(no subject)

[shadowhive]

So I’ve not done a photo post for awhile, so I’m gonna do one now. Prepare for some cute animals and a few random things. I need to take pics of Naryu for next time but it’s been so dark.


The geese when they were out swimming


And when they were on the shore a few days back. They’ve mostly been spending time on the lil island that they nested on lately. (Maybe because of the one they lost and the bad weather)


The swan with their lone baby (I dunno what happened to the others but there is heron about)


Midna in one of her favourite places, the washing basket



Leia a few days ago when she came for morning cuddles


The Chopper figure I got, looking awesome!


I had a few tee deliveries from qwertee including these


The new Night Vale novel which came last week, which will be my next book to read


The pumpkin I sewn last week... it looks more orange like though


The zoom day stuff that came Yesterday


And the socks from turlough So cute!


The figures from the latest Lego Star Wars Magazine


The child funko that came today!

Now that’s done last night was uneventful. I watched Maxx’s stream instead of watching stuff again, damnit. Though I did do some Overwatch which I suppose is something.

We should be heading out soon and then I’m hoping to watch something on Disney plus or the thing on Pompeii that was on channel 5. (And I might watch Baywatch tonight before catching up on stuff)

Now the latest June Something.

What is something that has surprised you about a fandom? Like, you expected the main fandom pairing to be X/Y, but the main pairing in fandom is actually X/Z. Or a pairing you expected to be slashed together isn't very popular?

Well what surprises most lately is how toxic fandoms have become lately. This is partly because of the cancel culture and rampant bullying and harassment. What surprises me is that the fandoms doing this (from Star Trek and Star Wars to MCR) often have come messages of inclusion and anti-bullying. I don’t understand how people could claim to like those things and come away thinking that behaviour is acceptable. (And don’t get me started on people that think fandoms should be apolitical and then liking fandoms that... are)

On another note. The MCR fandom is one fandom that has become... hyper focussed on one pairing. If you go on ao3 the mcr tag is pretty much all Frank/Gerard with other pairings relegated to side pairings. It sucks because in the lj days there was a nice diversity but now it feels it’s all gone. And also Ray gets shafted so much (and not in the good way). It’s so disappointing.

Another disappointment is the Welsh fandoms. There’s no Bullet For My Valentine content out there that’s not either done or caused by me which is sad. The Blackout and a Funeral For A Friend also had no content. It’s sad. I think one issue with AO3 is that big fandoms (ie Supernatural) have no trouble getting content but the smaller ones? It’s hard to generate interest, there’s no space to encourage people to get into stuff so they stay small.

I think something that always surprises me is I tend to get into the people that have the least content for them and it just makes me sad. (Or I’m into kinks that get no attention)

Though what surprised me, in a good way, with a The Umbrella Academy is how much Diego/Klaus came out of it, so much that I’ve very much lost track and hope to get back into reading it once uni is done.

Comments

[turps]

What is it with cats and laundry baskets? They seem to love the things.

Love all the photos this time, though am sad about the missing swan babies. You've got some great swag this week too, and lucky you with some Turlough socks.

You're right that Frank/Gerard is a huge pairing on A03, though, when the mini-challenges like no tags are fun here the pairings seem to be more varied. Which is a great thing. I have no issue with F/G at all, just, there are multi other pairings that I prefer, all of which include Mikey :D

[shadowhive]

Yeah! it’s a really strange thing

Aww thanks. Yeah it’s so sad that they went. Thanks! Yay for all the things! I was so surprised by them I had no idea!

It’s such a shame, I wish there was a way to encourage more in general. And yeah Mikey pairings are🖤

[squidgiepdx]

For some reason I've fallen off the Welcome to Night Vale mailing list, so I didn't know the new book was out. I just got it, and I need to suggest the podcast to a friend.

As for the June Something question - I'm with you on multiple parts. The small fandoms just stay small, and without a central area, like how LJ used to be in the past, where things grow, they just stay that way. Tumblr seems to be isolated. And Tumblr is also an area where if someone thinks you step out of line, they'll tell you. I've had more toxic interactions on Tumblr in a year than 20 years of fandom beforehand.

[shadowhive]

Aww that’s strange! Yeah it came out a month or so ago? But the release here got delayed (probably causa the virus) so much so I didn’t know it was coming till I had the email the night before! I need to finish Black Spire before starting it though.

Yeah exactly! Livejournal commas used to be good because there’d be fic posts and primers and prompts and pic posts. AO3 is just... fic and even then there’s not the interaction there should be (ie comments). So communities are scattered on other platforms (like discord) and it’s harder to get into them.

Oh yeah, tumblr is so awful. I used to like going on... but I abandoned it almost completely two years ago (and the nsfw ban hasn’t helped). It’s very judgy and cancel culture/call outs are so bad on there that it’s a horribly toxic place.

[dreamersdare]

The MCR fandom is one fandom that has become... hyper focussed on one pairing.

