#my tumblr feels like twitter at this point

[bitchslapblastoids]

Prompted by your post about dnp inviting audience interaction: it /is/ really brave, and so interesting! I haven't been watching them for long at all and one of the biggest things that just drew me in and deeply fascinated me about them is how so much of their work (not just on stage) is in some way a conversation/interaction with their audience and the more you watch the more you notice it. No wonder its easy to be parasocial about them and about the Phandom itself!

To me, at least, they seem to be the sort of performers/creators that need a relatively high level of audience interaction in order to be inspired or for their work to feel meaningful. Like, im absolutely sure they could also create things without this close relationship with their audience but it seems to be what their naturally drawn towards? Obviously the problem has been in maintaining boundaries within that but it seems like that's going better now than at some points in the past, which makes me really happy for everyone!

Sorry about the long yap, this is so interesting to me and I just needed to express it a little

(original post referenced) yes!!! i love this!!! so beautifully worded! no need to apologize at all - i am in such hearty agreement and actually think about this so often. i think the engagement with their audience is their superpower, and it runs so deep. what was one of dan's favorite things about phil before he met him? phil's interactive adventure videos, in which he was creating an interactive experience for his viewers.

when they film pinof1 together, what are they doing? they're answering an audience-submitted q&a. the audience interaction is literally baked into their foundation! <3

2010, dan's uni dorm. what's displayed behind him on his wall? art and letters sent to him by viewers. he films danmail vids where he opens and reacts to said art and letters and personally thanks the senders.

for years and years and years, what's at the end of every phil video? fanart! draw phil naked! (in retrospect literally so weird lol but shhh)

the ongoing avalanche of vyous and younows and tumblr reblogs/follows and responding to yt comments and retweets and and and. so much interaction. the videos directly engaging with twitter and tumblr creations. they see us, they know us, they get us.

their first book? included a double-page spread with dozens of pieces of phanart.

every single one of their tours has multiple essential audience interaction components, and even more brilliantly, with multiple different access points that are perfectly calibrated to their audience. too shy to speak up? send in a submission ahead of time. want to be a part of the masses? shout something out during the audience participation segments! and there's always the likelihood that they'll include fanart in the show itself, casually mention an actual actively popular fic, throw in an ancient phwedding manip, or just build whole segments of the show around our tropes and the world that we created with them. all of that keeps things exciting and engaging on stage, bc you never know exactly what's going to come next. but it also keeps their audience feeling seen, valued, and like co-creators in a way.

When you look at the other britcrew and big yters from the 2010s, they simply weren't generating that ongoing, authentic conversation with their audiences. their approach followed the simple format of: i post, you watch. and then it became: i post, you watch, then i try and sell you something while i call you my 'community' because you are all watching me and sometimes you talk to one another in the comments. but it's not like zalfie or joe and casper etc. were chiming in on the convos too, or at least not in any meaningful way. it wasn't a community in the same way.

dan and phil truly built community. i think communities require mutual exchange, communication, a sense of value and worth, commonly agreed upon truths, shared experiences, touchstones of connection, and leaders who have integrity. i know this is all starting to sound a little lofty, but i really do think dan and phil are good humans who have worked hard to wield their power and influence responsibly and compassionately. they set the tone for us, constructed this world, paid attention to what landed for us, how we responded to things, everything that we were up to in response to what they were up to. they listened. they made us feel seen and celebrated and appreciated, and in turn we continued to celebrate them. they created weird inside jokes, we adopted them, then we all shared the weird inside jokes. they existed, we created our own language and lore and encyclopedia in response, and now there's a whole stage show about it.

that's how you get people sticking around for 15 years. that's how you get people to actually want to spend money on you. and yeah, some more boundaries at times couldn't have hurt. they fostered a sense of proximity and entitlement that obviously put them in harm's way. but i'd say ultimately what they've manage to do has been a net good for them and a tremendous success.

you raised such a good point that it seems to be what they are naturally drawn towards. i think it's because they, too, were fangirls. phil was writing buffy fic. dan was running a lost wiki. they both understood the power of online fan community before they were the titans of their own. they get it, they get us <3

[barblaz-arts]

Will you try Bsky in the future ?

Im not sure. I know people are going there to avoid the AI data farming in twitter and tumblr, but at this point it feels like no matter where i run to with my art, AI is always there with its grubby little fingers. Even if I solely post on bluesky, people who steal my art and repost elsewhere that do have AI data farming are also out there. I'm just too tired at this point to relocate and start all over again.

[olderthannetfic]

I feel like I don't know how to engage in fandom anymore? Does anyone else feel that?

Tumblr makes sense still, but twitter and tiktok and god bluesky and reddit, I just don't know what to do there. People write whole fics in twitter threads now and tiktok is just Ai manips and edits with that godawful slowing effect bluesky I have no idea what to do even. Reddit everyone just yells at you.

I write my little fics I share them on tumblr and twitter but my feed seems like just my links and it looks like i'm shilling something.

Idk has anyone figured it out?

--

I usually engage by talking to friends or liveblogging something I'm watching and flailing in the replies.

I just post my fics to AO3 and if people find them, they find them.

