Re: Fun with Fandom

[rynling]

I appreciate the optismism of “build it and they will come” but i think the true frustration behind “fandoms are dying” is a multi layered problem
https://awabubbles.tumblr.com/post/676654678332915712/disdaidal-fandoms-are-dying-yeah-well-heres-a

“Make more content for your fandom” is a nice sentiment except there’s nowhere to post, no one to like it, and everybody is so goddamned scared of death threats and being cancelled they either don’t make the content to begin with or people don’t reblog/share because “what if the creator is secretly a bad person and i didnt know it and now other people think im a bad person.”

Also relevant. Especially because, as someone who appreciates older and more complicated characters, I happen to be "secretly a bad person." This is doubly relevant for zines, in which association with one "secretly a bad person" can completely derail the project through negative community feedback.

And I'm not saying that you shouldn't be careful about who you associate with online, and that some people aren't genuinely creepy and weird. In fact, there have been a handful of fandom projects I've avoided for exactly this reason. It's just that what should be a reasonable precaution for interacting with people online has turned into something truly toxic and unsustainable, and nobody is benefiting from this level of social surveillance.

In any case, I've been taking a social media break since the beginning of the year. I plan to ease myself back into the social media routine starting tomorrow, and I'm thinking about what small acts of kindness I can do to support the people I've worked with on zine projects.

Comments

[vriddy]

Wow, that post uses such vivid words to illustrate some of the current problems. "Fandoms are dead because the water is toxic." is quite a powerful sentence!

Good luck with slowly getting back into social media! I've had to take a break for a few months and I just can't bring myself to go back yet. Randomly coming across harassment just makes me too miserable. I hope your return goes well and the small acts of kindness do, too, sounds like a great idea :D (here via the Network tab!)

[rynling]

Thank you so much for the encouragement! Also I really like your icon. I don't have much to say in response, but please have a picture of some cat donuts.

[vriddy]

Icon is by lovelyhip :D and omg what wonderful donuts it must be very hard to eat such works of art but I for one would be up for trying ;)

[linky]

This tumblr post was articulated incredibly! It words many feelings I have had better than I could word them. Just the quote "Fandoms are dead because the water is toxic. Dropping more stuff into the water won’t help. You gotta clean up the water first if you want creativity to thrive." is so powerful, and so true. It's why I'm doing my part to leave more kind feedback around in the fandoms I'm in.

[rynling]

> It's why I'm doing my part to leave more kind feedback around in the fandoms I'm in.

GOOD FOR YOU. I'm trying to be better about this too.

Honestly, it can take courage to step out of the lurk zone. Good luck to both of us!

[lassarina]

Yes. And it's not even just fandom; this attitude has driven me out of original fiction publishing too. And, well, existing in most "common" fandom spaces minus AO3 and here.

You want people on the playground, clean up the steaming radioactive shit you strewed everywhere to start with.

[rynling]

Now that I'm tracking more lit agents on Twitter, I think I'm starting to understand where this attitude is coming from, at least in traditional publishing.

Even indie baby agents apparently get hundreds of query letters a week. Fucking hundreds. Every week. Even if they've never made a sale before. I think maybe the intensity of the competition drives people a little crazy. If cutting other people down is the only way to feel like you have control over getting your work out of the slush pile, I guess that's what you do?

Interestingly enough, I recently read a culture essay...
https://www.thecut.com/2022/02/a-vibe-shift-is-coming.html
...that argues that we're arriving at a generational vibe shift. The essay itself probably isn't worth reading, but the author quotes someone who says that people are starting to retreat from big open corporate-owned public spaces into smaller and more closed venues. Which makes perfect sense to me.

It's a shame, though. Smaller and more closed venues are nice, but only if you're already on the inside.

[lassarina]

Yes. And meeting people, finding a way into those spaces, is so difficult when no one wants to be out there. Validly so! But it's been kind of fascinating watching people turn away from aggregated social media to personal blogs and the like. A little slower, a little less doom-scroll, but also harder to find the content you might be looking for.

[runicmagitek]

Yes to all of this. And then yes again, for good measure.

I saw OP's post floating around on Tumblr, which had me squinting and all hmmmmm, like something was missing I couldn't pinpoint. Then you shared this lovely addition and everything clicks now. There is so much going on that a simple "just make stuff lol" isn't enough. You can't trim dead leaves from a flower if there's actually a problem with the roots.

And now that I'm bobbing around on a pool noodle throughout Twitter alone with applying for more zine projects, wow. Yeah. Random, yet related tangent, but A Thing happened in a project I'm in now where Someone in said project was defending their friend on Twitter (albeit colorfully, but whatever) and two days later the mods more or less told that Someone to leave because of that.

So yeah. Definitely resonate with this.

[rynling]

> A Thing happened in a project I'm in now

That's not great! Honestly though, I don't understand how anyone mods a zine these days. I feel like there has to be a good balance between giving the contributors time to create good work and publishing the project as quickly as possible before Something Happens.

I'm glad you're involved in more zines now btw. Even if I'm not familiar with the fandom, it's always a pleasure to read your writing.

[runicmagitek]

> I'm glad you're involved in more zines now btw. Even if I'm not familiar with the fandom, it's always a pleasure to read your writing.

You're too kind, friend ;~; many thanks for your support and also getting more zines on my radar! Honestly, since I've been active on Twitter, I've been like "oh THIS is where all the zine content was hiding!!" It's really nifty to join other creative fans to make a cool thing and share it with the world.