Sarcasm is an adjusted stress reaction.

In case you missed it, there are Tumblr shenanigans ahoy.

An extremely rough timeline, assembled from my own fuzzy memory without recourse to sources:

• Tumblr's app got dropped from the app store because the site carries actual child porn. This has been an issue for the site for a while, but only became an actual problem they were motivated to solve when it affected new sign ups and therefor revenue. Because Tumblr is THE WORST.
• Various accounts have been deleted and tags wiped since, largely based on reports? Because Tumblr is THE WORST, a lot of these were just regular fan sites and innocuous tags that attracted reports, because a noisy minority of fans can't tell the difference between "a pairing I don't like" and "child abuse material". Allegedly the "chronic pain" tag was wiped, too, but I can still see it -- I think caching might be an issue there.
• I woke up yesterday to discover that Tumblr has announced that, come 17 December, all adult material (including "female presenting nipples") will be banned from the site. At this point they say written material is safe, but the actual terms are fuzzy.
• The entire internet loses its mind over "female presenting nipples", because that's hilarious. 
• But also Tumblr's new Offensive Content Detecting AI is out automatically flagging posts as sensitive, with a notable bias against even the most chaste of queer content, eg, my friends' engagement picture, a screencap of Dax and Kira and a declaration that DS9 is lesbian culture, Alexander Siddig's face, etc. 

So even if you don't post or consume adult content on Tumblr, as a platform for fandom, art or social interaction, come 17 December, it's going to be a lot quieter and less fun to use. 

I'm honestly kind of bummed. I whinge a lot about Tumblr, and I think that it's a terrible platform for interaction, but it's great for sharing. Especially fan art -- I'm not a great artist, or even a very good one, but I felt comfortable throwing my silly sketches out into the ether.

And it was a wonderful place for just going, "Hey, I like this." You didn't have to create fanworks, or even write up a post to express your fondness for something, you could just reblog a gifset. It was easy to be a casual fan. Dreamwidth doesn't have that capability, which is why I think it's perceived as a more challenging platform. 

Eh. Platforms come and platforms go, and Tumblr won't disappear overnight. But it's a shame. 

(Pillowfort is being touted as the alternative, but ... well, it's back from its security audit hiatus, but the servers are robust in the most Journalfen sense of the word.)

This one's a whopper, so I'm splitting it up over a few days. 

1. What was the first fandom you got involved in?

Star Trek: Voyager. I discovered fic when I stumbled upon the J/C Index (not an archive, just an index!) when I was fifteen. I'd read about slashfic in books about fandom (NERD), but I was amazed and excited to learn that it existed for het pairings, too.

2. What is your latest fandom?

Star Trek: Discovery. I've come to terms with it, I guess.

3. What is the best fandom you’ve ever been involved in?

It's cheating to say Disco, because the show has barely been around long enough to generate any drama or unpleasantness that's touched me. But spacefungusparty is a delight. 

Otherwise, probably Avatar: The Last Airbender -- because I got into it long after the canon had closed, and all the disputes  and shipping wars had largely died down. What a nice, chill fandom, I thought!

Then Legend of Korra premiered...

4. Do you regret getting involved in any fandoms?

No, but I regret my behaviour in some. 

5. Which fandoms have you written fanfiction for?

*clears throat*

• Star Trek: Voyager
• Buffy: the Vampire Slayer
• Angel
• The West Wing
• Firefly
• Mary Russell
• Doctor Who
• ...the guys in the FanLib ad
• Avatar: the Last Airbender
• Legend of Korra
• Star Trek: Discovery

I may have missed a couple. 

I flirted with multifandom in the early '00s, but eventually figured out that I was happiest, and did my best writing, when I was concentrating on one fandom.

Which doesn't mean I'm only reading, watching and thinking about that fandom! The one great thing about Tumblr is that it makes it quite easy to reblog stuff for Thing You Like Consuming But Don't Create For. (People who create sideblogs for every interest they have confuse me.)

6. List your OTP from each fandom you’ve been involved in.

NO THERE ARE TOO MANY

7. List your NoTPs from each fandom you’ve been in.

While there are many, many, many pairings I really don't care about or enjoy, I only have three NoTPs across all of my fandoms: 

• Zuko/Katara
• Doctor/Rose
• Doctor/Clara

BY COINCIDENCE, they all involve an aristocratic man "raising" a "common" woman to her "rightful" place, and usually come with a whole mountain of issues, very few of which are explored in a way I find interesting or palatable. 

