All of this has happened before....

[rogueslayer452]

++ We have our first look at Liu Yifei as Mulan in the upcoming Disney live-action adaptation. She looks incredible. As for the movie itself, aside from a few things that I'm slightly wary about, I'm actually looking forward to seeing the final product. I know that there's been a lot of controversy surrounding the changes made, but honestly, it doesn't really bother me that much. I much prefer slight deviations from their animated counterparts, because it allows more creative freedom to try something new to enhance the story while still maintaining the magic of the experience. Overall, I'm reserving judgment until we see more of what this film is going to bring.

++ Joe Manganiello talks Dungeons & Dragons with Stephen Colbert for ten minutes straight, and it's such a beautiful thing to witness. I mostly know Joe through his guest appearances on Critical Role where he appeared in the last half of their first campaign, and seeing him publicly geek out about his D&D obsession outside of that realm is pretty phenomenal. He even has a special streetwear merch website that just launched, "Death Saves", which is combining D&D (death saving throws) and death metal, which he introduced at this year's SDCC.

++ For those of you on Tumblr, you might have noticed that there's a particular kerfuffle going around surrounding the recent automated mass deletions of specific blogs. Here is a summarized post explaining everything including how to stay safe, but basically, there has been a recent crackdown of postings featuring edited copyrighted photographs of celebrities (paparazzi candid pics, set pics, red carpet events, etc) and Tumblr is basically purging not just fan-dedicated blogs but also personal accounts, too, if you have made edited said pictures. Many fandom and actor/celebrity-specific blogs that have such edits or pictures have been targeted and terminated without warning. Needless to say, this is causing a lot of problems for obvious reasons.

Much like with the LJ Strikethrough of '07, this Mass Tumblr Purge of 2K18 has many people on edge of what this means for the future, since this most likely won't be a one time thing, not the mention many are unhappy with the way Tumblr has been handling the situation. As a result, some are thinking about migrating to Pillowfort, a new upcoming platform that is claiming to be a better alternative for those on Tumblr to control the kind of blogging experience they want to have. However, I fear that, like with many attempts at alternative blogging sites such Imzy (that failed) and Inkstand (which was a scam), it'll have initial excitement at first but then quickly fizzle out. Tumblr may be a cesspool of immaturity and toxic mentalities most of the time, but it is the main place for fandom activity. The sad reality is that there will never be a singular main fandom hub for everyone to be in entirely, and the more platforms made the more fragmented fandom will be.

Comments

Getting cynical. Gear up.

[author-by-night.livejournal.com]

The problem is that Big Damn Sites don't give a rat's ass about fandom. That's the short of it. LJ did, I think, in the very beginning, but we all know how that went down. And I'm with you, alternative platforms keep coming, then fizzling. Although I like to think that at some point, one of them will gain traction...?

Although I am a little surprised about tumblr, because it does seem very specifically fandomy? But I guess so did LJ, to me, until I realized later on just how many non-fandom people were actually on it. So maybe tumblr's the same way, where fandom's actually this small fraction of it, and just the fraction I know most about.

What I really think needs to come back? Fan sites. I know that's so 2002, but see, IMHO they worked. Yes, some were as wanky as hell too, but at least they understood fandom. They got what fans want. And there was no worrying about outside criticism or lawsuits (which I think is why those Big Damn sites are doing crackdowns), because barely anyone outside of those fandoms knew they existed. Even LJ wasn't just fandom, in the end, even though that's what many of us used them for (and continue to do so). I have lots of friends who were here from the beginning with absolutely minimal fandom interaction. (Even without being involved in tumblr fandom.)

Fansites were also easier for fanfiction. The problem I've always had with LJ, going way back to 2005, is that there was always a consensus in fandom about "popular ships" and "unpopular ships". And if your fics didn't involve the "popular ships", but weren't strictly gen either, it was harder to get people to read them. Still is. I loved the Harry Potter site (Sugar Quill) that I used to go to, precisely because they were for exactly the sort of fanfiction I wrote and read. I'm not saying that Sugar Quill was without its flaws - I'm well aware of them. But as far as a community goes, it was perfect for me. There really ARE no individual communities now. It's all on these huge sites.

