#how to fandom

[ihni]

PLEASE, for the love of the fandom gods:

COMMENT on things (creators need good feedback and encouragement like they need air)

REC & REBLOG things (if you like it, chances are that other people will, too)

LEAVE NICE TAGS (because creators WILL look for them)

DON'T DELETE YOUR STUFF (orphan them if they're on AO3 or remove tags if you're on tumblr, but for all that is holy, DON'T DELETE THEM)

[allthingswhumpyandangsty]

Hello! I'm so sorry because this is a bit random and you definitely don't have to answer. But I'm a writer too and is it just me or has Tumblr been seeing much less interactions with fanworks these days? People aren't reblogging the way they used to and it's bugging me. Someone reblogged one of my fics this morning with "I don't usually repost fics but this one stole my heart" and I'm pleased with the compliment obviously but it did rub me the wrong way... Tumblr has no algorithm that'll push fanworks to you, and if you like something you're a lil bit responsible for it being shared. And while I do thankfully receive compliments and encouragement on that blog, on another it's just... It feels a bit like they don't care for the author, they just want the fics.

I know this was a bit random, apologies again! I just didn't know who else to take this too. Hope you're having a wonderful week!

I mean, I do agree with you on the “people unfortunately no longer engage with or reblog stuff like they used to in the past” though, as a fellow writer, I don’t believe anybody is “responsible” for reblogging things they enjoy, be it fanfiction or anything. like… yes, reblog means a whole lot to us artists. Like as a function — for Tumblr — doesn’t actually help that much (Like still helps, we still appreciate Like, but it’s not as effective as Reblog), because unlike other social media platforms, Tumblr Like isn’t going to get the content spread to wider audiences. but still, I don’t want to guilt trip anybody into thinking that “reblogging stuff you enjoy is a Must on Tumblr” because then it kind of becomes a “responsibility”, and I don’t think “responsibility on anybody’s end (be it artists’ or audiences’)” is why we create art to begin with, be it fanfiction or fan art or any other form of art.

instead I’d like to encourage people to please reblog the stuff they like. we do appreciate you if you like our posts, but we will appreciate you even more if you reblog and help our content reach wider audience.

please please please please don’t be shy to reblog what you like. reblogging is also a great motivation for your favorite artists to create more art you can enjoy.

reblog is like giving your friend a cup of hot chocolate as a way of thanking them for giving you a gift (fanfic or fanart), in the sense that it’s not your ‘responsibility’ to give your friend a cup of hot chocolate because when your friend gifts you the gift (fanfic or fanart), they do it out of love, not because they demand something in return from you, but your friend will still greatly appreciate the cup of hot chocolate nonetheless, and there will more likely be more gifts (fanfic or fanart) from them this way.

[mercurygray]

Listen, I know there's a lot of other things we can and should complain about re: fandom speed these days, by god, is it ever lonely.

[alarrytale]

Marte, I'm on the same vibe as you lol for now I'm not going to worry about anything. I want to enjoy these rare moments of peace

Hi, anon!

And that's exactly how you'll manage to be in this fandom longterm. Enjoy the good times and ignore the bad times. Don't worry about things in advance during good times, it might never happen and you will have worried for nothing. We know H will most likely have another beard at some point, when it happens, it happens. We usually get a warning in advance, and i'm not talking stunt clothes, but tabloid articles or a sighting. Been there, done that 35 times before. Until we get that he's publicly single and hanging out with gay men in Italy lol.

[discluded]

I don't know why I am sending you this. But I am an MA fan and I've stopped using IG. Never had Twitter. So right now my life is peaceful. I got tired of blocking hate acc So l just left. Maybe for some of us it's better to keep our distance because there is too much hate going around and not everyone can take it (I'm a little sad that I can't interact with their content anymore 😔but it became too much for me).Now I use Tumblr for updates. It's quite safe here. Maybe there are some people that pop up now and then. But it's not the shitshow that was IG. Aaand I love love love your blog. Thank you 🤗

thank you friend 🫶🫶🫶

A healthy way to curate your own experience. Twitter is also... not good right now but it is where most of the news is and I've been on that hellsite since pretty much its inception so it's too late for me to leave until it implodes.

I'll say this, which I said a less polite version of earlier today but certain fandoms did the worst thing to general fandom when they started equating fighting people with "protecting" their fav.

Those people are not better "fans" than someone who only supports them by only interacting with their professional work. A lot of my musicians I only follow by seeing their concerts and listening to their new music, and my favorite actors, I'll pay particular attention to their acting projects and are more likely to see them even if the premise doesn't always speak to me. That's the best thing you can do to support any professional artist.

