A Guide to Fandom Communities on the Small Web
I've decided to throw together a brief guide to small-web alternatives in case any folks in the ES21 fandom need them. This is in light of recent news of Tumblr's upcoming, potentially site-breaking update, which threatens to cause a mass exodus that hasn’t been seen since the 2018 porn ban.
For those who don't know, the "small web" is a loose but growing sphere of individual-run websites. This is similar to how the online landscape was during the 90s and early-to-mid 2000s. The shared goal is to create a more democratized Internet outside of the corporate-owned "big web," where monetization, surveillance, censorship and algorithms run wild.
I won’t be listing Discord servers on here since 1) I personally find IRC/chatroom spaces too overstimulating in large doses, and 2) Discord has been going through an enshittification crisis of its own. Also, I dislike its janky user interface, so I barely ever use it lol.
I only have vague/working familiarity with all but one of these, so please keep this in mind! This is just a series of exit-ramps for anyone who needs them. I'll probably maintain a presence here (albeit a limited one), but I do have back-up accounts on these sites as well.
📖 Dreamwidth 📖
Dreamwidth is an old-school, creativity-centered social media platform that uses LiveJournal's codebase. I only made an account here recently and its userbase isn't particularly large, but you can create fan communities and host events (e.g. writing challenges, exchanges) for its members! There are also pan/multifandom communities that you can join.
🕸️ Fediverse 🕸️
The Fediverse is a sprawling network of decentralized, indie social media platforms, all hosted on various "instances,” or servers, that can communicate—i.e. “federate”—with one another.
Federated fan communities date back to just before the 2018 porn ban, with many servers using the microblogging software, Mastodon. It's a small collection of servers, but fannish folks are firmly established in Fedi! I will add an elephant emoji (🐘) next to these.
‼️DISCLAIMER #1‼️ - I’m aware that Fedi can be a daunting learning curve at first, esp. for people who aren’t tech-inclined. I resisted it for years, but I’m glad that I gave Fedi a second chance! I personally recommend Fedi Tips if you want a detailed starter guide and FAQ. Feel free to ask me questions as well. I’ll try to answer to the best of my knowledge.
‼️DISCLAIMER #2‼️ - Each Fedi server has their own moderation team, culture, and standards for what is acceptable—and by extension, what is unacceptable—to post. So servers can block, or “defederate” from, other servers. The usual reason is allowing content which violates their posting guidelines, especially the legally contentious kind (e.g. hate speech, lolicon/shotacon). As such, that means users on the blocking server can't interact with blocked servers’ users, or vice versa. Keep this in mind when choosing a server!
‼️DISCLAIMER #3‼️- Please, for the sake of your own sanity, do NOT join the main Mastodon.Social server!! It's a barely moderated hellhole full of stuffy, combative users. Plenty of better, smaller, and friendlier servers exist.
With that, below are the most well-known fandom Fedi servers.
Blorbo.Social 🐘 - the Mastodon server that I’ve used for almost a year!! it’s very small, but cozy with a chill atmosphere. moderation and filtering have been pretty great IME. I can vouch that I haven't run into any personal issues here.
Fandom.Ink 🐘
Federated Fandom 🐘
Goblin.Band - Tumblr alternative put together by former moderators from here. Also allows for Tumblr cross-posting.
Pixelfed - Instagram alternative.
Urusai.Social 🐘 - anime/manga focused server.
Wafrn - Tumblr alternative, that stands for "We Accept Female-Representing Nipples." You can choose to post through a Fedi server that you're already on, or just use the Wafrn app server! Allows for cross-posting to BlueSky.
In terms of mobile apps, the main Mastodon app is optional. Third-party apps include IceCubes (iOS), which I use, and Tusky (Android). A full list can be found here.
🛌 PillowFort 🛌
Like with Dreamwidth, I've only made an account recently and can't exactly vouch for how its community is, but its layout is very similar to Tumblr and allows for the creation of fandom-specific communities.
Feel free to suggest any others that I haven't listed here! I'm still navigating alternatives in case this site really does shut down, so I'm open to recommendations.
