You seem like a veteran fandom occupant (I mean this as a compliment, please correct me if I’m wrong) and I wanted to ask some fandom etiquette questions, if you are amenable.
Is it okay to message someone on tumblr if you’re not mutuals and they don’t have an ask box to give them a compliment on their fic?
Is creating things a requirement? Or can you just lurk and occasionally hype up creators?
Can asks just be anything? Or should they be geared towards fandom interests?
Are there like some big mistakes you see newbies make that should stop?
Sorry if this was long, answer as much or as little as you want. I simply would like to not come off as rude and you seem like you have wisdom
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it is with shock and horror that I think I kinda qualify. I am a young adult but yeah I've been in this torment nexus for a decade. oh god.
anyway, these are my personal vibe checks on these questions, other people may disagree and if those other people are You then feel free to discard:
if someone's dms are open then yeah I think that's totally fine, I've had a few dms about my fics and it's v nice
lurking is So So fine, I'd say most people are lurkers and it only looks like it isn't because it's hard to see evidence of a negative
asks can be anything, I get the most random asks all the time and I respond to whatever I feel like I actually have something to say to
most of the big mistakes I see new fandom people make overlap pretty significantly with mistakes people make when they're generally new to social media as a whole. don't be mean; don't escalate arguments; don't feel a need to participate in discourse if it's not something you actually want to do; if a rando ticks you off then just block and move on; and some people are going to really strongly disagree with your tastes, but your job is not to tone it down to try and win them over, it's to go so ham they go from disliking it to hating it.
