Snowflake Challenge #4

[ratcreature]

Challenge #4: In your own space, make a list of things that you wish existed in fandom or elsewhere, and/or that you'd like someone to create or do for you.

The first wish I can think of is for more (and new) reccers to sign up for fanart_recs. The comm always has had at least a few recs every month since I started it in 2010, because there's a core of dedicated members, who rec frequently, which is awesome, but more recs would be even better.

Another vaguely rec related thing, I wish everyone on AO3 would use the bookmarking feature (and let them be public). Obviously what I really miss is having more rec pages, but considering that I've abandoned mine, that would be a bit hypocritical. But browsing somebody's bookmarks is really useful too, and unlike maintaining recs, it's almost no effort.

A rather unrealistic general wish is that newer fandoms I've become interested in would also happen here on DW? I never got into Reddit, and while I subscribe to some people on Twitter I find its use for fandom even more bewildering than Tumblr. And I have no idea how to even find whatever is going on with Discord (and never really was much for chat type of interactions).

I don't know whether it's my increasing age or the changes in the internet landscape, but I find it much harder to find and enter a new fandom than it used to be when fandom spaces were on newsgroups, mailing lists, message boards, and eventually LJ (which I resented for quite a while, initially).

There used to be primers you could find for new fandoms, pointing you to where the fandom was. Like newbie pages, or a list of popular mailing lists, that kind of thing. I miss those.

Comments

[silveradept]

There's not as much information out these days that's meant for new people to do an unfamiliar canon, or for people new to a place to understand what kind of space they're stepping into. I wonder how much that has to do with general worries about the marauding bands of anti-fans and the ease at which they can bring pressure against any person who wants to be fannish in a public space.

Public bookmarks are very nice, when they're rec things. I think a lot of people use them for "read later" rather than "good things."

[ratcreature]

I use my bookmarks for "I have read this" and since I don't finish fanfic I dislike, they aren't recs in the sense of favorites, but they are still a kind of "thumbs up". I use the "mark for later" button for unread things.