the slow death of silmarillion twitter
i'm really sad these days.
a year ago, i joined the silmarillion fandom through twitter. it's a small community and basically all of us know each other. and even though i had just joined, everyone welcomed me and accepted me there as if i had always been there. some of these friends i've even met irl and they've gotten me through incredibly tough times.
a lot of people on silmtwt i found, went to twitter because it was way easier to talk to people on there. less cliquey, people aren't as self-aggrandizing on there, everyone just wants to vibe, make silly memes and talk about their blorbos. and that's the kind of community that made me happiest. i have so many fun memories from the past year.
but lately, people aren't around as much anymore. the group chat i made is barely active, i don't see as much silmarillion stuff on my timeline anymore, i feel like i'm talking into the void.
the rings of power show
i will concede that part of the inactivity is probably because last year, the amazon show was coming out and everyone was talking about that. now that season 1 is over and we have to wait for season 2, there isn't much for people on tolkien twitter to talk about other than leaks and speculation. activity on twitter is heavily dependent on trends such as this.
toxic fan behavior
several people on silmtwt had to deal with toxic behavior from hardcore rings of power fans, such as baseless accusations of "elitism" and "gatekeeping" just for disliking the tv show, starting one-sided ship wars, and perpetuating queerphobic attitudes, particularly in regards to queer GNC men. on the other end, there are the bigoted dudebros who are known for harassing queer and POC tolkien fans, including those on silmtwt. they spam people's replies with their hateful rhetoric and are boosted because of the blue checks. this has definitely made being on tolkien twitter exhausting and thus, engagement is discouraged.
elon musk destroying the platform
this is probably the biggest reason in my opinion. elon musk's constant changes to twitter are making the platform unstable, and thus, people are leaving. i have seen several of my mutuals jump ship to threads, bluesky and mastodon, and neither of those platforms are a suitable replacement for twitter. but it is making a community that was once tight-knit far more scattered.
all of this has made me and several others feel lonely on tolkien twitter, because our little community we affectionately called "silmtwt" just isn't the same anymore.
and now i'm forced to come back here, to silmarillion tumblr, because this is where the silmarillion fandom is active, and always has been, regardless of whether a new adaptation has been released or not. but it's not active in a way where you actually feel close with your friends. that's just a problem with tumblr in general, because it's a blogging platform and people are less inclined to respond directly to your posts.
i know i can't change the way tumblr works as a platform. and that's why the death of twitter in general is really depressing. you can't replicate that sense of community anywhere else.
i just wish there was something i could do to capture that magic again.
