State of fandom ?

[redcirce]

So I'm in a bad mood, mostly because my city is kind of wrecked, which of course there is nothing I can do anything about. However, I've also been thinking about fandom a bunch recently, especially with the LJ flist redesign riling people up. Hopefully this won't be too rambling and will make some sense?

Comments

[beachy_geek]

Twitter has had an impact, too. I don't use it, but I do follow some Who-related ones.. Some fandoms are active on Facebook, which I hate, personally and I can't see getting an account. I have a DW account but have never used it. I think I'll start eventually. Theoretically it should be the same as LJ, right?

I'm active on Tumblr in terms of quick fandom news and pics, (honestly, there are pics and gifs appearing while a show is still airing!!!) but there really is no sense of fellowship which I have loved on LJ. I think we have to make a concerted effort if we want LJ fandom to continue. Look at the Gutter--a great comm, but the same few people post all the time and most of the members just lurk or very rarely participate. It seems that most of the discussion has moved to the chat room as well, which I find confusing to be honest. In many of the comms I've been active in the mods have moved on to other fandoms. Sherlock, Supernatural, etc. have gotten bigger and at least they have new resources as the shows are still active. While I like Eleven the ones I love are gone so the fans are moved on.Look at Wintercompanions--all but dead.

I don't know what the answer is for the fic comms. I think I see a trend of moving to the archive fic format, like archive of our own and ffn, but they leave me cold. I want the input of people I've gotten to know and trust, if that makes sense, in order to improve my writing. A lot of fine writers are not writing anymore because nobody comments, particularly if you're not in a popular pairing. Very sad.

[redcirce]

Huh, fandom on twitter seems so odd to me, but maybe it's because I read a lot of longer stuff like meta? And I can't stand Facebook either. DW is pretty similar to LJ, but more functional, IMO.

Tumblr is very active, which I like, but it's pretty hard to communicate with anyone.

I think in the Gutter the chat/posting thing makes sense to me- people feel weird posting if they don't have anything "special" to share, but you don't need to have pics or fic to chat, you just need to show up. Maybe they should have a party post, or more events aimed at participation?

And yeah, I think people are moving back to archives, which were what were big before archiving at LJ was. I also think people get more comments at archives, but they're not really my favorite either because it's hard to find stuff you like.