Fandom Snowflake Challenge: Community Space

[rogueslayer452]

Challenge #13: TALK ABOUT A COMMUNITY SPACE YOU LIKE. It doesn’t need to be your favorite, or the one where you spend the most time (although it certainly can be). Maybe it’s even one that you’ve barely visited. But talk about that space and how it helps support fannish community.

I'm going to actually say Dreamwidth.

As someone who joined online fandom via LiveJournal ages ago and have seen the shifts and changes of the online fandom community over the years, from the fandom migration to other platforms and how things have altered with the presence of social media, I think Dreamwidth has kept up what I once enjoyed about the LJ fandom community. I do use Tumblr for the pretty graphics and visit Reddit every now and then for updates on things, but ultimately when I think about fannish community I think of something that is more interactive, more personable, and less judgmental. And that's what Dreamwidth is for me. It reminds me of the times when online journaling offered something for everyone, fandom related or not, and was a place to express your thoughts and opinions clearly on your own journal and in community discussions, engage in conversations with others. I participate in fannish conversations and challenges, such as snowflake_challenge as an obvious example, even going onto different people's journals to talk and squee about fannish interests. It's something that I miss when it comes to the fandom community interaction as a whole, the engagement of just talking with people about things, having back and forth civil discussion in comment threads. Dreamwidth offers that to me in ways that other places cannot.

That's not to say that other fandom places online I visit don't have value and aspects that I enjoy, it's just that I think I feel more comfortable and safer in the controlled environment that Dreamwidth provides. It may be smaller in comparison to what LJ used to be, it's definitely not on the same wavelength as Tumblr and I do wish more people would join/return to DW, although I must admit to liking how quiet it is here compared to the social media reactionary drivel you often see. Plus, it's challenges like this that get me off my ass to actually write and participate, and I like that kind of push. I don't have to do it, but I want to. Because I miss this kind of thing in fandom, y'know?

Comments

[merricatb]

This is very well put :) It took me awhile to get the hang of Dreamwidth, and I'm still learning, but it doesn't feel as hostile as tumblr can sometimes feel.

[rogueslayer452]

Oh yeah, the hostility on Tumblr has become quite unbearable, especially in recent years that I've noticed, and it has made the fandom community over there very unwelcoming. It's unfortunate since it didn't use to be that way, at least from my experience. I joined Tumblr in 2011 and it was just sharing the things you liked, less discourse and more meta and squee posting, at least from my experience. Now, however, discourse is everywhere and it's too much for me to handle. Sure, I filter things out the best I can, but sometimes even that isn't enough and it gets harder to ignore when it feels like it's everywhere. I just want to reblog pretty things from the fandoms and media I enjoy in peace.

I do still like using Tumblr for what is it, but sometimes it can be discouraging. DW is more chill and kind of a safe haven for writing and sharing your thoughts and interacting with others. Also, as someone who has been involved in fandom for a long time, I prefer this kind of atmosphere over social media where people are just being mean-spirited for no reason. Fandom and let fandom, y'know.

[merricatb]

Yeah, I wasn't super fannish about things until around 2020 when The Old Guard came out and wow that devolved quickly into racism and misogyny and accusations of racism and misogyny and just general high school clique behavior. From what I understand it's why there isn't as much Sense8 content either, since people attacked each other over the finale and many people ended up leaving. I like to look at the fan art and memes and things but I want nothing to do with all that discourse. Fortunately I don't have much of a presence there and still prefer lurking so I can usually stay out of it and block block block.

[rogueslayer452]

From what I understand it's why there isn't as much Sense8 content either, since people attacked each other over the finale and many people ended up leaving.

God, that was such a horrible time to be in the fandom that, until that point, had been relatively chill. Mainly it was the people who hated Kala/Rajan/Wolfgang becoming a canon polyship, and it brought out the ugliness in some fans. It was a brief time, but it really put me off going into the fandom tags for a while there. From what I've seen, it has since cooled down and I'm grateful for that, but honestly just witnessing that was a massive bummer in an otherwise very awesome fandom.

As for the activity in fandom, it really depends. I still reblog a lot of Sense8, but I do think this is an general overall fandom issue than any one specific fandom, at least in certain places. There seems to be this idea that as soon as a show ends or loses popularity then people need to move onto something else. Which is a baffling concept to have, as that's not sustainable for any fandom to thrive in.

[merricatb]

Mainly it was the people who hated Kala/Rajan/Wolfgang becoming a canon polyship, and it brought out the ugliness in some fans.
Yeah, that's the stuff. You can still see some of it in the notes and whatnot on the old posts that survived.

There seems to be this idea that as soon as a show ends or loses popularity then people need to move onto something else.
Right, I think it goes back to this general feeling of content consumption versus engagement with fandom which is such a shame. It's nice to see Hannibal trending semi-regularly despite being off air for so long, but otherwise it's so easy for fandoms to die.

[trobadora]

This is pretty much exactly how I feel. ♥

[itsnotmymind]

I agree. I've never encountered a social media platform that I like the format as much as LJ/Dreamdwidth.

[goodbyebird]

100% co-signed ❤️