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alexiscartwheelI've seen several posts floating around Tumblr in the last week lamenting the demise of old-school LJ fandom, which prompted me log on and check my old f-list, which came with the pleasant surprise that some old friends have been posting recently! (I mirror all my posts at LJ, but because my f-list seldom shows much besides posts from communities I've honestly lost interest in, I'm guilty of abandoning it for long stretches of time.)
The combination of these events has me thinking about what I personally miss about LJ-style fandom.
I think a lot of it comes down to the fact that LJ fandom was a lot more personal. Don't get me wrong, I enjoy Tumblr a lot, but mostly I know the people I follow there by what they are interested in, not who they are. Part of that is definitely down to a lack of critical conversation. I found friends on LJ (and before that, in forums) not just based on shared interest, but from the ability to have interesting conversations about those shared interests.
One of the phrases that baffled me when I was just starting out on Tumblr was "don't tag your hate." My primary fandom, to my ongoing shame, for the past few years, is Teen Wolf. The source material is, putting it kindly, not very good. But on Tumblr, if I want to be critical of the show at all, fandom tells me that I shouldn't dare tag my post #teen wolf. I have to react positively to everything in fandom, or be banished to some weird, untagged corner where no one else can accidentally hear my opinion? It's weird.
(And don't even let the librarian side of me get started on how, from a metadata standpoint, "don't tag your hate" is a terrible, nonsensical idea.)
Lately I've mostly used my journal as a dumping ground for all the personal stuff that doesn't fit on Tumblr--and that I'm honestly not comfortable sharing that openly anyway--but I think it's time to open it back up and start writing about the fannish side of things here too. We'll see how long that lasts ;)
The combination of these events has me thinking about what I personally miss about LJ-style fandom.
I think a lot of it comes down to the fact that LJ fandom was a lot more personal. Don't get me wrong, I enjoy Tumblr a lot, but mostly I know the people I follow there by what they are interested in, not who they are. Part of that is definitely down to a lack of critical conversation. I found friends on LJ (and before that, in forums) not just based on shared interest, but from the ability to have interesting conversations about those shared interests.
One of the phrases that baffled me when I was just starting out on Tumblr was "don't tag your hate." My primary fandom, to my ongoing shame, for the past few years, is Teen Wolf. The source material is, putting it kindly, not very good. But on Tumblr, if I want to be critical of the show at all, fandom tells me that I shouldn't dare tag my post #teen wolf. I have to react positively to everything in fandom, or be banished to some weird, untagged corner where no one else can accidentally hear my opinion? It's weird.
(And don't even let the librarian side of me get started on how, from a metadata standpoint, "don't tag your hate" is a terrible, nonsensical idea.)
Lately I've mostly used my journal as a dumping ground for all the personal stuff that doesn't fit on Tumblr--and that I'm honestly not comfortable sharing that openly anyway--but I think it's time to open it back up and start writing about the fannish side of things here too. We'll see how long that lasts ;)
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Date: 2015-08-31 04:37 am (UTC)But yes, I think the lack of critical conversation is definitely a factor too! One can find it in the right fandoms, but even there it seems to be in particular Sorry I'm A Critical Downer corners, IME. And maybe not in the maintags -- I don't tend to track tags, so I often miss whether something's tagged or no. And ugh, I agree about "don't tag your hate." I know that it's the community norm, and it's not a norm I really run up against much anyway, but it irks me on principle.