So I can't be the only one who's noticed the decline in fanmade exo content here on Tumblr. We've gone from a fandom who's new posts could be measured in hours to a fandom who's posts have days....to weeks....to months....to even years for some specific tags.

We have had 6 solo album comebacks this year, 3 fancon tours, 2 solo concert tours, a myriad of festival concert appearances, youtube videos, magazine shoots, instalives, etc. Yet if you go to the exo tag it's mainly populated by archive blogs. And the nude bots, which....that's a whole other problem on its own. I digress. My point being, the tags, at least from what I've seen (I admit I haven't looked into the shipping tags) are being filled by the same handful of blogs yet given the high amount of source material, no one seems to be doing anything with it beyond archiving it.

Again this could just be because I didn't delve too deep or too far back, but it does have me wondering if part of the reason participation this year was down was simply because there's hardly anyone left.

There's been instances in the past where others have attempted to inject new life into the fandom so to speak, with....varying...level of success. The exo revival project being the first and most successful that comes to mind. I'm wondering what everyone else's thoughts are on the matter and if holding new fandom events might be a way to involve more people year round because I really do want to continue holding this event next year but if things keep going the way they have been there won't be anyone signing up.

Let me know what you think, ideas you might have, reblog this and tag your mutuals to get them involved in the discussion. I have a few ideas that I've pilfered from other fandoms, watch alongs. Fic bingo. Theres valentines exchanges. Fandom sleepovers. Heck I'd set up a Tumblr based scavenger hunt if I thought people would play. Like....we dont have to be monoliths in a placid sea of we don't want to. Fandom can be fun. It should be fun.

In all honesty? I think the majority of people from the "golden days" have just moved on. Either from Tumblr or from exo or both. And in a tumblr climate where people stopped to reblog things and instead only like them, it's hard to get content to spread further and therefore to get new people into the fandom...

I'm sorry, but I think it will be hard to get people to create content again under these circumstances. No one wants to put hours of their free time into projects that won't get seen by anyone :/

Nevertheless, I'd be interested in an "event" of some kind again. Those were always motivating me to make some form of fan content. Maybe something like weeks dedicated to a motto or prompt could work. So everyone participating could prepare something and in the end we'd have different interpretations to talk about?

But that's just my five cents. Kudos to you for holding up the fandom with this project!

I agree that we've had many people move on and you're right Tumblr culture has changed in regard to reblogs. We're never gonna get back to the way things were before. But like...lemme you ask you this. How many people on here do you talk to? Like have actual conversations with. Whether it be dms or like this in the comments and reblogs. I ask because beyond fandom creation I also noticed a lack of open conversations as well which, leads me to believe part of the issue is we all, myself included, are kinda solitary at this point with each of us having only maybe a few close mutuals that get interacted with the most often. I'm wondering if maybe a few comradery based events would help cement stronger community ties. Maybe we could jumpstart reblog culture that way. It doesn't have to be completely wide spread. It just has to be a matter of getting people involved enough that they want to support thier friends.

And yes I know this isnt going to be easy. Nothing worthwhile is unfortunately. But I do think it can be done. It's just not something I can do alone, I'm not Atlas. People would need to actively be involved.

That being said. The idea of having prompt weeks like they did a couple of years ago during the exo revival project is one of many that I've added to the potential ideas list. If something like that were to happen what would you like see from it?

Yeah, that's a very valid observation. I'm the first to admit I don't really reach out to people the way I used to. Adulting leaves me with less energy as compared to when I still had the time to properly do so after school. Although I do try to add little bits in the tags when I reblog fandom stuff (more consistently happening via my side-blog instead of this one, though.) As a creator, however, I'm super guilty of rarely answering any comments I get in my tags. It just feels kinda odd to, in a way? 

Like, let's take this for example: (Mel, please take no offense for using you as an example in case you see this! I love you and I'm always super happy to see you in our notes 🖤)

Am I immensely grateful for the reblog and commentary? Yes! I love reading other ppl's thoughts on my stuff. Do I know how to respond to this without making it weird? Not really. If I were to reply smth like "Thank you! 🖤 @/personWhoCommented" it would feel like fishing for interaction / praise, especially when you do it multiple times under one post or group together multiple people in one answer? I'm just unsure and don't want to annoy people via tagging them everytime they leave something nice in the tags. (Was that making any sense? ^^')

Speaking of community ties tho: may I add an observation I made in the Stray Kids community? 

