Tumblrocalypse, oh my

[selenay]

I think everyone else is already posting links to all the useful places/discussions (check out umadoshi or morgandawn for collated lists of it all), so I won't duplicate that information. I'm simultaneously sad that another platform is imploding and fans are being forced to flee, and happy to see DW become more active.

Part of the reason I find it hard to motivate myself to update DW regularly is that it's been a bit ghost-town-like. No comments, not many other people updating, combines to make it feel a bit like shouting into the void. That's why so much of my fandom time is on Twitter (despite the filled with Nazis issue). At least we're interacting there.

Twitter tip: lists are your friend and sometimes the only way to manage. I have a list of key people I want to read every day, sort of a highlights list, and a list of cute animal twitters for when I need a cheer-up. And then when I've got time and the mental head space to deal with the trash-fire nature of the world, I can read my full Twitter feed. Lists are key. As is a good client because the native one is terrible. No chronological ordering is ridiculous. I have the native one installed for push notifications to my phone/iPad, but I use Tweetbot (or Tweetdeck on the computer) for actually reading Twitter.

I was very active on Tumblr for about eighteen months, but I've barely used it since 2014. The time when I was super active was also the time when I was deep in my MCU love and most of the fandom stuff was done over there. As my deep MCU obsession waned, so did my Tumblr activity. It's never been an easy place to do the kind of socialising and fandom community stuff that I grew up on, and all the purity police bullying of recent years put me off going back. That's also why I've been mostly active on Twitter.

I'm not sure I'm writing anything useful here, but it's good to get thoughts out and down. I'm not sure where fandom is heading this time as a new base. I'd like DW to get more active again. I like the ideas Pillowfort have, but the timing is terrible and their infrastructure simply isn't ready for fandom to descend on them.

TBH, as difficult as it is, I'd love to see a "platform of our own" concept finally take root and get implemented. It would require an army of fans and the kind of planning and organisation that has kept AO3 up and running for so long, but we did it once, surely we can do it again?

The guy who made Pinboard fandom-friendly is also collecting ideas and trying to work out the logistics of building something for us. If anyone outside fandom is going to build something, he's probably one of the people I'd trust most to do it.

Maybe one of these ideas will work out. The problem always comes down to money: platforms can't monetise fandom, so they eventually chase us out. So the only way to build something we can't be chased away from is to do it ourselves somehow.

Someone suggested a P2P-based option and my entire spine shuddered. No. That's not a solution. Many fans don't have the bandwidth to be part of a network like that, and then there's the content that's plain illegal (yes, I'm talking child porn) that nobody wants on their computer in any sense. Even with the strictest controls and moderation, it won't be possible to guarantee that stuff won't be on someone's machine at some point in a P2P solution, and most of us aren't willing to take that risk.

I'm going to be watching closely to see, what if anything, comes out of all the discussion I'm seeing about a platform of our own. After all, I didn't think we could find a way to own the servers to host our fic, and look what AO3 has become! So I don't think it's impossible and a tiny part of me is hoping something good might come out of the current shitshow. The Tumblrocalypse is just another iteration of events like Strikethrough and it's about time we found a way to keep that from happening.

Comments

[kore]

Someone suggested a P2P-based option and my entire spine shuddered. No. That's not a solution. Many fans don't have the bandwidth to be part of a network like that, and then there's the content that's plain illegal (yes, I'm talking child porn) that nobody wants on their computer in any sense. Even with the strictest controls and moderation, it won't be possible to guarantee that stuff won't be on someone's machine at some point in a P2P solution, and most of us aren't willing to take that risk.

I KINDA REALLY COULDN'T FUCKING BELIEVE THAT. ahem. I mean, I know the people proposing it are really smart and have thought about it and love pushing the fannish tech envelope &c &c but I'm just like You think TUMBLR had a child porn problem? -- Also, I really really don't trust the gov't when it comes to P2P networks. Does nobody remember Pirate Bay. Or that bizarre fourth-grade clipart on the Megaupload seizure. No, I don't think the Fandom FBI would come to put us all in Fandom Jail, but we do have this giant fucking virtual panopticon the government is now in control of, and even under Obama, the Feds were doing extraordinarily shady shit with it. I remember when individuals were were fined for using fuckin' Limewire! I have friends who get nastygrams from their ISPs if they dare torrent something like Shakespeare in Love. And so on.

