#(and not be almost expected) – @izzyizumi on Tumblr

Not people saying “Fandom has always been like this” in that vent post I made. No. It hasn’t always been like this. Fandom has NEVER been like this until recently and if you were in fandom pre-tumblr purge, pre-twitter, pre-netflix boom, pre-tiktok….then you would fucking know it was nothing like this.

We still had the drive to create. We still sold prints and charms and made zines…but it was never like this.

The introduction of streaming, binge shows that drop all at once, tiktok and vine RIP i still love u vine but you were the beginning of a particularly ugly era) creating this bite sized, quick paced ‘content’ era of creation and it bled out into fucking everything else.

Fandoms didn’t die down when the show ended or the season was over. You didn’t mass unfollow artist, writers or moots just because they changed fandoms. There wasn’t this need to please the algorithm in order for your posts to get seen by people and enjoyed.

Fandoms used to last YEARS. Star Trek is literally the oldest running fandom out there and you got people in there that could care less about the new stuff and still have been happily prancing through their fucking fifty year old fandom today. Hell, even SPN after all it’s fuckups and shitshows has a dedicated fanbase STILL creating tons of art and fic.

There is no patience anymore. No calm feeling of taking in fandom and friends at a pace that which doesn’t make you stressed and is still fun.

Do I blame fandom for this? Of course not, but people are complacent with it and start changing their vocab to accommodate and end up making the situation so deep it cant be fixed.

We call Art & Fic Content now, completely stripping the value of what it is to a level of consumerism instead of personal entertainment & community bonding.

kasienda

I think the place I see this most is how often people expect updates to happen.

I see writers apologizing for taking a month to post a new chapter, and I’m like, “no! That’s amazing!!”

I see people asking if a story is still going after it’s not been updated for a month or two when that didn’t used to ever be all that abnormal! Like, no one used to assume by default that small of a gap meant something was dead in the water.

And I see it when engagement drops off when there IS a big gap between updates. Whereas, I remember it used to be the opposite. I updated for the first time in a year? OMG! The comment section was going to explode with excitement!

And yeah, it’s still weird to me that a fandom will ebb and surge when new seasons/episodes/sequels are released. It used to feel way more even and stable.

#fandom issues #wider fandom issues #fandom #old fandoms #dgmn fandom relevant #digiadvs fandom relevant #(I Feel This Commentary Hard Lately)#(I miss)#(The feeling of community I used to have with my old fandoms)#(At least)#(I could TALK TO people more There)#(And not be almost Expected)#(To ALWAYS have to be UpdatingTM All the Time to PromoteTM This Series)#(I'm STILL HERE)#(I'm still making ContentTM whenever I feel up to it!!)#(And Yet)#(The way people talk about my Favs fandoms like they're totally dead)#(Except they're Not)#(And Never Were!)#(The fans are all STILL HERE)#(02 FANS ARE STILL HERE TOO)#(Stop talking about it like we're dead!!1!)#(Maybe if people DIDNT talk abt it in these ways we'd be making more works!!!)#('Oh but why is this series dY I N G IN THE wEST' idek maybe bc of)#(attitudes like this ENDLESSLY from other StansTM???!?)#(I'm just reblogging For The)#fandom commentary #THIS #(My fanworks are not 'Content' they're things I made for fellow FANS OF MY FAVS)#(I dont mind if someone appreciates them as 'content' but like Pls Understand!)