Read on Twitter
I know Tumblr only has itself to blame for its demise but I must confess it's really sad how the fandom experience only exists on Twitter nowadays because this is such a worse platform.
Tumblr made people wanna create content like art and edits. Twitter just makes people argue.
Tumblr made people wanna create content like art and edits. Twitter just makes people argue.
The fact that Tumblr was an image based platform meant the best way to gain followers and interact with others was to make content like art, edits, gifs, etc. You also had text posts but the lack of a size limit meant even that inspired fandom essays and fanfiction.
Not only does Twitter put a massive limitation on text size, it also crops images and has completely destroyed gif making, basically rendering fancontent nearly obsolete with the exception of art and even that it's still pretty bad at.
Instead Twitter rewards fast-paced and provocative content which leads to most fandom interactions being limited to a) arguing b) annoying thread making.
And like, I enjoy a good discussion as much as the next person, but there's only so many times a person can read "Is Bucky to blame for the death Tony's parents?" before wanting to die.
People here will have the same fights over and over because there's nothing else to do.
People here will have the same fights over and over because there's nothing else to do.
I think the saddest part of it all is that fandom can be such a great tool for growth and development and it just... isn't anymore.
Like fandom is the only reason why I am where I am today with my career and it sucks that other people won't have that until a new Tumblr is born.
Like fandom is the only reason why I am where I am today with my career and it sucks that other people won't have that until a new Tumblr is born.
Anyway this is all just to say I really miss Tumblr's visual-centric platform + the fact that tumblr didn't have follower counts showing and didn't reward bickering as much.
this thread is going around so I guess this is the point where i say hi, i'm gi and i draw / write / design stuff for a living. here's some of my work! https://twitter.com/gisewaaa/status/1144379216357666816
A lot of people are focusing on the drama/discourse portion of my thread which is #valid, but as a designer I was definitely approaching this from more of a UI/UX perspective and how platforms can mold the behavior of big groups.
The medium is the message
The medium is the message