[impala-chick.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I'm with you on looking forward to Mulan!

The tumblr purge is pretty scary. I've read about Pillowfort and I want to be hopeful about it. It seems like the founders have the best of intentions. And Tumblr is awful at standing up for fandoms/fans in general.

[rogueslayer452.livejournal.com]

The founders may have best intentions and I do want to have optimism that it may succeed, but I've seen this happen before with alternative creations where there are good intentions for creating a better online experience, but it doesn't follow through for a variety of reasons. It takes a lot to run a website, especially something up that magnitude, and with so many sites being created to become the "next big thing", many end up getting abandoned. idk.

And Tumblr is awful at standing up for fandoms/fans in general.

Well, you can say that about most sites in general that aren't specifically created/owned by fans, really.

Granted, Tumblr was never a fandom-based place to begin with. It was originally created to just be a photo-sharing site, nothing more, until fandom migrated from LJ to there and got the word out for more people to join. Fandom had to make loopholes around the hardships of the site that wasn't designed with them in mind. Now, that doesn't mean that once they realized the site had a huge influx of of activity from the fandom side of things that they couldn't reevaluate and readjust certain things, which they did a little bit, but it's something to consider that the site is also widely un-moderated, with random fixations on which policies they enforce instead of others. They've been radically unfair to many of their users (fandom or not) with various things.

Re: Getting cynical. Gear up.

[rogueslayer452.livejournal.com]

The problem is that Big Damn Sites don't give a rat's ass about fandom. That's the short of it.

Yep, this has been evident for a while now, as I've learned from many years being involved in fandom and seen the lack of response from websites that aren't run by fans themselves.

Although I am a little surprised about tumblr, because it does seem very specifically fandomy?

It certainly does on the surface, even if the site was never specifically created to be for fandom initially before fandom decided to migrate there. It became a huge place for fandom over the years, and while Tumblr itself is quite vast and I'm sure the statistics will show a difference of fandom versus non-fandom ratio, Tumblr is still considered one of the biggest places for fandom to be at the moment, despite the sites many, many design flaws and functionality issues, including its current one.

The thing that confuses me about all the non-fandom people on LJ these days is that some of them have been on here since the early 00s when fandom dominated this space, and yet some claim that they've never heard of the term "shipping" or don't understand "fandom" at all, to the point of belittling it like it's some obscure thing. Like ???? Even if you weren't part of that culture, you must've known of it through others on here because the majority of the communities on this damn site were fandom-oriented. So, idk.

What I really think needs to come back? Fan sites. I know that's so 2002, but see, IMHO they worked. Yes, some were as wanky as hell too, but at least they understood fandom.

God, I would love for there to be a fansite resurgence. I used to visit a shitload of fansites for many different fandoms back in the day. Though wasn't there an issue with getting and maintaining domain names which is why they fizzled out? Or am I not remembering correctly?

There really ARE no individual communities now. It's all on these huge sites.

It's one of the reasons why Tumblr is a hodgepodge mess in general. There are no individual communities. Even though LJ is a large singular site, at least there were communities for different things and everything was more or less confined and controlled within those specific comms, but not on Tumblr. Sure, you can create a particular side-blog account over there dedicated to a particular fandom/character/actor/pairing/etc and maybe exercise a some moderation, but it's still wide open and public with certain limitations.

I mean, I understand the convenience of having everything be in one place (again, LJ being a good example of many things, both fandom and non-fandom alike), but at the same time there's little sense of community that way if everything will always be confined to one huge site that cannot differentiate between these separate communities and userbases.

[violateraindrop]

I follow a lot of fandom blogs and a bunch of them changed their name or are dashboard only now.
Good thing I kinda gave up on doing stuff for tumblr. My last edit was posted in 2016.

Remember Vero, the Instagram alternative? It was hot for a week and now you don't hear anything about it. I suspect Pillowfort will meet the same fate.

