Poll

[ash48]

Just curious (even though posting it on LJ will skew any sort of "real" results. Though I am hoping to entice some tumblrites to answer also).

I'm thinking about this because I have noticed a lot of LJians migrating to tumblr and it makes me wonder if that's because it offers a more rewarding fandom experience than LJ. For me, it's LJ. I enjoy tumblr but I can (and did!) go days without visiting it, but I can't go a day without checking into LJ.

[Poll #1944482]

I consider "rewarding" to mean where you get the most pleasure. Perhaps your "go to" fandom place. The one that is most satisfying as a fandom hangout. The one you feel most at home or perhaps the place you feel you belong.

Comments

[kiscinca.livejournal.com]

I voted It depends what you are using them for. I have account at both and check them daily, I think they both have their ups and downs.

With Tumblr it's great to post your images/gifs/art and you can even post vids, which is great, but for conversation/discussion or fic posting not so much. Text formatting is a nightmare with the text post and replying or commenting to posts is impossible unless you install some comment system, like Spoiler.tv has, or even if you allow replies it's only for a limited time.

In short it's great for art/pics, vids and even short posts or even a bit longer ones, certainly better then say Twitter, and getting notes on your posts is rewarding. Also a great thing is that sometimes you end up finding rare things and there surely is lots of pretty pics and all to look at.

But as a community? Not so much. Searching is barely workable and it's easy to miss things, especially on popular tags, you can get lost for hours. Interacting with each other or hold in depth discussions? Next to impossible. Not to mention, as others mentioned, emotions and opinions run rampant and it can make one feel easily offended with having everything shown in your face.

LJ, I have been here since 2008 November, well I had an account earlier, but didn't know how to use it and I came here for this fandom specifically and found some great friends so I think it will always hold a special place for me.

With LJ it's definitely a lot more text and interaction friendly. You can set the security (public/flocked/filtered) of your posts, comment, join comms or send messages etc...

You can easily format your posts and hold in depth discussions and a good way to archive your fics or post metas and it has certainly more of a community feel. It's really rewarding to have comments on your posts and get to talk to people and actually make friends on the web, or in real life, in your fandoms.

But if you're more artsy, like me, posting pics can be a hassle and you have limited amount of space if you upload to the scrapbook. I actually prefer to use Tumblr to post and store images at now. Also some of the updates tend to mess things up, like I had my masterpost on top screwed up for awhile and had to reformat the whole thing, not to mention the DDOS issues.

And I got too wordy again didn't I? To sum it up, Tumblr is better for art and liveblog/insta reactions, while LJ is better for fics, long meta and formatted posts and actual discussions I think.

ETA: Now that I think about it, the change of social media and fandom along with it is something I find rather interesting as a topic.

When I first got into fandoms, I remember these badly made geocities and various fansites, when I got into SPN I remember the message boards then LJ, now everyone's at Twitter/FB/Tumblr and maybe LJ. The flow of time is indeed cruel I guess.

[ash48.livejournal.com]

Yeah, both places seem good for particular things. No doubt tumblr brings the pretty. :))

I agree that the change in social media and the way fans have used certain sites to base their fannish activities is interesting. I actually wonder if some day a format will be created that incorporates the best of both LJ and tumblr. It would be hard, but it might be possible.

Thanks for sharing your thoughts.
xox