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

[kitarella_imagines]

Yes, I just thought they went well together for some reason. Two dorks together😅

I decided some people actually don't want to have a genuine, polite conversation...well that applies to a lot of people online. Life's too short to spend arguing, isn't it? Oh I'm always revising my fics, I recently almost rewrote one because it was based on a show episode and I'd got the details totally wrong. 🤦‍♀️Oh I hope to see your fics!

With those bossy commenters, it's like...people, I don't write to order. I write what III like. I know there are people on Tumblr who send in requests and Tumblr writers fill them instantly, but my brain doesn't work like that, it's a fun hobby for ME, not a job.

So true! AO3 isn't based on algorithms and getting clicks and follows and what have you.

[queenslayerbee]

I've done inbox prompts sometimes, but always limited (i.e. to specific fandoms, or types of fics -drabbles, etc.). And it's something I've done at a particular moment in time where I felt up for it, not something I do by default. Frankly, unless someone explicitly says they want to receive prompts, I find the idea of requesting a story from them pretty rude.

[kitarella_imagines]

I only really do my own prompts, I run my own challenge Funuary to cheer us up in the cold, dreary month of January, and let my own list of prompts inspire me. Anyone can join the challenge btw! As long as the fic is funny and makes us laugh.

Yes I only write when I feel like it, I support enough people in real life, I don't want to be supporting online strangers as well. I mean by fulfilling their wishes and needs, I have no more energy to give online. If that makes any sense?

I agree, I don't even request stories from my friends unless they say 'which ship would you like a fic about as a Christmas present?' or something. I'd say 'characters X and Y if you're not too busy?' I'd never request or demand.