[http://users.livejournal.com/_profiterole_/]

I don't even remember hearing about Inkstand. At least I've heard of the other two.

[rogueslayer452.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I've seen that happening with some fandom blogs too, which is rather good since they're taking measures to protect themselves. Although there have been a few people/specific blogs that got terminated without them being aware that they could do that and, unless they're making the effort in trying to restore their previous personal account, probably won't be back which makes me sad. :(

I'm hoping that you deleted those older edits, because it seems there's no discrimination when it comes to when these things were posted.

I don't really follow Instragram, so I would barely know whatever alternatives people would have for that. I don't want to be cynical and suggest that Pillowfort will suffer the same fate of being the hype of the moment before being forgotten altogether, but it really makes you wonder what makes a site for people to migrate to sustainable. I mean, the most successful alternative to LJ in terms of blogging was DW and, while that is still running, it hasn't really seen an influx of users over the years, and it relatively remains the same kind of traffic as LJ does to this day.

[rogueslayer452.livejournal.com]

It was mostly just a small hyped up thing for a moment before being completely forgettable, which is probably what most of these alternative sites to a larger site tends to become. With Inkstand, I found out much later that it was revealed to have been some sort of scam. So, I'm thankful I was skeptical even back then.

[eiffels.livejournal.com]

The girl they casted as Mulan is SO on point, I love it!

[omgpeyton.livejournal.com]

I had no idea that was going on with tumblr! Admittedly I'm not on it as much as I used to be, but like you said.. it's a big fandom hub right now. It's definitely a very fragmented place right now, as I have several accounts all over the place.

[rogueslayer452.livejournal.com]

Honestly, most people haven't until some caught wind of what was actually happening and did more thorough research. So, yeah, these terminations were happening without any knowledge from anyone. I haven't seen much talk about it outside of posts circulating on Tumblr and on Twitter.

[rogueslayer452.livejournal.com]

I really want to see the promotional pictures of her wearing armor when they come out.

[silverusagi]

The Dungeons and Dragons talk was amazing and adorable.

I hadn't heard about the Tumblr thing. Sigh.

[rogueslayer452.livejournal.com]

I really love it when Stephen Colbert just lets loose his geek side, which is all the time, let's be real. And having other celebrities on his show where they geek out together is just icing on the cake. It's adorable and endearing. :)

The whole Tumblr situation has been sliding under the radar for most people, it seems, unless you were directly affected or are aware due to posts circulating about it. I'm surprised it's not gaining more attention from outside places, though.

[impala-chick.livejournal.com]

Oh yeah, I remember now that I started my tumblr as just a travel blog for pictures. Maybe if they just expanded their oversight and got more people on the team who understand how users are using the sight, they could improve. I have so many mixed feelings about Tumblr, but it seems like I can't NOT use it because so many fandom things are hosted there.

[haebin.livejournal.com]

I had no idea what is going on at tumblr at the moment. O_O
In my list everything seems fine and I didn't read a single complaint. O_O
But deleting personal blogs sucks a lot.
:|

RE: Re: Getting cynical. Gear up.

[author-by-night.livejournal.com]

The thing that confuses me about all the non-fandom people on LJ these days is that some of them have been on here since the early 00s when fandom dominated this space, and yet some claim that they've never heard of the term "shipping" or don't understand "fandom" at all, to the point of belittling it like it's some obscure thing. Like ???? Even if you weren't part of that culture, you must've known of it through others on here because the majority of the communities on this damn site were fandom-oriented. So, idk.


Yeah, very true. I don't know. I almost feel like maybe some of those people just had their own... spaces? So maybe they really were oblivious to fandom until enough people left LJ that the "wall" was taken down, so to speak.

I also think a lot of non-fandom people just get super defensive. Which maybe is a bit understandable, if they feel they're "supposed" to relate to something they just don't. On the other hand, why does it offend you? Even for me, just because I'm in fandom doesn't mean I'm in current ones, and in fact, I'm not. It took me forever to figure out what on Earth "MCU" meant, and I'm still not sure I got it right. I'm way old school as far as fandoms go. But if it makes other people happy, you know, that's fine.

