I FUCKING KNEW IT.
SO. IF YOU KNOW YOUR FANDOM HISTORY, YOU CAN SEE THE WRITING ON THE WALL RIGHT NOW.
AND IN CASE YOU DON’T, I will tell you a story.
I don’t know if Yahoo as a corporate entity hates fandom, or if it LOVES fandom in the way a flame longs to wrap its embrace around a forest. Or maybe it’s just that fandom is an enticingly big and active userbase; but just by the nature of our enterprise, we are extremely difficult to monetize.
It doesn’t matter.
Once upon a time – in the era before anyone had heard of google – if you wanted to post fandom (or really, ANY) content, you made your own webpage out of nested frames and midi files. And you hosted it on GeoCities.
GeoCities was free and… there. If the internet of today is facebook and tumblr and twitter, the internet of the late 90s WAS GeoCities.
And then Yahoo bought GeoCities for way too much money and immediately made some, let’s say, User Outreach Errors. And anyway, the internet was getting more varied all the time, fandom mostly moved on – it wasn’t painful. GeoCities was free hosting, not a community space – but the 90s/early 00s internet was still there, preserved as if in amber, at GeoCities.com.
Until 2009, when Yahoo killed it. 15 years of early-internet history – a monument to humanity’s masses first testing the potential of the internet, and realizing they could build anything they wanted… And what they wanted to build was shines to Angel from BtVS with 20 pages of pictures that were too big to wait for on a 56k modem, interspersed with MS Word clipart and paragraphs of REALLY BIG flashing fushia letters that scrolled L to R across the page. And also your cursor would become a different MS Word clipart, with sparkles.
(So basically nothing has changed, except you don’t have to personally hardcode every entry in your tumblr anymore. Progress!)
And it was all wiped out, just like that. Gone. (except on the wayback machine, an important project, but they didn’t get everything) The weight of that loss still hurts. The sheer magnitude…
Imagine a library stocked with hundreds of thousands of personal journals, letters, family photographs, eulogies, novels, etc. dated from a revolutionary period in history, and each one its only copy. And then one day, its librarians become tired of maintaining it, so they set the library and all its contents on fire.
And watch as the flames take everything.
Brush the ash from their hands.
Walk away.
Once upon a time – in the era after everyone had heard of google, but still mostly believed them about “Don’t be evil” – fandom had a pretty great collective memory. If someone posted a good fic, or meta, or art, or conversation relevant to your interests? Anywhere? (This was before the AO3, after all.) You could know p much as soon – or as many years late – as you wanted to.
Because there was a tagging site – del.icio.us – that fandom-as-a-whole used; it was simple, functional, free, and there. Yahoo bought it in 2005. Yahoo announced they were closing it in 2010.
They ended up selling it instead, but not all the data went with it – many users didn’t opt to the migration. And even then, the new version was busted. Basically unusable for fannish searching or tagging purposes. This is the lure and the danger of centralization, I guess.
It is like fandom suffered – collectively – a brain injury. Memories are irrevocably lost, or else they are not retrievable without struggle. New ones aren’t getting formed. There is no consensus replacement.
We have never yet recovered.
Once upon a time… Yahoo bought tumblr.
I don’t know how you celebrated the event, but I spent it backing up as much as I could, because Yahoo’s hobby is collecting the platforms that fandom relies on and destroying them.
I do not think Yahoo is “bad” – I am criticizing them on their own site, after all, and I don’t expect any retribution. I genuinely hope they sort out their difficulties.
But they are, historically, bad for US.
And right now is a good time to look at what you’ve accumulated during your career on this platform, and start deciding what you want to pack and what can be left behind to become ruins. And ash.
…On a cheerier note, wherever we settle next will probably be much better! This was never a good place to build a city.
In case you want an easy way to back up all your shit, here is a good post about how
If you’re a fic writer and you do prompts and drabbles on tumblr and only put ‘full fics’ on AO3, please consider porting all your writing over to there. I promise, as long as you tag that stuff is just an idea, or unfinished and never will be finished, or just a drabble/ficlet/w’evr, people won’t be angry at you for it.
I really hate to think of all the beautiful little fics I’ve read on here just *poof* disappearing one day.
If you’re a visual artist, AO3 lets you put art and vids and things other than fic on there too. Essays and meta go on AO3.
We as fandom are now accustomed to looking to AO3 as a place to find our fannish fixes. So putting all your stuff over there is a good thing. People will be able to find it.
Thing is, if everyone does this, it’s gonna stress the resources of AO3. So if you’re able, please consider donating to them to cover the additional cost.
So I live in in New York City, where a lot of tech companies are–including tumblr, actually. I made a friend online 11 years ago who I actually see on occasion to this day. She doesn’t work for tumblr, but she is involved deeply in NYC tech.
