I really agree with this. I do think SQ and the robust friendship groups it generated on LJ and offline was a pretty special case - not to say that people didn't make friends on other sites/in other fandoms - but SQ was a really amazing one for that. I think it's because a) there was a real insistence on being polite and positive in discussion (although that kind of fell away a bit at the end and people's individual agendas took over - a pretty common problem for "mature" online communities).
b) a lot of people on SQ who were writers saw themselves as being "serious" about their fan fiction and the SQ approach to discussion meant that they got a HUGE amount of really vital and interesting feedback from other writers and readers.
Added to that is your excellent point about the kinds of things people were interested in discussing - not only the writing threads but so much of the canon discussion on SQ about the books fed into people's fan fiction, and people just kept having amazing ideas for stories and writing them down. Again, there's a lot of amazing fan fiction still being written but the archives tend to be more multi-fandom perhaps? So to me there doesn't seem to be that same coherence that keeps people together, working on stuff and feeding off each other.
I recently wrote a fic for a show there's very little fic for - it's a teen show, and I think the fans are just a lot more active on tumblr (and maybe twitter). There isn't a single LJ community, for one thing. Loads of people have read it, according to the stats, but I've had hardly any reviews - which is fine, I wrote it for myself and am not as hungry for feedback as I was a few years ago. But it shows that the culture for discussion and giving feedback just isn't there in the same way.
Can I use this post for this 500 page book about social media I have coming out soon?
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timeasmymeasure
no subject
Date: 2012-09-24 01:05 pm (UTC)b) a lot of people on SQ who were writers saw themselves as being "serious" about their fan fiction and the SQ approach to discussion meant that they got a HUGE amount of really vital and interesting feedback from other writers and readers.
Added to that is your excellent point about the kinds of things people were interested in discussing - not only the writing threads but so much of the canon discussion on SQ about the books fed into people's fan fiction, and people just kept having amazing ideas for stories and writing them down. Again, there's a lot of amazing fan fiction still being written but the archives tend to be more multi-fandom perhaps? So to me there doesn't seem to be that same coherence that keeps people together, working on stuff and feeding off each other.
I recently wrote a fic for a show there's very little fic for - it's a teen show, and I think the fans are just a lot more active on tumblr (and maybe twitter). There isn't a single LJ community, for one thing. Loads of people have read it, according to the stats, but I've had hardly any reviews - which is fine, I wrote it for myself and am not as hungry for feedback as I was a few years ago. But it shows that the culture for discussion and giving feedback just isn't there in the same way.
Can I use this post for this 500 page book about social media I have coming out soon?