fandom, if it matters to you. Work with us, even those of us whose kinks/ships/opinions you might not like, as opposed to against us.

[zarla-s]

So I'm thinking of moving to Pillowfort once the site is back up. As someone who actually has an account there, what do you think of the site? Would you say it's worth it?

I’ve hung out there a bit and on the whole I actually really like the basic structure of it. I like how much control you have over reblogs, comments, being able to lock posts, communities… those are all big improvements. There are some weird behaviors with the image uploader, notably this crazy jittering I get on my browser when uploading large images, but it’s nothing world-ending or anything, it’s still usable. One of the first things I did there actually was run a series of image uploading tests, since that’s a prime concern for me. It lets you upload bigger images at better quality than Tumblr, which is great. There are some key features that are missing that I like, like having a queue, but they’re ones that I feel like will be added over time (if pf survives).

Right now the big concern is actually getting people to move there. Achieving critical mass is hard, even if you have a service that’s objectively better than the old one. I was there for Strikethrough/Boldthrough and when Dreamwidth came out. And objectively, Dreamwidth is better than Livejournal at pretty much everything it does. It adds a ton of really useful and handy features, it streamlines a lot of stuff, it’s just overall a better experience. But it turned out that when fandom moved, it didn’t want to go to Livejournal 2.0, it wanted to go somewhere new, and it ended up on Tumblr. My guess is that the next fandom diaspora will follow the same pattern - some will stay here, some will move to other sites, and eventually over time fandom will settle on another service that was not designed with fandom in mind, but will get twisted to suit fandom’s current needs in a way that people want. Then that service will get upset at fandom’s various activities for whatever reason and try to get rid of everyone and the cycle will repeat again.

That’s just me being cynical though, haha. I would really love it if Pillowfort took off honestly, and I’m one of the few people that still posts on DW/LJ with something approaching regularity after everyone left, just because DW/LJ is better suited to certain types of posts I want to make than Tumblr is. So even if Tumblr becomes a ghost town, I’ll probably hang around here until the bitter end as well. I have a lot of inertia.

But I like using Pillowfort! I like how it functions and everything, I like the whole setup. It just needs more people posting there to have a real reason to keep posting there myself (it’s a recursive loop, you gotta make content to get people to come and make more content). Also the Pillowfort servers are super robust right now but that’s not a huge surprise considering the massive influx of traffic they must be getting at the moment. We’ll see how it’ll pan out. I actually got my Pillowfort code for free cause I signed up for a beta code like years and years ago and totally forgot until they sent it to me recently, haha. It’s weird because for a long time in the early days, Livejournal was similarly exclusive, where to make an LJ you had to get a code/token from a friend. You couldn’t just sign up for free or make a bunch of accounts willynilly. Eventually LJ opened up free accounts for everyone, but every now and then I think about that and marvel at how things still managed to flourish there at the time. It’s possible PF may open free accounts at some point once they hammer out their business plan more, or maybe some generous people out there’ll give you extra codes if you’re looking. And if nothing else, you can at least see all the unlocked posts on PF for free.

I’m at Pillowfort as zarla btw, if you’re hopping over there let me know, haha.

[bemused-writer]

Thanks, @hilullabye for tagging me in this! 

Nickname: In person, none! Online, plenty since I’m always coming up with new names for video games and such. For writing platforms such as Tumblr or AO3 it’s just “Bemused” though or possibly “Em” if anyone would like. ^^

Gender: Female

Astrological sign: Aquarius

Hogwarts house: Ravenclaw (Harry Potter was one of my primary obsessions for years. I was there for the opening release of the books starting with the fourth book. It was so much fun! I still love Harry Potter too, even if the fanbase seems to be in a much more pessimistic stage than it was back then.)

Favorite animals: Cats (I think I qualify as a cat person XD) and donkeys (they are just so awesome, you guys; I love them) off the top of my head but I really love animals in general.

Number of blankets: My preference is to just have a ton of blankets but if it’s warm out I have to remove a lot. D8

Where I’m from: The US

Dream trip: I’d really like to visit the national parks or some museums. Out of country I’d love to see Japan in particular--some of the obvious sites such as Tokyo and Tokyo Tower but I’d also like to see some Shinto shrines and some of the forests as well.

