#online community

[unbfacts]

[thoughtportal]

[con9103]

Hi I have created this survey based on the SCI-1 modified for online communities to work out does the Dan and Phil fandom meet the requirements to be considered a community in its own right.

I'm studying the fandom for my dissertation and this would be really helpful information to gain <3

I will share the results when there's enough responses *hopefully*

! anyone can answer it's anonymous and not age restricted !

[lightasthesun]

I think something that's often fundamentally misunderstood is teens and young adults appearing to always be on their phones.

It's not necessarily laziness or whatever other negative trait it has been connected to. For many people it's a safe place. The one safe place they have. It's where you go to seek refuge from your natural environment. Especially for neurodivergents, queers, victims of abuse and bullying, and people with disabilities.

You make friends and build your own community, you make memories, you share art, you share life experiences with like-minded people that may be in similar situations and you feel understood. You feel accepted and not judged. You feel loved.

Real life is rough and can be painful but our smartphones offer a different door for us. A door that leads to fandom, to music, to art, to passion and refuge.

So yes of course you choose to spend a majority of your time on your smartphone. Of course you would choose to feel safe and loved. Of course.

It's dry of judgement, it's filled with the warmth of a community that accepts you as you are, it fills your tummy with joy, with thrill, with excitement and love and it provides a safe haven like a roof over your head.

Of course this is where you want to be.

It's home.

[myfandomrealitea]

That discord server post made me remember the stark difference between Serverstuck (a minor populated server) and Degrees of Lewdity (strict adult-only server)

Serverstuck has the worst mods and owner I've seen because they're all Antis and abuse the rules by excusing anyone who are close to them & punishing others who are strangers, lying to people on why some got banned, and allowed sensitive political topic go unregulated

Degrees of Lewdity, despite filled with people who has crude & cursed-level sense of humor, has strict mods & owner, write the correct information on why some people are banned or muted (they even allow users to request to be ban from the server for mental health reasons), and immediately shut down any conversation of sensitive political topics that cause infighting between members

I feel safer in a server for an adult game development than a "minor friendly" homestuck rp server

While I do welcome servers that have a mixed age range, I don't think I've ever or will ever join a server moderated or owned by someone who is either/both an anti or a minor.

To run or moderate a server you need to be impartial, objective, socially aware, able to appropriately manage conflict and relatively socially seasoned. I've personally found most minors often lack or are incapable of most if not all of these qualities.

(And that's not me hating on minors or calling them ignorant. Some of those qualities are just things you learn or develop with age and time. Some adults never learn them at all, even, but they are qualities you need if you're going to, essentially, be in charge of other people.)

Sephiroth's Server Safety Tips

Always do a thorough check into who is advertising the server, who owns the server, and other members before joining a server where possible.

Once you've joined the server, immediately use the search function to look for key words related to topics you want to avoid, possible past conflict, bullying, ect.

Immediately check the server rules. Its a red flag in itself if the server doesn't have any. Also, 'just be nice' is not a rule. Servers should have clear, clean cut rules and regulations.

Don't be afraid to message server owners, moderators or users privately and ask questions. They shouldn't get offended and if they can't or won't answer questions about basic rules, server safety protocols, ect, you should reconsider joining.

Don't be afraid to ask around other people to see if the server is known or has a reputation, either. If a server is based on a specific fandom, for example, search through that fandom for any past mentions of the server or ask other fans if they've heard of it.

[virtualpopstarenglish]

Its raffle time! Remember to join under the correct gender your account is ✨

[grasponreality]

it doesn't matter what people in the "fandom" think - keep doing whatever the fuck you want

they say your fan art is cringe? it doesn't matter

they don't think you should be writing THAT type of fanfiction? it doesn't matter

they have some sort of moral objection to a ship you like or a personal head cannon or something else you enjoy? it doesn't fucking matter

just do whatever you want

don't bother having tedious "discourse" about it, don't bother trying to justify yourself to anyone, and don't get stressed out over strangers on the internet who want to police the way you interact with your favorite media.

I say this as an old woman who has used Tumblr on-and-off for the past 10+ years. None of it matters. The petty arguments, the rules and guidelines they try to impose on you, the self-righteous call-out posts about innocuous bullshit - tune it all out. it doesn't matter, it never mattered, and it never will.

