Etiquette?

[galadhir]

Is it okay to just slide into a complete stranger's DW over here and comment on their latest post as if you've known them for years? Or would a "hello, I hope you don't mind that I subscribed to you, I saw that we shared an interest in [whatever]" need to come first?

Comments

[duskpeterson]

I've done it both ways, but I agree with ranunculus - it's polite to introduce oneself. It saves them from having to figure out whether you and they have spoken before.

[galadhir]

That makes a lot of sense, and so far everyone over here has been lovely. I got used to Tumblr where often people react with hostility if you comment on their personal posts, and it's going to take a while until I don't expect to be attacked every time I open my mouth :)

[duskpeterson]

The only widespread etiquette policy on commenting that I know of at DW is that people will sometimes post their personal policies on comments and follows, either on their profile or in a sticky post at the top of their journal. Also, some people prefer that you ask before linking to a post - but the last time I asked someone for permission to link to their post, they chewed me out for wasting their time with a question to which the answer was obviously yes. :) So there's no guarantee that someone won't snap at you for something.

[galadhir]

Ha! That seems to be the way of it on social media these days. (Gosh, now I'm really sounding like an old person.) But yes, maybe it's time for me to take my courage in both hands and attempt a second phase of getting to know new people. Thanks!

[duskpeterson]

Oh, do. There are so many lovely people here. I usually find people through comments they've made to posts by people I'm already following. Also, the communities are a good place to meet people, though they're not as active as I'd like.

[galadhir]

No, I can't believe that even Metafandom is gone (or is at least inactive.) That's a whole era in itself!

[duskpeterson]

metanews too!

[galadhir]

That's sad. I'm very grateful to them both for the education they gave me in LGBTQ issues and race issues - mainly just from people talking about their own experiences and what bothered them in fandom.

[duskpeterson]

I so miss the conversations I used to have in fandom. Are there many going on at Pillowfort?

[galadhir]

I never managed to get onto Pillowfort, so I don't know what happens there :) Tumblr continues to be quite interesting, and in fact is a bit improved on how it used to be. But of course it's not a great format for conversation.

[duskpeterson]

Whoops, sorry; I misremembered an earlier conversation.

I'm finding there's good meme fic at Tumblr; I just wish it was easier to locate it. I've found some accounts that track Space Australia stories, but there must be lots of other stories floating around there.

As far as conversations go . . . Yeah, it's sort of a weird format for that.

[galadhir]

Oh yes, it's definitely there - there is such a lot of good stuff on Tumblr, but it's also much easier to navigate if you have a currently active fandom. Then you can follow the people who are also involved in that fandom and the fic will come across your dash. But sadly despite an attack of interest in The Terror, I haven't managed to feel fannish about anything lately, which means I can't focus it down enough to be useful.

[duskpeterson]

My fandom is originalfic. :) Which has often made it difficult to track fic. Back in the 00s, there were some communities devoted to originalfic, at LJ and elsewhere. But they all seem to have died. The Slash Pile at Tumblr is still stumbling along, but last I checked, it was mainly webcomic recs.

I tried Wattpad, but the quality of noise to good fic was just too high. So I keep my eye on the Original Work tag at AO3, but I really miss the conversations that we originalfic writers and readers used to have.

[galadhir]

Oh nice! Well, I left LJ after turning some of my fanfic into original fic and getting published with it :) After which I spent 10 years writing original m/m romance. And I'm still writing original fic now, although it's SF/F and some of it I'm writing as a ghostwriter for someone else. So I would love to chat about the perils of original fic writing, as that's where I am now :)

(And yes, I tried Wattpad too, but as you say. They encourage a style of writing I don't enjoy.)

[duskpeterson]

(Happily does a quick web search.) Yup, I thought so - we were hanging out at LJ during the same time period. And since you say in the 2006 thread I found that you were writing m/m romance then, we were also hanging out in the m/m romance community during that same time period. Betcha our paths crossed. :)

This is just icing on the cake; I'd already started to sense we'd get along well. Would you care to move this conversation to email?

http://duskpeterson.com/#contact

[galadhir]

Ooh, thanks for the link! Your retrospective of the m/m romance scene looks fascinating! I wrote something similar myself in my Things Unseen: A Book of Queer Christian Witness because the whole writing slash fic and then writing m/m romance was a big part of both my realization that I was not straight and my wrestling with my religion. I'm definitely going to check out Pixel-Stained and see how you experienced the whole thing :)

I suppose it does make sense to take the chat off the public record! Part of the reason why I reverted to a fannish DW under a pseud was because blogging under my pen name felt so much like a public performance I ended up censoring myself into silence. I'll go and send you a short hello rn.

[duskpeterson]

Got your email and will reply to it! I thought I should say here, though, about Pixel-Stained: I should warn you that that volume is only about my first six months in the slash community.

[galadhir]

No problem! It's odd to be looking back on those days in retrospectives, but it's surprising how different the world is now than it was when I started writing slash. And how different I am! I thought I was straight at that point :)