snowflake 2k26 #12

[queenslayerbee]

Challenge #12
Make an appreciation post to those who enhance your fandom life. Appreciate them in bullet points, prose, poetry, a moodboard, a song... whatever moves you!

A lot of My Fandom People are disseminated in other sites, most prominently tumblr and discord. Though I do try to get them into dreamwidth, trust me xD. The environment here is one I prefer, frankly: it's slower, and feels calmer, less prone to the kind of drama that plagues those others. In some cases we follow and talk to each other across all platforms, taking advantage of the benefits of each (curse discord as I might in many areas, in terms of direct messages, it's definitely the best one, for example).

I don't think of myself as a gregarious person; I get exhausted quickly by large crowds, especially. In fandom it's much of the same: I feel more comfortable in small fandoms, and whenever I join a larger one, I set to find a small corner of it where I'm in my element. 

My preferences often make this easier, because they're rarely in alignment with fandom majorities. Thanks to that I've found My People in numerous corners, from the chill group I gathered while The 100 (a large, wank-prone fandom) was airing, to the buddies I've made in the DC fandom (Even Worse xD), to the ones I met in the tiny environment of writeblr, when I was still around those parts, or that I'm meeting now with Pluribus, for example. My oldest fandom friends, I met in the Shadowhunters fandom, my first active one. A trainwreck, but again, I met a lot of people there that I'm still friends with today :D

In many cases we've followed each other through several fandoms, sometimes meeting, sometimes diverging for a while. Sometimes following each other beyond fandom, taking interests in each other's professional pursuits, in each other's personal lives. Some of the people I've met here know things about me that I wouldn't tell those I personally know off-line, and with their mere presence, support, and engagement, have helped me through Some Shit. 

I'll always be glad that I took the leap from lurker to active fandom participant (and creator). I genuinely don't know how I would've stayed sane through my early twenties without the people I met around here. Some of them, I no longer talk with; some just follow me on tumblr and we only sporadically like each other's posts. But others have become lasting friendships that sustain me to this day, And I'm extremely grateful for that!

Comments

[scribblemoose]

I couldn't agree with you more about DW being a calmer, slower space. And goodness, we all need more calm and slow these days!

[selimeditor01]

This really resonated with me. You articulate the value of smaller, slower fandom spaces so clearly the sense of continuity, trust, and genuine connection comes through strongly. I especially liked how you traced relationships across fandoms and time; it gives the piece emotional weight without feeling sentimental. If you ever wanted to revise this, the only thing I might suggest is a slightly stronger throughline near the end to mirror how intentionally the post opens but honestly, as it stands, it feels very authentic and grounded. Thank you for sharing this

[yarnofariadne]

I'm also failing to get my friends into Dreamwidth, hard as I try XD I really appreciate the slower, calmer, and frankly more mature vibe DW has compared to venture capital-funded social media.

[kitarella_imagines]

Gosh I understand so much of what you write- DW being calmer; feeling more comfortable in small fandoms; having preferences that are rarely aligned with fandom majorities.

I loved Shadowhunters! More than I thought I would.

It's so good when you start joining in instead of just lurking isn't it 😊

[pattrose]

I also love DW. It is very calm, and I don't feel slow while here.