[caw4brandon]

The City of Durarara!!

Imagine, you are a newbie who just got an opportunity to attend a new school in a new city. A fresh start in a new chapter of your life but, you are still the same old you.

There are no familiar faces here. You just showed up via the bus or the train, carrying your heavy suitcase. Stumbling about and trying your best to follow the flow of the crowd to your new home. You live in an age where yes, you have a phone to check everything but the place is much more complex than you thought.

Hence, you are very, very, lost.

That is Mikado Ryūgamine's first day in the bustling city of Ikebukuro and the subject for today. The show famously known to have 15 (give or take) main characters co-existing in a space. Developing their own stories while another story unfolds in the back.

- I Love Humans! -

< Durarara!!/ DRRR!! > by Ryōgo Narita; Follows a cast of ordinary characters who reside in Ikebukuro. A lively city known for its nightlife and as a hub for all things Otaku-related. The city is currently a home for our main character; Mikado who just moved in and is about to attend a new school with his childhood best friend; Masaomi Kida.

Elsewhere, we follow a mysterious and non-verbal biker lady who just rescued Rio Kamichika from a kidnapping. Taking her to a secluded building rooftop to "end things".

Somewhere else, Shizuo Heiwajima is throwing a fit at a random man who owes him money. Causing a scene by throwing a venting machine into the sky. Scaring the pedestrians. This, is < DRRR > in just a few minutes. A large mix of events happening all at once at separate parts of the city.

As Kida guides Mikado, he provides some exposition of what's been going on in Ikebukuro. Mentioning that there has been a new gang in town right after the city survived another previously. Kida runs into some of his friends; Kyouhei Kadota, Walker Yumasaki, Erika Karisawa, and Saburo Togusa.

Meanwhile, Rio got to the roof and encountered her online friend; Nakura whom she contacted to make a suicide pact. But it was revealed that her kidnaping was a ploy by Izaya Orihara who wanted nothing more but to mess with her. Rounding up, Kida and Mikado witnessed a famous city urban legend. The mysterious biker lady called; The Headless Rider.

-We are...Dollars! -

Several key pieces are driving the plot for < Durarara > forward. Firstly, we have the everyday life of Kida and Mikado. School students in Raira Academy with their new best friend; Anri Sonohara who has secrets of her own.

Next, we have the questionable love story of the Headless Rider; Celty Sturluson. An odd-job transporter with her partner; Shinra Kishitani an underground doctor. Both are on a quest to find Celty's missing head.

Then, we have the ongoing gang wars that Kida mentioned. Since a new gang; The Dollars started showing up. The further we follow our characters, the deeper the relations go to the point where you need a chart for who is who. Yet, the show is rather comprehensive.

< DRRR > is actually a story about no one and everyone. It takes place in a location where everyone has a story. No matter if you are interested in the gang war, a twisted love story between certain characters or the simpleton life of the Van gang.

Perhaps you like a good ole beatdown action, or maybe. You like something a little bit supernatural regarding several slasher cases. There is something for everyone and while some of the parts may not interest you as much. The threads eventually cross paths. Leading to a big Crescendo~

- The World isn't as Cruel -

One of the most consistent themes seen in all of < Durarara > is the theme of making connections. As the audience, we get to see the characters being much closer than they make it out to be.

In a chatgroup. The characters take on differing identities and exchange information to help one another. Not realizing that they chatted about it a while ago. Perhaps the most encouraging thing about the show is how it uses the word "gang".

To join a gang often comes from a desire to find a sense of belonging. As mentioned, The Dollars are a new gang but the peculiar fact is, they are a colourless and leaderless gang. Sure, factions among them can exist. But no one has the power to control each other. Anyways, the gang is often seen to have done both good and bad to their respective communities.

Ikebukuro is crowded with countless activities going on in the light and in the dark. How our characters react to it determines the outcome. Despite the show has already declared itself as ended.

I personally think it's not a definitive end. Because the ending is not the point. < Durarara > is a show about people and how people deal with complex situations in their daily lives both personally and externally as a community. Perhaps its also a good display of how we are more interested the lives of someone else rather than our own.

To wrap this up, I just want to say that this show displayed the true power of an online community. It's a stroke of genius on the power we have as a collective to make change to our communities. That is what < Durarara > is about!

