I'm a younger member of fandom, so I remember the tail end of web 2.0 and the rise of social media. I think it's a little more complicated than a binary easy to use the site vs not. Social media makes it easy to find content, but getting into a conversation with someone I don't know is hard. There are a lot of tumblr bloggers with takes I admire, who I have developed extremely parasocial relationships with by reading their account every single day, but that doesn't mean they know me. The tools of tumblr encourage me to riff off of those bloggers to my own audience, at best.
In comparison, forums felt a lot more community-oriented. I wasn't viewing other people's content, I was viewing their conversations. It felt a lot easier to start talking to people that way.
Ao3 isn't algorithm driven, but it is significantly easier to find content there than it is to find community. A lot of the fandom organization happens off of Ao3, and it's hard to know about it just by reading the fic. It took me years to find out about the fic exchange scene on places like Dreamwidth. Now a lot of community organizing happens in closed Discords, which are even more difficult to learn about. It's really hard to learn the community norms when one doesn't even know where the community gathers to talk in the first place.
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Date: 2024-09-30 05:59 am (UTC)I'm a younger member of fandom, so I remember the tail end of web 2.0 and the rise of social media. I think it's a little more complicated than a binary easy to use the site vs not. Social media makes it easy to find content, but getting into a conversation with someone I don't know is hard. There are a lot of tumblr bloggers with takes I admire, who I have developed extremely parasocial relationships with by reading their account every single day, but that doesn't mean they know me. The tools of tumblr encourage me to riff off of those bloggers to my own audience, at best.
In comparison, forums felt a lot more community-oriented. I wasn't viewing other people's content, I was viewing their conversations. It felt a lot easier to start talking to people that way.
Ao3 isn't algorithm driven, but it is significantly easier to find content there than it is to find community. A lot of the fandom organization happens off of Ao3, and it's hard to know about it just by reading the fic. It took me years to find out about the fic exchange scene on places like Dreamwidth. Now a lot of community organizing happens in closed Discords, which are even more difficult to learn about. It's really hard to learn the community norms when one doesn't even know where the community gathers to talk in the first place.