The price of being a fan in fandom.
Aug. 16th, 2019 12:27 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
rogueslayer452++ I just found out that ThinkGeek closed its online store recently and have relocated by integrating with GameStop instead (which is kind of a downgrade imho, aesthetically and functionally). I have always looked on the ThinkGeek site for anything new and interesting with fandom/geeky merch, and have bought things from time to time, but I do agree with some of the criticisms that some of the stuff was a bit too overpriced and they didn't really update a whole lot in recent years. I'm just sad I missed their "moving out" sale since I was dealing with health issues during the time it happened, I could have gotten great deals on things I had always wanted to get.
++ Wil Wheaton is suing Geek & Sundry over profits of a webseries he created. Although I had watched G&S since it debuted, I've been hearing some unfavorable things ever since it was sold to Legendary (LDN) years ago and the changes they'd started making once they took over and the clashing between them and the staffers/creators. So yeah, I hope he wins.
++ Tumblr has been bought by the owner of Wordpress for less than 3 million dollars, which is significantly less than what it was originally bought for by Yahoo years ago. It's kind of hilarious seeing big corporations who clearly never understood the platforms they were buying (Yahoo legitimately thought that Tumblr was "the next generation PDF" which...what?) and thinking they could profit off of ending up with a massive financial loss for fucking it up big time, but it does leave the question of what this means for the site now. The ban on adult content and the shitty algorithm is still up unfortunately, which won't win people back that either left or were forced out, and despite claims that nothing will change we've all heard that song and dance before. The fate and longevity of the site is still up in the air, and many, especially those among the fandomsphere, are worried what this means. Tumblr might not have been originally created to be for fandom use, but fandom did migrate there and it became one of the biggest platforms to host fannish content and it's what caused its rise in popularity. But without it, where would people go? There is no other site that is comparable to it. I've said this before, but ideally we need a solution that is similar to that of AO3/OTW where a non-profit fandom platform is created by fans for fans, but realistically I know it isn't that simple. So for right now, it's just a big question mark of what the future holds.
++ Wil Wheaton is suing Geek & Sundry over profits of a webseries he created. Although I had watched G&S since it debuted, I've been hearing some unfavorable things ever since it was sold to Legendary (LDN) years ago and the changes they'd started making once they took over and the clashing between them and the staffers/creators. So yeah, I hope he wins.
++ Tumblr has been bought by the owner of Wordpress for less than 3 million dollars, which is significantly less than what it was originally bought for by Yahoo years ago. It's kind of hilarious seeing big corporations who clearly never understood the platforms they were buying (Yahoo legitimately thought that Tumblr was "the next generation PDF" which...what?) and thinking they could profit off of ending up with a massive financial loss for fucking it up big time, but it does leave the question of what this means for the site now. The ban on adult content and the shitty algorithm is still up unfortunately, which won't win people back that either left or were forced out, and despite claims that nothing will change we've all heard that song and dance before. The fate and longevity of the site is still up in the air, and many, especially those among the fandomsphere, are worried what this means. Tumblr might not have been originally created to be for fandom use, but fandom did migrate there and it became one of the biggest platforms to host fannish content and it's what caused its rise in popularity. But without it, where would people go? There is no other site that is comparable to it. I've said this before, but ideally we need a solution that is similar to that of AO3/OTW where a non-profit fandom platform is created by fans for fans, but realistically I know it isn't that simple. So for right now, it's just a big question mark of what the future holds.
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Date: 2019-08-17 11:25 pm (UTC)GameStop has been selling a lot of other merchandise for sometime to try and keep up because selling games as their primary stock isn't keeping anyone afloat anymore. They've got board games, plushes, mugs, etc. etc. now.
Yeah, the last time I went to a GameStop they had a lot of Funko Pops on display, which is what many stores have I think (esp for the "exclusive" pops for individual stores), which is one of the ways to gain business since those are quite popular particularly for collectors. This is a way to regain a certain kind of business if nobody is coming in, and that's probably why ThinkGeek has now merged with them in this way to maintain their online business. But really, even though ThinkGeek was overpriced and constantly out-of-stock of things and took forever to restock them, at least they were much, much better than GameStop.
They couldn't even get their porn ban right because everyone posting food, dogs, family photos, etc are getting flagged while porn bots are going strong.
It was bullshit when they did the whole "female-presenting nipple" nonsense and basically mocked people for complaining about the sexist wording of it. Like yeah, we know that you claim you want to be "family friendly" but it's just so you can get the site back into the app store to make money. Which now y'all lost money because you drove people away from this ridiculous ban that screwed everyone over, including people who weren't even posting anything explicit at all. Just, an utter fail on every level.