[ottopilot-sfw]

It's been a strange couple weeks for a man named after an inflatable pilot from a 40-year-old movie.

I've mentioned how the U.S. Presidential election, after a brief period of sadness, left me angry. Mostly a good, productive outrage, but I have a really strong intolerance for injustice. I can try to focus that anger on getting my shit in order, but an event that shakes your confidence in the direction of the world can leave you disconnected.

So it's strange that after six months back on Tumblr, where I regularly chatted with one person, people wanted to talk to me. Me! And sometimes, to talk about my writing!

For context, I'm confident with professional written communication, and sure, I've had stories in my head since I was a kid. But I've also *never* been disciplined at it. 6,000 word stories where I'd outlined a plot and developed characters? That's a recent development.

The double-edged sword of being good with words is you can wing it and do a decent job on the fly. So the idea that people would think I was any good at it was hard to process for someone who's just accepted they're a hack.

I also abandoned Twitter this week and moved to Bluesky. I haven't been on Twitter in about a year, but I used to be a pretty heavy user. I had forgotten how many public figures and experts in certain areas, people I look up to, followed me. I thought I would go back into relative obscurity when I signed up on Bluesky, but a lot of the same people followed me back. And I reconnected with some of my communities, a bunch of people I consider friends that I hadn't been in touch with for a while.

My point is this: I've always thought of myself here, and elsewhere online, as just some dude. It's not like Facebook, where those are people I know in real life. It's easy to fall into the trap that you are insignificant, that you don't really matter, that your presence isn't missed. Especially if you already have heavy imposter syndrome.

It seems like that's not the case though. People are interested in what I have to say, apparently, and that brings a kind of responsibility. If people are going to read my words and ask for my opinions, I should stop acting like they don't matter.

I'm going to keep working on that. Next, I'll look at accepting compliments, because I'm not very good at that either.

[praxis-app]

Outreach Series Kick-Off

We're having our first session and Kickoff for Outreach in the Discord server for all those who are interested in attending.

The topic up for discussion is inter-generational and intra-generational differences; how we may be able to bridge the gap between us. It will be a live event — however we are recording it and transcribing it for the community to access at their own pace.

Feel free to join the server and attend the event we'll be hosting tonight at 9pm EST via Discord Stages. All server members are welcome to attend.

Invite link to the Praxis Discord

[sucka99]

[hbhcgkycuovouoytftof]

I’d like to post about something important and special to me in the hopes that perhaps someone might see it and derive meaning from it too: the Something Awful Forums. I want to talk about it because I think it’s the best place on the internet.

This is one of the oldest communities on the internet. Once upon a time it was the secondary component of a website mainly dedicated to ridiculing other stuff on the internet. That’s a vein of content that has led to a lot of terrible behavior over the years, and the Something Awful community has certainly had its bad moments. However, within it there has always been a certain strain of, well, I don’t want to say “niceness” per se because at the beginning it was really all about being mean, and we still take any opportunity to lightheartedly razz on each other when it comes up. Instead I would say that there’s always been a strain of accountability. “Don’t touch the poop” is a mantra nearly as old as the site itself, and what it means is "you can use this website as a platform to make fun of things that are silly or dumb, but you absolutely cannot use it as a harassment platform." This hasn’t always been executed perfectly (and in particular was not held to by the site’s original owner, good riddance) but it has guided the SA forums on a journey of evolution that has led to it becoming a less mean-spirited, less volatile, less divisive, less reactionary place while the rest of internet has become (imo) more of those things. In the current iteration the number one rule at play is DON’T BE A DICK.

Nowadays the front page, which was once the main attraction dedicated to skewering other parts of the web, is gone except as an archive. The forums are now the main attraction, and they are now dedicated to simply discussing things you like. Posts go into threads sorted by topic, in chronological order. There is no algorithm. There are no bots. The rules are based on what will result in the best website for users rather than advertisers, so you don’t have to say unalive or sewer-slide. The site is attended to by an active, engaged moderation staff made of community members who are genuinely interested in making it the best community possible. If you see bigotry or harassment, you don’t have to fire off a report to a vaguely defined group of anonymous reviewers who may or may not do something about it. When a report is acted on, the moderator action automatically goes on a big list alongside the moderator’s name and their reasoning for the punishment. If someone is a nazi, they get fucking banned. If someone is a transphobe, they get fucking banned. If someone is an asshole, they get probated for a few days so they can cool off. The result is a forum full of people who are, generally speaking, chill and nice.

