not to be That Person but when people are like “why isn’t there a big fandom culture anymore?” umm…
maybe this is why???? That an author can spend hours (if not days or weeks or months) on something, have 1,800 people read it, and only have THREE people willing to take a few extra seconds out of their day to comment. Not even something as simple as “thanks for sharing” or “second kudos” or “❤️”
I’m not the internet police. You decide what you do with your time. Just don’t be surprised if the result is that creators leave your fandoms. I’m not writing to scream into the void. If that’s what I wanted, I wouldn’t bother posting. Fandom is a community. It’s an exchange of enthusiasm over this thing we all love. And who’s gonna keep showing up at your house with a goodie basket if all you do is take the basket, slam the door, and leave them outside to watch through the window while you eat?
I have a strict "I dunno man it depends" stance about my fandom opinions. I am malleable like clay. I can have hard stances on characterization when I'm initially in a fandom and then feel completely differently about the same things when I come back to the fandom years later. Hell, I might not even need long lapses of time in-between me changing my mind! I can fundamentally disagree with one reading of a text and then reblog someone joking about that same thing three hours later. This is why if it ever seems like I'm taking a hard stance against a certain trope or common fandom reading, view it with some skepticism. Because I can almost always be convinced to go in the other direction because I DUNNO MAN!!! IT DEPENDS!!!
Lately I've spoken to several of my friends who write WIPs. The decline of fandom engagement isn't new, but it seems to have taken a steep turn for the worse in the last couple of weeks, with chapters being posted into the void and met with nothing but silence, leaving authors across ships to wonder; Is my story boring? Did the quality of my craft decline? Where did all my mutuals go? Am I alone in the sandbox?
I've noticed it too. I think longfics are especially prone to make you question yourself. Is it dragging? Did people stop reading because the story just goes on and on?
Recently I had to make a tiktok account for work. I'm totally anonymous on there. But fandom content still find me, and suddenly, I see strangers recommending my WIP to each other. Strangers whose names I've never seen in my inbox.
It's fun to see people speak warmly about my work in the wild, truly. Yet it makes me think, had I not randomly come across this video, I would have never known.
I know authors who are contemplating discontinuing their work because no one reads it. I know authors who had their fic bound, and the bind has more likes on Tiktok than the fic itself has kudos on AO3. I know authors who commissioned fanart for their work and the fanart has more comments on the artist's Instagram page than the fic has hits.
It's not a numbers game. Fandom is not a popularity contest.
But it is a community, and in terms of bonding and engagement, authors are so often left out of conversations about their own work. The biggest nerds of all, with more passion for the characters than anyone, are left to their solitude.
Authors write for themselves. But they post for you. For the community, to participate in it.
Don't hide your praise in bookmarks or in the Tiktok comment section.
Don't tell your friends. Tell the person who wrote it.
Everyone who has ever said people coming into fandoms need a Wattpad phase are correct but more importantly you need to be 11 years old stumbling upon Wattpad treating it like at any point and time the CIA are gonna knock demanding to know why you were reading Pernico and Drarry.
(I have no shame at one point I was a knee deep and in love)
Critiquing writing? No way in Hell!
Giving my opinion? No way in hell!
Daring to question what is considered morally ok? I was a child with my luck the author would call my mother!
By the time I was an adult and no longer the exact person every “Minors DNI” account was preying would go away I knew how to act with common sense.
That doesn’t exist anymore and it’s sad.
Also why are we Prudes?
I could never! Even as a baby that dead dove do not eat meant exactly what it said! To complain would have been insanity not seen even in Arkham!
Post got long but TL;DR engagement is low, Never Ever Stop Creating! fandom is community and everyone needs to participate
extended thoughts and personal anecdote under the cut:
For writers:
I have turned off Kudos emails from ao3. I found myself checking my email and feeling discouraged when I didn't get them. So i turned the emails off so I wouldn't know I wasn't getting them. Even now when I go to my dashboard, I specifically do not look at the bottom of the work to see those numbers.
This is not me telling you to do the same thing. It is easier said than done, and I understand that. But that's what I had to do to have a good time.
