For those of you going through this for the first time: everything will be okay. Fandom always survives stuff like this. We’re good at it.
I know there’s lots of advice posts out there. This isn’t an advice post. I’m just going to tell you why it’ll be okay.
So far, on every commercial platform fandom has called home, there has come a tipping point when we leave. There have been a few scares on Tumblr before, but I didn’t think that we’d reached the tipping point back then. I do think so now. Given the way I’ve seen fandom leave platforms before, yes, this is the real thing. It won’t happen all at once, but in waves. You can afford to wait, but start thinking about it so you’re not taken by surprise when you reach your limit.
Take note of those advice posts that are going around, and especially of the things the BNFs in your fandom are planning – people will tend to follow them in clusters, so that’s a good place to start. But even if you leave it all to the last minute in the hope it won’t happen, and then realise you need to leave after all, it will still be okay.
We are fans, and the internet has always been our playpen. We all have multiple social media accounts, many with the same handle. We can find each other again. It won’t be the same. Of course it won’t. Tumblr fandom is different from Livejournal, is different from GeoCities. But it will still be fandom, it will still be good, and you will still find people you like, including some of those currently in your fannish circle.
We have the advantage of the OTW now too – this kind of thing is exactly why we built it. It’s our safe harbour, no matter what, because we own it.
Once you decide to leave Tumblr, it won’t be as scary as you think. You’ll recognise people’s handles. You’ve probably already done this without realising it – remember the people you used to share a fandom with, but no longer do? Their handles are still seared into your brain, and you’ll always feel that pang of nostalgia when you see them again.
It’s just the same when fandom migrates.
Some people will disappear, and you never will find them again. But mostly, you will still see the same handles, having the same conversations, sharing love for the same favourites, just in new places. You will find them on Dreamwidth, Pillowfort, Instagram, Twitter, Google docs, discord, fanfic.net, Wattpad, Deviant Art, YouTube, Vimeo, and so on. Most importantly, you’ll find them on Fanlore and AO3, because they are run by the OTW and we own it.
Fans and fandom will still be here long after Tumblr is full of rolling tumblrweeds.
We’re good at this.
No matter where we end up, you will find your people again.
Fandom will go on.
It will be okay.
This is who we are.
Out of all the posts I have seen about Tumblr reaching peak idiocy, this is the one I like the most. This has happened before. We’ll be okay. See you wherever our next home will be. 💛
The important thing I got from this, apart from the wonderful sage advice, is to keep same handle everywhere! Good to know. And AO3 is wonderful. We can put in our AO3 profiles wherever we eventually migrate to, though for now, we all seem to be staying here.
I will be reblogging a lot of posts about the attempts to defund/tarnish/etc. AO3/the OTW that have fucking amazing important content FOR THE FORESEEABLE FUTURE. (tag http://redshoesnblueskies.tumblr.com/search/censorship if you want to find a pile of them)
…frankly if y’all aren’t doing the same, I’m boggled as to WHY NOT – but hey, maybe not everyone gives a shit that fandom would lose our homebase and be instantly opened up to actually quite really large quantities of legal action against us from all sides if AO3 goes down. [the red-pique-translator reads, ‘All of fandom has a horse in this race; why would anyone be silent on this issue?’]
Reblog this shit people – we can’t do very much other than vote when it comes to current politics BUT WE CAN SURE AS FUCK DO SOMETHING ABOUT THIS.
STEP UP. Name the truth about why the attacks on AO3/OTW’s ‘finances’ are happening – it’s fundamentally the same attack made against every fandom space ever: “I find your story-content preference to be amoral and I will take the whole archive down to Defend Purity.”
Name the real reason. Keep naming it.
If we don’t defend AO3 with every means we have, we don’t deserve to have it.
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fandom history links – read them. this is why we need AO3. this is why we made AO3.
what fanfic, fanworks and fandom were like before AO3, before we had that home, before we had the safety of owning our own spaces (’We have to own the servers’!), and before we had the freakin’ legal help that AO3 gives (can you defend yourself against a ‘fanfic isn’t fair-use’ lawsuit from a motion picture company? cause I know I sure can’t….).
I’m ending up with a collection of posts that are *cough* rather a lot, so I’m reblogging several every day. Some are dense fact-based posts on how AO3 is run, how it works, where it came from. Others are ‘why censorship is fucked up’ posts. Others are ‘why we write what we write’ posts. Others are fandom history (LJ, DW, AO3, strikethrough etc.) posts. A couple are informative but also lighthearted (gasp).
If folks want the whole list I’m drawing on thus far it’s here:
DW wikipedia page says: Dreamwidth is an online journal service […] set up by ex-LiveJournal staff Denise Paolucci and Mark Smith, born out of a desire for a new community based on open access, transparency, freedom and respect. Dreamwidth was announced on 11 June 2008 and went into open beta on 30 April 2009.)
Kismet and Chaos 