Because over the last two months I noticed how much it can help to have a few blogs that act as "transit points" (as weird as that may sound right about now). They have wide ranges of network blogs, which are dedicated to either singular members or certain member constellations, allowing users to subscribe to a steady feed of content about their bias(es) and also helps creators by spreading their stuff around. And there are also creator blogs, who have their very own specialized tag like @/chanrizard and @/wolfchans. So while they are most prominently gifmakers, they also work like a semi-network, by queueing in stuff that gets tagged via their personal tag and reblogging works that they find independently of it. As a result covering a lot of fanworks. Just a few days ago I watched a fan art that had been online for 9 months double its notes in 24 hours because it was rebloged by one of them and thus presented on a silver plate to people who don't scavenge the tags and instead rely on those blogs.

And I think us exols could also really profit from networks and tagging systems. Just a central point dedicated to purely exo content, where you can scroll through works you might have otherwise missed. Because in my humble opinion: I don't have the energy anymore to scroll through the independent tags on a daily basis and being "summoned" by the creators themselves could really help make it easier to get in touch?  I know we have the exosnet and suhosnet already, and if we got better at using those more consistently, I really think this could help?

Sorry for the rambling, hah ^^' That's just an observation, how do you feel about this?

But to answer your last question: I think we could set the events / promt weeks up similarly like @/cultofdionysusnet. (nsfw warning for that blog but not the post I'll link here): https://www.tumblr.com/cultofdionysusnet/714045057798389760/meet-me-under-the-cherry-tree-spring-event?source=share

They give out a theme and a deadline and then link everything together under a masterpost, so no post is overlooked due to the creator being new / tumblr being weird and not properly displaying the post. Obviously we shouldn't apply the "must be a member" rule, but otherwise I think that could work out nicely, especially if we tied it to a blog that regularly hosts events (maybe convince a network blog to host them, or make a new network dedicated to such events? Similar to your event blog?)

I'm open for discussion and super interested in making this a thing™ I know I was always most motivated when we set up concept projects and themes for ourselves on our kpop blog.

Of course this shouldn't be your bruden to carry alone! I think you're 100% right about people being more likely to hype each other up if they get to bond over their works. 

This is all just a string of incoherent thoughts I have on this. Hoping you get something useful out of this ^^'

Well. The bit about answering tags is something I get, like a lot of times imo tags or comments especially like the example you used they don't leave room for expansion. There really nowhere else to go without, like you said, fishing for further compliments. But this example you've provided is just another symptom of people not really conversing with each other.

And like...yeah our exo fanbase is aging and adulting is brutal and draining and horrible, and starting and maintaining new conversations is frankly daunting, and no one is ever gonna have the time to keep up with every single other person in our fandom on a personal level. This makes it super easy to leave comments like the example or to even just.....consume with out reblogging; which is a reason I've seen given as to why reblog culture is down. People are tired and they don't want to waste more energy. Including myself. I work...so much. Anywhere from 45 to 60 hour weeks depending on the season and it was and still is super easy to fall into the post and ghost habit. The culture on here....was and is severely disheartening as a fan creator. But something I try to remind myself of....is...if we don't change there's not gonna be anything to enjoy anymore.

Like you said, no one wants to invest hours of work into something for it to be basically ignored. And people aren't. With everyone moving on from the website or to other more interactive fandoms....eventually there will be no one. And thats a potential problem.

Not just because we won't have fandom content to enjoy in between source content. But because clearly, the companies? They're paying attention. Not just sm either and I doubt hybe is the only other one keeping an eye on both exos activities and the fandom. The Tumblr portion of exol is most likely part of thier analytics whether we like it or not. If Junmyeon is aware of the website there's no reason to assume it's an isolated knowledge. Granted, we probably aren't a large portion of those numbers when platforms like Instagram and Twitter are more globally oriented, but it's something to consider when we have a hard enough time getting sm to let exo out of thier basement to make an album.

Anyway this is starting to delve into extreme tangential territory. So let me move on.