She essentially has told me that tumblr is done and it’s just a matter of time. The tumblr offices are awful to work for and people who want decent jobs quickly migrate from there. It’s nigh impossible to make tumblr profitable or able to be advertised on so, essentially, it is a matter of time.
Honestly so I am fairly ready to move back to Dreamwidth or on to whatever the next blogging thing is because, quite frankly, it’s over soon.
I feel like we need to make a family fire escape plan. Where are we going when the house goes up in flames?
Tag: fandom
I’ve actually stopped ever actually expecting another series of Sherlock. Like this is just what Sherlock fandom is. There’s no show. There’s just us. There’s fic and meta and art and speculation and text posts and there IS NO SHOW.
BBC’s Sherlock is just an illusion. We are Sherlock. We are the show.
chasingbutterfliesnbrokendreams:
there are people in the fandom who can
- write fanfictions
- draw fanarts
- create gifs
- think of theories
- edit stuff
and then there’s me
But there’s you, who
- Read our fanfictions
- Like/Reblog/Commission us for our fanarts
- View our gifs
- Support our theories
- Are amused by our edits
You are just as important as the rest of us.
That was beautiful
I have seen this post in person, my life is complete
Modern Fangirling Dictionary
1. I died.
MEANS: I am overwhelmed.
NOT: I am deceased.2. OTP
MEANS: One True Pairing.
NOT: One Time Password.3. Mom/Dad
MEANS: Role Model.
NOT: Mother/Father.4. I hate this.
MEANS: I freaking love this.
NOT: I deplore this.5. Slay.
MEANS: Show ‘em how it’s done.
NOT: Murder.6. Thanks for ruining my life, see you in hell.
MEANS: You mean so much to my life. I’ll never leave this fandom.
NOT: A series of insults.7. Adhkydvkvecibggrxavjnxjxsz
MEANS: A state of wordless excitement.
NOT: An aneurism.
Also, 8. Rude!
MEANS: This gave me a lot of feelings I didn’t ask for.
NOT: Discourteous or impolite.And, 9. How Dare You?
MEANS: You are amazing, this is amazing!
NOT: And express of indignation.10. Fuck you and the horse you rode in on!
MEANS: You made my heart hurt, but it’s a good hurt. I love you!
NOT: I hate you and wish harm on you and your animals.11. Was that necessary??
MEANS: Why did you remind me of that painful bit of characterisation/canon?
NOT: You took that too far/That was needlessly painful for the sole purpose of reactions.
Where would you go?
Both Harry Potter and Sherlock are in the same direction. YES!!!!
Tumblr+ shipping 3/?
The day I discovered AU fanfiction and the day I unofficially stopped reading books are probably correlated. – truer words have never been spoken.
Hahahaha… I relate to this post on a spiritual level.
AMEN
Reblog if you are an adult woman (single, married, mom, non-mom, whatever!) professional, who did not give up fandom, fanfic, or fanart when you “grew up.”
AND WHO ARE YOU?
(I’m 43, single Mom, massage therapist, dance teacher, professional writer – still addicted to fanfic! My fandoms are Inception, Star Wars, MCU, and video games.)
I am certainly not ‘grown up’, though I pull off Adulting like I’m getting paid for it. (Oh wait…) 50, happily single, technical author, read lots of fic and write a little. Mostly MCU for now.
And have been thinking a lot lately about ageism in fandom.
*sidles up* Do adult AFAB agender folk count too?
I’m 30, married with one kid, programmer, major fic addict. mostly in Person of Interest fandom.
30, just bought a house, fandom 4 lyfe
turning 34 this year. fandom is getting me through an abrupt reintroduction to the single life. fandom and fanfic have kept me alive and given me reasons to smile and laugh. fandoms at present: some MCU but mostly Star Wars
45 this year, single woman, home owner, have worked 19 years in my current place of employment. Discovered fan fiction in my senior year of high school, and it has led to the best things in my life: writing, friendships, independence of thought and the ability to allow myself to enjoy my leisure activities without having to justify myself to anyone.
31-year-old woman, single, library assistant, did not even get into fandom until I was out of college and working my first full-time job. (At least, fandom as such; I did write a Star Wars novel in sixth grade.) At this point fandom is the majority of my social life, which means I actually have one, and is definitely one of my great joys.
SINGLE, ALMOST 50 WOMAN, BURNING THROUGH MENOPAUSE. HAVE BEEN IN FANDOM SINCE AGE 12. EDUCATOR, OLD PUNK ROCKER, ACADEMICALLY TRAINED MARXIST THEORY HISTORIAN.
