Notes of a Tumblr Refugee

[ljwrites]

You can say "I told you so" XD

I'm not going to delete my Tumblr, nor do I think the site is going anywhere soon. I think it's more of a pile-on effect? It wears on you, after a while, that the site so transparently does not care about its userbase and absolutely refuses/is unable to implement the most commonsense moderations to make the community safer and more inclusive. The whole thing has burned me out on the whole model of for-profit social media.

So I've been backing things up and am looking for alternatives. Pillowfort sounds promising, though it's still a baby and will take a while to be anything like Tumblr if it ever does. I look forward to trying it out, made a donation and am waiting for a key--they're getting an influx of people like me so it'll take a little time. Update 12/11/2018: I got my key and it looks nice so far, a bit slow but that's to be expected and the staff warned me about that. I'm lj-writes there if anyone's on PF.

I made a  fandom account plus a more general account on a couple of Mastodon servers. Mark took one look at my screen and said, "That's Twitter!" and in a way he's right--this is the Twitter I wanted, microblogging without the bustle and drama. In fact it's purposefully designed to cut down on that kind of thing, which I like. This also exposes just how much Twitter has been lying about being unable to cut down on harassment and abuse. It wasn't the harassment they couldn't stop, it was the engagement--and therefore profits--they didn't want to cut down on. I've already had a couple of nice conversations, which isn't bad when I've just started out. I find it useful for posting short updates and random thoughts, more than DW or Tumblr.

And of course, another place I'm looking forward to being more active on is right here back on DreamWidth. I've actually been reading DW tutorials for people moving from Tumblr, and I unexpectedly learned some things especially on how to find new people. I've been hearing reports of DW becoming more active in the wake of the Tumblr news, too, so while it'll never have Tumblr's frenetic pace--which is a good thing, it's a different platform after all--I may be able to look forward to more activity, especially if I take the effort to populate my feed. It'll be nice to make more thoughtful posts in a format that's actually conducive to commenting. I may bring some of my Tumblr essays over here, too, though some of them are rather dependent on images and image hosting still a thorny issue I have to iron out.

Disappointment and uncertainty about Tumblr have forced me to branch out and explore other options, and it's surprisingly fun. Not having my online time so super-concentrated on Tumblr may result in my content being spread out over different platforms, which is fine because they have different strengths and weaknesses. Or maybe I'll start finding one place more comfortable than the others and start concentrating there instead. We'll see.

Comments

[anehan]

Hi there! Long time no see! ^_^

I've also found the change unexpectedly rewarding. I guess that's at least partly because I used Tumblr merely for reblogging. I didn't really post anything myself, and it was very rarely that I interacted with anyone. Twitter became the only venue for any sort of fannish interaction, but even there, I mostly talked about non-fannish things.

I haven't tried Mastodon myself, even though it seems interesting. I know from experience that having too many social media platforms to use will just exhaust me. I already have too many (Tumblr, Twitter, Pillowfort, DW, Facebook), so I guess I'm in the wait and see mindset for now.

I have become more active on DW, though. I've been commenting here and there, which has been nice. I guess that'll taper down in time, when the excitement of the change of routine fades. :/ But for now, DW is where I'm most active.

[ljwrites]

Hi! Omg I have totally abandoned the writing comm I feel so guilty about that 😭 Writing itself has stalled big time for me, too.

I think wait and see is the best approach, no one knows what's going to happen least of all inside our own heads lol. In the meantime, being active on DW sounds nice! I've followed you on pillowfort, too (lj-writes). I'm looking around and it seems nice so far, though it has a while to go.

[anehan]

I followed you back on Pillowfort!

Omg I have totally abandoned the writing comm I feel so guilty about that

Haha, I know graychalk isn't hanging around on DW either. Poor go_write, is no one thinking of its feelings? *grins*

In all seriousness, though, shit happens. The comm lasted the time lasted. I don't think there's any reason for you to beat yourself up about it. Then again, it's not like I've been a member for years, so I'm probably not the person to say anything about it, heh.

[ljwrites]

Nice, we're pillow-tuals now! Thanks for the nice words, too, I always appreciated your perspective and calm ❤️

[anehan]

*blushes* ❤️

[loopy777]

I'm still waiting for message boards to come back.

[ljwrites]

Reddit not doing it for you?

[loopy777]

Too ugly, and based on a random sampling of look-sees, not a single intelligent conversation has ever taken place on Reddit.

So I guess what I really want is for wisely-moderated message boards to come back. Maybe someone will invent a good smartphone interface and the kids will get into it.

[ljwrites]

You're probably right in that assessment XD

Even when message boards were more active, they generally didn't interest me--too many "Who's your favorite character/ship?" threads that added nothing new, too many trolls and arguments. (Hilarious as it is for a Tumblr discourser to complain about trolls and arguments...)

I've seen those kinds of intelligent conversations happen in small pockets throughout social media between people who know each other and are more or less on the same page, though not on a large scale I'll admit. I wonder if they ever happen on a large scale. Maybe reasonably active and moderated communities and Discords could fill that niche again.

[loopy777]

Yeah, message boards certainly weren't a magic formula. I've been lucky in that the fandoms I've participated in tended to be large and unusually well-organized. (And the Transformers fandom actually achieved post-modernism, somehow.) So while there were certainly message boards for each that were sewers, a few broke through that managed to sustain above-average internet discussion.

