(no subject)

[olivermoss]

*Stares at the internet*

Tumblr's CEO is having a meltdown and threatening to delete the site, Vice is deleting it's archives... which is confusing because why not keep monetizing already created content? GMail is NOT shutting down despite the viral claims that they are...

I am so sick of people being all 'every fandom space is run by techbros trying to break the world' when they know DW exists but just don't want to because they hate the image hosting or due to old fandom drama.

I have to be on twitter and FB for work related reasons, but like... there are other places online. I still hold that Twitch is better than people realize due to hang outs being scheduled and also having mods. Life is always better when you can have boundaries because your online space has bouncers and amazing mod tools

Comments

[noxelementalist]

"Life is always better when you can have boundaries because your online space has bouncers and amazing mod tools"

1000% agree.

[olivermoss]

It's so good. And twitch has surprisingly granular modding tools with different chat modes and channel-specific keyword blocking

[muccamukk]

*still doesn't think the image hosting on DW is that bad*

[mxcatmoon]

I do like how easy it is to pick a size to display, but I wish there was a way to organize them by category and creating albums. It's just a matter of me getting more comfortable with Sqidge image hosting though. I mean, that's how we had to do it in the old LJ days, when most of us used Photobucket.

[olivermoss]

Photobucket, imgur, 500px, etc... so many hosts just fell apart.

Yeah, finding my own uploads is hard. Now I just use tags in posts so I can find a post and find the image url, but I haven't been tagging that long and my tags are very broad

[mxcatmoon]

I need to start doing tags for my pix here as well.

[olivermoss]

If I'd had a coherent tagging system from the start, things would be so good. Oh, well

[olivermoss]

For what I do, it's the best option. It's just the searching for old uploads that sucks. It's a little easier now because I tag posts with images in them so I can edit post to yoink the image url. But, I didn't tag from the start.

[mxcatmoon]

The thing that gets me most is the amount of fans who seem to love the rich 'techbros' who make money off of them while having nothing but criticism for the fan-run and/or non-profit platforms.

Then again, I'm honestly not sure I really want all those people coming over to DW. Bringing their bad behavior with them. Guess I'm just lazy and spoiled here, seeing almost zero drama without having to work at avoiding it.

[olivermoss]

Honestly, yeah, it's all so hypocritical... using tumblr is bad now from people still on twitter and it's like, if you want to have ethical standards for where you post then have standards. It's justification gymnastics all the way down. I don't justify anything. Being off Facebook cost me job and social opportunities so I am back on it. I do what is best for me and also put effort into modding here so if people want different it exists.

People just want to complain, criticize etc instead of being constructive at all. I just can't take the complaining seriously from people who want fandom and/or community without having to put in any effort

[mxcatmoon]

Complaining seems to be standard in most places on the internet. And yeah, I guess places like DW are too much "work." Well, you get out of things what you put into them.

[miscellaneous_section]

GMail is NOT shutting down despite the viral claims that they are...

There was a claim going around about them shutting down? I wonder who came up with that.

[olivermoss]

Yeah, it trended on twitter harder than anything has trended in a while and had people panicking. Gmail is sunsetting support for basic HTML view, and someone edited that announcement

[miscellaneous_section]

Oh~, okay.

I don't have a twitter account to catch that bit of news. I didn't know Gmail had basic HTML for viewing it; fancy learning that as it's announced to be shut down.

[olivermoss]

I think it's how gmail originally looked. I used that view for a long time because I don't like change, but they've been trying to get people all on the same interface for a long time now. I think new accounts haven't gotten that option in a decade.

Thoughts

[ysabetwordsmith]

>> I am so sick of people being all 'every fandom space is run by techbros trying to break the world' when they know DW exists but just don't want to because they hate the image hosting or due to old fandom drama.<<

If a site doesn't meet people's needs, they shouldn't use it, and that's fine.

But every time some other site melts down, it is an opportunity for other sites to grab market share. Think about why people are complaining, then describe how DW or another venue you love can do better. It helps attract people to your favorite venues.

[mistressofmuses]

Ugh, amidst all the tumblr stuff, I didn't hear about Vice! That sucks!

I remain annoyed at how DW just gets... ignored. It's right here, dammit! Tech-bro VC free!
I'm also annoyed at how often I hear people (even people I like, even people who HAVE DW accounts) on other sites declare that DW just can't ever be at all viable and it's a waste of time to try and get people to use it, and that it's allegedly a super toxic space. I... haven't encountered nearly so much of this allegedly omnipresent toxicity, and IT IS VIABLE IF PEOPLE USE IT!

[olivermoss]

It's nuts. Obviously I don't want the people yelling about it being terrible coming back, but I'd like them to stop shouting so much.

You know how, when people don't want to admit what their real issue is, they shout a dozen accusations and are super aggro and defensive? Yeah, it's giving that. Whether it's that they don't think they can build clout here like on other sites or old fandom wank, they aren't being honest about what the problem is.