The other thing I don't get is the whole "I like to know who you actually are" thing. Isn't it pretty normal to meet people through common interests? If anything, I actually think LJ is the "odder" place, where it's kind of expected that you jump into people's lives without really knowing them. IRL, the process is generally way more gradual. I'm not saying it's a bad thing - just that some non-fandom people also act like the concept of connecting through common interests is completely foreign. IRL, you generally have some kind of base, even if it's something really simple like being neighbors or working together.

[blakmagjick]

"Joe Manganiello talks Dungeons & Dragons with Stephen Colbert for ten minutes straight, and it's such a beautiful thing to witness"
Yessss....I saw this video on FB the other day, it was AWESOME! His basement is SO cool!
Also, I sort of love how he called out Vin Diesel on likely not actually playing D&D...haha (I don't care either way but it was amusing)

[rogueslayer452.livejournal.com]

Yeah, it's been very lowkey despite the terminations happening, which makes me wonder why there hasn't been much noise about it elsewhere considering that this can help people be aware of the problem so they don't suddenly try to login and there's nothing there. Many blogs are either going "private" or doing dashboard viewing only in order to protect themselves. But I've had a few that I followed that were terminated and the likelihood of them coming back doesn't seem good, which makes me rather sad because some of them had probably the best content/were amazing gifmakers but now are just gone. :(

[rogueslayer452.livejournal.com]

I watched the tour of his D&D basement (https://youtu.be/kAUfngq89cg) and it's definitely super cool.

I found it interesting his opinion of Vin Diesel, since I previously heard he has played and loves D&D. Granted I only heard this through others and he played a small game with Matt Mercer and some of the other Critical Role cast, which they had fun playing, so I'm only going off of that kind of exposure. I have no idea how deeply involved Vin is with D&D, especially in comparison to Joe who is literally is absolutely passionate about it.

[elizalavelle.livejournal.com]

I'm not on Tumblr much these days but WTF!? How is it possible that companies don't realize they need to communicate with their users and tread lightly when deleting things?!

[rogueslayer452.livejournal.com]

I honestly wish that they would communicate with their users, but it's always typical that they don't. I mean, if they can't even be bothered to consult their users about the unnecessary and pointless changes made to the site, why would they for something like this? And in these particular cases, they care more about protecting themselves against potential liabilities more than protecting their users. And with things like Tumblr that are free, terminating blogs is a non-issue for them, even if the people behind them lose years of content. :/

[elizalavelle.livejournal.com]

Tumblr is free but they make money from having a user base. Piss enough of that base off and the platform becomes a very expensive purchase that brings in little revenue.

I just don’t get how companies always seem to miss that bigger picture. Definitely work with the users to ensure that content is okay and if there are legal issues give everyone notice and an explanation.

Although I also find it hilarious that people are suing over red carpet photos and the like. Once they’re online they are everywhere. Watermark that shit and accept it.

[rogueslayer452.livejournal.com]

Piss enough of that base off and the platform becomes a very expensive purchase that brings in little revenue.

This is true, and I keep thinking back to what LJ did during the Strikethrough in 2007. Sure, once they realized they severely fucked up they made a public apology and tried to restore the journals/communities that were wrongfully terminated, but the damage was already done and it was definitely the start of the great migration people had from LJ to other platforms.

Definitely work with the users to ensure that content is okay and if there are legal issues give everyone notice and an explanation.

I agree. It should be a no-brainer.

Although I also find it hilarious that people are suing over red carpet photos and the like. Once they’re online they are everywhere. Watermark that shit and accept it.

It actually makes me wonder why now? I mean, people taking and using (credit or no) paparazzi/red carpet event pictures since forever, so why are some companies now suddenly getting into a tizzy about? And it's strange that I've only heard it affecting Tumblr, but nowhere else. That doesn't mean there isn't a crackdown elsewhere mind you, but Tumblr is the only place where I've heard about it, though only through other users via posts warning others about it since people are afraid of losing their blogs because of how Tumblr itself is handling the situation. IDEK.