I see your point about transitional blogs...a lot of time the dash is where people get thier content rather than trolling the tags, especially since the nude bots are prolific right now. However I'm personally leery of relying solely on networks for this purpose. Networks in my experience either start out exclusionary or become exclusionary. Whether that is in terms of content shared, or making people jump through figurative hoops in order to join limited membership spots, it may start off with good intentions but....I'm not sure it's a long term solution if that makes sense. Although I acknowledge, personal feelings aside, it may be a good jumping off place to start getting people more involved.

Maybe even just a...directory of sorts would be helpful do you think? A list of active blogs, whether fandom creators or just people who reblog things. Maybe include what they post or make? That could work to help people find mutuals at least. And it would help alleviate reliance on nothing but networks for post distribution.

One of my main concerns with having singular bias or constellations of members networks is it feels like it would deepen the bias divides even further. Already we have many creator blogs that only create for one or maybe even two of the exos at most.

Though, I have to say I like the second example you gave a lot more, simply cause at its heart....that's just good reblog culture at work.

Now as for the link...I checked it out and it's similar in nature to the fic bingo idea I borrowed from the Harry potter fandom. A set prompt with required elements but the rest open to interpretation. I could easily set something up like this....maybe for a monthly basis versus weekly simply because good fan content does take time. And maybe have a weekly theme for smaller scale works?

If anyone else has thoughts feel free to chime in or send it to someone you think might have something to say, this is open to the floor for ideas and what have you.

I guess maybe I will add my unnecessary opinion. If I can manage not to drop my phone on my face for at least five minutes to do so.

First and foremost, not knowing how to talk to people is a huge one for me. I end up just liking the reblogs with comments or tags, which definitely doesn't scream friendly or eager to discuss fandom, but is the extent of what I'm willing to do so I don't seem like I'm squeezing blood from a stone. I don't want to come across as fake with a "omg thank you!! you're so sweet, you're the best, this means the world to me" on every reblog - I know people would appreciate it and it is also true, I appreciate every like, comment, reblog etc, but it feels performative to me.

Secondly, and I am SO SORRY to my EXOLs for this in particular, I have a really hard time answering DMs. Does this have anything to do with anyone else? No. I just feel guilty.

It seems to me that kpop, outside of a few exceptions, is on the decline across the board (ao3 included). I could be totally wrong but even the MV views and likes seem lower. At this point we've come full circle in fandom culture and we're going to be back to extremely dedicated fans holding up the entirety of a fandom on their own backs for the pure love of it. I won't say which KPOP group it was but on AO3 recently I saw literally two people writing for the group. They would occasionally gift one another a fic, and they would average 20 likes or so. They are doing it for the love of the fandom, so even if we face a total decline I believe a sprinkling of creators would and will hold the line (bless you 🙏)

Even in big fandoms new creators will be totally overlooked because Tumblr's algorithm doesn't allow for new people to join the big table. You'd think BTS would be a big draw but the creators already have their fans and people aren't interested in finding new ones or wading through the trash (porn bots, fuck you, and also fuck you to people incorrectly tagging for likes and views) on the tags, so they stick to their tried and true.

I'll leave my last thought to myself because I think it literally only affects me and my aversion to the Mainstream Tumblr™️ mentality and their insistence on vilifying anyone and everyone that doesn't agree with them.

Edit;; though piggybacking off this - I'm literally looking at a post rn where EXOLs are attacking EXO for not creating content for them so? It do be toxic asf out here.

Now that I've finished blah blah-ing, let me just say that more events would be extremely fun but I worry that it might cause you, the host, burnout if people don't actually participate. As you know, I'm a flake and I took a hiatus right in the middle of a Secret Santa event, so my opinion is pretty much mud here since I am one of the folks causing grief, but I worry that you might get discouraged if participation is low. I think you'd need a set group of people who are willing to commit to posting something each time to keep spirits high.

Also ngl, before my latest hiatus (different from the one just mentioned, I am gone a lot it seems), I would note-chase. I was hardly writing for EXO and my passion projects were far and few between. I'd literally try to follow the trends and see who (not even which bands, but which individual members) was getting the most notes and write for them. I burned out so much faster, and it didn't even get me anywhere lmfao because I don't even like to write the stuff people like on here. I'm more happy when I'm being a little weirdo in my own corner, but interaction will never stop being the light in front of an anglerfish.