When I started this account: Back in 2012! Before that my main places of residence were DeviantArt, LiveJournal, and FF.Net. I think the earliest I ever properly registered on any of those sites was ... 2007 but I was lurking well before that. XD Some good times!

Why I started this account: You know, I’m not sure there was a specific reason. I just wanted a way of interacting with even more fan content. It took me a little bit to figure out how Tumblr worked because I was so used to LiveJournal’s setup. It wasn’t so much the mechanics that puzzled me because that was simple enough but the way people interacted and the way the tagging system is used here took me a bit. (I’ve since moved on to Dreamwidth as an LJ replacement; they’re much more honest). I’ve also always liked blogging in general although I often don’t know what to say... I feel like despite being here so long I’m only now getting into the swing of interacting and posting my original stuff. XD

As for who I tag, I’ll got with anyone who might enjoy doing one of these. Go for it!

[dawnfelagund]

The B2MeM Effect: On Community and Commenting

For the past few months, I have been thinking and posting a lot about commenting, namely what causes it to go up (or down) and how we, The Tolkienfic Fandom, can improve commenting on stories. All of the research I’ve done points to the fact that comments have dropped off in recent years, and this harms us as a community. Figuring out how to fix this is important to me. In a post I wrote in December for @longlivefeedback, I synthesized some of my data and ideas on the subject of commenting, drawing the conclusion that a sense of community encourages commenting:

[My] data suggest that non-commenting authors don’t feel as deep of a community connection as Tolkienfic authors and community members in general. As noted above, 78% of participants want to leave comments more often on what they read. Perhaps not surprisingly, given the above, for non-commenting authors, that number drops to 63%. This suggests that, in addition to confidence, a community connection fosters a desire to comment. 

Last month was Back to Middle-earth Month (B2MeM, @backtomiddleearthmonth). As an admin of this event, I noticed something interesting as I perused the fanworks being posted: The comment counts were much higher than normal for the Tolkienfic fandom. This sent me back to this earlier idea that community facilitates commenting.

I waited a month and returned to the first two weeks of fanworks posted for B2MeM. I also looked at AO3 and my own archive, the Silmarillion Writers’ Guild, and the number of comments being posted on those sites during the same time period. Here is the frequency of comment counts for the three sites:

There is more discussion and data below the jump

Methodology

I looked at all single-chapter English-language fanworks posted on the three sites between the dates March 1 and March 14, 2018, inclusive.

Note that not all fanworks were fiction: There was also meta, art, and playlists, although most fanworks were fiction.

I looked only at top-level comments on sites that use threaded comments.

AO3 data came from the category  TOLKIEN J. R. R. - Works & Related Fandoms.

I collected this data on April 14, 2018.

Additional Data

During the two-week period analyzed, the following number of eligible fanworks were posted to each of the three sites:

AO3 = 169

SWG = 19

B2MeM = 55

The median number of comments received on each site for eligible fanworks:

AO3 = 1

SWG = 1

B2MeM = 4

The percentage of eligible fanworks that did not receive any comments:

AO3 = 33%

SWG = 26%

B2MeM = 9%

Some Observations

In every measure, commenting was best on B2MeM. If you look at the graph I posted above, on both the SWG and AO3, fewer fanworks have higher numbers of comments. The exact opposite is true on B2MeM: relatively few fanworks have between 0 and 3 comments. The number of fanworks receiving 4 comments, however, jumps and only slowly declines through 8 comments. This is the window where AO3 drops and the SWG disappears entirely.

B2MeM stories, not surprisingly, received a much higher median number of comments. Furthermore, you have a less than one in ten chance of posting a fanwork to B2MeM and receiving no comments, compared to a one in four chance on the SWG and a one in three chance on AO3.

