Dusting the old place

[brinylon]

 So, here I am, like many others, dusting off this old account in case Tumblr crashes and burns. Everything under this post is a back up of my old Livejournal account. I'm glad that's still around, but it's pretty stale.

 

Part of me hopes the end of Tumblr will happen, partly because I'm not averse to a bit of internet drama, but also because I hope there eventually will emerge a social media site comparable to AO3, for and by fans, who understand fandom. I do however, really like Tumblr's like and reposting system, and am fond of the content I have collected over the years (since late 2012). 

How we deal with social media, what we'll accept, what we'll allow, what we're willing to give (up), is likely going to be very important in the coming years. We're going to have to be increasingly critical and informed, of increasingly complex systems, if we want more content than the prepackaged junkfood the Apples and Amazons of the world are willing to feed us. Or even worse, that we will do it to ourselves, in order to be able to have a platform.

I don't know the answer yet, but the slick interface is not going to keep me on Tumblr if it means having nothing but Disneyfied content. We shall overcome, and all that.

Comments

[enemytosleep]

Hello, hello. I was never on Tumblr, but it seems I somehow ended up back online around the same time as all of this anyway (laid up on crutches and unable to work ... so fanfic it is). It's been great reconnecting with old friends even if the reasons for us coming here are shitty.

[lynnenne]

Welcome back!

[herongale]

BRINY! I am glad to see you dusting off your ol' account too!

And I think your feels are very close to identical to mine... I can't say a little part of me isn't rooting for Tumblr to fail, just because it's not been a good place for me in terms of actually... interacting with people... but also, I am pretty fond of it for what it's been for me until now, and it's really allowed me to feel connected to fandom even when I'm feeling my most insular and introverted, and for that I don't think I could have anything but mixed feelings if Tumblr does ultimately fall into the void/become an unusable ghost town.

But I've always been willing to pick up my stakes and move on when content that I think is important to fandom is being restricted, and now is no exception. At least DW is a known quantity at this point, and even without using it regularly myself, I feel quite comfortable picking up this style of interacting with people once again.

[brinylon]

Yes, that's exactly how I see it. And maybe the implosion of Tumblr would be a good thing, for fandom, and as a first step in taking the internet back from the companies who only see us as content providers, eyeballs, and free data.

When I look at the Dreamwidth interface I'm not exactly thrilled. It looks very dated, and getting it to look better takes some skill. But that is not a bad thing. Some with the introversion. It was so easy for me to on Tumblr, just like and reblog, and avoid anything out of my comfort zone. It may not be bad for me to be forced to make a little more effort...

And it will take sometime before we have the same level of content again. I have such a lovely mix of all my interests at Tumblr, it will be a little painful to lose it. But fandom needs "porn" (We call it porn, but it's not even porn). I don't care for the sex, but I can clearly see that in exploring their sexuality in fic, people create the most amazing works.