Seasonal Spuffy Moves, World Ends At Eleven. Or not.
This started out as a comment to someone else's post, but it growed. Disclaimer: I am not affiliated with Seasonal Spuffy in any way other than as a long-time contributor.
First off, I do think that moving the comm without consulting the members was bad public relations, and I'm not completely convinced that the DDOS attacks are in and of themselves reason to move. (The problem with spambots seems to me to be much more compelling; DW does have a more vigorous spam control program than LJ seems to.)
However, while any community is built upon the contributions of its members, I also know that a community without an active, committed mod team tends to flail or wither. People who are willing to put in the hard work to be those active committed mods are hard to come by. So when one's lucky enough to have them, one should listen carefully when they say they have good reason to do something one way or another. I suspect that the mod(s) believe that the move is necessary, and also know that if it were put up to a public vote, it would never happen. The LJ segment of BtVS fandom tends to be extremely insular. So the mod(s) felt that their only option for the long term good of the community was to act now and ask forgiveness later.
Whether they're correct or not, only time will tell. I have seen a number of people saying that they won't participate this year, and a number of others who are still on the fence. My purely anecdotal impression is that most of the people who are dropping out are those who were wavering anyway. Also, on the whole, newer fans seem to be taking the move more in stride than older ones. In the long run, perhaps the influx of newer fans who got their start on Tumblr or one of the archive boards and don't see LJ as the be-all and end-all of fandom will make up for the older fans who don't make the transition. Or perhaps not.
Back during the DDOS attacks, I was a little annoyed by all the people who were posting "LJ sucks for denying me my porn!" because yeah, it sucks not to have access to your porn, but geez, perspective, people. But I'm also a little annoyed by the meme that's been going around lately which says, in essence, "If you move to Dreamwidth, THE COMMIES WIN." I'm actually probably going to get a paid account on LJ again, just because I'm sick of not being able to edit comments, but I am a little skeptical about how many of the people who've posted that meme are really deeply concerned about political dissent in Russia. Yes, the fragmentation of fandom is inconvenient, but the fact is, fandom has never been all in one place. When I started out in fandom in 1981 we were writing each other letters. On paper. By U.S. mail. (And it was five miles to the post office, uphill, both ways, in the snow.) When I got into online fandom back in 2001, it was split across Usenet, seven billion mailing lists, and a couple dozen forums. Nowadays it's split up between LJ, DW, Tumblr, half a dozen forums and half a dozen archive chat boards. For awhile a lot of fandom was on LJ, but never all of it. This is the internet; things change, LJ is no longer the hot new thing. And somehow fandom survives and prospers, if you're willing to go look for it.
It is more important to me to contribute to fandom in some positive way, whether by reading the stories and applauding the icons, or by contributing a story myself, than it is to defend any one platform as the One True Bastion of fandom. Everybody tut-tuts about the poor authors and artists who will get so many fewer comments on DW, but if one really cares so much about the poor authors and artists, who had absolutely no part in the decision to move, it seems to me that one might make the minimal effort necessary to subscribe to the RSS feed or click on a link and give the poor writers and artists a comment.
And yes, that bit is self-serving on my part, because I'm one of those authors, and I like getting feedback as much as anyone else. But I am lucky enough to have a moderately large and loyal bunch of readers, and I can afford to eat a fifty percent drop in feedback. I don't like it, but I can afford it. Jane Struggling New Writer may not be that lucky. As a fandom, we need Jane Struggling New Writer a hell of a lot more than we need me. I can count on the fingers of one hand (OK, maybe two hands) the Spuffy fans of my 'generation' who are still actively contributing to fandom. Remember that bit about LJ not being the hot new thing any longer, and new fans mostly coming to LJ from elsewhere these days? Jane Struggling New Writer and her friends are the future of Spuffy fandom, folks. Jane Struggling New Writer signs up for what's supposed to be the Spuffy Ficathon, and gets one comment. Is she going to say to herself "Wow, I'm going to do this again?" Or is she going to say "Screw it," and kite off to write SPN RPF?
Be pissed off at the mods if you like, but if the main effect of your protest is to penalize the parties who, again, had no part in the decision to move, then I don't think it's terribly effective. I know that the point of not participating is to hope the mods come crawling back to LJ and apologize abjectly, but speaking from thirty years' experience with fannish dust-ups, the more likely outcome is that the mods throw up their hands in disgust and the contributors get discouraged, and then there's no ficathon anywhere. I hear people complaining all the time about how fandom is shrinking. I look at the signups for SS and see a lot of fresh new faces who are doing this for the first time and could use support and encouragement. And I see the old guard complaining about how it's too much trouble to click on one extra link. And I think to myself that there are damn good reasons why this fandom's shrinking, and 'fragmentation' is the least of them.