So supporting them by just getting some updates and looking at their pictures happily and excitedly waiting on their new film/series and telling your friends is a great way to support them :)

[flamboyantly-understated]

maybe this is just me idk

[mercurygray]

I've seen a couple of writers on my dash, new and old, getting discouraged about a drop in writing requests, or wondering why no one is sending them, or asking if they're doing something wrong because they feel they're being ignored.

I don't know if this helps at all, but it took a loooong time for me to get to a place where people send me prompts. I had to cultivate it and be intentional about it and I'm really lucky that now I've got a group of people who ask me things!

Firstly, the askbox is not always open. (I mean, it is, but it also ...isn't.) I'm always very specific about when I want requests, and I try to give some parameters, like a list, or a specific set of characters. I realized that as a reader and a friend when someone just said 'I need prompts!' my mind went blank and I didn't ever send anything. So I make a special post, and I give my guidelines, and a link to my character list, and I try to set expectations about what I will do and I won't do. When I do this, it helps me set up where my heart is in the moment, so that hopefully I'll get something in that moment that I really like. And it's like a little event! And people who know me and know my characters get excited!

The heart part is important. The love needs to be there, or otherwise it's just...noise.

I'm also not above asking my friends specifically for things! "Hey, I want to write X and Y today and I'm thinking about this AU. Can you help me? Here's a list." It's like a random generator with more oversight.

On a related note, I also had to give myself permission to say 'You know what, I don't think I can do anything with this' and delete some of them. It doesn't mean I value the person who sent it any less. This is a regular part of my guidelines.

I've been doing this for four years now, so regular followers to my blog now know exactly how this works but I also have a regular tag I use for this work, and there's this body of old work that new people can look at, too, to see what kind of writer I am. If I'm seeing someone new in a tag I track asking for prompts, I usually go to see what else they've written. Will I like their work? Is it easy to find things they've done before so I can see what they're like as a writer?

I also try to pay it forward as much as I can by sending requests to other people when they ask for prompts. I know that sometimes when I ask for requests, it's because I'm lonely, or I'm having a bad day, and maybe that's where that person is when they ask. I try to keep a running list of different writers and friends' characters. Maybe not all of them, but two or three that I know I've enjoyed reading before. It's a way to know your neighbors and your neighborhood.

And this is maybe going to be a spicy take, but - fandoms now seem to have life cycles, and the simple fact is that there is a sharp drop in interest after the show goes off the air. This is why cultivating community is more important than ever. The people who give me prompts are often friends who've come with me through several fandoms, not just my most recent one.

[dreaminghour]

i’ve read that some people don’t support obikin bc of the age gap? or that it’s not a healthy dynamic?

it's a ship not a political campaign, so support is the wrong word to use. if people don't like a ship they should just ignore/block the shippers, not send 'joking' death threat memes. the default used to be "ship and let ship" and it wasn't perfect, but it was better.

if this is in response to the DNI post (which was half tongue in cheek) then it's about learning what you can handle engaging with. if it upsets you* to know that the person you're talking to likes to write about characters kissing, then it's on you to step back. if you tell the other person not to talk about kissing to you (not in general), and they don't, then they have a boundary issue and you need to block them if they won't step back.

*general you, not specifically you

but yeah, the post was tongue in cheek and i was on a spree of seeing posts that said something like "if you tag this post as ship i will kill you" in the tags and feeling really upset about it so i wanted to be like: you know, we both love these characters in a very similar way and if you don't like thinking about them kissing, we could talk about the other things we love about them. it's about stopping infighting, its about people having more in common than they'd like to think.

it's about judging the book by one single word on the cover.

if you're seriously asking about the ship being "unhealthy" i would like to remind you that it's fiction and there is no ship that is perfectly healthy or non-toxic. that is a false metric. either you like the dynamic or you don't, either you are okay with the age gap or you're not. that is a personal decision.

i genuinely hope you have a great day, Anon ✌

[mercurygray]

@softguarnere's on to something here, guys.

ive gotta mission for you. you're gonna watch a series with a primarily male cast.and you're going to find a woman character that nobody else gives a fuck about and you are going to be insane about her, okay? you're going to watch her collective 1 hour of screentime total and you're going to pretend she was the focus of every episode ever, okay? it's called respecting women. your mission starts now

[miiilowo]

phenomenon

[cafeyote]

me and gang at the haunted house

[hoaxghost]

Girl failed the med school exam like 8 times I dont think she'd do all too well when faced with the burnt crisp of her captain

[hexenmond]

Image description: a tweet by Beb (@BowerxDepp). “God wants you to torture your favorite fictional characters, that’s why He created Archive Of Our Own”. end image description.

[some-pers0n]

I'm always entertained by people doing those "canon VS fanon" memes where both are misunderstanding characters to such a violent degree 'cause like

[val-of-the-north]

His greed sickens me.