Community Comparisons

Back to Middle-earth Month is an annual Tolkienfic fandom “holiday” that has run every March for the past twelve years. It began in 2006 as an anonymous meme intended to keep excitement high in the fandom after the Peter Jackson films. A few fic fandom groups, including the SWG, began sponsoring B2MeM events that year. Eventually, only the SWG continued participating, until they brought on other groups to help them organize annual events. In 2013, B2MeM shifted to LiveJournal as a centralized location, slowly separating from its sponsoring groups. Last year, the event migrated to Dreamwidth, where the 2018 event was hosted. The event’s history is described in greater detail on Fanlore.

B2MeM has always had a strong sense of community. I believe there are several reasons for this. For one, it is a month-long event, and past events have been rather intense (the infamous 2012 bingo event even resulted in the creation of an unofficial support community), generating hundreds of fanworks in some years. Some events require a degree of interaction on the community, i.e., it is not always enough to just sign up, make a fanwork, then post and ghost. Its original format as an event run on Tolkien-specific fanworks groups provided ready-made communities, who then interacted during March (rather like branches of an extended family coming together at an annual family reunion). Even once it became a standalone entity, its centralization on LJ/DW rather than Tumblr continued to make it easy for participants to interact with each other and creates the sense that participants are posting for other community members rather than the public. Participants often return year and year, and in some years, the excitement around the announcement of B2MeM events has been quite high. Finally, B2MeM frequently includes a comment challenge as part of its annual event, not only encouraging commenting but communicating the importance of commenting to culture of B2MeM.

The SWG and AO3 are archives, not communities. The SWG is a relatively small site and, because it only accepts Silmarillion-based fanworks, has a more limited purpose than B2MeM and especially AO3; however, perhaps because it is a small group catering to a narrow set of interests, it has more of a “feel” of a community than AO3. Like a small town, it is relatively easy for “everyone to know everyone,” if the effort is made to interact. The SWG also sponsors regular challenges--including comment challenges--and other group events. Therefore, feedback is slightly better on the SWG than AO3 despite the fact that the former is much smaller than the latter. If a sense of community is indeed important to commenting, it is perhaps not surprising that feedback is most dismal on the sprawling, multipurpose AO3.

Other Confounds and Factors

There are a few other factors to keep in mind, however.

First of all, there is overlap between all three groups, and B2MeM may influence the data on other sites. Some fanworks, for example, were posted to B2MeM and one or even both of the other sites. A B2MeM participant who may have read and commented on that story on AO3, for example, may choose instead to comment on the B2MeM site, driving AO3′s data lower and inflating B2MeM’s. Furthermore, because activity on B2MeM can be so intense--some authors create and post a fanwork every day or nearly so--these authors’ energy may be redirected from reading and commenting on sites outside B2MeM.

There was also a decrease in commenting as the first two weeks of B2MeM progressed. This graph shows the number of comments for each fanwork posted between March 1 and March 14.

Notice that the very high comment counts are almost all in the first week. As the second week winds to a close, commenting slows down. Most of the fanworks that received no comments were found in the second week.

This suggests that the “B2MeM effect” may be at least somewhat dependent on the fact that B2MeM is a time-limited event driven in a large part by a brief burst of excitement and energy. Is it possible to sustain B2MeM levels of commenting across longer periods of time? How much of the “B2MeM effect” can be explained by excitement and energy around an anticipated annual event that slowly wanes as the month wears on?

Conclusions

That a sense of community plays at least some role in the “B2MeM effect” is, I think, a reasonable conclusion from this data. B2MeM generally has more fanworks posted than the SWG and less than AO3. It pulls from varied corners of the fandom. And yet comment counts are unusually high. I believe that at least part of this is due to the sense of shared endeavor that has grown up around B2MeM. It is not merely an archive for one’s work but an event where part of the fun is construed as seeing how others respond to the same challenges and--perhaps most importantly--participants see one of their roles as lending support to each other through those challenges, often in the form of feedback.