I think you touch on the two factors that I like most about those functional boards- the larger scale of interaction, and the ability for people who don't already know each other to engage in a conversation and create a relationship. Everyone I interact with on Tumblr, I met elsewhere.

[dhampyresa]

You can say "I told you so" XD
I told you so :P

DW has some native image hosting, for what it's worth. Not a lot, but some.

[ljwrites]

Hey!!!! :P

Yeah, nothing close to Tumblr but it's there. I've had images on both LJ and DW hosted on an external server, but the images all broke suddenly even though the pics are still on the server. I'll have to look into that, it may be that I went past a payment threshold or something.

[dhampyresa]

I look forward to seeing you on DW!

howdy!

[thebiwriter]

*waves* hi LJ! good to see you over here. i'm new and haven't really found my footing yet, so it's cool to hear about your experience with DW (as well as Mastodon and PF.)

i'm kind of going through the same thing: trying out the various non-tumblr sites, and seeing where i'll land. i really enjoy the functionality of DW (and i miss Livejournal) so maybe i'll end up making a home on here too.

i'm having a harder time making connections on here than i have on the other sites i've tried out; it seems a lot harder to find people with similar interests, and fandoms/communities on DW. i'm sure i'll figure it out though, in time.

anyway, just wanted to say hello!

Re: howdy!

[ljwrites]

Heya Winter!! Yeah, I'm kind of poking around to see what works, too. I think my online presence might not be as concentrated before, especially since I'm having a lot of fun with Mastodon which clearly is not a general blogging tool, and that's fine.

Finding people is quite different here than on Tumblr, isn't it? It's one reason I effectively abandoned this account for a while, because not only was it inactive but it was hard to even find the people who were left. I wouldn't claim I have the hang of it yet, but I bookmarked a guide with links to other guides including on how to find people and communities.

[lb_lee]

I admit, for completely selfish reasons I do hope you'll be active here again; we always loved seeing your posts and insightful commentary! (And since we've had to basically quit all social media BUT Dreamwidth, for safety and sanity's sake.)

That said, as petty as it is for me to say, I feel so very validated in our leaving of tumblr when we did. Ain't no better place to witness an online explosion than from a safe distance with a tub of metaphorical popcorn.

--Rogan/Mir/Mori blob

[ljwrites]

Yeah I've been forever meaning to be more active here. Scrolling back I see that I was saying I wanted to cut back this time last year, making this basically a yearly thing. I can't believe I lasted another year lol.

You were clearly ahead of the social media curve there, and now people are following you out in droves! XD The validation. Tumblr was crazy, and much like Twitter and Facebook and other for-profit sites it was crazy by design. A lot of it was good-crazy but even before the mods announced the ban the bad-crazy was beginning to outweigh it for me.

[lb_lee]

In a way, I wonder if it's by DESIGN, that you're having trouble coming back. By its very design, Dreamwidth predates the constant-engagement incentivizing of newer social media. Folks around us have said they have a hard time posting here because they feel obligated to make something long or substantial.

And I don't think that's a BAD thing! The REASON Facebook, Twitter, and tumblr are designed for short posts is to make it easier to be there 24/7. It's a very purposeful design decision, to make you want to be there all the time for fear of missing out. Because they know most folks have an easier time (or THINK they have an easier time) digesting lots and lots of little bits than one big one.

So I think maybe one of the reasons DW feels weird is... you've gotten used to these much faster, higher-engagement, higher-stimulation platform. And for us, we couldn't get used to it, which was why we fell off the wagon a lot sooner. Tumblr, Facebook, and twitter are like Red Bull, and Dreamwidth is like... I don't know, tea.

What's sad to me is that if general tendencies in the history of "selling attention" follow, this is probably going to get worse and worse until EVERYONE burns out on it and whiplashes hard. And I'm not sure we've reached that point of total burnout yet. I'm not sure that we're AHEAD of the curve so much as behind it; we can't handle the Red Bull websites.

--Sneak

[ljwrites]

It was definitely by design. There's a reason something as badly run as Tumblr got to be such a big platform, and I was complicit in my own programming lol.

Funny thing is, I'm having more interactions on DW and Mastodon than I've been having for a while on Tumblr (aside from that shitty blowup). They're actually friendly and thoughtful interactions though instead of stuff like angry anons, and it's infinitely less draining and more enjoyable. It's certainly not Tumblr's breathless hang-onto-your-ass rollercoaster ride, and that's a good thing.

I don't put a whole lot of stock in swearing off social media or whatever, because for a lot of people that just means fewer opportunities and fewer social interactions. Heck, if I'd sworn off social media I would not have met my husband. But I have come to believe in the right kind of online interactions, by which I mean at the level people can handle given their individual situations and brain configurations, and open-by-design content-firehose architecture is not it for a lot of people including me.

[lb_lee]

Yeah, I'm basically only online for the conversations, and tumblr, twitter, and Facebook couldn't really provide those. Likes and reblogs aren't a conversation, so they are basically pocket lint to me--annoying and distracting and substanceless. (And now that I know they exist mostly to help garner data and sell your demographics to advertisers, all the more reason to dislike them.)

I kinda miss the older social media... but I guess I'm a public figure now, and the old social media probably isn't coming back. So it's probably best I just... stay small and on DW.

--Rogan