#159: the great tumblr purge

[specter_rot]

What is your internet history? What websites were you a part of that might not be around anymore, and do you have any fond memories of them?

Feel free to answer in the comments or paste the code below into your own journal to answer the question.

<b><user name="questionoftheday"> asks:</b> What is your internet history? What websites were you a part of that might not be around anymore, and do you have any fond memories of them?<br><br><b>My answer:</b>

Comments

[lookashiny]

Well, I was on Livejournal from 2007-2013 or so. It's still around as a site, but I don't think it's active really at all anymore. I mostly lurked, but I was somewhat active in Generation Kill fandom and I had a lot of fun reading my friends list for a while there.

I used to used delicious all the time, too, when I was in college (2007-2011). The picspam and fic recs there were usually pretty good and I miss them sometimes.

[lunairetic]

I started out on Livejournal in the very early 2000s, and had dug in there for a while until it imploded in 2007. I like to branch out on different social media sites, so changing from one to another isn't really a problem for me (I tend to stick to blogging-type sites, though--things like Instagram kinda confuse me).

I mostly stuck to forums or chat rooms (when AOL was a thing), but when most of the forums I frequented tanked, and AOL/AIM became a thing of the past, I kinda just message people in on-site messaging systems (DMs, PMs, Tumblr's buggy ask box, etc.). Kinda glad to see Discord popping up as a kind of combo of all that.

I have tremendously fond memories of LJ. I met my best friend on there, and we've known each other for half our lives at this point. LJ also really got me involved in journaling and fannish interests, writing fanfiction and meta, having discussions with other fans about the things we like.

[lookashiny]

It looks like you left Livejoural at about the same time I joined. One of the reasons why I have mixed feelings about the whole tumblr thing going on right now is that I arrived at Livejournal not long after strikethrough (I think) happened and I managed to have a good experience there. Not sure about tumblr, though, going forward.

[lunairetic]

I've no idea what LJ was like after the Strikethrough because I honestly haven't logged into it in years. I stuck around here and there, but so many of my friends were gone, a lot of communities I cared about died out, and after a while I only used it for ONTD and that got old fast. I'm glad you were able to have a good time on LJ post-debacle, though! I'm honestly surprised it's still somewhat active, but it's good that people were able to enjoy it.

I dunno what Tumblr will be like either; I'm preparing for the worst, not in a panic paranoia kind of way, but in a sort of.... "I've seen this before and I don't want to be a part of it if it goes as poorly as it's likely to."

[lookashiny]

Part of what helped with me was that my most active fandom on LJ was Generation Kill, which came out in 2008. Other than that, I mostly used it to read crack_van recs and some Harry Potter comms that were still there.

[(Anonymous)]

LJ is very different. There's barely any fandom, and also less of a community. It's actually a little boring these days. DW was like that too but the tumblr people are making it feel like 2007 LJ again. It's been nice.

[kendiefox]

whoops! posted at my journal again.

short version: this is not my first platform meltdown nor my first fannish migration.

[oldtoadwoman]

I'm old enough that I literally never had Internet access before my first college account and I had to hang out in the computer lab until I finally scraped together the money for my own second-hand computer (and dial-up Internet). I stumbled across other fans through discussion "lists" and email, I exchanged addresses so I could write snail-mail letters to people when I moved and didn't have Internet access for awhile. (One memory of this time was a random stranger responding to a comment about Alien Nation, saying I hadn't seen it in years but had fond memories, by offering to send me the whole series on VHS for free just because she wanted someone to discuss her favorite show with.) I was in my own bubble (with sporadic Internet access) just talking with friends and then when I finally got back online, they had all found LiveJournal. And there was this new thing called AO3 that I didn't really understand and didn't expect to ever use because I'd given up writing fanfic (ha!). When LJ imploded, I naively thought everyone was being paranoid and overreacting. I was wrong. I was on Facebook for a year and then hit my point of being pissed off and rage-deleted it (literally deleted a year's worth of stuff one post at a time before deleting the whole account). I got into Tumblr very slowly. At first, I never even posted or reblogged anything, I just scrolled through other people's posts and couldn't quite see the point. But Tumblr, I eventually learned, was very much what you made it. By curating who you followed, you eventually got that perfect mix of interests. I know I will look back on Tumblr with nostalgia, but this is way too familiar for me to think, "Maybe it'll blow over". In my heart, I am done with them and looking forward.

[potentiality_26]

I had an FF.net account back in the stone age, got to livejournal long after its heyday was done, and now I'm figuring out where to head next! The lost site for which I will always pine is the slash cotillion, dedicated to mostly M/M fics in a period setting. I didn't post there, but i did read a lot and it disappeared over night. Almost none of it was caught by the wayback machine, and I will forever be sad about all that lost fic.

[tremendousdetectivetheory]

My first website was hosted by gURLpages, which prob isn't around anymore, idk, but it was the late 90s and the theme was rather related to "gurl power" (with a url, get it? :) and giving us a space of our own. Mine was full of angsty poems.

My first internet *fandom* experience was on geocities, I think. And I may have been in a yahoo group? I was a Gundam Wing and DBZ fan and had my own GW page. I remember having a guestbook, chat room, counter, and all those bells and whistles. When I went to college I don't remember participating in any online fandom but I was obsessed with the 2004 Phantom of the Opera and I posted on the imdb boards sometimes. (I miss those message boards and wish I could still go on there and ask questions or rave about a movie I just saw.) Also during that time I had geeky friends who made their own internet forums and I enjoyed being a part of them. They all had "deadjournals"--the dark flipside of livejournal, lol--and I had one, too. It was fun connecting with my real-life friends through blogs. (I miss sharing my thoughts in that way and I feel like facebook is not a good venue for it.) Then I wasn't active in fandom again until late 2016 on tumblr. ^_^

[seasoliloquy]

Posted my response on my journal. tl;dr Pokemon fandom circa 2003-2010 and sites that aren't even on archive.org now

[aetherblue]

Posted my answer in my journal, but the short version is my access to fandom in my early teen years was through some sort of anime forum site and FFN.

[schnikeys]

I started out on deviantart about ten years ago or so, primarily for the 9 (movie) fandom. I never actually produced art, so when I migrated to Tumblr around the time the first season of Legend of Korra was airing, I didn't really go back, haha. I lurked on Tumblr for basically the rest of that time, and have only really gotten into making content myself in the past year or so (mostly for the Destiny fandom!). I'm excited but nervous!