All of this to say... well, I would appreciate more events and EXO content. My dash is DEAD save for a few SKZ posts. My EXOLs are quiet, they've moved on, they're not online when I'm online so I'm missing their posts. I follow some GIF networks just so I can keep my queue from slowly turning me into a Bang Chan blog. I don't have time to search tags and I don't have the energy to skip over all my filtered posts on my own dash just so I can see a pretty gif or two. I think having active fandom networks or blogs or just a list of potential mutuals would help a lot. I don't really follow people first because I just assume most people hate at least one aspect of what I'm about, so I've fallen into a very limited ecosystem and echochamber of content.

And now I'm starting to realise why people start over and create whole new blogs and personas on here lmfao.

No matter what happens I will support you and I appreciate the effort you're making here. Sorry for hijacking this just to complain, geez, I really shouldn't be allowed to talk. But if I see an event come through I will try to partake. And reblogging other people's works is definitely something I can do so I look forward to it wholly!

The OP message and subsequent reblogs did spark a little something something in me, make my fingers twitch, gave me an itch if you will. A thirst. EXO is my ult group. I should be creating for them. I want to create for them. And so I will fan this ember and hope and pray that this will ignite the fire, drive and desire needed to return to fandom.

serotonin in human form

types of nap, ranked by me (an experienced napper)

the siesta: the oldest and most reliable form of nap! you go to sleep around noon. you wake up an hour or two later feeling well-rested and prepared to face the rest of the day. this is the pinnacle of nap perfection. 10/10

the businessman’s nap: you have a limited amount of time on your hands, so you schedule a nap into your packed timetable and set an alarm. you spend half the duration of the nap worrying that you’re wasting valuable nap time by lying awake, and the other half sunk into a torpor so deep that when your alarm rings, it takes you a good few minutes to remember your own name. once you’ve splashed some cold water on your face you feel much better. 7/10

EW STICKY: you were cold at first, so you piled on the blankets and wriggled into your favourite comfy sweater. this was nice. now you are awake and trapped in a horrible sweaty gordian knot of your own devising. this is not nice. when you peel off the sweater you find to your horror that you have left an actual damp patch behind on the bed, like some sort of giant dead fish that can’t stop leaking its gross fish juice everywhere. 5/10 it was at least cosy to start with

the interrupted nap: someone barges into your room and starts talking to you. “wtsfhggl?” you enquire. they give you a judgemental look, and ask why you are sleeping in the middle of the day. “ghhfshsxkls,” you reply, graciously. they tell you to get up. you get up. the rest of the day feels like an extension of whatever dream you are having before you were disturbed. you boil with quiet resentment and shame. 4/10

the unsuccessful nap: you are tired. you want to take a nap. you lie down. you wait. you wait. time moves sluggishly forwards. you wait. your brain feels like a cup of mushy porridge but your eyes refuse to close. the noise of your fan is infuriating. you wait. eventually, you are forced to accept that this nap is simply not going to happen, and you have wasted 45 minutes doing absolutely nothing. god fucking dammit. 2/10

the handy-dandy fast-forward button: you really just want this day to be over as soon as possible, and the best way you can think of to do that is to take a nap. you only meant to sleep for an hour, but when you wake up it is already evening. the day is over. you glean no satisfaction from this. you kill time until you feel justified in going back to bed again, and spend the rest of the night tossing and turning, unable to sink back into the blissful stupor from which you so recently emerged. 0/10

The Unpleasantness: when you fall asleep, it is dark. when you awaken, it is light. this is the natural order of sleep, but perverted into a form that is frightening and wrong. you feel deeply unsettled and do not know why. are you sick? what does time mean? what does anything mean? maximum despair. -1000/10.

Having a relaxing time at a spa. Got a lavender & thyme massage and sat in the Himalayan salt room for 10 minutes. Time to hit up the steam room.

why are they throwing carrots and onions in here with me

he’s right and he should say it

I really just need a way to convey to god that I am NOT one of his toughest soldiers, and he MUST start curating easier battles

this was @agendratum's joke that i shamelessly stole

literally what I thought when creators’ gifsets of Giant popped up on my feed.

‘Deja Vu’ Performance Video (Vampire ver.)

tozozozo

✨🐈 Slinky kitty 🐈 ✨

@kittybroker what's the price on this slightly unstable kitty?

The unstable slinker slithering all over that staircase! What a disaster! Only 4 cents now!

Vincent van Yeo