If we want to improve commenting in the Tolkienfic fandom (and other fandoms facing this problem as well), I believe we must fix the lack of a sense of community first. This is not to say that there is no community in the Tolkienfic fandom now. Clearly there is. Personally speaking, I have friends I’ve made through the SWG, LJ and DW, and Tumblr with whom I interact regularly; I’ve met at least one person met through each of these sites in person. However, the Tolkienfic fandom looks very different today, in 2018, than it did ten or twelve years ago, when most fannish activity occurred on Tolkien-specific archives and social media sites. Nearly all of these groups incorporated a community component. Sites like the Henneth-Annûn Story Archive, for example, had extensive forums for members to interact with each other. Nearly all sites had mailing lists and sometimes journal communities where members could further interact, discuss questions of canon, and talk about their writing in a more informal setting than the comments on an archive. The sense of community was very different then: You interacted with a more limited group of people, but you interacted more deeply with those people. Perhaps not surprisingly, commenting was more frequent then.

Today, the fandom is increasingly moving toward consolidation on a handful of enormous, multipurpose sites, namely AO3 and Tumblr. It is unsurprising that community is harder to achieve here, especially since neither site provides tools that facilitate it. (Even Fanfiction.net, the big multifandom archive before AO3 came on the scene, had forums.) So what to do?

We need more events that specifically seek to encourage interaction and community. There are more people active in the fandom now than ever (aside from the bursts during and immediately after the films) and yet fewer events and challenges than there were ten years ago (and most of those are being run by veteran fans or organizations that have been around that long, like @legendariumladiesapril and @teitho). Seriously, anyone can run an event. (I was profoundly unqualified to start the SWG and launch B2MeM into a major event; I survived and you will too.)

Events should encourage collaboration, interaction, and commenting, not just post and ghost.

We need more spaces built and controlled by members of our own community. We are losing Tolkienfic archives at an alarming rate. If you answer yes to the question, “Are you in the Tolkienfic fandom?” I would encourage you to support at least one site or community that is not Tumblr or AO3. (And “supporting” can look like stopping by every week or so and reading and commenting on a story or two.) The link above has a list of Tolkienfic archives; it would be lovely to see some of them come off of the inactive list. There are still active communities on Dreamwidth and LiveJournal. There are even still mailing lists just waiting for someone to care enough to resurrect them.

But in order to achieve the former, we need an open-source, current software option for building fandom sites, and one that can be used by someone with minimal web development experience. When the school year is over, I plan to pursue the development of a Drupal module for a fiction archive. If there is someone able to do this in the meantime, message me and I’ll gladly hand over the reins. In short, I strongly believe that if you want to build an independent community for fans, you should be able to do so.

[fishylife]

My thoughts on the state of Tumblr

As I said, I’m going to continue using Tumblr but I think that over time I’ll become less and less active. Of course, that is all dependent on the Tumblr community as well, because most of my stuff is just reblogged from others.

I haven’t decided what new platform(s) I’m going to use because frankly, I don’t think there’s a good substitute for Tumblr as of now (for fandom content, anyway, which is mostly what I use Tumblr for). 

Why I’ll miss Tumblr as we know it

(1) The fandom aspect

Tumblr was often my go-to source for fan reactions for movies, TV shows, books, sports, etc. Watch a movie and hardcore ship two characters? Check out Tumblr to see who ships them and what headcanons they have. Saw something happen during a game and want to see it gif’ed? Check out Tumblr to see if anyone else caught it. Finished the end of a TV series and want to speculate what will happen next season? Check out Tumblr to see who has cool theories. 

Maybe this is a weird way to put it, but Tumblr has a high amount of people who have the same “fan perspective” as I do. You can take anything as seriously as you want to. If you want to go in depth and do character analyses, there is also an audience for that, but this is also something you can get on other sites (in fact, I find more serious discussions of this kind on Reddit). For fanfiction, we have AO3 (which honest is such a godsent. That website is totally free and I can’t express how much I appreciate the staff there). If you want to make a dumb joke, start an incorrect quotes blog, or talk about a headcanon that popped into your mind, there will be people who are also into that. This less serious, “supplemental” stuff is what I’ll struggle to find outside of Tumblr. 

I think part of this is attributed to the fact that you can make different kinds of posts on Tumblr. You can have image posts, long introspective pieces, videos, short rants, one-line jokes, etc. Tumblr is pretty all-encompassing when it comes to fan content. This is sort of related to my next point.