Because for a little while, posting made it less fun. I felt like people didn't like it. I was being overly critical of myself, couldn't write more than three sentences without feeling like I was garbage and my work was garbage and I should just quit. I would post a chapter and then immediately want to take the whole thing down. But then I realized...
I have about four half-finished projects in my WIP folder. I have written like 500,000 words that no one has ever read. Because I had fun doing it! Because I enjoy writing!!
And the point of this isn't to say writers shouldn't want or expect engagement. That is not at all what I'm saying!
What I am saying is that if you enjoy writing and you find that posting your work is making you feel unmotivated, discouraged, and you're not having fun anymore it is okay to take it down. It’s okay to make your work private for a while. It's okay to turn off Kudos emails or even comments. Whatever you need to do to make it fun again, do that. If you enjoy creating, please do not let the lack of engagement stop you!
It's been really helpful for me to find a community of creators! Without the support of @thedissonantverses @flowersforthemachines and @basedonconjecture I may have deleted my work months ago!
And that said, if you want someone to read your work, there are so many people (including and especially me) who would love to read and promote you! Participate in WIP Wednesday and Writing Weekend! Promote your own work!! Promote other creators' work! This is how we build community!
For readers:
If you love fanfic, and fanart and fandom in general engage with it. The urge to take down your work is real! And not unique to me! If writers don't get kudos or comments or replies on tumblr, they will delete their work. If there's a fic you find, and you enjoy it but you don't engage with it do not be surprised if you log on one day and it isn't there anymore. Or if it gets orphaned. Or if they simply stop updating it.
Fandom is meant to be a community. The whole purpose of it is to enjoy the things you enjoy with other people. If you're consuming free work (be that fanfic, fan art or something else) and you're not liking or reblogging or commenting then those people will stop sharing it.
And my personal take, while we're here: I do not get it.
I do not understand why there are people out there who do not jump at the chance to directly engage with authors and artists who make things that you enjoy. You can tell them personally how much you like their work! You can ask them questions! You can send them your unhinged ramblings on The Character.
And before anyone comes to my replies and says: I never know what to say ))):
Here is a non-comprehensive list of 10 slightly unhinged things that I've actually commented on fics (some edited for brevity)
I am chewing on glass.
bye i’m putting my fist through the wall 😭
These two are consuming my every waking thought
That ruined me i fear. I have passed away
THIS IS LITERATURE. absolutely tore my heart out.
You are sick in the head my friend
Im gonna sip on this sentence a while.🤌🏻
how could you do this to them? writing about this in my burn book brb
A) You absolutely cooked here B) how fucking dare you?
kicking my feet and giggling!!!!!
And this isn't just for ao3/fanfic writers. Fanartists deserve love too! Artists love feedback!! The more unhinged the better!! Tell us we're evil! Quote our work back to us! Tell us you're smashing through walls like the Kool-aid man! Tell us that our work is making you scream and cry and blush!
No one is expecting you to leave several long paragraphs with an actual annotated review (not that that wouldn't also be welcome). Comment! Engage! Community is the whole point!
This also goes for finding Tumblr mutuals, by the way. If you want to make friends with people on here engage with their content! Like their posts! Reply to them! Send asks and messages!
Stop being afraid to enjoy things! That is like...all we are doing here.
A Character you like dies in Canon in a way that (arguably) furthers the Plot.
How do you feel/What do you do?
You cry about it and move on shortly after (it only affects you short term)
You feel hurt and stop enjoying the show/book/movie
It doesn't bother you and doesn't impact your enjoyment of the source material
You feel sad/enraged and go online to vent about it/write a fix-it AU
You feel sad and it actively heightens your enjoyment of the source material
You feel happy about it but it does not impact your enjoyment
You feel satisfied and engage with the fandom based on that satisfaction
Other/Nuance/Something Obvious I Forgot
Voting ended onOct 16, 2024
Hey! Often in fandoms I see people write fix-it AUs or talk about character deaths as if they ruined the show for them, when I often see them as some of my favorite building blocks for these stories. So I wanted to know what Tumblr at large thinks about that :D
Of course, different media affects you differently, so don't vote for One Specific media, but for a larger trend you notice in your engagement with the source material.
