(no subject)

[sideways]

I keep idly constructing a post in my head about my personal thoughts on the pros and cons of Dreamwidth vs Tumblr as a primary centre for fandom interaction, but then never get around to writing it - which is, incidentally, one of the points in Tumblr's favour. Whenever I miss it, it's usually for that addictive ease of use and the fact it's a platform designed for short, punchy dispersal of content. As someone tends almost exclusively towards short and punchy over extensive meta or chapter fics, it did work for me.

But Dreamwidth still better represents the kind of fandom and information sharing culture I both like and find healthier. I've even just about stopped startling every time someone mentions their grandkids.

Outside the intersphere, the coronavirus outbreak way down south has been hard to hear about and doubtless even worse to experience. It would be nice if this prompted a reassessment of the aged care system, but at the same time it's not as though its flaws haven't been known for many years. How many royal commissions does one industry need, really? Meanwhile, the media's been showing its arse in a big way by choosing to name two - of numerous - cases of selfish breaches putting others in danger, and effectively ruining these girls' lives in the process. I don't deny their wrong-doing, but I have never much liked judgement by frothing mob and the headline by the Courier Mail in particular was just gross.

A less troubling piece of Australian culture - I fell down the hole of looking up catchy ads from my youth. I know, I know. In my defence, the 90s and 00s had some real bangers. Make Those Bodies Sing, anyone? I still can't talk about bananas without it popping into my head. Slip Slop Slap (tadaa~!) and It's A Big Ad remain visceral memories as well, and you'll be hard-pressed to find an Aussie who can't respond to a call of "one-three-double-o!" like a Pavlovian game of Marco Polo. This whole jaunt was mostly spurred by an American coworker, however, when she admitted she had only recently learned about the origins of Not Happy Jan.

When I am not staring off into the distance contemplating sense-memories of a flawed past that was nonetheless fairly soft and fuzzy for me at the time - or, you know, working - I am still neck-deep in A House of Many Doors. I even puffed the dust off the playlist I started putting together for it yonks back and rounded it out in earnest, and I have to say, I'm pretty pleased with it! Helps that there is an endless fountain of convenient symbolism to drawn on from the canon.

Comments

[hokuton_punch]

I try to keep telling myself it's fine to make short and insubstantial posts on DW just so people don't think I've died - but it never seems to stick. /o\ Even though I like reading posts of all lengths!

[sideways]

I knoooow. On the one hand I do like the 'slower' pace of DW, partly because it encourages longer posts out of me; on the other hand, when it takes me weeks to ever write those posts it's like But At What Cost.

That's why they invented bullet points, imo. A glorious middle ground.

(I certainly like seeing posts of any length out of you~!)

[texelations]

I usually write a post on tumblr and then repost it here. That way I get engagement in both places.

[sideways]

I've considered cross-posting my fic over at least, but I feel a little guilty about it when I'm not actively blogging there. Like asking for something I'm not offering in return, at least not in that space. Hm. Maybe if I can get my act together and write some fic rec posts here. I've been meaning to anyway.

[texelations]

I'd love to read them!

[syntheid]

Never really got into Tumblr and I think... I feel like Twitter-length stuff on Tumblr is still too short (and also the complete lack of privacy options made me disinclined to share actual thoughts on it). But there's definitely a similar barrier on Dreamwidth, like I definitely don't want to just throw up all my two-second thoughts here, and then I'll be thinking for weeks "I should write something up about this on Dreamwidth" until months go by ahah.

I was going to say I'll listen to that playlist at some point and realized it was the playlist I had already saw and saved and had been listening to the other day so... >> Sorry for Spotify stalking you.

[sideways]

There was a lot I liked about Tumblr, and still miss. I only left because I just reached a point where I had to admit I could only keep so many social media spheres afloat in a life that had increasingly involved fleshsphere demands and had to make a call. I felt like DW had the lesser "maintenance" costs, and it's a platform that's better for conversational engagement, so it won out by a hair.

But yeah, finding that middle ground between the two-second thoughts and the long screeds that I basically never have the energy to lay out anymore is a challenge. RIP the good old days when I could scribble in a googledoc in the idle hours during work or study.

Ahah! I had wondered who my lone stalker was! I hope it was... nice? I love browsing everyone's Spotify libraries myself.

[syntheid]

Yeah I have... mostly a giant list of issues with Tumblr and a few things I really wish would translate elsewhere like... I would really love if Dreamwidth had an option to implement image galleries in masonry or other layouts especially with the drag-and-drop ease Tumblr gave me for that. I pretty clearly don't really have the energy to maintain any social media presence, though, I keep kind of hot-potato-ing where I try to post art because they all have upsides and downsides.

Writing in general ... has always been hard I guess, but back in the day spending like 4 hours on a comment or a post seemed worth it and now it's like heck no, I have ten minutes for this.

Yeah! It was an interesting mix of stuff I recognize, artists I recognize with songs I hadn't heard, and completely new stuff. Good vibe.

[sideways]

Tumblr definitely felt better geared towards galleries than DW. Obviously I can't comment on how it worked from a coding perspective though, outside of many anecdotes about it being a bit of a dumpster fire.

God. I can't figure out if I'm actually slower / more brain-dead when it comes to constructing posts or I just used to have way more time to spend on it. Probably both. "You got ten minutes or bust" is real.

I'm glad! There would be some things you recognise, because in trying to find the right music, yours was one of the libraries I trawled for inspiration >:P Mostly because I knew you liked PHILDEL.

[syntheid]

There's always issues about galleries, but I don't know, I'd take the simplicity over manually coding out a gallery and manually linking every image now as long as it isn't compressing things. Although hm. I wonder if I can just build a drag-and-drop gallery link code creator. ... in my spare time.

I'm actually faster now than I used to be, I'd agonize over exactly how to word stuff for literal hours and I'm a bit better about just. Writing something. Now it's more like I'll halfway write one and wander off sometimes.

Ahah, nice, this may explain why I was like wow this is very similar to my music taste.

[sideways]

Ah yes, all that spare time we all have, for our tiny lists of easily completed projects. That spare time. (Sob.)

Haha... I think I still agonise a little, though you wouldn't know it from the typos. I also used to just have a Googledoc up at work that I'd jot bits into when I was bored, and losing that output throughout the day has completely murdered my ability to produce, like. Anything. By the time I get home after a long day of work, the last thing I want to do is try to make more words do things.

The HoMD soundtrack vibe is very heavy on violin, piano, and a soft feminine voice, so that tracks.