This is a great post and a problem that I think a lot about too - I think people getting used to likes and reblogs (& whisper tags) as the default form of fandom interaction has contributed a lot to the decrease in publicly visible comments, meta, and fannish conversation.
But part of the problem is that Tumblr became the fandom platform for a long time and it lacked any sort of commenting system aside from non threaded replies and adding to a post via reblog, which is a lot different than leaving a comment that's contained within the post. You CAN have some really interesting discussions that way, but it's also easy for those discussions to float off into areas of the site they weren't intended to be, and that pushes some people who may otherwise have wanted to contribute into just leaving a like or not interacting at all. Then everyone moved to Twitter, which does technically have post threads but the character limit makes it difficult to have in-depth conversations, and has the same issue of posts being able to leave your orbit.
So I think we're dealing with a combination of the community at large being trained out of earnest participation by platforms that didn't offer an LJ/DW-comparable commenting functionality or didn't offer it in a safe way, and the fact that commenting and meta writing are learned skills that have atrophied in many of us due to being trained out of them, and thus they aren't being taught to fandom newcomers. Both are also things that require you to both sit and think, and be vulnerable and honest when sharing your thoughts, and that's an increasingly difficult ask nowadays.
I share your worry about further changes in fandom too, because I don't see anything on the horizon right now that's likely to improve the situation and the decline in two way communication has already been really damaging for fandom as we knew it. Fandom based on consumption of content instead of bonding with like minded individuals and celebrating shared interests breeds more superficial interaction and rewards reactionary thinking over analytical thought. But when one of those models is also low effort and high reward, it's sad but unsurprising that it's what's largely taken over.
I've spent the past 5 years feeling largely unwelcome in existing fandom spaces, hoping and praying for a viable platform to pop up that'll give us all a safe new rock to hide under. But with fandom being "mainstream" now it's hard to imagine a site able to support the demand and needs of modern fandom that isn't being run by a company with Company Interests, and that just breeds more of the same problems we're already dealing with. It's a really difficult problem, and I don't know what the right answer is.
no subject
But part of the problem is that Tumblr became the fandom platform for a long time and it lacked any sort of commenting system aside from non threaded replies and adding to a post via reblog, which is a lot different than leaving a comment that's contained within the post. You CAN have some really interesting discussions that way, but it's also easy for those discussions to float off into areas of the site they weren't intended to be, and that pushes some people who may otherwise have wanted to contribute into just leaving a like or not interacting at all. Then everyone moved to Twitter, which does technically have post threads but the character limit makes it difficult to have in-depth conversations, and has the same issue of posts being able to leave your orbit.
So I think we're dealing with a combination of the community at large being trained out of earnest participation by platforms that didn't offer an LJ/DW-comparable commenting functionality or didn't offer it in a safe way, and the fact that commenting and meta writing are learned skills that have atrophied in many of us due to being trained out of them, and thus they aren't being taught to fandom newcomers. Both are also things that require you to both sit and think, and be vulnerable and honest when sharing your thoughts, and that's an increasingly difficult ask nowadays.
I share your worry about further changes in fandom too, because I don't see anything on the horizon right now that's likely to improve the situation and the decline in two way communication has already been really damaging for fandom as we knew it. Fandom based on consumption of content instead of bonding with like minded individuals and celebrating shared interests breeds more superficial interaction and rewards reactionary thinking over analytical thought. But when one of those models is also low effort and high reward, it's sad but unsurprising that it's what's largely taken over.
I've spent the past 5 years feeling largely unwelcome in existing fandom spaces, hoping and praying for a viable platform to pop up that'll give us all a safe new rock to hide under. But with fandom being "mainstream" now it's hard to imagine a site able to support the demand and needs of modern fandom that isn't being run by a company with Company Interests, and that just breeds more of the same problems we're already dealing with. It's a really difficult problem, and I don't know what the right answer is.