Snowflake Challenge Day 12
Day 12: In your own space, talk about what you think the future holds for fandom. What are your hopes and dreams for fandom? Do you have any predictions about what the next five years holds for fandom?
Okay, this post is going to be all over the place and somehow I made this into an essay, haha.
What I find interesting is the way fandom goes from one social site to another. For instance, when I first began in the Pokemon fandom several of my friends would first use Xanga (a blogging site) and then LJ/Dreamwidth to keep one another up to date what has been going on. Some of them then moved to Twitter and Tumblr. This goes the same with FMA fandom with several people switching from LJ to Tumblr.
Been reading a few comments concerning this challenge and one of the things brought up is several people preferring journaling over Tumblr. I’ve talked to other friends still in LJ and they have the same thoughts. I do agree that journaling is a more organized way of communicating and I kinda miss that. I can see the appeal of Tumblr to the younger crowd,though. It’s a platform to share with everyone, not just friends, over anything ( pretty pictures, something problematic in a show, politics, social justice) and then someone else can pass it on. Also somehow many shows, books, movies, etc. that had been finished several years before still get appreciated with gif sets, meta, and graphics.
Since I do fanfiction the most, I see this similar in the fanfic scene. I first began writing in Pokemon forums, then a bit of FFnet, then Livejournal as that’s where I often read FMA fic, and now Archive of our Own when FFnet seems to not allow higher rated smut fic. I agree with the others on this challenge over commenting on fanworks is one way to keep the fandom alive. FFnet’s favorite and AO3’s kudos system I see it’s appeal that it lets you know someone read and like your work.I never want to force someone to comment as that would be rude, but one of the things that got me to liking fanfic in the first place is communicating with someone else so if there’s more of that then fandom is much more fun.
Probably five years down the line there might be another social media site more popular than Tumblr and people will switch over there. There will also perhaps be another fanfic site similar to FFnet and Archive of our Own people will flock over. I might or might not hop to the new platforms, but most likely I will.
As for specific fandoms? Totally depends what fandom and who you ask. I’m pretty sure Pokemon will still be active if the games are still being made. FMA fandom isn’t as active as a few years ago, but people are still talking about it, so I hope it’ll still be remembered for a while (advantage of Tumblr as I already mentioned). TV shows like Elementary and Sleepy Hollow will depend if the future seasons will be any good, but if they keep making good quality episodes I can see people still keeping the fandom alive for those shows. Homestuck I’m not sure if it’ll be an active fandom in five years, but for certain people will still have an interest in it a while after it ends at least thanks to the upcoming kickstarter game.
I hope to still be active in fandom, whether it be writing/reviewing fanfics or just reblogging stuff from Tumblr. I also hope that I’ll keep in touch with my friends and discuss any new fandoms we would like to try out together.
This entry was originally posted at http://bay-alexison.dreamwidth.org/95658.html. Feel free to comment wherever you like!
Okay, this post is going to be all over the place and somehow I made this into an essay, haha.
What I find interesting is the way fandom goes from one social site to another. For instance, when I first began in the Pokemon fandom several of my friends would first use Xanga (a blogging site) and then LJ/Dreamwidth to keep one another up to date what has been going on. Some of them then moved to Twitter and Tumblr. This goes the same with FMA fandom with several people switching from LJ to Tumblr.
Been reading a few comments concerning this challenge and one of the things brought up is several people preferring journaling over Tumblr. I’ve talked to other friends still in LJ and they have the same thoughts. I do agree that journaling is a more organized way of communicating and I kinda miss that. I can see the appeal of Tumblr to the younger crowd,though. It’s a platform to share with everyone, not just friends, over anything ( pretty pictures, something problematic in a show, politics, social justice) and then someone else can pass it on. Also somehow many shows, books, movies, etc. that had been finished several years before still get appreciated with gif sets, meta, and graphics.
Since I do fanfiction the most, I see this similar in the fanfic scene. I first began writing in Pokemon forums, then a bit of FFnet, then Livejournal as that’s where I often read FMA fic, and now Archive of our Own when FFnet seems to not allow higher rated smut fic. I agree with the others on this challenge over commenting on fanworks is one way to keep the fandom alive. FFnet’s favorite and AO3’s kudos system I see it’s appeal that it lets you know someone read and like your work.I never want to force someone to comment as that would be rude, but one of the things that got me to liking fanfic in the first place is communicating with someone else so if there’s more of that then fandom is much more fun.
Probably five years down the line there might be another social media site more popular than Tumblr and people will switch over there. There will also perhaps be another fanfic site similar to FFnet and Archive of our Own people will flock over. I might or might not hop to the new platforms, but most likely I will.
As for specific fandoms? Totally depends what fandom and who you ask. I’m pretty sure Pokemon will still be active if the games are still being made. FMA fandom isn’t as active as a few years ago, but people are still talking about it, so I hope it’ll still be remembered for a while (advantage of Tumblr as I already mentioned). TV shows like Elementary and Sleepy Hollow will depend if the future seasons will be any good, but if they keep making good quality episodes I can see people still keeping the fandom alive for those shows. Homestuck I’m not sure if it’ll be an active fandom in five years, but for certain people will still have an interest in it a while after it ends at least thanks to the upcoming kickstarter game.
I hope to still be active in fandom, whether it be writing/reviewing fanfics or just reblogging stuff from Tumblr. I also hope that I’ll keep in touch with my friends and discuss any new fandoms we would like to try out together.
This entry was originally posted at http://bay-alexison.dreamwidth.org/95658.html. Feel free to comment wherever you like!