I don't know if you'll have an answer, but I noticed that you get a lot of asks and was wondering if you might have some tips about how to get more interaction. I have been on Tumblr for a few years, but my experience has been pretty one-sided. I interact with other people's posts and also post my fanfics and headcanons and participate in fandom weeks, but either nobody reads them or I'll get a like or 2 at the most. I reblog a lot of ask games, since that seems to be the only way anyone will talk to me, and I might get one response on some of them, but it sort of goes nowhere. Despite being part of such a huge fandom like the Tolkien fandom, no matter how much I try to connect with others I usually end up just watching from the side lines. I'm starting to think that maybe Tumblr isn't for me. It's the best option compared to other platforms, but I feel like even if I left Tumblr nobody would notice or care.
I'm sorry, I meant for this to be an advice question and ended up just unloading on you. I know you like to keep your blog positive, so if you decide not to answer this I totally understand. Anyway, I enjoy your posts and feel like you're one of the few people I follow who is always uplifting and encouraging others, so you were the first person I thought of to go to. Thank you for being you!
Hello Anon! Thank you for trusting me with your Ask. I know it probably wasn't easy to type out how you felt and put it out there, even though so many of us feel this way. And don't worry, you're not being negative or a downer--you're being real and there's always room for that here, especially when you're so polite. :)
Shortest answer to your question: how do I manage to pull the good amount of Asks I receive? I wish I had a magic formula to share--I would publish it widely for others' benefit! But the truth is, I don't really know, and even my best guesses probably won't be very helpful. Here are those guesses anyway, in case you find anything useful in what I do that you might want to try:
My blog has a "specialty", making it more focused in scope than most. Not only am I self-proclaimed "Thranduil specialist", but I have a fixed AU that has a set world/headcanons/OCs. This makes it easier for people to lock on to my work, familiarize themselves with it, remember it, and (hopefully) ask me more about it if they find it interesting enough.
I keep my content organized and accessible. I use tags and I keep an updated Masterlist of both my fics and my headcanons. I include links to my Masterlists, related posts/content, and related fics in every post I make, whenever possible. I think this has helped people find my content and immerse themselves in what I do.
I have one blog (no side blogs), and I keep my stuff easily recognizable with my one simple username: "SOTWK". It's essentially a nonsense word, but it's a 5-letter acronym for my AU's title, and I think that makes it easier to remember and associate with me.
I show love for and interest in my close Mutuals, but ALSO in my active followers (those who show up in my notifs) whenever possible. I've learned not to be shy about this or worry about being too forward. I've sent many comments and Asks that have gone unanswered or were a one-and-done. Some people have even straight up ignored my repeated attempts to be friendly, and I just moved on. (Some folks are just shy and I don't wanna be a stalker, lol.)
I do all the same things you do: comment on others' posts, do fandom events, reblog Ask games and tag games. Much of what I post doesn't get very much engagement either, and I'm convinced that's something all of us except an elite few suffer from.
Ultimately though, I would have to give credit to (a) my Awesome Mutuals and (b) plain luck.
I'm so sorry you feel sidelined and/or ignored, Anon. Please believe me when I say that I feel that way sometimes too. The reality is, the majority of the Thranduil and Legolas fandoms don't even engage with me very much, because of my narrow AU and unyielding headcanons. I'm a sideliner in the other Tolkien sub-fandoms I write for: the Rohan Crew, the Durin Stans, the Boromir Lovers, etc. (Barely have managed to break into the Silm table, lol.) But I focus on the people who DO follow and appreciate my writing, and I think that encourages them to keep engaging with me.
For what it's worth, if we're Moots, I'm sure I would notice if you left Tumblr. I have 300+ names on my Mutuals list and I review it regularly like a proper stalker. I don't think I would be the only one to notice, either. Please know that you are FAR more valuable to the fandom than stats or the engagement you/your works receive would indicate. Engagement is broken in all fandom spaces, sadly. We all just have to keep trying to fix it. Much love to you--keep doing what you do!!!