(2) The community aspect

The reason why people can make all sorts of posts and it still works is that people’s posts are tied to their personal blogs. Contrast this with Reddit, where most posts are tied to subreddits, so if you want to make a short post with a joke or something it has to pass the rules of the subreddit, which might not be possible. 

However, on Tumblr, you can make a post just shouting into the void. I’ve made posts about obscure stuff (e.g. about a TV show that no one I know has watched), and months later someone likes it. It’s easier for people to shout into the void to look for people with similar interests without having to make it as formal as having to set up a subcommunity. For example, if I just wanted to check out some magic AU headcanons, maybe on Reddit I might have to look for a magic AU subreddit, which is pretty damn specific so there’s a near zero chance of finding something like that. I’d probably look for a magic subreddit (not sure if that exists) or the worldbuilding subreddit, but that’s way too broad to find magic AU. Meanwhile, on Tumblr, I can just look for a tag and anything related will pop up. What I’m trying to say is that it’s a lot easier to look for people who have the same specific interests as you. 

I may have mentioned this before, but Tumblr was the first place where I actually got o participate in fandom. I was a lurker on Livejournal and I scarcely commented on fanfiction, and almost never posted original content. On the other hand, Tumblr offered baby steps for me to participate in fandom. It started with lurking and liking posts. Then it grew to reblogging. Then it grew to commenting in the tags, and eventually I felt more comfortable making my own posts about my own thoughts (and writing fanfiction).

I’m also just going to miss having a personal blog. My blog is a mix of all of my interests, and the mix of interests is what makes it unique to me. I like that my blog is a mix of hockey, soccer, Sailor Moon, Bleach, dolls, movie reviews, and a ton of other stuff. At the same time, other people’s blogs are going to be a mix of things they like, and that’s the beauty of being able to build a personal blog. 

(3) Types of posts

This ties back to my earlier point about how people can make all sorts of posts. Text posts, images, videos, audio, etc. A lot of people have discussed what platforms they’ll be moving to. The popular ones I’ve seen are Twitter, Instagram, Pixiv, Pillowfort, etc. 

I haven’t used Pillowfort before, but from what I hear it’s similar to Tumblr. I hear it’s still in Beta though (and currently has a one-time fee) so I probably won’t be using it for the time being.

In the past, I’ve tried using Twitter but honestly, I don’t like the interface at all. It’s hard to use, it’s a pain to look for old stuff, etc. The biggest thing is that it only allows for short posts. And I’m the kind of person who hates those multi-part tweets. If what you need to say is more than 3 tweets long, you should really be writing a blog post. That’s my opinion. But clearly that platform isn’t the best for longer type posts, like fanfiction, fan theories, character analysis, etc.

Instagram and Pixiv are image-focused. So they’re great for fanart, photography, aesthetic blogs, etc. But it cuts out a lot of other stuff. I suppose you can fit in short witty jokes and stuff in the description parts, but you can’t fit an essay or anything longer than, say, a paragraph. Not to mention these platforms are really more about the visuals. 

Livejournal would have offered the freedom to make all sorts of posts, but fandom is pretty dead there. Also, I hear that it had a similar breakdown on adult content.

Why Tumblr will change

I realize I haven’t addressed the actual reason why this is happening though. As I understand it, Tumblr is enforcing stricter rules on adult content. 

For the past while, I’m sure a lot of people have been dealing with pornbots. The other problem that I haven’t had contact with is child pornography. However, Tumblr hasn’t been able to effectively handle these issues. They attempted to take down inappropriate and illegal content but as a result, a lot of normal blogs were being taken down.

I don’t post much nsfw content here so I can’t comment much, but there will be many people who are disappointed because they do post nsfw but inoffensive content. I just think it’s unfortunate that Tumblr hasn’t been able to come up with a solution to address the specific problem. They’ve tried to come up with a blanket solution. Although the blanket solution might address the problem, it’s also affecting the ability of a lot of normal users to carry out their usual activities. I know nothing about the sorts of algorithms used to combat these issues but I think it’s just unfortunate that a solution can’t be found.