-- Then again, like you say, nobody really could've dreamed of AO3 after Strikethru, and look how long that's been going and how many works have been uploaded, and people said it wouldn't work or couldn't sustain itself and so on. So maybe Pinboard Guy will have some brill idea for a media archive? that would be for fanart and vids and fanartists what AO3 is for writers. That would be amazing.

[selenay]

I KINDA REALLY COULDN'T FUCKING BELIEVE THAT.

I was amazed to see it discussed by more than one person and I do get it, a P2P network solves the hosting costs issue, but it opens up way too many other problems. People in Canada routinely get C&D letters from their ISPs if they use torrent at all, for anything. It's got way too many issues to actually be a practical option people will use.

So maybe Pinboard Guy will have some brill idea for a media archive? that would be for fanart and vids and fanartists what AO3 is for writers. That would be amazing.

That would be genuinely amazing. Fandom is putting its collective hats on to draw up requirements and nice-to-haves, so maybe that'll get somewhere. An archive for the non-text fan media, with ways to link, tag, comment on, and share it, would be brilliant. It wouldn't even need the blogging capability: essays can now go on AO3 and most of us have ways of doing actual blogging that work.

An all-in-one solution for everything is what a lot of people want but, honestly, I don't think that's likely to happen, at least not any time soon. It's too complex.

Then again, AO3. We didn't think that would work and be sustainable, so who knows?

[kore]

a P2P network solves the hosting costs issue, but it opens up way too many other problems. People in Canada routinely get C&D letters from their ISPs if they use torrent at all, for anything. It's got way too many issues to actually be a practical option people will use.

Yeah, and I know some Australian fans were saying they'd have problems too. Plus, there's a whole other problem with what's legal in different countries! Argle.

An archive for the non-text fan media, with ways to link, tag, comment on, and share it, would be brilliant. It wouldn't even need the blogging capability: essays can now go on AO3 and most of us have ways of doing actual blogging that work.

YES, that would be great. One of the most heartbreaking things is seeing how many fanartists got completely fucked without lube, not just in terms of publicizing and publishing their work, but that's how a lot of them got people to buy zines or prints on Kickstarter, Etsy, &c &c. And displaying art was one of the things Tumblr was actually originally designed for, unlike AO3 -- you can embed stuff there, but it's not hosted, which would apparently open up brand new giant kettles of worms.

An all-in-one solution for everything is what a lot of people want but, honestly, I don't think that's likely to happen, at least not any time soon. It's too complex.

Yeah, it actually reminds me of the early days of LJ, when people would do picspams, and upload their fic, and talk in communities, and use it for personal blogging, and and....A lot of that got split off, with personal updates going to Twitter and Facebook, for example. I see people saying stuff like they'll use DW as a kind of home base and AO3 for fic and Discord for fannish chatting, and maybe also Twitter, and that at least seems like a workable solution unlike the "I have become all things to all men" ideal. (As Strikethru and now Nipplepocalypse or whatever we're calling it both showed, when you have stuff that centralized, if anything does happen to that central platform, fans are really screwed.)

Then again, AO3. We didn't think that would work and be sustainable, so who knows?

Yeah, I remember SO much naysaying, and people saying it would never last, and it's like the B5 thing, "Faith manages," to be sappy. (People thought Dreamwidth wouldn't last either.)

[selenay]

but that's how a lot of them got people to buy zines or prints on Kickstarter, Etsy, &c &c.

It's awful to see how many people are getting totally fucked over by this, because Tumblr was never just about posting a few pics. It was designed to host and display art and it did it well, which so many fanartists used in brilliant ways beyond just showcasing their latest thing.

I understand why AO3 doesn't want to host. It's already hard enough to get people to kick in the money needed to keep the servers running and bandwidth high enough for the traffic volume (plus the other projects) - that would be a huge extra drain on their resources.

that at least seems like a workable solution unlike the "I have become all things to all men" ideal. (As Strikethru and now Nipplepocalypse or whatever we're calling it both showed, when you have stuff that centralized, if anything does happen to that central platform, fans are really screwed.)

The part of having everything in one place that worries me is that really screwing fans when it goes down part. Unless we can guarantee the centralised Thing won't disappear overnight, having all fan activities in one place has the potential to be dangerous. People don't love the splintering, but at least when one channel goes down (Tumbl!) we can still find each other and pass information along. In the early days of LJ, if the site was down...crickets. Nobody could reconnect.

