Interest Check for a Community Coordinated Pillowfort Migration
So, now that tumblr dropped the nuke on all nsfw content creators… I’ve been thinking, and talking to one of my friends.
We’ve seen a bunch of people say they’d like to move to pillowfort, the new fandom-supportive social media site that’s currently still in closed beta, but that they can’t afford it. Other people have said they’d buy codes for those who can’t, but it’s all very uncoordinated.
What if we as the Undertale fandom came together and organised a coordinated migration, one where we do a raffle/fundraiser/pay-it-forwards thingie to help people out who feel they can’t do it alone? Like this, we could try and stay together as a community, help each other in a positive way, and maybe support a new social media platform that has stated its desire to be for fandom from the get go?
We thought it could work like this:
You can apply if you need a code to register on pillowfort. We will forward you one of the codes given to us and you can use it to register without having to pay.
You can apply if you want to buy codes for other people. We will not be handling your money! You pay the donation to pillowfort and send us the codes you receive once you have them so we can distribute them. (We also have codes already, so this isn’t for us. This is for others only.) If you send us a certain amount of codes, you can receive a prize in the form of requesting fanart or fanfiction.
You can apply as an artist and/or writer if you want to supply prizes for those who buy codes. We have a form where you can indicate what kind of content you’re willing to do and how many prizes you offer. If someone buys a certain amount of codes, we send them forward to you and they will tell you their request based on what you’re willing to provide.
We spent a few hours tossing around ideas and plans and set up some stuff to see if it might be feasible, and we think it would be. We have some experience organising stuff like this for communities.
And… look, we know this is a risk. Some people we talked to brought up some very valid concerns: pillowfort is new, they’re currently down for maintenance after a security issue, they’re small, we don’t know how the site will develop in the future, and while they say they will allow nsfw with minimal restrictions they have made no clear statements yet as to what exactly that means. We don’t know if it will become the platform we hope it will be.
Paying them might be putting our money on the wrong horse. We know that and we think it’s only fair to point that out to you too.
The reason why we’re willing to take the risk is… hope. There currently aren’t a lot of better alternatives out there. Not ones where fans of all walks of life, from artists to writers to audio makers or vidders, to crafters to lurkers can all congregate and feel welcome. A place where callouts are forbidden, a place made for fandom by other fans. Except pillowfort, it seems.
And the thing is, I personally remember when the AO3 was first brought up as an idea and had the same concerns raised against it. It was too big of an idea for fans to consider. It would never work. It would turn out just like all the other websites. It would tank. It would charge money, change its TOS, it would censor. It wouldn’t be able to keep its promises. But then it did.
I want such a place for fandom to be social on. I want a social network/blogging version of the AO3. I don’t know if pillowfort can or will be that place. But back then, I didn’t support the AO3. And I wish I did. And so I’m willing to take this risk now.
My friend and I think we can do this. We can organise this migration support for you if you’re interested. So if you want this, if you think it’s worth to try, let us know. Reply to this post and tell us if you would support it and what you’d like to do, if you need a code or want to buy codes, or if you want to make art or writing prizes. And if enough people do, then we’ll get this going.
Hopefully it will become something positive for our fandom.
