Thank you for this discussion! I've enjoyed reading all the comments, and it's been wonderful to see that I'm not alone missing the kind of fandom experience we had before the culture of “consuming content”. I entered fandom on a small forum in 2003, and I loved meaningful interaction with fellow writers on LJ, too. Having returned (to my single fandom, which is a huge one: HP) from an eight-year hiatus in 2019, I've struggled to find community – and been unable and unwilling to make a marketing plan instead :) I made DW my main journal and thought I'd both gain readers and make friends also by commenting on AO3.
Funnily enough, I saw a link to your DW post on (consistensquash's) Tumblr – when I caught myself taking a look even though I'd decided to give up after for a few months trying to do fandom on that platform. Discord channels, too, have turned out too fast-paced for me, and my time zone is a problem as well. A month ago I actually accepted failure and felt it made no sense to go on writing fic.
You've given me some hope that there's still a chance for two-way interaction on the journals – and made me want to offer this meagre contribution. (I was startled to realise that influence from Tumblr first almost made me wish for simple like and reblog options – oh no!)
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Funnily enough, I saw a link to your DW post on (consistensquash's) Tumblr – when I caught myself taking a look even though I'd decided to give up after for a few months trying to do fandom on that platform. Discord channels, too, have turned out too fast-paced for me, and my time zone is a problem as well. A month ago I actually accepted failure and felt it made no sense to go on writing fic.
You've given me some hope that there's still a chance for two-way interaction on the journals – and made me want to offer this meagre contribution. (I was startled to realise that influence from Tumblr first almost made me wish for simple like and reblog options – oh no!)