So there are advantages to having a non-text media archive, AO3, and then other platforms for the social side.

[kath_ballantyne]

yeah, Australia seems to be blocking all the torrent and p2p sites at an ISP level. It's ridiculously easy to get around. We run a VPN anyway but it is an issue these days. (our internet over here is slow on world standards anyway and ours have been even worse. Until last year we couldn't stream at all so the only way to watch online content was to download torrents or youtube vids and watch them offline because we just didn't have the speed to watch in real time. Torrents download tiny bits at once so it worked. We don't bother now we got cable but the VPN has been useful for accessing overseas content because a lot of it is region blocked)

[selenay]

And a lot of fans may know how to get around those blocks, but that doesn't mean they'll do it if they're risking getting blacklisted by their ISP. Any solution that has the potential to exclude large chunks of fandom due to legality in their country isn't a good one.

[kath_ballantyne]

Yeah. It's not worth it in a lot of cases.

We just use a VPN so they can't see what we do online. We were living out west with no TV signal and satellite internet that was the same speed as dial up and 12 gig downloads/uploads a month. It was ridiculous. I couldn't thread my tweets on twitter because I couldn't load the previous one to reply to it. I had to wait until we were in town to load any pictures on my phone data.

We'd come to Sydney once every few months and download a whole load of tv shows to go back and watch. Lots of Great British Bakeoff. Etc
Even in Sydney it wasn't fast enough to stream but it could manage torrents.

[lilacsigil]

That bizarre FBI clipart is on most DVDs of US content in Australia, for some reason. They don't even have jurisdiction here!

[selenay]

*laughing forever* The stuff they put on DVDs for anti-copyright is...interesting.

UK DVDs have anti-piracy stuff that lasts forever. Canadian DVDs, even of US content, don't get that FBI clipart. Who even knows.

[kath_ballantyne]

You wouldn't download a car!!
Except I'm pretty sure a bunch of people would if they could.

[selenay]

Word. So much.

[kimboo_york]

That pretty much mirrors all my thoughts, honestly. I like what pillowfort is trying to do but they are SO not ready for prime time (of course, back in the day, it took dreamwidth forever to catch up too, so...). I'm VERY interested in what pinboard guy might do, but like you, I'm super interested in the idea of us OWNING THE SERVERS for community. *fingers crossed*

[selenay]

It this had all happened in a year or two, Pillowfort probably would be structurally up to the task. They have good intentions with what they're doing, but nobody is ever prepared for fandom to descend, especially a small platform just finding its feet. I do remember the early days of DW and AO3 *pained grin*

I'm super interested in the idea of us OWNING THE SERVERS for community. *fingers crossed*

*crosses all digits* It would be the best, but whether we could pull it off? I don't know.

[kore]

I'm still really gobsmacked at how FAST it happened, details about how "Tumblr was planning this for months" notwithstanding. ALL adult content is going to be gone in like less than 2 weeks? With those shitty algorithms and trigger-happy bots?? As greywash pointed out in detail, what people refer to as "Strikethru" was actually two or three events that took place over a summer, and a lot of people still stayed on LJ after that! LJ is STILL going. But wow, Tumblr Corp just seems intent on driving people off and going "Fuck you" and walking nothing back.

[selenay]

I know! It's incredible. The closest I can come to is FF.net's adult purges (hey, look, we just deleted it all with no warning!) and even doesn't feel quite so enormous as this. I wonder if this is a precursor to just shutting Tumblr down completely?

[kore]

...........yeah, not to sound paranoid, but remember the BILLIONS of dollars Yahoo wrote Tumblr down in value? Several times? I wouldn't be surprised if Verizon/OATH/whoever wants to dump it in the Apple store as an Instagram clone or something. Because Apple is dictating the terms and Verizon also has no desire to go the mat for fannish works or adult content. They might just be basically writing it off.

It's really sad to see the NSFW communities shattered too. Yeah, they're getting "Welcome to Pornhub! XD" but Pornhub is....yeah.

[selenay]

Apparently the NSFW ban has been in the works for a while. Apple removing the app just spurred them to introduce it earlier. I wouldn't be surprised if you're right about the Instagram clone. They have to either cut their losses with it or find a way to monetise it. And cutting their losses might be the easier option.

Pornhub definitely isn't the right place for the NSFW comms to go :-(

[kore]

They have to either cut their losses with it or find a way to monetise it. And cutting their losses might be the easier option.