In short, I am participating in Seasonal Spuffy, no matter where it's held, because Seasonal Spuffy is a good ficathon. Be seeing you. Or not.
Rants Talk to me
First off, I do think that moving the comm without consulting the members was bad public relations, and I'm not completely convinced that the DDOS attacks are in and of themselves reason to move. (The problem with spambots seems to me to be much more compelling; DW does have a more vigorous spam control program than LJ seems to.)
However, while any community is built upon the contributions of its members, I also know that a community without an active, committed mod team tends to flail or wither. People who are willing to put in the hard work to be those active committed mods are hard to come by. So when one's lucky enough to have them, one should listen carefully when they say they have good reason to do something one way or another. I suspect that the mod(s) believe that the move is necessary, and also know that if it were put up to a public vote, it would never happen. The LJ segment of BtVS fandom tends to be extremely insular. So the mod(s) felt that their only option for the long term good of the community was to act now and ask forgiveness later.
Whether they're correct or not, only time will tell. I have seen a number of people saying that they won't participate this year, and a number of others who are still on the fence. My purely anecdotal impression is that most of the people who are dropping out are those who were wavering anyway. Also, on the whole, newer fans seem to be taking the move more in stride than older ones. In the long run, perhaps the influx of newer fans who got their start on Tumblr or one of the archive boards and don't see LJ as the be-all and end-all of fandom will make up for the older fans who don't make the transition. Or perhaps not.
Back during the DDOS attacks, I was a little annoyed by all the people who were posting "LJ sucks for denying me my porn!" because yeah, it sucks not to have access to your porn, but geez, perspective, people. But I'm also a little annoyed by the meme that's been going around lately which says, in essence, "If you move to Dreamwidth, THE COMMIES WIN." I'm actually probably going to get a paid account on LJ again, just because I'm sick of not being able to edit comments, but I am a little skeptical about how many of the people who've posted that meme are really deeply concerned about political dissent in Russia. Yes, the fragmentation of fandom is inconvenient, but the fact is, fandom has never been all in one place. When I started out in fandom in 1981 we were writing each other letters. On paper. By U.S. mail. (And it was five miles to the post office, uphill, both ways, in the snow.) When I got into online fandom back in 2001, it was split across Usenet, seven billion mailing lists, and a couple dozen forums. Nowadays it's split up between LJ, DW, Tumblr, half a dozen forums and half a dozen archive chat boards. For awhile a lot of fandom was on LJ, but never all of it. This is the internet; things change, LJ is no longer the hot new thing. And somehow fandom survives and prospers, if you're willing to go look for it.
It is more important to me to contribute to fandom in some positive way, whether by reading the stories and applauding the icons, or by contributing a story myself, than it is to defend any one platform as the One True Bastion of fandom. Everybody tut-tuts about the poor authors and artists who will get so many fewer comments on DW, but if one really cares so much about the poor authors and artists, who had absolutely no part in the decision to move, it seems to me that one might make the minimal effort necessary to subscribe to the RSS feed or click on a link and give the poor writers and artists a comment.
And yes, that bit is self-serving on my part, because I'm one of those authors, and I like getting feedback as much as anyone else. But I am lucky enough to have a moderately large and loyal bunch of readers, and I can afford to eat a fifty percent drop in feedback. I don't like it, but I can afford it. Jane Struggling New Writer may not be that lucky. As a fandom, we need Jane Struggling New Writer a hell of a lot more than we need me. I can count on the fingers of one hand (OK, maybe two hands) the Spuffy fans of my 'generation' who are still actively contributing to fandom. Remember that bit about LJ not being the hot new thing any longer, and new fans mostly coming to LJ from elsewhere these days? Jane Struggling New Writer and her friends are the future of Spuffy fandom, folks. Jane Struggling New Writer signs up for what's supposed to be the Spuffy Ficathon, and gets one comment. Is she going to say to herself "Wow, I'm going to do this again?" Or is she going to say "Screw it," and kite off to write SPN RPF?
Be pissed off at the mods if you like, but if the main effect of your protest is to penalize the parties who, again, had no part in the decision to move, then I don't think it's terribly effective. I know that the point of not participating is to hope the mods come crawling back to LJ and apologize abjectly, but speaking from thirty years' experience with fannish dust-ups, the more likely outcome is that the mods throw up their hands in disgust and the contributors get discouraged, and then there's no ficathon anywhere. I hear people complaining all the time about how fandom is shrinking. I look at the signups for SS and see a lot of fresh new faces who are doing this for the first time and could use support and encouragement. And I see the old guard complaining about how it's too much trouble to click on one extra link. And I think to myself that there are damn good reasons why this fandom's shrinking, and 'fragmentation' is the least of them.
In short, I am participating in Seasonal Spuffy, no matter where it's held, because Seasonal Spuffy is a good ficathon. Be seeing you. Or not.
Rants Talk to me