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rogueslayer452Challenge #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![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
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?
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?
no subject
Date: 2026-02-20 11:59 pm (UTC)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.
no subject
Date: 2026-02-21 12:43 am (UTC)Yeah, that's the stuff. You can still see some of it in the notes and whatnot on the old posts that survived.
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.