But where shall we post the fanfictions?

[eldarwannabe]

Back when tumblr was just another option instead of the primary and/or only platform People I Want To Talk To Are Using, I started to write a post about Fanfiction on Different Mediums.

So, that was a real essay. Maybe one day I'll finish it. But I've actually read a few nice old-fashined fics on tumblr, where they are doomed to be virtually lost

Comments

[pocky_slash]

I feel like an interesting tangent to this would be my biggest fandom pet peeve right now, which is the use of tumblr-style tags on AO3. I feel like, people look at tumblr where tagging is basically another place to be creative and, if they have no experience with tagging as an organizational tool, see the same terminology on AO3 and go to town with their ridiculous tags, not realizing that there are people who use those tags as a way to organize and categorize fic, frequently ignoring the canonical tag for their story to make their "own" longer, more complicated, unsearchable one. (For example, eschewing "hurt/comfort" for "woobie!Charles and protective!Erik are fun to write!") I know this continues to be a point of contention for fandom on the whole (the tumblr side saying, "It doesn't create any additional work for the tag wranglers, so let it go!" and the organizational side saying, "BUT YOU ARE MISSING THE WHOLE POINT OF HOW TAGGING WORKS AS A SEARCH TOOL!"), but I wonder if it would have been LESS of an issue if tag-filtering

[eldarwannabe]

Oh, I HATE the tumblr-tags on AO3. Did you hear me talk to pressdbtwnpages on this one? I just feel like AO3 has no good options to deal with it. It totally defeats the purpose of tags! Every time I post fic on AO3 I try really hard to find tags that already say what I want to say rather than come up with new ones. I want people to be able to easily search for fic. It's been driving me crazy ever since I noticed it

[pocky_slash]

Oh, I didn't meant to imply that was the REASON tag filtering was down (if I remember correctly, it was because the filtering system was done in such a way that filtering was a big strain on the database and needed tobe re-worked), just that if it HADN'T been down, perhaps it would have been mor eobvious as an organizational tool from the start and people would be less likely to fill the tags with random crap XD

Re: archiving ficlets: I do round them up and post them in AO3 collections eventually, but I find tumblr a nice way to see them juxtaposed with the particular image that inspired them. I tend to obsessively keep track of every word I publish during the year, so I don't let them just slip away into the unnavigatable mess of tumblr ;D

[eldarwannabe]

Oh, whew. So it's just frustrating, not actually debilitating. Good to know. (I think the tumblr-drifters aren't gonna switch their use of tags even if it was obvious. Remember, this is the internet.)

I find tumblr a nice way to see them juxtaposed with the particular image that inspired them.

Oh, that's awesome! I do like seeing fics in context and if the context is on tumblr, all the better. But you keep track of your stuff and aren't a typical tumblr user anyway. I feel like some people just put stuff up there and then wander away to the next shiny thing. There's not much sense of value in individual posts.

[laleia]

I agree! I hate reading fanfic on tumblr, in part because the tumblr's base formatting often gets in the way. (Even on livejournal, I use style=mine to avoid all the blue writing on blue background or similarly hard-to-read formatting that people adopt.) I like when people use their tumblr to link to fanfic on archive sites, though, and I do enjoy the faux-fanfiction tumblrs you mention.

[eldarwannabe]

I completely forgot to mention the formatting! (Probably because you can't modify it on most archive sites either.)

I use the style=light on LJ all the time. My favorite LJ tool. I detest the busy tumblr styles you can't modify that are bright purple with sparkle backgrounds and weird mouse shapes and aaaaahhhh! Drives me crazy.

Tumblr is a good platform for recs and promos, I'll admit. I still prefer LJ overall, but tumblr makes it easy to make mini-blogs for specific activities, which helps with things like faux-fiction.