Next steps

Honestly, I don’t know what I’m going to do. I’ve always been late to fandoms, so I’ll be waiting and seeing where fandoms move. Maybe when Pillowfort is officially released, I might check it out (if it ever becomes free). Maybe I’ll go back to Livejournal. Maybe I’ll lurk on Instagram. Or finally check out Dreamwidth. I really don’t know. 

But I have a post with some of my contact info outside of Tumblr. Please feel free to ask me for contact info. I’ve never made internet friends before Tumblr, and honestly I think I’m going to miss how easy it is to talk to others purely on the basis of sharing similar interests. 

[maychorian]

Is Livejournal still an active platform? I think when I first got into fandom LJ was more of a place for kink memes (not necessarily based in erotic content or ships) than just a fanfic scene. FF. net was more popular at the time. As much as I feel Ao3 is superior to FF, I think it had its bonuses. I appreciated being able to PM other users and the forums, features Ao3 doesn't have. What were some bonuses to LJ, if you don't mind my asking?

I don’t think LJ is active much anymore, no. Everyone once in a while I’ll go check out my Friends page to see if anyone is still posting there, and there are a few, but not a lot. Policies killed the fandom community on that site, and it’s really sad. Free speech is important, y’all. On the other hand, those policies are probably why AO3 exists, and that’s a good thing.

LJ was a BIG upgrade from FF.net, that was for sure. It wasn’t specifically made for fanfic, so you had to have some rudimentary HTML knowledge to put links to your chapters, and also had to make your own table of contents (here’s mine), or at least tag your posts in a way so that people could find your fanfiction if they wanted to. It had a private message function, yes, as well as a Friends page, which was basically a dashboard (without a reblog function) where you could scroll through and view all of the posts made by the people you had added to your friendslist. You also had the option of making your posts private, so only friends could see them, and also make friends groups WITHIN your friendslist so only THOSE particular people could see. For instance, I had a lot of friends, because I tended to friend back anyone who friended me so they could see my private posts for the rare things that I wanted to hide from the world but was okay with fellow fans seeing. I made smaller friends groups to view fellow writers, so I could see their stuff when they posted it, and another smaller group for people who I knew would be willing to beta my work, so I could send out a request for a beta if I needed it without cluttering up the Friends page of everyone who had added me, and an even smaller group for friends that I trusted with deep personal secrets for when I really, really needed to vent. Those kinds of posts were called “friends locked” or “flocked” for short. When I was obsessed with SPN and deep in that fandom, I checked my Friends page multiple times a day. I keep my following list on tumblr quite small because I don’t have the time to read hundreds and hundreds of posts, and tumblr doesn’t have the function to narrow down who you see on your dashboard.

LJ also had the ability to make communities, where multiple users could post on the same blog, and we had fic communities for every permutation of fandom under the sun. Big ones for all SPN fic (those were incredibly active), ones just for gen, ones for hurt/comfort and whump, ones for crossovers, specific ones for each pairing… Whenever I made a post with a fic, I had a list of about five communities that I would cross-post to, basically with a header and a link to the full post. And the fic finder community, of course, which I think was the most valuable of all, where someone could make a post asking for a specific idea they wanted to read and everyone else could comment with fics they knew that fit or almost fit that desire. Or if you had read a fic a long time ago and couldn’t remember the name or title, you could describe it as best you could on the fic finder community, and chances were someone would know what you were talking about. A lot of my fics got mentioned on fic finder communities multiple times, whenever someone asked for deaged fics, haha.

The biggest advantage of LJ, though, and I think the reason it became THE place for fanfiction for a while, was the nested commenting. AO3 has the same kind of comment system now, where one person starts a thread, and then the author can respond, and they can go back and forth. If the thread gets too long it will get shortened so those going through the comments don’t have see every single comment written on the entire story, just the first ones. This was a huge upgrade from FF.net, which didn’t even allow replies to reviews for a long time. If you wanted to respond to someone’s review, you had to PM them directly and tell them. And your replies didn’t show on the review page, and the reviewer couldn’t write back. Nesting comments on LJ changed all that. Now people could have entire long, involved discussions in the comments of any post, any fic. And people did. It wasn’t always just the author and a single commenter having a conversation, either. Sometimes other people joined in, and we’d have long squeefests and share headcanons (though that word didn’t enter fandom vernacular until tumblr) and talk about the show or whatever we were writing about. It was a great place for making friends and sparking ideas.