I mean, I get your point that different platforms feel different. I haven't bothered even making a bluesky since I already think twitter is worthless as a format and not just because of site policy.

But to feel less out of touch, you'll first have to define for yourself, more concretely, what a better experience would look like.

[bumblegumprincess]

I'm sorry, it's just that Mr. Roukin looks so british.

Look at him:

I can't explain why, but he looks so british to me.

He legitimately looks like one of those football players on the European teams my uncle watches.

[myriam-draws]

some starfires i’ve drawn a bit over time i miss her (i refuse to read titans 2023)

[ironunderstands]

About my Dr. Ratio + Aven content…

Steal it, I’m so serious right now steal it. I’ve made several posts people have received really well and I want to post them to other sites really badly but TikTok has made it so difficult for me and I straight up do not have the motivation to try out other sites. So if you have liked what I have written and want to share it elsewhere, do it, honestly you don’t even have to credit me, I think the ideas themselves matter more than my ego. Besides it’s not like I own hsr, other people can easily come to the conclusions I do. So if you have ever been like “hey I wanna share this elsewhere but it’s not mine”, go ahead, if even only one of you exists go ahead, you have my full permission. Ideas are meant to be shared anyways and I don’t want people to think that if they have reached the same conclusions I have on their own they suddenly can’t talk about it either.

Thief, steal and take what’s not yours because it’s yours now and I would be delighted if my sh1t was on other platforms, I’m just gonna have to suppress my brains desire for praise while doing so 😭

[rainingincale]

.

[telekitnetic-art]

cohost has been a strong alternative to get away from ai scraping. they have no ads, no scraping, and a very similar layout to tumblr (with reblogging, tagging, replying, asks, etc).

so far its felt very much like being on tumblr without the toxicity. the biggest loss is that they dont have statistics- but its nice. it makes it feel cozier, and like the people interacting with your content matter more. ive really been enjoying it.

its worth a shot, anyway!

Thanks for the advice, I’ll do some more digging to see if cohost could be an alternative

I’ve seen other people talk about going to Bluesky and tbh while jumping ship feels like a pretty good plan, I’ve been on Tumblr actively for a little over a year now and I don’t think I really have the energy to try and rebuild on a different platform right now. I’ve already gone through a lot of my art and Nightshaded it, so I’ll definitely keep doing that.

Overall, I’m not really sure what my plan is, even after sleeping on it. I’m still really miserable and frustrated after hearing about this bs. What I might do is keep posting art, but heavily nightshade it and maybe glaze it too for good measure. I’ll probably also stop posting WIPs/previews as frequently. Not really sure. Again, all of this is really frustrating and I can’t think of what the future holds for me in terms of sharing my work without feeling miserable.

[todayisafridaynight]

i’m pretty surprised that you can be in a fandom without really checking the tags regularly for new content or discussions that’s pretty impressive

ive got twitter for that and twitter has shown me enough as is

[l0stw00d]

cohost is shutting down. i am very, very, very sad about it.

It's been a long time since tumblr felt like my online "home" the way it used to. Cohost wasn't just my favourite tumblr alternative, but my favourite place to hang out online, End Of. I'll miss it a lot.

Because it's shutting down, I've made my new personal website public early! You can see pretty much all the various places I post - some more active than others. I'll add more stuff eventually, but right now, this is what you get. You can find it at Lostwood.art ! (it's best viewed on desktop, but Should work on mobile.)

RIP cohost. RIP eggbug. I will miss u

[just-slightly-chayotic]

trying to figure out where we're all moving in case tumblr does get nuked in between being like yeah this is the end of my social media era you can reach me by carrier pigeon from now on

[bumblegumprincess]

Idk what it is about that one song about the two birds on a wire that makes me think of the Ineffable Husbands and it's making me go nuts.

[snekdood]

i mean i should probably stop saying shit just to be mean

[pyrosomatic-metamorphosis]

people can use this site however they want but there's something almost- idk, sad? about how few people are actually using their blogs. you can turn themes on and have skeletons dancing in the background. you can make everything hot pink. your blog is your scrapbook and you can put whatever you want in there. tags are okay at organizing things so you can have just a whole archive of cool shit to look at later. i know people complain a lot about people liking stuff about reblogging for engagement, and on one hand i get that- it is WILD to see a drawing i spent hours on get only 12 reblogs and 60 likes. Absolute culture shock compared to my previous fandoms. but i don't think you should reblog anything to make artists happy. i think you should reblog things so you can find them again. i think you should queue things to appear on the dash at specific times on certain days. i think you should reblog things so when you're talking to your friends about xyz post you saw you can look in your blog's archive and find it again. i think you should reblog things so that your dash is filled with one really sleepy cat. with the loss of reblogs there's the loss of engagement, which Does hurt the community-focus that makes tumblr so appealing, but idk i just wish people were more excited about the incredible amount of customization that tumblr allows and took advantage of that more

[watery-melon-baller]

good news: I've collected all my data

bad news: i no longer have an excuse to procrastinate writing

[non-un-topo]

Wish there was an elixir that wasn't alcohol that you could take that just makes you write/draw and not care about the quality of your work or about what your potential audience might think