My favorite example of the evolutions of the site’s culture and userbase is that we used to say it was a “dead gay forum” to complain about how it was losing popularity, using gay as a pejorative because that’s edgy. Now? We still call it a dead gay forum, but positively because we love how dead it is (low pop makes for a tighter community) and we love how gay it is (the site has a significant queer population, myself included!)

.. and now, I would like to cordially invite you to make the site a little less dead and a little more gay (or not) by joining us!

One of the ways that the SA Forums maintain quality is a high barrier to entry. Well, not that high but certainly high relative to the big sites. It costs ten dollars to make a forums account, which is required to read and post on the forums. However, to celebrate the site’s 25th anniversary, the management is doing something the forums have not done in a long time, a free weekend! This weekend only, you can register a forms account, read the forums, and post in a limited number of them, absolutely free!

If you are nostalgic for the Internet of the late 90s and early 2000s, or you never got to experience them and are curious what posting in them was like, this is your chance to do so. To celebrate the 25th anniversary the forums now have a new section designed to look and feel like the early days, but without all the casual homophobia and such. Same posting vibes, new posting sensibilities. If you are a new member, it is advised that you take the time to not just read the rules but also read existing threads and get a feel for what the forms are like before you post. Newbies beware, you may get flamed!!!

You’ve already read my pitch, but if you want some more convincing, here is a thread where SA posters talk about what the site means to them and why they like it. Some of these people have been posting on this website for longer than I’ve been alive.

But the forums aren’t just for posting about the forums, they’re also for posting about things you love! Here are a few threads dedicated to things I’m interested in, in case you share them.

Balatro:

Jerma:

Excellent birds:

Fanart (56k WARNING NOT DIALUP FRIENDLY):

That’s just a few of my favorite threads. If none of that interests you, check out the main page and start browsing! I guarantee you’ll find something you like. Take note that FYAD is kind of the “anything goes” subforum (still no nazis but you might see a picture of a penis or something) while every other subforum is more or less SFW. My favorite forums are Post your Favorite, Video Games, Ask/Tell, and Rapidly Going Deaf. I tend to steer clear of FYAD and the politics subforums since they’re really not to my taste. Thanks so much for reading, and I hope you’ll find a place on the only forums that acknowledge the truth that modern social media will not: The Internet Makes You Stupid!

[insanethrottlebikernews]

BLUESKY THE NEW SAFE SPACE FOR LIBERAL TEARS

Attention all Liberals, Bluesky is now providing you a safe space to go to cry openly about the harsh realities of life. In depression because you’re a man who wears a dress? Go to Bluesky to get the comfort you need. Get away from all those racists and Hitlers and join with others in our crying contest. Bluesky, a safe space for those unable to face life. BLUESKY THE NEW SAFE SPACE FOR…

[virtualpopstarenglish]

This month's raffle is here! Instructions on how to join in pic^^

[alittleannihilati0n]

Thinking about how abysmal the state of online community is because of how absolutely no room is made for uncertainty. And that's true across communities and opinions and political groups and fandoms and on and on. Of course there's no community, no real movement surges, because our biggest tool for communication is almost completely blocked from being useful because everyone who wants to care about anything out loud is both terrified of being attacked and ready to tear apart anyone who says or thinks or feels something they think is wrong. Doesn't matter if they've done real concrete good on a much larger scale than any harm from them saying something wrong, doesn't matter if what they did/said was a long time ago and they've clearly changed, doesn't matter if they're clearly coming from a good place, doesn't matter if it's obvious they're being reactionary because they're understandable hurting, doesn't matter if they're trying to learn and correct themselves because if it's not self-flaggellating and perfect and immediate and a no-nuance, no confusion 180º turn, it's not good enough. And if it's not 100% good enough, there's no almosts any which way, they're just evil and irredeemable and so is anyone who associates with them at all, regardless of if or how much of what the person said/did they agree with. How in the world does anyone think that's going to allow for any kind of change, growth, hope, happiness, or progress for anyone and anything? It's not practical or sustainable or constuctive, and it sucks so much that it's so overwhelmingly everpresent and universal.