hello world.

[memorizingthedigitsofpi]

Drop a comment below to start a conversation.

Comments

[themightyflynn]

Yeah, HP will be around for a while yet on platforms like this, I think. Now that it's been a few years, I assume that a lot of the people who caused trouble back in the day have left. :)

[themightyflynn]

Can confirm that most of the people I speak to in HP on here and LJ have been around for a while. My LJ was started in 2014 and most of the people I am friends with on there were around long before me. :)

[feckyeslife]

Hello!!! This is feckyeswriting over on Tumblr. Been a big fan of all that you've done with starting dialogue and (controlled, non-hostile) discussion in fandom :3 Glad to see you have joined us here on DW!

[nrgburst]

Hiii! Welcome to DW! Very excited to see you here! :)

[josie20k]

Hello! I saw your post on Tumblr, as well as the Dreamwidth Primer you reblogged, and it inspired me to come out of my lurk cave. I never got into Livejournal, mainly because I didn't know about it until like, the late 2010s. But Dreamwidth seems like a pretty chill, low pressure kind of site. I'm too intimidated by sites like Twitter and Tumblr haha. The focus on conversation that DW seems to prioritize also makes it appealing. I often don't give my words much credit, but I do surprise myself quite a bit with how much I can talk when I allow myself to.

There's a lot of cool fandom events on DW, but I always seem to find them after they've already started or just after they're over :( I've had the passing thought of starting a fandom event for an obscure fandom, if only just to see what would happen. Liveblogging also seems to be fairly popular on DW, and that's something that's always interested me. I amuse myself a lot with the things I say and think while consuming media, and it'd be nice to amuse others with that as well, or at least have a place to keep them for future reference.

Anyway, I also want to quickly say thank you for all that you do for fandom. Your blog has helped me through a lot of tough times with writing, and honestly, with life in general. High hopes to all!

[scribe_protra]

Niiiiiice. Have you discovered https://girlgenius-lair.dreamwidth.org/ yet? I also try to make personal reaction posts to each new page on my journal.

*lurking catgirl noises*

[wingedcatgirl]

helo yes we do have the dreamed width and we don't post enough oh noes

I feel very 2003

[kentucka]

yes, why not! I ported over my LJ entries a while back when I stopped using it, and have made the occasional post over here since then when I needed it to be for my eyes only. But I'm definitely a victim of the LJ demise, never managed to get into a community spirit on other sites (too fast paced!), and didn't invest a whole lot into DW either... my only mutuals here are people I knew on LJ. None of them are actually active on DW.

What do you think of Pillowfort, which I'd describe as trying to be a blend of LJ and Tumblr?

[kentucka]

if I may jump in here... I read AO3 almost exclusively on my phone. I have a site skin that makes the page more accessible to me for what I need on mobile: increase the font size, white on black, etc. And still, there are menus and buttons and fields that seem tiny for my big fingers. the desktop/website style is not ideal for touch screens.

Also I agree 100% on it being overwhelming. Those navigation options are just cluttering up the screen. Even modern websites hide theirs behind burger menus or cogwheel icons. Because most of the time, the AO3 users just wants to find a specific fandom/pairing/freeform tag and open the work.

So even I - old enough to understand all those visual cues you mentioned - would love an app, hoping that it would simplify the interaction on the main usage paths: find a tag, filter works in it, open a work from the list.
Fewer visible options, fingertip-sized interactive elements, maybe even auto-filtering certain things (I'd love to never ever see WIPs and Mpreg), getting more than 20 favorite links, ...

[game_byrd]

Yay! Hi, I am here!

[razia]

Indie games! And yeah, same, none of my fandoms seem to be active here, even though I'm in some big ones. Part of me wants to start a community for my niche interests, but at the same time I don't wanna deal with being a mod right now (and getting a community going in the first place could take a lot of energy and patience).

I hope you don't mind that I subscribed to you? I'm not sure about DW etiquette xD

[razia]

:butts in:

Hi! If you use Discord, there's this server called Exchanges After Dark, for a lot of exchanges that happen on DW. A lot of the mods themselves participate in the server, and it's a good way to keep yourself updated and not miss sign-ups! If you're interested (the server is marked as NSFW and for 18+ only), the invite is this: https://discord.gg/7VSEuV9

You can always join, take a look around, and leave if you don't like it :]

[josie20k]

Thank you for the suggestion ^_^ I'm usually hesitant to try out Discord servers because it activates the Mortifying Ordeal of Being Known (at least for me), but I'll be sure to check it out when I'm able! Is it just NSFW? I don't really write NSFW... on this account :3 But I am over 18, so either way, being able to get Discord notifications of any cool events sounds nice. Thank you again :D

[razia]

Yeah, it took me a while to get used to chatting in such a public setting, and now I mostly use it to talk to friends on DMs; servers are more a way to keep myself in the loop of things. The server is not just NFSW, but the rules state that you must accept that NSFW subjects might crop up in conversation in almost any channel. From the rules: "By joining this server, you're opting in to a Choose Not to Warn, NSFW-friendly discussion space."

If you decide to join, feel free to ping me there if you wanna talk :]

[memorizingthedigitsofpi]

yeah, I remember AO3 being complicated for the first... week or so? But after I learned the lay of the land and posted a couple of chapters it was all fine.

But AO3 was built in web 1.0, over a decade ago. Online spaces have changed a lot in that time, and volunteers just can't keep up with that pace. Plus, there are a lot of accessibility reasons not to.

Getting exposed to the questions I see on tiktok has opened my eyes a lot about what current teens find hard about AO3, and it's a lot more than just figuring out html or css.

[memorizingthedigitsofpi]

An app would definitely make AO3 easier to access for a lot of people - but how would that app be developed and maintained by an entirely volunteer workforce? Not to mention that it wouldn't be one app, it would be at least two. One for Android and one for iPhone. And then you bring the app stores into it and the apps would be taken down in fairly short order because of the content that AO3 allows.

I don't personally see a way to make an AO3 app a viable option without a public API, and they can't release that until the Archive is at least at a 1.0 release and out of beta.

[memorizingthedigitsofpi]

or at least have started up new socks XD

[memorizingthedigitsofpi]

... I feel old lol. I started my LJ in 2000 or 2001 XD

[memorizingthedigitsofpi]

Hmmm yeah, I see what you mean. It wouldn't be the same. Even if you posted a work for each prompt and put them together into a series and the fills were in the comments and threaded, you could still just dive into one prompt/work without seeing anything outside of it.

damn :(

[memorizingthedigitsofpi]

I miss doing challenges and things. I need to find another fandom to hyperfixate on so I can dive back into those too :D

[josie20k]

That all sounds fine to me. I'm currently dealing with some mildly annoying real-life stuff, but once I get back from that, I'll go ahead and check it out ^_^

Re: Fandom events and communities

[memorizingthedigitsofpi]

👀

thank you so much!!

[memorizingthedigitsofpi]

I've never used dreamwidth and the last time I used LJ was probably 2006, so I'm kinda right there with you XD just remember that it's really hard to break things and keep poking around. we can do this! :D

[memorizingthedigitsofpi]

Yeah, I have never actually built a community before (except by accident on tumblr) so I have no idea what I'm doing, but hey! we're trying!

[memorizingthedigitsofpi]

hiiiiii!!!

big fan of yours too :D and honestly, I don't know how it happened but I'm super glad that people can usually keep a lid on it in my notes. Emphasis on usually (tonight's a bit of a gong show on a couple of older posts though)