Yeah, Tumblr Boss suddenly providing these new community guidelines near the end of Q3 and Q4 smells to me either of "Look at how much better these sites are doing!" in the new year, orrrr, "Look how we scraped these sites clean and now we can offload them."

It's really disappointing to see how clearly this followed the trajectory of: Lone Dude comes up with idea -- > users start providing lots of content and driving up its profitability --> Lone Dude can no longer handle it, co-sells out to Big Corp, "We won't mess it up!" -- > Lone Dude takes the golden parachute out after a couple of years -- > platform is now devalued, sold off, devalued, sold off, left to die or shuttered. It's like fandom is eternally Charlie Brown with the football.

And, tangent, but it's AMAZING how many social platforms Yahoo and Google between them have killed when you look it up. Like, people always go "Don't panic, why are you getting hysterical, stop freaking out" at the Big Corp step, but damn, it starts looking like that would be a better time to start preparing the lifeboats and figuring out Python scripts, not when the wrecking ball comes through the window.

[selenay]

Like, people always go "Don't panic, why are you getting hysterical, stop freaking out" at the Big Corp step, but damn, it starts looking like that would be a better time to start preparing the lifeboats and figuring out Python scripts, not when the wrecking ball comes through the window.

Seriously, I get frustrated by the guys who ask why we're panicking whenever a platform gets bought out, because it's been a thing since the early days. They've killed so many platforms. SO MANY.

At least we know with Dreamwidth and AO3 that isn't going to happen, but I'm wary about every other platform that gets suggested because eventually it probably will follow the same cycle we've seen so many times.

[kore]

I think Pillowfort's basic idea, as I get it, of "like Tumblr, but with threaded comments, user comms and privacy controls," is interesting, but from what I have seen, they just absolutely don't have the experience or knowhow to do it -- like, just to get it up and running with basic features. Which I totally don't mean as sneering, I just have real trepidations about a lot of people suddenly putting their eggs in the Pillowfort basket. Imzy burned a lot of people in terms of wasted time and energy.

[selenay]

Oh, Imzy. So much hope. So much burning of dreams.

That's what makes me so wary about investing too much time/effort into Pillowfort, even though it's ideas are great.

[kore]

And the thing of it is, as far as I know, the people behind Imzy were MORE experienced (from reddit) and had a lot clearer idea of what they were doing than the Pillowfort team. And it still went down. And realistically, a lot of services start up and then go down! (Even if they aren't killed off by the serial virtual murderers Google and Yahoo.) It's hard to keep something running like that. Maybe the new mantra should be "Fragmentation Decentralization, a feature not a bug...."

[selenay]

Maybe the new mantra should be "Fragmentation Decentralization, a feature not a bug...."

The more I think about it, the more I think this is a good idea. If we aren't centralised, then one platform going down doesn't have as much of an impact.

[kore]

Yeah. Maybe if there were a couple of centralized fandom directories -- like info pages, "You can find me at x, y, and z" -- that could help keep fans from losing touch when platforms blow up. But then you run into the problem of people often have fannish and nonfannish accounts on the same services, and here are even some outfits (HI GOOGLE) that will merrily link them without your permission. Or if you don't want a troll or stalker following you from one place to another (hi antis). Maybe a locked fannish directory, altho you'd have to worry about hacking or Big Data snooping....idk.

[selenay]

The idea of centralized fandom directories is good, but the implications, as you noted, is less good. I keep the same pseud everywhere I am, to make it easier for people to find me, but I use a totally separate one for professional stuff. What do you do when particularly hard-core fans link those pseuds together when you don't want to?

What about people who change pseuds deliberately if people then start linking their old and new ones together? I know a fair few people who have done that due to trolls and stalkers following them and a fannish directory would have potential for making that really difficult.

Argh, I'm not sure there is an ideal solution here that takes all the nuances of fan life into account.

[scrubjayspeaks]

See, I never moved to fandom Twitter, because Twitter is a gd firehose. Even when I tried lists and whatnot, I just couldn't keep up. I check in on it now when I want to read about either political garbage or the latest drama from the publishing world.

I'm hoping the slowness of DW will actually suit me well, since I liked the (marginally) more manageable pace of my Tumblr dash. Tumblr still felt like a void a lot of the time too, but it was a void occasionally occupied by, like, a friendly campfire of other wanderers?

