Came here from a link off eilowyn's post and I figured what the heck, I will comment because the reason I left LJ is so radically different from everyone's here.
I left because I'm a WOC and it was really hard to find other fen of color on LJ. We had one community that wasn't very active and it covered all sci-fi media, not just one. I would go through my f-list and it was very white. A lot of the critical thought or discussion would completely ignore race. People would very much stay within their little fandom circles, all parroting the same opinions, and I got tired of it. It felt like a circle-jerk, excuse my language.
At least on Tumblr it feels more democratized. My dash is filled with so much amazing commentary on race and socioeconomic status and gender and so much more. I see posts I would have never seen because someone reblogged it. Even if I follow someone, get to see stuff they reblogged from the people they follow and so on. I'm exposed to so many more opinions and viewpoints than I ever was on LJ.
I should add too that Tumblr has plenty of extensions that make being in fandom a lot easier. I don't have to worry about someone posting something triggering in a community I follow like I do on LJ because my Tumblr Savior can block anything with my trigger words on it. There is one community I had to stop following on LJ because one user always posted stories with graphic depictions of sexual assault. So part of me also left LJ for my own mental health.
I sort of think of it like this (and it might upset people). LJ is sort of like high school. There are cliques and popular people and people tend to stay with other people who validate their opinions or have similar views. Tumblr is like college where you are thrown into situations with people who have all kind of viewpoints and nobody cares if you are popular, nobody knows how many friends you have, and you learn so much more about the world.
But again, this is just my personal experience and how I feel about it. I don't want to hurt anyone's feelings because I did have good times on LJ, I loved my time here, but I never felt like I truly belonged.
no subject
I left because I'm a WOC and it was really hard to find other fen of color on LJ. We had one community that wasn't very active and it covered all sci-fi media, not just one. I would go through my f-list and it was very white. A lot of the critical thought or discussion would completely ignore race. People would very much stay within their little fandom circles, all parroting the same opinions, and I got tired of it. It felt like a circle-jerk, excuse my language.
At least on Tumblr it feels more democratized. My dash is filled with so much amazing commentary on race and socioeconomic status and gender and so much more. I see posts I would have never seen because someone reblogged it. Even if I follow someone, get to see stuff they reblogged from the people they follow and so on. I'm exposed to so many more opinions and viewpoints than I ever was on LJ.
I should add too that Tumblr has plenty of extensions that make being in fandom a lot easier. I don't have to worry about someone posting something triggering in a community I follow like I do on LJ because my Tumblr Savior can block anything with my trigger words on it. There is one community I had to stop following on LJ because one user always posted stories with graphic depictions of sexual assault. So part of me also left LJ for my own mental health.
I sort of think of it like this (and it might upset people). LJ is sort of like high school. There are cliques and popular people and people tend to stay with other people who validate their opinions or have similar views. Tumblr is like college where you are thrown into situations with people who have all kind of viewpoints and nobody cares if you are popular, nobody knows how many friends you have, and you learn so much more about the world.
But again, this is just my personal experience and how I feel about it. I don't want to hurt anyone's feelings because I did have good times on LJ, I loved my time here, but I never felt like I truly belonged.