LJ, and fandom medium
So I've always been one of those people who don't really keep track of LJ changes and get kind of -_- when people bitch about them, because most of the time, I find that it's just people complaining for the sake of complaining. But ever since Release 88, it's become clear to me, and to other people who're like me and were apathetic in general, that LJ doesn't give a shit about its English user base. Not that I thought they ever did, but it's progressively becoming more and more apparent by the way they respond to users, the things they introduce as "improvements" and their business practice in general.
I know a lot of what keeps people here is that there's no alternative medium. Their fandom is on LJ, their friends are on LJ, so they're stuck on LJ even if their dissatisfaction level has going to the point where they really would like to jump ship. The point of this post isn't to say Let's All Go To Dreamwidth, but that I don't think people should necessarily be that pessimistic about it. I know. Me, advocating against pessimism, what's the world come to.
But here's the thing: fandom has changed medium PLENTY of times before, whether by necessity or because something better came along. We went from fanzines to usenet groups to mailing lists and now Livejournal. There's no reason to think we're going to be stuck on LJ forever. There will be a limit to how shitty LJ can get as a service before there's a mass fandom migration. Some believe Tumblr is the next medium. I don't know. I don't really think so, because its format is not conducive to how fandom works, but there was a world of difference in format between the jump from mailing list to Livejournal, a fundamental shift in fandom culture and how we relate to each other. So ultimately, I can't really say that Tumblr won't actually be that next step. Or maybe Dreamwidth will finally become THE alternative, in which case it'll merely be a switch in service (like going from Onelist to Egroups to Yahoo!Groups) but not the platform.
Time will tell the tale.
I know a lot of what keeps people here is that there's no alternative medium. Their fandom is on LJ, their friends are on LJ, so they're stuck on LJ even if their dissatisfaction level has going to the point where they really would like to jump ship. The point of this post isn't to say Let's All Go To Dreamwidth, but that I don't think people should necessarily be that pessimistic about it. I know. Me, advocating against pessimism, what's the world come to.
But here's the thing: fandom has changed medium PLENTY of times before, whether by necessity or because something better came along. We went from fanzines to usenet groups to mailing lists and now Livejournal. There's no reason to think we're going to be stuck on LJ forever. There will be a limit to how shitty LJ can get as a service before there's a mass fandom migration. Some believe Tumblr is the next medium. I don't know. I don't really think so, because its format is not conducive to how fandom works, but there was a world of difference in format between the jump from mailing list to Livejournal, a fundamental shift in fandom culture and how we relate to each other. So ultimately, I can't really say that Tumblr won't actually be that next step. Or maybe Dreamwidth will finally become THE alternative, in which case it'll merely be a switch in service (like going from Onelist to Egroups to Yahoo!Groups) but not the platform.
Time will tell the tale.