And of course, sometimes a brick got winged at your head from out the void for no good reason, so that was--hm.

I think the issue with a platform of our own is that there hasn't been one clear way to do social media so far. The fundamental concept of AO3 is pretty straightforward--I think we can all generally agree on the core shape and functionality needed for a fic archive.

But humans haven't really settled on the optimal social media mechanism, if they ever will. So a platform of our own would need either to pick a style, thereby leaving a lot of folks out in the cold if it wasn't their preferred one, or try to provide EVERY function, from rapid Twitter conversation to Tumblr reblogging to Instagram scrolling to whatever tf Facebook is supposed to be good for.

None of which is to say I don't want one or don't think it could be done. Just, idk, I'm not surprised we still haven't figured one out, I guess.

[selenay]

The advantage to having multiple fandom outlets is that we can all find places where the pace suits us. I like the more in-depth interactions possible on DW and being able to read all the more thinky thoughts when I'm in the mood for it, but I can keep up with my very-shortened-highlights-list fairly easily through the day on Twitter and sometimes that's all I have brain for.

But humans haven't really settled on the optimal social media mechanism, if they ever will. So a platform of our own would need either to pick a style, thereby leaving a lot of folks out in the cold if it wasn't their preferred one, or try to provide EVERY function, from rapid Twitter conversation to Tumblr reblogging to Instagram scrolling to whatever tf Facebook is supposed to be good for.

I agree on that so much, and I suspect it might be what keeps us from finding an all-in-one solution. As I noted in a comment above, AO3 plus A New Non-Text Media Archive for fan creation plus other social networks for fandom connection/chat may be the most implementable solution to all this. No platform will suit everyone and trying to combine too many options has the potential to be a mess.

But if someone does come up with it, I won't be surprised if it comes from a fandom initiative!

[kore]

You can filter your feed on DW too, so it's more like "lists" on Twitter -- back in the day when it was hopping, I had filters like "read daily," "fannish," "everything," "friends," and so on. Even now when DW is quieter, I have all the fannish comms I'm in on one filter so I don't get overwhelmed and can dip in to check it as I like.

[selenay]

I used to do this when DW was busier :-) I have feeds for "no comms" and "rl friends" and so on, to make reading my flist more manageable when I'm short on time. It would be nice to have DW so busy that I need to start using those again!

[schneefink]

Someone on ff_a was talking about building a "Network of Our Own" and they seem to at least not be stupid about it - they had a tiny demo version up for a while that several people liked, and said they were talking with Denise and OTW people about financing etc. No idea if anything's going to come from it but still I was glad to see it.

[selenay]

Interesting! That's something to keep an eye on :-) I'm glad to see people thinking about practical options of making some kind of "we own the server" situation happen *crosses fingers*

[weepingnaiad]

I much prefer the format of LJ/DW to Tumblr because of things like this: a real conversation that I can read and follow and even reply to without all of the other comments getting lost.

Tumblr was great for artists, though. My son has even stooped to getting a Twitter so that he can follow his favorite artists.

I'd love to see some coherent organization of diversified sites. Ao3 is great for archiving fics and does seem to get the support it needs monetarily from us fans. DW is great for community and interacting (though some folks don't like it). But we'd need something similar to Ao3 for graphics, and that's going to take a lot more money as images are so much more bandwidth intensive. I mean look at how many image sites are there and gone?

Still, I have hope that fandom can come up with something or at least figure out how to use DW as a gathering place to share links/access to Discords, fics, images.

[selenay]

a real conversation that I can read and follow and even reply to without all of the other comments getting lost.

I think that's why my Tumblr use didn't stay keen. I liked looking and pretty things, but interacting like this was impossible. It's one of the downsides to Twitter, too. If you aren't online when the discussion starts, you miss it. And it's hard to keep track of it. DW/LJ are a better format for this, for sure.

But we'd need something similar to Ao3 for graphics, and that's going to take a lot more money as images are so much more bandwidth intensive. I mean look at how many image sites are there and gone?

This is my fear. It's hard enough getting fandom to put the financial support into AO3 and a media archive is going to be even more expensive, but it's worth looking into the options.

Finding a way to coherently organise diversified sites could be more robust than putting all of our eggs into one platform basket. It would be complex, but fandom can always find a way.

Still, I have hope that fandom can come up with something or at least figure out how to use DW as a gathering place to share links/access to Discords, fics, images.