I went and checked my MCR works on this (out of curiosity). I have written 28 fics with the MCR fandom tag, and the most common MCR pairing is... Frank/Mikey, which I have written a whole 3 (yes, three) times. I... am flighty as fuck :D

AO3 is an archive not a fannish platform though, and that very much shows. The fannish platforms have disintigrated and the users too widely dispersed, which makes it hard to find new things, even if you're looking for them (which often people aren't). LJ worked, back in the day, not because of anything special about LJ, but because it was the only place to go. Now, fans can DW, they can LJ, they can tumblr, they can twitter, they can discord etc etc etc. Hard to build any kind of community in that context.

[shadowhive]

Awww that’s awesome that you’re so varied! I try and be varied with it and it annoys me that the few Frank/Gerard’s I’ve done are they ones that got attention.

Yeah exactly! And with the communities so scattered it can be so hard to find and join them. In honesty I prefer formats like dreamwidth/lj, but lj is essentially dead and dreamwidth varies. Twitter and tumblr can be so toxic and judgy. I dunno if you have discord but I started a bandom discord awhile ago and I love it, but it’s so quiet now after the bitchiness with my ‘friend’ led to a load leaving (if you have a discord I’d love you on there! I posted a link a few posts back)

[dreamersdare]

Some fandoms I'm less varied than others (the only pairing in Stargate Universe that interests me is Eli/Matt, but I think that's the geek/jock appeal) but a lot of the time I'll play around with all sorts of character pairings, and bandom was always good for that.

I'm not sure there's any way around it though. As soon as variety becomes available, people fracture.

I don't have it. Honestly, DW is pretty much the only online interaction I do, partly because I am an antisocial sod at heart, and partly because I only have so much time for checking things.

[shadowhive]

Yeah definitely! Ohh that’s a good pairing! (Though I only seen season 1 of it)

Yeah I guess that’s true

Awww that’s ok, I’m pretty antisocial myself. I’m only online instead of being around people

[dreamersdare]

Eh, I only watched the first season as well. Although apparently it is a torch I carry largely on my own; more than half of the fic for that pairing on AO3 is mine...

To be honest, I might do more online if I had more time. But (sadly) I have not yet worked out how to get by without sleeping.

[shadowhive]

Awww I can do relate to that situation

Aww booo *snugs*

[pushkin666]

i did what Dreamersdare did and went and checked my MCR fics on AO3. Of the 18 only one is Frank/Gerard. Most of them are Waycest or Poison/Gerard. It is a shame when a fandom just becomes centralised around one pairing. This happened in SGA where McShep was and still is huge. The joy of LJ in its day was it was, as has been said, the only platform and the interaction was huge. I remember posting fics and getting 30+ comments and all the communities with challenges and fic finding was brilliant. DW just doesn't have that interaction anymore. People have gotten spread out to other platforms. I remember when I first got into bandom on LJ and it was huge. Mind you the the problem with really big fandoms is you sometimes get BNFs. I write in quite a few smaller fandoms and, for example in the Strictly Come Dancing fandom of 20 of the fics written for Craig/Bruno, 9 are written by Kat_lair and I but there is no interaction. I blame AO3 for the lack of comments these days because kudos is so easy to do from a generation obsessed with facebook. I won't go on a rant because nobody wants to hear that but it is a shame.

[shadowhive]

Waycest is the best mcr pairing so I’m glad you write it🖤

Yeah! That was one of my favourite things getting comments! For whatever reason, even though the option is there, ao3 just doesn’t inspire comments and interaction. Yeah it’s a shame DW is so quiet by comparison to lj, it makes me sad

And yeah like I mentioned above I agree, things have got spread out, discord is a really good place for comma but they can be closed off (and like I said to dreamersdare if you have a discord you’re very welcome to join my mcr/bandom one!)

*hugs* it’s ok to rant! Rant away,

[pushkin666]

Mind you I had a comment the other day on A03 that was slagging off my serial killer Lewis fic. I mean if you don't like the fic there's a simple solution use the back button. I'm trying to be more chatty on DW. It's like if I follow people on DW I really should talk to them. If I remember to subscribe to their journal which I hadn't done with you until about a week ago because there are times when I fail at tech.

Also, I have no idea what discord is.

[shadowhive]

Ugh I hate when people do that. Why comment on a fic you don’t like when you can just close it? And why not read the tags in the first place. I’ve noticed and I’m glad for that🖤

It’s an app and people can make ‘servers’ which are basically communities (Think like a message board). it was originally made for gamers I think but everyone’s co-opted it. My bandom one has things for all the mcr ships and areas to prompt, post pics or press plus areas to ramble

[pushkin666]

Huh. Discord sounds interesting but not sure if i'd have the time to keep up with it. I barely have time or the inclination a lot of the time to keep up with twitter and DW.

[shadowhive]

It is interesting🖤 it’s pretty quiet over there at the minute so there’s not much to miss but that’s ok!

[turlough]

The gooslings have grown so much! And I love how gangly and awkward they look on land.

Midna look so prim and proper on her(!) basket. (Lancecat also loves napping among my dirty washing :-)

Leia is so fluffy and cute!

The total dominance of Frank/Gerard in MCR fic is really depressing. I don't mind it but it's definitely not my favourite.

[shadowhive]

They have! They’re still pretty cute! I’ll have to see them again soon

Midna is adorable that’s one of her favourite spots. Aww Lancecat

She is!

It really is. It wouldn’t be so bad if there was variety but there’s just... not