[mistressofmuses]

Right? Lol. It's fine if people don't want to use the site. Some people hate the LJ nostalgia; some people never enjoyed platforms geared toward journalling, and find long posts tedious; some people can't fathom not having an algorithm to hand them accounts to follow.

Buuuut, yeah, it feels really weirdly defensive sometimes. I've seen people make snide comments about how the only DW holdouts are the ones who "couldn't cut it" on other platforms, which... what? I feel like the idea that a site or platform is something you need to be able to "cut it" at illustrates a fundamental difference in outlook. If your goal is to be mega-popular, then DW may not be the site for you, but saying people only post here because they couldn't "win" at twitter or tumblr or tiktok feels like a... *weird* assertion.
But you're probably right: I think a LOT sometimes boils down to ancient fandom wank.

[olivermoss]

A chunk of this boils down to the site's owner having The Wrong Ship in Stargate fandom and no one wants to admit that's why they chose to die on the hill of 'DW is bad for reasons' Not all of it, she was on LJ's original Trust and Safety team and they were dealing with Brand New Situations. There are legit reasons to be salty about admin calls back in the day and not knowing if she was the admin. But honestly I think the Stargate stuff was a bigger deal. That was back when ship wars were insane. Those burned by bad LJ calls aren't still around, the Stargate fen are.

Also, the whole not cutting thing? Yeah, that is weird for at least a dozen reasons.

[mistressofmuses]

Yeah. I think you're very right: the maybe-legit frustrations from LJ-admin days aren't the ones still sticking around and whinging. The people with fandom wank grudges? Never let the grudge die.

As much as I loathe the current anti attitudes, and the ways in which a "bad" ship is now *always* a moral crusade that lives should be ruined over...
Man, I think people forget what a fucking trainwreck ye olde shipwars were. That shit was VICIOUS.

Seriously. What a weird sentiment!

[profiterole_reads]

So that's why there was a poll on Tumblr about "what if someone deleted the website"! I said I'm on Dreamwidth, of course.

[olivermoss]

I doubt Mr. CEO man is going to delete the thing he's CEO of. It's just a weak attempt to be big and important. But, we'll have to see how the site weathers his BS.

[razielim]

Yeah, I'm having a really rough time of it. I can't exactly spend the time to go back and Nightshade/Glaze every image I've posted, so deleting my tumblr will probably be the play. It's soooo painful to think about. Even as much as the porn ban hurt me, tumblr was still the most intuitive, playful, and comfortable place on the internet for me.

I don't think I'll start using DW more after. I really TRIED to make it work for me, you know? I tried to make this my MAIN hub even. PF too. The most I really adapted to is occasionally commenting on reading page posts. But I never got used to "journaling" socially; tumblr's always been about the "hyperfocusing" socially. So I can def see why others aren't willing to even consider trying DW. It's a totally different activity!

I might just ditch having an online "presence" for a while and only keep up with exchanging fic and art with old tumblr mutuals via... what, email? Idk, man, I just don't know. :/

[olivermoss]

DW works for me, but also I was on LJ in the day so it's intuitive to me. Honestly, if interactions on this site died I'd still use it because I am used to processing my days by journaling.

DW isn't the option for everyone, but a lot of people are just weird about it. One thing DW is good for is just stable info, which is why the comms I run have a lot of info on the profile pages, links to other fan spaces, etc.

Have you considered making a personal Discord for art posting with mutuals? Or is Discord a no-go for you?

PF is sadly a mess. The people running it are clueless and burned a lot of trust. I'd actually hoped Cohost would pull it together just to have more options.

[razielim]

Yeah, you seem to know exactly what you want from this site, and doing it! :) LJ was always sooooo intimidating to me haha. I was totally a read-fic-only fan until tumblr coaxed me into participating.

I can't herd any tumblr mutuals into being active on Discord so it's no go, but not for lack of trying, haha. That'd be nice!

PF is a mess? I didn't know. Like their budget is not going to hold out? I read somewhere that they were doing more with their shoestring budget than cohost with their bigger financial backing, but I don't remember any numbers about it. Idk about either of them, really. PF is a little too LJ the same way DW is, and cohost has... a very different crowd, I think, than what I'm used to. C'est la vie.

I'm most interested in trying to participate in Fail Fandom Anon going forward... but oof they're scary/mean sometimes.

[olivermoss]

Pillowfort knows so little about what they are doing that they weren't GDPR compliant for a year. They lack the basic knowledge base for doing what they are trying to do, even now. Community had to explain to the owners why editable reblogs would be bad actually. But, I mean, if you have fun there anyway go for it. Just be aware.

Honestly, on Bluesky I am getting organic traction for my photography very similar to when I started my photoblog on tumblr.

Yeah, FFA I wish I could quit you because there are some serious bastards over there. But, for staying in the loop on things it's too good.