AO3 did well in bringing that commenting system over to the archive, but it doesn’t usually get used the same way it did on LJ. I think it’s because AO3 is a place specifically meant for storing fic, not necessarily a social media service, so there’s not as much emphasis on making friends and forming personal relationships. Sure, you can subscribe to people and follow their work and make bookmarks, but there’s no Friends list or anything like that. It’s just a different thing. And since tumblr doesn’t have nesting comments, there’s not the option to have those sort of conversations here, either. I mean, you sort of can, by reblogging replies and having discussions in posts, but it’s awkward and it gets reposted to your dashboard every time, and it gets really annoying to have to scroll the bottom every time. 

Messaging on tumblr is a little better, but it’s a chat with just one person. You can’t have multiple people in a direct message, and even with those it can be very hard to scroll back and find earlier conversations. This why I think Discord is such a great addition to the current fandom life. You can have conversations with multiple people about anything you want. It’s more freeform, since you’re not responding to a post in particular, but it still works well for building relationships and sharing headcanons and ideas.

Tumblr is not without its advantages. The reblog function means that something good, that grabs attention, can spread around the fandom very quickly. But it’s definitely much better for art than fic, and that’s mostly because of the way it’s designed. It’s an art-sharing service with a half-assed messaging service in the sidebar, not a social media site the way LJ was. It’s for artists to make art and other people to follow them and occasionally ask questions, so it really encourages a BNF mentality and jockeying for position rather than making a circle of friends and developing them. Fandom has found ways to socialize anyway, because life finds a way, but it’s not like LJ, not at all. Sometimes I really want LJ back, to be honest, but that ship has sailed. There was an attempt with Dreamwidth, but for some reason most people just moved their fandom activity to tumblr instead, possibly because the existence of LJ and tumblr overlapped and many people who used LJ already had a tumblr when LJ collapsed. That was how it worked with me, anyway. The novelty of tumblr probably encouraged the movement here, as well. People love the new.

I think most likely what will happen in the future is tumblr will screw the pooch in a major way and fandom will migrate off it, just like we did from the old webrings  to ff.net, then to LJ, then to here. Probably some savvy fans will make a social media site actually MEANT for fandom, like, perhaps, pillowfort.io, which looks absolutely fantastic, just needs some bugs worked out and more people using it. That’s what happened with fic archives: fans got sick of all the problems with FF.net and LJ and made AO3, and it’s great. I’m looking forward to getting off this site, honestly. Let the migration come. I just hope all of you come with me.

[renegadewangs]

Heya folks! Usually, I avoid doing posts like this, but for this particular matter I figured I might as well. You see, I play Sherlock Holmes (Dai Gyakuten Saiban version) in a Dreamwidth RP game, and I am in search of a certain castmate. Or, well, several castmates, but one in particular. Anyone who knows me well enough should know which one it is.

Have I caught your interest? Then keep reading!