Indeed. And I still have no idea what Discord is and how fandom is using it. I feel like a clueless old sometimes!

[kore]

Discord makes me feel MORE socially inept and old and like a clipped turtle by the side of the information highway than Tumblr or Twitter. I didn't think that was possible.

[selenay]

Oh, phew, it's not just me!

[kore]

Yeah, I think it's not only the money, but all the legal implications (there are STILL people going "But you can have drawn porn on Tumblr!" even right now), and how that gets reported in the media, and so on. A trend I'm seeing in the mainstream media articles on Tumblr is "LOL, Tumblr is getting rid of the only thing people use it for!" which isn't even true (apparently the stats are something like 3% of the site produces, 20% consumes, whatever). But there are museums on Tumblr! Collections departments at universities! All kinds of artists, including pro ones who take commissions! ....where is all that going to go?

[selenay]

The media is telling the story in a way that entertains the gawkers. They don't want to talk about all the other ways people use Tumblr because it's not entertaining. It's serious and horrible.

[kath_ballantyne]

I couldn't keep up with Tumblr. It was pretty and full of gorgeous art but it felt like screaming in the void. I'd post and no one would reply.
I used to post art on LJ/DW and get a few replies and that felt so much more meaningful than a couple of likes and reblogs.
Biggest problem is finding hosting for art now though. I ended up getting some room on someone's server once LJ servers moved to Russia so I'll be fine for now but it was the one thing I did like Tumblr for.

I moved to twitter because I could use it on my phone and my health has meant using my computer has been difficult. Herniated disc in my neck and finger dislocations has meant that sitting at the computer is too much and DW doesn't have an app. Apparently there are themes that are more mobile friendly so I may try that for now.
I'd like to get back to blogging. I spend all day trying to keep up with my twitter feed but I miss having a record of my life on my blog if nothing else. It was fantastic when I was applying for disability, I downloaded a copy of my LJ for the past 10 years and could search it for when I saw specialists and started meds.

I miss reading about people's lives and commenting properly on their art and stuff. I can comment on fic properly on AO3 but commenting on Tumblr was something I could never figure out.

Right now I'd be happy to pay for art space on DW or Ao3 but there have been plenty of times in my life when I haven't been able to and I'm sure there are a lot of artists who can't afford it.

[selenay]

It was fantastic when I was applying for disability

When I was trying to figure out the timeline for when to put things in motion for the move, having all the entries from the move ten years ago was pretty key. It reminded my why it was so useful to have a place to journal and record my life.

I miss reading about people's lives and commenting properly on their art and stuff. I can comment on fic properly on AO3 but commenting on Tumblr was something I could never figure out.

Same. It's hard to keep up with that stuff through Twitter and Tumblr, as you say, was awful for commenting. I'm happy to see people dusting off their DW journals because this is a format that works for the longer reads like that.

Although Twitter (and judicious use of lists) has been my main interaction for a few years because it's so much easier to read on my phone no matter where I am or how I'm feeling.

I'm sure there are a lot of artists who can't afford it.

That's what made Tumblr so valuable for so many people. Art hosting isn't cheap and a lot of fans can't afford it. I'm hoping fandom's collective brain power can find a good solution to this.

[kath_ballantyne]

My biggest problem with hosting has been finding somewhere that wont kick me out for putting up nsfw images. Right now I have room on a friend's server but we're living with family and are secure enough that we're able to pay a bit for things like that but we've certainly been in places where $10 a month wasn't possible. It only is now because rent on our own wasn't possible and we're able to live with Ruth's mum. We're both on disability pension.
I used to have a pro account at LJ and host my stuff there until they moved their servers to Russia. The problem I had with Tumblr is if I used that to hotlink to AO3 I'd have to change the link every few months or it would break. They didn't have stable links. They used to change.

At one point the only income I had for a while was commissions for art and knitted stuff but that was only possible because I was part of a small community on LJ. Once everyone moved to Tumblr, no one knew me and everything dried up and I coldn't even get reblogs. I guess there was so much amazing art over there, the pool was just too big. My knitting and embroidered and felted stuff is pretty good but my art has always been pretty mediocre and there is just so much amazing stuff out there in a fandom as big as MCU.
Thankfully disability pension is covering us these days so I don't have to rely on stuff which is good because my hands and neck have got a lot worse so I couldn't keep up with it these days