#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

[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.