I don't know how to fandom anymore

[jennickels]

I miss being in fandom, but I don't know how to do it anymore. The fandoms I was involved in either evaporated over time or I lost interest. I followed new fandoms to Tumblr, and that's, well, an experience. Every time I get into something, I regret looking up the fandom. Everything is so hostile anymore. I miss the way things were in the olden

Comments

[campylobacter]

Good to see you posting again!

I've been keeping to my little corner of fandom on Twitter...mostly Stargate with the usual Farscape, Doctor Who, Star Wars, Star Trek & MCU fans I've known for years. I'm enjoying BLACKPINK & some anime (Wotakoi:LIHfO; Kimi no Na wa; Tenki no Ko), but haven't interacted with those fandoms. My non-Twitter fandom participation is pretty much limited to having conversations with fic authors whenever I leave comments on AO3.

I've not been active on Tumblr for years, mainly because it's just a bunch of bloated GIFsets that slow down my computers & mobile devices. Plus the weird decentralized nature of reblogging posts while not being able to moderate/curate discussion. The platform's great for visual fanworks, but complete garbage for textual fanworks (fic, meta, round robins, etc).

As for toxic fandom mess... I proudly wear my Fandom Grandma badge & if lil punks try to gatekeep fandom, they'll get a lecture about how to peaceably fangirl & critique problematic content.

I doubt LJ will ever reign again as a fandom space since Putin's Russia controls it now. Dreamwidth is actually a much better platform, but younger Millennials & GenZ are unlikely to ever flock to it like they do for Insta or TikTok.

[jennickels]

Yeah, I don't "get" tumblr as a fandom space. There's no meaningful interaction between the creators and the consumers of the creation. Having conversations is through reblogs or PMs or Asks. It's so different from LJ/DW with the commenting system that encourages you to actually talk to other people.

In fact, from what I can tell, commenting on stuff on tumblr is actually against "the rules." People, especially artists" get really mad if you comment on their stuff. Comments go in the tags which makes tags completely pointless. I really don't get the point, but it's where my fandoms are at. I still post all of my fanfic to my Wordpress blog besides to AO3, and most of the time, I still post to LJ and DW, too. Depends on my energy level because each one needs different formatting.