>> But then the shitposts, and memes, and shower thoughts, and reactions to newly-released canon, and casual discussion threads... moved to Tumblr. And the people who were attached to LJ-style fandoming moved to Dreamwidth. And trickled away by attrition as more and more fans sucked it up and moved to where the center of gravity was, no matter how hatefully obtuse Tumblr-as-a-platform was for their (okay, our) purposes.<<
You get what you permit. If you let a platform mistreat you but you keep using it, then you'll get worse and worse behavior. But if people leave, either the platform will shape up to keep its remaining customers, or someone will build a better one elsewhere. I looked at Tumblr, concluded it was full of mean people with poor moderation tools, and ignored it -- except for occasionally reminding people that they don't have to put up with that shit. Not everyone is careful about where they spend their time, though. Sometimes the results are merely disappointing, other times downright toxic. I generally concentrate on making my little corner of the web a good place to be.
>>Dreamwidth comms are a communal noticeboard and sign-up sheet for structured, supervised activities. Of course Tumblr-native fans were intimidated and clocked them as a formal, official Thing. I missed it, because LiveJournal comms skewed more towards rowdy after-school sci-fi clubs. But the culture of a platform resides in how it's used.<<
It depends on the community. Some are fully structured. Some have a mix of structured and freeform activities. Some are free-for-all. However, the problems I'm seeing are very much aligned with your observation about structure -- because people will bitch about a post not being what they wanted even if the community has no "these are the allowable posts" info and/or nobody has posted anything for months. And that kills activity.
>> I don't know where I'm going with this, except that I miss LJ comm culture and it doesn't exist on DW. The features exist, but the critical mass of people using them that way doesn't. <<
Given how many people yammered about missing the community during Fandom Snowflake, I think a lot of them are still here. They just don't know how to connect anymore. A lot of things we used to do to connect have become rare, but anyone can revive those. Several of us got followfriday going again, and that's actually what led me here.
>> And I'm not sure how hard I want to swim against the tide.<<
I don't think you're alone. Lots of people are missing the earlier connectivity and casual community interactions. What we need is a way to connect those people so they can share what common ground they have. That would make it easier for people to chip in whatever they can, whenever they can, without having to shoulder all the weight personally.
Well ...
You get what you permit. If you let a platform mistreat you but you keep using it, then you'll get worse and worse behavior. But if people leave, either the platform will shape up to keep its remaining customers, or someone will build a better one elsewhere. I looked at Tumblr, concluded it was full of mean people with poor moderation tools, and ignored it -- except for occasionally reminding people that they don't have to put up with that shit. Not everyone is careful about where they spend their time, though. Sometimes the results are merely disappointing, other times downright toxic. I generally concentrate on making my little corner of the web a good place to be.
>>Dreamwidth comms are a communal noticeboard and sign-up sheet for structured, supervised activities. Of course Tumblr-native fans were intimidated and clocked them as a formal, official Thing. I missed it, because LiveJournal comms skewed more towards rowdy after-school sci-fi clubs. But the culture of a platform resides in how it's used.<<
It depends on the community. Some are fully structured. Some have a mix of structured and freeform activities. Some are free-for-all. However, the problems I'm seeing are very much aligned with your observation about structure -- because people will bitch about a post not being what they wanted even if the community has no "these are the allowable posts" info and/or nobody has posted anything for months. And that kills activity.
>> I don't know where I'm going with this, except that I miss LJ comm culture and it doesn't exist on DW. The features exist, but the critical mass of people using them that way doesn't. <<
Given how many people yammered about missing the community during Fandom Snowflake, I think a lot of them are still here. They just don't know how to connect anymore. A lot of things we used to do to connect have become rare, but anyone can revive those. Several of us got
>> And I'm not sure how hard I want to swim against the tide.<<
I don't think you're alone. Lots of people are missing the earlier connectivity and casual community interactions. What we need is a way to connect those people so they can share what common ground they have. That would make it easier for people to chip in whatever they can, whenever they can, without having to shoulder all the weight personally.