Fandom Snowflake Challenge: Day 6

[rogueslayer452]

Day Six: In your own space, make a list — anything between one and ten things is a sweet spot, but don't feel constrained by that! - of things that you wish existed in fandom or elsewhere, or that you'd like someone to make for you.

There's one thing in particular that comes to mind, and it's that I wish to have more people to discuss fandom with.

And when I say fandom, I'm talking about anything fannish in general. There seems to be this idea nowadays, especially here on LJ, that fandom just means being an active participant in a specific fandom, when that's not necessarily true. My definition of fandom has always been this overall sense of being a fan of something, anything, regardless whether you are actively participating within an online fandom community or not, and sharing that love with others. That's it. Interestingly, that is why I joined LJ in the first place back in the day, because there were a lot of places, communities, and online friends who held the same kind of fangirl gene that I did where we would talk and share our enthusiasm about things. The kinds of shows we watched, the recent movies we saw, our pairings and OTPs, favorite characters, theories, headcanons, etc. That's how I personally connected with people. And I want that kind of engagement to be brought back again. I want conversations and discussions, I want people to share their loves for different types of media they're currently into, their most recent obsessions. It can range from being something deep and meta-y to just simply sharing squee-level excitement.

Basically, I guess I just wish for more interactions about fandom as a whole. Even though the fandom community on LJ isn't as active as it used to be back in the day, that doesn't mean people should be afraid of letting their inner fannish side out.

In the same vein, I wish for more metas in general. Something I always liked was reading people's thoughts, observations, and opinions through their constructive and researched pieces of meta and seeing things from a different perspective. This also helped with the engagement by sharing your own thoughts and opinions, whether in the comments or making a response post, adding more to the discussion no matter whether you agreed or disagreed with a person's points.

Comments

[author-by-night.livejournal.com]

Tumblr and twitter can also reblog/retweet you to the point where you lose control. At least on LJ you could delete comments, although I belonged to a comm where that wasn't allowed, and got banned for a week while the person overreacting and leaving nasty replies got to keep doing it. It was nuts. (Though that comm had other extremes in it, where people would use ableist language and just be... very arrogant in general.)

I actually was a bit of a Faux Woke in those days, but I was never really vicious about it, more just obsessive. I can kind of see how it almost becomes an addiction, though. You almost think you HAVE to be upset about everything 24/7. A friend of mine actually held a lowkey pseudo intervention when we met IRL.

[rogueslayer452.livejournal.com]

At least on LJ you could delete comments

Or freeze a comment thread, or freeze the entire comment section altogether if things got out of hand.

That's one of the main problems with social media is that there's no moderation, and while sometimes people can abuse such power like deleting or freezing comment threads on journals/communities that silence people's thoughts or opinions on matters, there was a sense of self-containment that you could have within your own space. Social media and sites like Tumblr, for example, don't have such options, which makes derailing conversations and spreading misinformation much quicker. There was also a time when, on Tumblr, you could even edit the original text of a post from someone you were reblogging to say something completely different, making the spread of misinformation go even further (esp since nobody bothers checking the original source of things online and just believe everything at face value).

Yeah, there are power-hungry mods that can get out of control, there's always a downside to anything in that regard, however I would prefer having control of my own space rather than not, y'know?

I actually was a bit of a Faux Woke in those days, but I was never really vicious about it, more just obsessive

Oh, I was too for a brief period of time. I think a lot of us were during that time since, you're right, the sentiment was rather addictive. I was young (early twenties) and it felt like I needed to be a part of something bigger, and once being made aware of social issues and how it affects everything you do feel compelled to want to do something about it. There's nothing wrong with caring about social issues, but there's a difference between being made aware of and having it consuming you to the point where you're always so negative and cynical all the time and just not enjoying anything anymore. And that's what the faux woke culture evolved into. Being outraged over every little thing, discarding nuance, not thinking critically, etc.