Anyway, these wiki entries can give you an idea of what documentation of a tumblr post and its responses might look like. We’ll never document every single little thing, and we wouldn’t want to, but we can make a record of major conversations and schools of thought so that fans who come after us know how people were feeling on tumblr back in the day.
Fanlore uses the same wiki markup as Wikipedia et al.
Fanlore has a “Plural Point of View” policy: treat it like oral history where you want to document all sides of a controversy rather than Wikipedia’s attempt at ‘One Universal Truth’. (But feel free to correct factual errors.)
Fanlore is about any fandom history, so minute details of canon don’t belong on there, but minute details of meta, fanworks exchanges, any zine ever, any significant online fic, tropes in fanworks, etc. do.
Since tumblr is getting harder and harder to search, even aside from deletions, now is a great time to document important tumblr posts on Fanlore or add information from tumblr posts to existing articles.
Right now, Fanlore is an amazing resource on pre-internet “Media Fandom”, old print zines, the LJ era, and a lot of slash fandom history.
But it’s only as good and varied as its editors.
In my experience, it could use a lot of help in the realm of anime/manga fandom, including BL fandom, fandom not in English and/or outside of the English-speaking world, fandom on places like Quizilla or Wattpad, femslash fandom, etc. If your area of fandom is not represented, it’s only because the current editors don’t know enough!
You are welcome! We need you!
If you know how wikis work, you’re all set to edit Fanlore. If you’ve never used a wiki, we can help you figure it out.
@ people who think fandom will be the same with the p/urge of ns/fw content: idk how to explain to you the history of fandom AND the history of censorship to you any more clearly…. this will destroy the fandoms you know and love.
Please do realize that ns/fw artists also draw many of the sfw things you love, and that this will drive them out entirely. Fandoms will lose many of the things (art/fic/etc) that fans love most.
just to be clear, I’m staying here as long as this site functions. I have 0 intentions of deleting this blog, I will go down with this ship if only to see exactly how bad it gets
Shout-out to my fellow Fandom Olds who lived through Strikethrough/Boldthrough on LJ and knew this day would eventually come here on Tumblr.com also
Especial shout-out to the heroes at AO3 who designed their whole operation knowing that every other platform fandom used would pull this bullshit sooner or later
Give you three to one that Tumblr’s “we’re banning adult content but will allow discussion of relationships and sexuality” policy is going to end up being strangely selective about what kinds of relationships and sexuality are exempted.
I’m trying to calm down enough to get some of this out, but it’s difficult. I’m angry. And while I’m angry for a whole lot of reasons, the one big one that stands out is the one Tumblr and Apple would really like us to ignore.
So I’ll try to be as clear and concise as I can.
Both Apple and Tumblr are more comfortable with violence than sex.
It sounds simple, but the truth is more terrifying.
They are explicitly saying that they find a gif of someone being decapitated less offensive than the nipples of a woman.
When someone tells you their values, you should believe them.
Tumblr and Apple are saying that they are more comfortable with images of swastikas (an image which unequivocally advocates genocide) than they are with a naked human body.
Let that sink it. It’s not a fluke or a meaningless and unrelated result of a content policy change. It’s what they firmly believe.
When someone tells you their values, you should believe them.
Tumblr and Apple (and most other US companies to be sure) believe that mass murder, serial killings, rape, eye gouging, strangling, mutilation, child abuse, and a thousand other graphic images, videos, and GIFS are more acceptable to them than a nipple.
When someone tells you their values, you should believe them.
When we culturally decide (which have done forever) that violence is more acceptable than sex, then we create a culture which is more acceptance of violence than it is sex.
Which means that more people will die because that is exactly what happens when you suppress sexuality and glorify violence.
And Tumblr and Apple know this and they do not care.
When someone tells you their values, you should believe them.
As we are moving towards a period of more decentralized fandom, if you want to support the artists who are going to be hard-hit by this loss of platform/audience, here’s what you can do to help to help the art-side of fandom stay motivated enough to produce content:
credit artists
link to their current media/platforms to the best of your ability
with artist’s permission, share their credited work on whatever fandom platforms you end up moving to if it’s not a site that they have migrated to
help others keep track of where their favorite artists are now
if you’re using discord to look at art, remember to check out the actual link and maybe give feedback there, because telling your friend that you like the art they linked does nothing for keeping the artist arting
Erotic text is still currently allowed under tumblr’s new policy, but it might not be later, so keep these things in mind for fic authors too.
And just in general, it’s not just content creators that need support and security. Look around at the friends you’ve made here. Think about how you’ll keep in touch with them. Think about how you might reminisce and be sad if the “next tumblr” comes along and they felt too lost to have stayed in fandom long enough to meet you there. Be kind; show love. Everyone’s a little scared and sad now – creators, rebloggers, and lurkers. We’re all looking forward at December 17th with uncertainty and indecision, and that’s okay.
We’re not scared because we loved the blue background or the activity page design, we’re scared because of the people, friends, heroes, admirers, peers, validation, love, and happiness that we feel slipping away. And so long as we hold onto the bonds that matter most to us, this will all pass a lot less painfully than we fear.
If you’ve been meaning to get in touch with someone, but have been putting it off or feeling shy, now’s probably the time. If you wanted to make friends, note down someone’s accounts, form a discord or mailing-list with your buddies, now’s the time.
mid-nighttiger 