sorry, it's time for cranky!Krait again.
Jul. 20th, 2014 06:50 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
kraitSo.
This week I keep running into people on Tumblr ~*~lamenting~*~ how Tumblr is so hard to have fannish conversations on, how the old LJ/webring/whatever days were so much more interconnected, how much harder it is to find stuff or keep stuff on Tumblr, how it's harder to control who sees what and thus some stuff has to go unsaid, how deeply they wish they could tell people "I liked that" or "I feel that way, too" and talk to people like they used to...
and they're posting this on Tumblr.
IF YOU MISS THE INTERACTION SO MUCH, POST TO YOUR BLEEDIN' INTERACTIVE SITE OF CHOICE!
Ahem. Sorry 'bout that. But it really does drive me up the wall; I want to shout at them, "The power is within your grasp!" Crying about it on the very platform guaranteed not to open a meaningful dialogue about it suggests to me that you don't actually want those things, you just... I dunno, actually. Want to feel sad for a while, and any cause will do? Want to brag about how Experienced In Fandom you are? Are having a bout of I'm old and nobody understands and couldn't resist whining?
Why would you complain (in some posters' cases, deeply and comprehensively) about how hard it is to do fandom now that it's (partly) on Tumblr, and then proceed to ignore any of the ways you could fight the shift/help the parts that aren't there?
Nobody says you have to pick Just One Place to be fannish in! Crossposting is a thing that can happen. For that matter, use one as a simple alert system for the other -- remember how we used to do fake LJ-cuts for outside links? Yeah. Post somewhere that allows for discussion, and then make some fake Read-Mores on your Tumblr that link to your LJ, or whatever you use! If your Tumblr posts are generally short, do a "daily roundup", ML digest style, to consolidate them in one DW post.
There are tonnes of ways to be interactive, not just whatever it was you used Back When Everything Was Great. But if all you do is use the "most popular" option, then you should stop complaining about it -- you're part of why The Ways We Used Before aren't as active, and it makes you look disingenuous at best.
NB: Yes, I really am done complaining now. I really appreciate all of the people who don't do this sort of thing, y'know -- thank you, all of you who continue to use other platforms for fannishness because you prefer that communication style! People who know what they want and refuse to follow the crowd when it makes them unhappy are people I'm happy to read and squee with. ♥
NB2: The fake-readmores thing is something I've been vaguely considering doing with my own DW for a while now, actually! Anybody with more familiarity with Tumblr want to chime in with whether this seems feasible? (I know I post infrequently; would I be seen at all, or would I be swept away in the jetstream too quickly?)
This week I keep running into people on Tumblr ~*~lamenting~*~ how Tumblr is so hard to have fannish conversations on, how the old LJ/webring/whatever days were so much more interconnected, how much harder it is to find stuff or keep stuff on Tumblr, how it's harder to control who sees what and thus some stuff has to go unsaid, how deeply they wish they could tell people "I liked that" or "I feel that way, too" and talk to people like they used to...
and they're posting this on Tumblr.
IF YOU MISS THE INTERACTION SO MUCH, POST TO YOUR BLEEDIN' INTERACTIVE SITE OF CHOICE!
Ahem. Sorry 'bout that. But it really does drive me up the wall; I want to shout at them, "The power is within your grasp!" Crying about it on the very platform guaranteed not to open a meaningful dialogue about it suggests to me that you don't actually want those things, you just... I dunno, actually. Want to feel sad for a while, and any cause will do? Want to brag about how Experienced In Fandom you are? Are having a bout of I'm old and nobody understands and couldn't resist whining?
Why would you complain (in some posters' cases, deeply and comprehensively) about how hard it is to do fandom now that it's (partly) on Tumblr, and then proceed to ignore any of the ways you could fight the shift/help the parts that aren't there?
Nobody says you have to pick Just One Place to be fannish in! Crossposting is a thing that can happen. For that matter, use one as a simple alert system for the other -- remember how we used to do fake LJ-cuts for outside links? Yeah. Post somewhere that allows for discussion, and then make some fake Read-Mores on your Tumblr that link to your LJ, or whatever you use! If your Tumblr posts are generally short, do a "daily roundup", ML digest style, to consolidate them in one DW post.
There are tonnes of ways to be interactive, not just whatever it was you used Back When Everything Was Great. But if all you do is use the "most popular" option, then you should stop complaining about it -- you're part of why The Ways We Used Before aren't as active, and it makes you look disingenuous at best.
NB: Yes, I really am done complaining now. I really appreciate all of the people who don't do this sort of thing, y'know -- thank you, all of you who continue to use other platforms for fannishness because you prefer that communication style! People who know what they want and refuse to follow the crowd when it makes them unhappy are people I'm happy to read and squee with. ♥
NB2: The fake-readmores thing is something I've been vaguely considering doing with my own DW for a while now, actually! Anybody with more familiarity with Tumblr want to chime in with whether this seems feasible? (I know I post infrequently; would I be seen at all, or would I be swept away in the jetstream too quickly?)
no subject
Date: 2014-07-28 04:25 am (UTC)Heh. I think that I've amply proved that I am one of those people already, so. Complain away!
Part of my frustration is that posting on lj and even linking things on lj from tumblr isn't getting any better response.
This is... disheartening. Sigh. I have found this out about myself: I am not the kind of person who is highly motivated by strangers hitting a "like" button, at least if my reaction to AO3 kudos notices are a fair measure for this. It's WORDS that get me excited and make my brain kick into fannish high-gear.
Not even getting likes is pitiful; and now I'm curious, too, as to whether it's a case of "did not click the link" or "did not respond after reading"... Hmmm! *ponders experiments and polls*
your response of 'if you miss the interaction on x site, post to x site' rubs me wrong because it ends up basically being 'if you want to read fic about x, stop complaining and write it!'
...Except that I'm not telling them to stop complaining and write it, I'm telling them to post something that' already written? (I am with you 100% on hating the "then write it yourself" response!)
I'm not saying they need to start posting new, DW-exclusive content at DW! I'm just saying put your content -- the content you've already written -- on BOTH places! (Or, as you note, if it strikes you as tacky to complain about Service X via the medium of Service X, post your "here is what Tumblr can't do for me" content only on other sites... but if you're mad enough to make that post and then put up on Tumblr, I feel like the post would have happened regardless of where it was typed.)
Hope that helps clarify my griping, because eeurgh, no way do I want to sound like "stop complaining and write it"! By all means keep complaining! I want to join you in your complaining! I can see that you are an excellent complainer, and have many perfectly justified things to complain about! ...It's just that you're looking awfully silly when you appear not to realise that you are, in fact, using your complaints to do exactly what you're complaining about others doing. More so if your content seems designed to draw a response, yet you've posted it on the one place you're guaranteed not to get one; way to reinforce your own frustration!
So. Yeah. It doesn't feel like "write it" to me, it feels like "post it" -- because the person is clearly creating content already, or else they wouldn't be frustrated at not getting a response. (People can't respond to silence!) The complainers are generally active, involved fans on Tumblr, but seem to feel like they can't build connections via their activity. To adapt the fanfic analogy: it's more like you've already written the fic, but are hosting it on an obscure Geocities page with nothing but an email link in small font, and then complaining that you don't get feedback.
I don't want 'em to come to DW and create an entirely new bunch of stuff just for DW; I want 'em to come here and post all the same stuff they're already posting on Tumblr, so we can interact! What I want to read is exactly what you've already written, but you won't let me give you feedback that you say you want to receive.