So let's start off by giving you some more info! The game I'm referring to is called Empatheias and as I already inferred, it can be found on Dreamwidth, which is a sort of journal page. If you remember Livejournal, Dreamwidth is basically that, minus the spambots and advertising. In order to join the game, one has to fill out an application and post it at the appropriate time of the month. Doing a 'test drive' thread in that month's meme beforehand is also highly encouraged. While there are many different games on DW, this one in particular is panfandom and what some might refer to as a 'jamjar'. Characters are mysteriously drawn to this world through powers unknown and as they can't get home of their own volition, they can only make the best of their situation so long they're stranded there. Because characters can be 'apped' from different time points in canon, the theory that always goes around is that when they're in this other world, time stands still for them in their own world. Or rather, when they eventually return home, they will be at the exact point in time when they left and retain no memories of the weird other world they were in. For that reason, they can do their best to just... chill and not freak out about that world-destroying monster or important murder investigation they just left behind. What's special about Empatheias is that the world (as well as the story we're building together) is influenced by a character's emotions. While you can find more information here, the short version is that emotions affect surroundings. If a character is happy, light might shine brighter or bubbles might float around them. If they're sad, it might rain above their head. If they're scared, a tiny localized earthquake... You may come up with these sorts of effects on your own and be as creative as you want. Emotions on a larger scale also affect the 'emotion deities' known as Arehtei and even the world itself, which has been mostly ruined by toxic negativity and, aside from several small civilizations, is pretty much dead. There's locals (NPCs) living in the cities, though! Player Characters have eventually become known as Otherworlders, which is an easy enough term to throw around. Characters can move between the civilizations, which all have slightly different technology and cultural traits because they were separated from each other for many years. Verens, the main city for arrival, is mostly steampunky in aesthetic and advancements. You can find more details about all the locations here! There's also monsters to fight, weird plants, occasionally ghosts... It's great fun! Also, there's a special telepathy network which allows for Player Characters to get in touch with one another. In the practical sense, it means any telepathy post is submitted to the network community. This allows for serious discussions and also for shenanigans, because who doesn't like someone talking in their head in the middle of the night, right? They can also meet up in person anywhere in the city, for which we mostly use the log community But you want to know more hands-on stuff, don't you? You want to hear stories, right? Well. Let's talk about my Holmes... Since the 6th of April, he's been in the game for two years already. When I originally applied him, his canon point was the end of the first game (because that's where canon halted back then). During that time, I made sure to be as ambiguous as possible about loose plot threads from the DGS series and boy, was I glad that I did. At the end of November last year, I 'canon updated' him to a very particular moment at the beginning of case 2-4. Yes, he returned to Empatheias with blue hair. It was great. His one steadfast castmate is Naruhodou, who was apped by my buddy Taisa at the same time as Holmes and has been his housemate ever since. Naruhodou's canon point is still the end of the first game at the moment. We were joined by an Asougi (Kazuma) at the start of December last year. Now, Asougi's canon point is spoilery and problematic. I'll just cough something about the end of case 3, here, DGS2 buffs will know what I mean. I could tell many a story, but instead of doing that, I'll just post some of his finest threads! It'll give a nice impression of what the RP is like. - Holmes's first arrival, many moons ago - That time there was an earthquake and instead of coming to Naruhodou's rescue, Holmes started an argument about turtle ducks. - That time he discussed Father's Day with Trucy Wright. - That time Naruhodou became a crystal statue and Holmes decided to take advantage of the free reign to assemble an advanced chemistry kit. (also there are kittens.) - That time Holmes was introduced to Trucy's magic panties. - That time he received a steampunky violin for his birthday - And here we have Caster from the Fate verse speaking very casually about that time she killed Sherlock Holmes in her own universe. - Holmes sends out a telepathic query about dancing lessons without paying attention to his phrasing. - And that time Holmed discussed slang with Maya Fey. Then also spirit channeling and the internet. - Sherlock returns from his canon update and there were DGS2 spoilers and feelings everywhere. - Asougi insists on confronting Holmes after arriving a week later, serving to complicate everything further. - The actual truth about the four names is deduced another week or so later. - Naruhodou goes to ask about Holmes's partner because he is getting suspicious about that whole thing. The matters of Gregson and Van Zieks also come up briefly. If you're interested in joining us, feel free to ask me questions on anything and everything! I can help with setting up an account on Dreamwidth and finding source materials for icons! Give us Susato, give us Iris, give us Van Zieks, give us Holmes's precious partner-- Give us anyone!~ Don't want to commit to a huge game but still interested in playing? There's such a thing as a 'musebox' where one can just play out really casual scenarios without being part of a grander community. It's also perfect for testing your RP merit if you don't feel up to a game's Test Drive post. Let me know and I can set something up on my own musebox! Here's a few more interesting links: - The index page with all important Empatheias info pages. - The FAQ page for Empatheias. - A shortened guide to DW RP. - An elaborate guide written specifically for Tumblr Rpers.