Hi! I am a lurker/serial commenter-in-the-tags on Tumblr (I'm nocompromise-noregrets there) and greatly appreciate your ao3cotd content!
I'm another refugee from LJ who's never quite managed to find a community via Tumblr (Discord is a mystery to me) - your post the other day about community really struck a chord with me. I came back to being properly active in fandom after a ten year break last year, although I'd been sort-of active on Tumblr all that time, and found I no longer knew how to get to know people because things had changed so much.
That said...if anyone out there is in the LotR/Hobbit fandom and knows of good comms on here or Discord servers, do feel free to let me know. :D I had a bit of a look for comms but didn't really find much, and I have absolutely no idea how to go about finding servers on Discord! XD
I'm a casual fan of both, but haven't engaged with the canon in years. Just enjoy the posts I see sometimes on tumblr. I'm sure there are others around though - you just have to find them! :D
That's the thing...the finding! I feel very old and out of touch, and fandom in general has definitely changed while I was 'away' (I wasn't away away, I just wasn't really in a fandom, just casually engaging, mostly with the MCU, via Tumblr) so now I'm floundering a bit. There doesn't seem to be much activity on here - a couple of fic challenge comms are active when the challenges are active, but other than that it's all very quiet. And Discord is a total mystery to me. XD I feel very old and out of touch XDDDD
On the other hand, I've got some serial commenters on AO3, so although I don't 'know' most of them outside AO3, it does feel a little bit like 'home'/LJ. :D In any case, it's done my general happiness levels the world of good being back in a fandom again. <3333
Discord is basically the modern version of IRC. As for finding things here, it might be a matter of having to be the leader rather than the finder, at least at first.
I also took a break from fandom, but my break was 2007 to 2013 or so. I had to learn AO3 and tumblr, but it wasn't as big a jump as I'm sure you're experiencing now! at least back then, tumblr was a really active fandom space and I had a solid community in no time
Ahhh. I never actually got into IRC, and never quite got my head round chat rooms, so I think that's probably a lot of the problem - I just can't quite figure it out. And...good point about comms on here. Maybe I should make one! :D
Yeah - at first Tumblr did seem a lot more community-based, but these days mostly people just seem to reblog each other's pretty art and fic and don't really *talk* (probably because they're all talking on Discord XD ). I've been on there ten years and can count the friends I've made there (as opposed to friends I've made elsewhere who I also have on Tumblr) on the fingers of one hand. I don't know if that's a me problem or a problem with how the site/fandom functions, but I find it's easy to interact on a fairly superficial level - but harder to make friends.
There's a thesis in there somewhere, but it won't be me writing it! (I'm percolating an essay about fandom iconography, but that's going to have to wait until I've cleared off most of my fic WIPs, of which there are many, what even is my life :D )
Anyway. It's all fascinating stuff - and it's lovely to talk to you! :D
That sounds awesome. I think there's definitely space for the 'thinky thoughts' type stuff over here that doesn't quite exist on Tumblr. And there's rather more control over what goes on in the comments of your posts...although people did used to kick off on LJ on a regular basis, I don't really remember it being quite as asinine as it can be on Tumblr. (on the other hand, most of the famous fandom wanks happened during my first stretch of time in fandom and I don't remember witnessing any of them, even the ones that happened in fandoms I was in XDDD so I'm probably not a reliable narrator here)
I am inspired to start a LotR/Hobbit comm, too. I have no idea what I'm going to do with it, but it has to be worth a try. :D :D :D Thank you for giving me the impetus!
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memorizingthedigitsofpi) wrote2021-06-17 11:10 pm
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I'm another refugee from LJ who's never quite managed to find a community via Tumblr (Discord is a mystery to me) - your post the other day about community really struck a chord with me. I came back to being properly active in fandom after a ten year break last year, although I'd been sort-of active on Tumblr all that time, and found I no longer knew how to get to know people because things had changed so much.
That said...if anyone out there is in the LotR/Hobbit fandom and knows of good comms on here or Discord servers, do feel free to let me know. :D I had a bit of a look for comms but didn't really find much, and I have absolutely no idea how to go about finding servers on Discord! XD
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On the other hand, I've got some serial commenters on AO3, so although I don't 'know' most of them outside AO3, it does feel a little bit like 'home'/LJ. :D In any case, it's done my general happiness levels the world of good being back in a fandom again. <3333
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I also took a break from fandom, but my break was 2007 to 2013 or so. I had to learn AO3 and tumblr, but it wasn't as big a jump as I'm sure you're experiencing now! at least back then, tumblr was a really active fandom space and I had a solid community in no time
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Yeah - at first Tumblr did seem a lot more community-based, but these days mostly people just seem to reblog each other's pretty art and fic and don't really *talk* (probably because they're all talking on Discord XD ). I've been on there ten years and can count the friends I've made there (as opposed to friends I've made elsewhere who I also have on Tumblr) on the fingers of one hand. I don't know if that's a me problem or a problem with how the site/fandom functions, but I find it's easy to interact on a fairly superficial level - but harder to make friends.
There's a thesis in there somewhere, but it won't be me writing it! (I'm percolating an essay about fandom iconography, but that's going to have to wait until I've cleared off most of my fic WIPs, of which there are many, what even is my life :D )
Anyway. It's all fascinating stuff - and it's lovely to talk to you! :D
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and I've been percolating on my thoughts about why tumblr didn't work as a long term fandom hub. Might write a post about it over here!
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That sounds awesome. I think there's definitely space for the 'thinky thoughts' type stuff over here that doesn't quite exist on Tumblr. And there's rather more control over what goes on in the comments of your posts...although people did used to kick off on LJ on a regular basis, I don't really remember it being quite as asinine as it can be on Tumblr. (on the other hand, most of the famous fandom wanks happened during my first stretch of time in fandom and I don't remember witnessing any of them, even the ones that happened in fandoms I was in XDDD so I'm probably not a reliable narrator here)
I am inspired to start a LotR/Hobbit comm, too. I have no idea what I'm going to do with it, but it has to be worth a try. :D :D :D Thank you for giving me the impetus!