50 YO. Graphic Designer. Nerd formidable.
46 in a few days. Partnered lesbian. Former academic. IT. Found fandom at age 42- thank you Sherlock. Brought me joy, a sense of creative purpose, amazing friends, and I found somebody I was supposed to know since the day I was born. Yeah and I’m launching my own arts journal with help from tons of ppl I met through fandom. So yeah. Ageism Smageism. Middle age, if we’re lucky, comes to us all…
Almost 53. Single. Been teaching science for 31 years. (!!!) I am a spinster schoolmarm!
I have been fannish since birth. Used to think fanfic – though I didn’t know it was fanfic – in my head at the age of 9 or 10. (“The Mod Squad,” “The Rookies” and “Planet of the Apes” TV show are my earliest memories of fangirling.) Got through high school gym class standing in the outfield and imagining great “Starsky and Hutch” angst scenarios in which Queen’s “You’re My Best Friend” would play in the background.* Current fandom is “Sherlock.” But I’m considering a Tormund/Brienne fanvid because OH. EM. GEE.
(*You kids today don’t have any idea how good you have it! In my day, we didn’t have cameras in our phones! If we wanted a fanvid, we had to make it up in our heads! And we couldn’t find the YouTube clip and watch it a thousand times as soon as the episode aired! We had to remember dialog WITH OUR BRAINS!! And shows weren’t available on Hulu and Netflix the next morning! We had to WAIT to see our episodes again. How did we know when the episodes would Air? WE WALKED! 2.2 miles!! To buy the TV Guide at the store. And read the late-night syndicated episode descriptions for years and years and then sneakily get up at 1 a.m. – hoping parents wouldn’t hear us! – to rewatch that episode “Shootout” where Starsky gets shot in the Italian restaurant** because there were NO FREAKING VCRs yet!!!)
27 in a few months, single, certified English and elementary teacher who is waiting for a teaching position to open up. I think I’m the youngest here but I still count as an adult, don’t I? Found fandom at age 14, and it’s kept me alive through deep bouts of depression, ugly ugly fights with parents, addiction, non-con, and blatant and aggressive homophobia in the area I live in. My fandoms have been, in order of appearance: Harry Potter, a slight dash of Pokemon (like two months), House, M.D., Criminal Minds, CSI: Miami, Kaicho wa Maid-Sama!, Prince of Tennis, Kuroko no Basuke, Bleach, Law and Order: SVU, NCIS, Free! Iwatobi Swim Club, Shingeki No Kyojin, MCU: Avengers, Captain America: TFA, Thor/Thor: TDW, and finally and currently: Sherlock (BBC). I still am sporadically obsessionally active in all my previous fandoms, it just depends on my mood which one I go to.
@imtooticky I know how lucky we are. I still remember when in elementary and middle school I knew all my extended family’s and every single one of my friends’ home phone numbers. I can still rattle off about an easy dozen off the top of my head, even if they’ve long been reassigned to someone else. I remember waiting all day on the radio after calling in and requesting a song just so that I could record it on my cassette. 🙂
what would this fandom be like if any of us had even the tiniest particle of chill
casuals: I don’t understand
johnlockers: You should put that on a t-shirt
casuals: I still don’t understand
johnlockers: and that’s the back of the t-shirt
AO3 shipping analysis series
You guys! Centrumlumina did a beautiful analysis of the top relationships on AO3, broken down and analyzed in a lot of detail. If you were interested in my ‘shipping post and/or the discussions about the reasons for the popularity of slash, please check out her #ao3 ship stats posts from this week.
Here are a few highlights from the series that I found especially interesting:
- Canonicity: In the top 100 ships, 30 are canon (9% of the M/M ships in the top 100 are canon; 50% of the F/F ships, and 83% of the F/M ships!)
- Side pairings: The author looked at several metrics for how many of the relationships were actually not the primary relationship of the fic (see also: sidelined; cross-compatibility). The main approach involved hand-categorizing the summaries of the most popular 20 fics for each of the top 5 ships in M/M, F/M, and F/F. The author found that 6% of M/M, 62% of F/M, and 43% of F/F pairings were side pairings by the criteria used.
- Top AO3 ships: This author redid an analysis very similar to the one I did, but by hand (instead of writing a program to scrape AO3) – I’m relieved to see that it mostly replicates my own data (after various folks finding a few errors in my post, I still haven’t had time to systematically update my own results), and I will be trying to double check and update my own post where there are mismatches.
Centrumlumina has a thoughtful concluding post about the possible roles of sexism in culture, underrepresentation in media, and feedback loops in fandom in contributing to the prominence of slash on AO3. It overlaps with but also complements some of my own posts about femslash and those of other folks who’ve written about this recently.
Finally, I just want to express admiration and gratitude to Centrumlumina for writing up and sharing what was clearly a very time-intensive and thoughtful set of analyses. I really appreciate having these data and analyses around.
whimsysmayhem 