Hm. I wonder what happens when a community moves off a platform because accounts are getting banned for reasons that conflict with the values of that community?
Or: I'm not saying Trump supporters have a lot in common with fanfiction writers, but remember LiveJournal? [Thread]
Or: I'm not saying Trump supporters have a lot in common with fanfiction writers, but remember LiveJournal? [Thread]
In 2007, LiveJournal suspended a bunch of accounts in an attempt to remove certain kinds of objectionable content, and this ended up sweeping up a lot of fanfiction and fan art accounts/communities. People were Not Happy. fanlore.org/wiki/Strikethr…
This policy change by LiveJournal was directly (if of course only partially) responsible for the conceptualization and creation of Archive of Our Own. And the rallying cry was: own the servers!!! cmci.colorado.edu/~cafi5706/CHI2…
This is a quote from the blog post that lit the spark for AO3; easy to imagine this same conversation happening now.
"I know we have project managers in our community-and coders and designers-can't we do this? Seriously we can come up with a site that would be miles better..."
"I know we have project managers in our community-and coders and designers-can't we do this? Seriously we can come up with a site that would be miles better..."
In this recent paper from @BriannaDym and I we investigated people migrating from one platform to another. And policy/values were definitely one of the instigating factors for an exodus--BUT there also had to be somewhere to go. cmci.colorado.edu/~cafi5706/CSCW…
Basically the only reason the mass exodus of fandom from LiveJournal was successful was that over a few years AO3 was up and running, and Tumblr had also just started picking up steam. Meanwhile, we also heard from a lot of people who hate Tumblr now but don't see an alternative.
And also it was clear that one of the big reasons that AO3 has been successful, and continues to grow, is that it was designed in terms of both features and policies BY that community and intentionally for the values that were/are important to them.
So it's possible that Parler is the AO3 of this community BUT I think that it's impossible to fully design for the values of a community when your intention is also to make money.
And, you know, also if those values are at odds with other platforms you rely on, like app stores.
And, you know, also if those values are at odds with other platforms you rely on, like app stores.
It's also unclear to me if the "community" that represents the recently de-platformed actually share the same values to the extent that attempts to self-regulate will not devolve into chaos, especially as more people join a new platform.
Anyway, @BriannaDym and I also end this paper about fandom with ways to encourage commitment and also to design to make migration less disruptive.
So if you don't want certain recent nomads on your platform maybe read this and do the opposite. cmci.colorado.edu/~cafi5706/CSCW…
So if you don't want certain recent nomads on your platform maybe read this and do the opposite. cmci.colorado.edu/~cafi5706/CSCW…
And also, if you're concerned about the rise of something that could possibly be the AO3 of the alt-right: don't be. AO3 was built on the backs of massive amounts of generosity and there is NO WAY these folks are as awesome and together as the fandom community.
Anyway if you want to hear more about transformative fandom and what happens when a bunch of really creative and generous people (kind of) get de-platformed:
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