January Meme: Nostalgia

[selenak]

ratcreature wanted to know whether I'm nostalgic for anything, fannish or otherwise. Well, on a fannish level: ye olde days of livejournal at its peak had fannish interaction and discourse in a frequency and intensity that I don't think other fannish social media (that I participated in) had, generally speaking. If you narrow it down to very specific small circles, well, I've now been enjoying for nearly three years intense debate about a variety of 18th century characters and occasionally some other centuries over at cahn's journal with mildred_of_midgard ,cahn herself, felis, and occasionally some other guests, and that certainly matches anything I experienced in said old lj days. But the difference is that that lj at its best worked on a multifandom level that way.

Now, I enjoy being on Dreamwidth, and of course there are very good reasons to stay away from lj now, which is a fannish ghost town anyway. I'm not on tumblr, though I occasionally check some tumblrs related to my interests. I'm also not on discord. And because I'm quite busy rl, I don't think I could really cope today with the frequency of conversation I had on lj all those years ago in a great many fandoms. But nostalgia is rarely logical anyway.

The other days

Comments

[ithiliana]

Ditto for me for LiveJournal though I've come to realize that the intensity of my experiences on LiveJournal (starting out mostly in online LOTR fanfic fandom but as was so common then finding multi-fandom friends and also sharing so much of my life especially about the cats and dogs we kept rescuing and my teaching and writing) from Spring 2003 to 2009 was created in part by my social isolation in rural Texas (even on campus, I was The Radical Feminist Queer English weirdo) and, well, what I guess is called a menopausal burst of energy which combined with the fannish energy on LJ intersecting with the amazingness that was LJ in those days.

Meaning, yeah, I'm nostalgic about it -- but as Tolkien warned about nostalgia, it can be dangerous and somewhat illusory because it is not at all logical but (I think) driven by emotion. I think some of my failed attempts to start over at DW were hampered by my not getting that same rush immediately -- and thinking it was DW, or "fans these days," or blaming Tumblr, etc.

But wow, it was wonderful and fantastic while it lasted -- I'm just hoping now that I've given up FB (which has freed up TIME) and am, I think, improving some of my health situation, I can help build another great if different DW experience. It requires me interacting not just posting (I LOVED LOVED LOVED the commenting experience on LJ -- can remember at least two times I was up most of the night involved in an intense commenting thread with people all over the place, including at least one in Europe).

TLDR: I was younger then, with more/different levels of energy!

[selenak]

TLDR: I was younger then, with more/different levels of energy!

Same here, she says ruefully. I think it's a combination of factors, as you say.

[avrelia]

I am nostalgic for that early LJ as well. I couldn't ever feel comfortable on any fannish boards, yahoo-groups or mailing lists, so that part of fandom experience went past me, even when I was nominally joined. But LJ - its pace , structure, community, culture was just perfect for me.

And well, it passed, and all our lives are very different from what it was 15-20 years ago. I am here, on DW, and will stay in foreseeable future, and I also found some joy in Tumblr - even if it is very different in tone. And I do not regret that the LJ time has passed, but I am nostalgic of the times it was shiny and new and full of wonderful people and conversations.

[ratcreature]

I'm even more nostalgic for my earlier fannish mailing list experience than for peak LJ. I think part of that feeling is how and when you first got the rush of finding online fandom. I mean, I was in fandom before, collecting comics and buying fanzines and such, but not like that.

[selenak]

I was on a few mailing lists myself but came in when they were already in the process of dying, in retrospect, whereas lj had just taken off.

I think part of that feeling is how and when you first got the rush of finding online fandom

That is very true!

[mildred_of_midgard]

This has been the best fannish experience of my ENTIRE LIFE! And we're at more than 3 years, in fact: 4th salon anniversary coming this August! ;)

I have been trying to get people to do salons with me since I was a child, and no one would ever do it until now! Truly, Dreamwidth is the earthly paradise. <3

[selenak]

Four years? Time flies for the happy, indeed. :)

I've never been so glad about having started an argument about Schiller in my entire life, either! Truly, we were and are most fortunate to have found each other.

[likeadeuce]

This is true, I am nostalgic for LiveJournal circa 2004-2006 but part of that is being nostalgic for my more flexible schedule and fewer responsibilities at the time!

[selenak]

There is undoubtedly that, she says ruefully.

[nostalgia]

I do miss the LJ days sometimes. It felt like there was always something happening there, and discussion was so easy to find and join in with.

[selenak]

I think the "discussion was so easy to find" is a huge factor. If you were looking out for people talking about Buffy, or Highlander, or Doctor Who, or any of these fandoms, you could find them - and often their communities - very quickly, and start conversations or join them. Also, the creative communities - be they icons or fanfiction - were incredibly active.

[cahn]

I came into LJ at the very tail end of LJ fandom, and I got to see a bit of what you mean -- I think, too, that there was intense fannish interaction/discourse with large fandoms, which is paradoxically something I see less of on DW than interaction in small fandoms -- though now that I write that I think a large part of that may be sampling bias, as I mostly get into conversations on DW about very small fandoms :)

[shadowkat]

Pretty much agree with this entire post in regards to live journal, dreamwidth and other social media mediums.

I think part of the reason LJ worked as well as it did - was for a long time, it was the only forum or game in town. We didn't have the other platforms until roughly 2015? FB premiered in 2008, Twitter was much later, and Tumblr much later than that.

LJ kind of brought everyone who was on disparate fan boards/websites/etc scattered across the internet to one place. It really had no competition until I think Tumblr showed up, and some of the other platforms.

[selenak]

Yes, I think that is correct. Once there were several other social media, fandom fractioned accordingly.

[shadowkat]

Also several streaming services, and an insane amount of content. There's now...over 100 television shows on practically every topic. And not everyone has access to the same shows. Causes more fracturing I think?

I mean time was - when Buffy was the only teen supernatural show on. Now? There's numerous shows to choose from.