If anyone asks, my nanny hacked my account and made this post

[lucymonster]

The other day I cheerfully wasted a whole day's allowance of downtime rereading The Ms Scribe Story, as I can't resist doing every now and then. As legendary fandom wanks go, it's probably my all-time favourite for the sheer amount of effort that went into the fuckery.

But despite its being a horrible story about horrible people, my main takeaway this time is a weird nostalgia for those days - I mean, the days when single-fandom archives, forums, and LJ were the main hubs of fannish activity. I coped well enough with the move to tumblr, but twitter is basically the perfect polar opposite of what I want from a fandom space (Speed! Impermanence! Overlap with the non-fannish world!); discord, doubly so. I don't think LJ was any more or less wanky than other platforms - it really just depends on who you hang out with, or I guess who you're unlucky enough to get noticed by. (I was a nobody, so most of the drama sailed right on by me.) But it was definitely better at fostering the kind of interactions I enjoy. I love it here on DW, but we're not exactly in the room where it happens.

Anyway, the upshot of this nostalgia binge is that I've wasted today's downtime tinkering with my icons, which I haven't touched in forever. I've found some I really like, and I'll whittle and adjust based on what I actually end up using. Today's is for great flaming wankstorms lol. Let's hope I don't need it.

Comments

[snickfic]

I've been thinking recently about where I do fandom these days, and honestly it's mostly in email and discord DMs. This is partly because my fandoms are so small these days, but if they were bigger, I still wouldn't end up actively doing fandom on twitter or tumblr. Like, I HAVE accounts for both of those, and in fact I'm very attached to my twitter account and my people there, but it's for casual stuff about my day (and cat pics), not for actively engaging in fandom. (Also it's locked, lol, and I will never, ever unlock it.) If I got into a fandom that had a bit more of a fannish presence, honestly I'd probably end up doing it on meme. 😂

I thought about maybe trying to do more fannish blogging here on DW, but honestly I don't know if it'd feel worth it. Talking about Oasis here mostly feels like yelling into the void, which is why I don't do it much anymore. I get a lot more engagement for my book and movie reviews.

In any case, new icons are always exciting, especially if having them motivates you to use them by posting more, which I enthusiastically support. :D

[liriaen]

Oh god yes. I remember those days. I entered fandom in 2004 as a lurker, and 2006 actively. Man oh man, there was quite the potential for grief. But! It was also such a vibrant creativity, community, sense of belonging.

I never moved, other than to insanejournal after Strikethrough, and then to DW when the Russians bought LJ. So yes, i do really miss the centrality… but on the other hand, different platforms engender different forms of communication and exchange, and that’s a good thing.

But yeah… there’s always a sense of nostalgia for the old days.

[osprey_archer]

Rereading The MsScribe Story is never a waste! Truly a classic. Someone should bring it out as a book.

MUCH AGAINST MY WILL I have slowly grown fond of Tumblr (it helps probably that it seems more chill now that the main hub of fandom is elsewhere), but I've never truly grasped how people fandom on Twitter. It moves so fast? It's so easy for fandom drama to break containment because there IS no containment? Horrible.

IMO DW is still the best place to talk about books and even for rare book fandoms, but the bigger fandoms have definitely passed on by.

[pauraque]

What I learned from being on LJ in that era is that I don't want to be in the room where it happens. :P It burned me out and I don't miss it at all. It can be fun to look back on stuff and boggle, but I am so much happier on DW in 2022 than I ever could have been on LJ in 2005. That's just me, though.

[theskywasblue]

I was fortunate never to have found myself embroiled in any fandom wank - though I witnessed some mild ones from the sidelines.

That being said, I do miss the old LJ days something fierce. Nothing quite like that experience exists now.

[walgesang]

I like the icon! I like nostalgia for nostalgia but then I remember how there was a very uncomfortable lurking transphobia in the LJ days of people spreading rumors of guys on LJ who were "really women." It wasn't a good time and I feel for anyone who had to come out during that time, because sometimes it was really fucking awful. :/ I think I could maybe count one person who was able to be androgynous and not get too much flack, but that was rare.

There are things that I think back on fondly but for the most part I like where things are now on DW. Maybe my flist isn't as active, but it's certainly active enough and that's all right by me.

[rhoda_rants]

I deeply miss the forum days! Most of the time. They had their own drama, but it was so much easier to avoid if you wanted to. I've managed to avoid much of the drama in most of my fandoms, honestly, partly by not being prolific enough to notice (like you, I guess), but also by being extremely selective about which parts of it I decided to participate in.

I did have to leave a couple forums behind because they just didn't mesh well with my personality, but I do miss the specificity of those days. Just a bunch of people all there for the same interests. It was a good time.