8. How did you get involved in your latest fandom?

"I guess I'll watch the new Star Trek," I said. "I'm sure it won't be any good, but I like the cast, and I'm really keen to see a Trek centred around a woman of colour as the lead."

Two hours and a flurry of text messages between yiquiqie and I later, I said, "Gosh, that was quite good. I can't see myself becoming A Fan, but I sure do have a lot of opinions."

Five weeks later, at approximately 11:14 pm, I lay in bed, staring at the ceiling, going, "I thought I'd enjoy 'Lethe' for Sarek, and I did, but I also can't stop thinking about Admiral Cornwell?"

Two days after that: "...there's a very clear scenario in my head and maybe I need to write it down?"

9. What are the best things about your current fandom?

• most people seem really nice
• there's some pretty great fic out there
• and some stupidly talented artists
• and vidders
• being able to put my hand up on Tumblr and go, "I know this just means it's a day ending in Y, but I'm having a lot of feelings about Admiral Cornwell right now", and I won't be the only one
• PS I KNOW THIS JUST MEANS IT'S A DAY ENDING IN Y BUT I'M HAVING A LOT OF FEELINGS ABOUT ADMIRAL CORNWELL RIGHT NOW
• I've never gotten into a fandom this early before, and it's interesting to be able to watch firsthand as ideas evolve into fanon, which will soon turn into the cliches we want to deconstruct, and from the deconstructions, new fanon will evolve

10. Is there a fandom you read fic from but don’t write in?

I like reading Star Wars fic, but I don't write it. (See above re being monofannish as a writer.) I'm quite fond of Reylo, and of AUs where everything goes terribly wrong, but in a different way to how it goes terribly wrong in canon. 

• Monday morning: the new Doctor Who companions are announced; I am moderately excited. 
• Monday night: Discovery Night, aka the only thing that makes Mondays worthwhile, aka I Accidentally Fell In Love With Admiral Kat Cornwell And Now The Show Mocks Me, aka How Does Jason Isaacs Manage To Be So Interesting When He Really Shouldn't Be?
• Tuesday morning: Harry Potter and the Cursed Child is announced for Melbourne in 2019.

I've had four really big fandoms in my life. Three are currently active, and I'm really not sure I have enough room in my body to contain this much enthusiasm. If anything major happens in Avatar fandom this week, I might actually explode. 

(I quickly double-checked, just in case, but no Turf Wars previews have appeared while I was distracted.)

1. Your main fandom of the year?

Still AtLA/Legend of Korra, ie, exactly what it's been for the last few years! But, with new material in that universe limited to a handful of comics, I've enjoyed returning to fandoms past for brief periods through the year. 

2. Your favourite film watched this year?

That's a toss-up between Ghostbusters and Star Trek Beyond, with Rogue One a close third.

3. Your favourite book read this year?

THAT IS A HARD CHOICE. But according to GoodReads, I've read 84 books so far this year -- started a lot more, but as I blogged recently, it's been a difficult year for settling into and finishing books -- and I gave 24 of those books five stars. I'll probably do a full book post at some point, either here or at No Award.

4. Your favourite TV show of the year?

Star Trek: The Next Generation. It's such a great show -- especially when you skip all the episodes you don't care about. Close second: Star Trek: Deep Space 9, which I watched through to the end for the very first time. 

5. Your favourite online fandom community of the year?

I found a bunch of cool new people in LoK fandom, plus the friends I had there already. 

6. Your best new fandom discovery of the year?

Turns out that when people said DS9 was really, really good, they weren't lying!

I mean, I wouldn't call it better than TNG, because the two shows are completely different in terms of goals and contexts, and they complement each other so well that it's almost missing the point to set one against the other. And I was very disappointed in DS9's treatment of the female characters in its last couple of seasons -- obviously I was spoiled by Voyager, which was female-driven in a way that none of the other Treks have been. But it's very good! I'm glad I finally watched it all the way through.

7. Your biggest fandom disappointment of the year?

I got a few episodes into season 2 of Supergirl and realised it was no longer working for me. I was mad about the sidelining of James in favour of introducing new white guys, I missed Cat Grant even though I was horribly ambivalent about her, I find Katie McGrath a distractingly bad actor even when she's not trying to do an American accent, and the overall girl-power-optimism-cute-clunky-dialogue clashed so badly with my perception of the world that I just couldn't keep going. 

All of which is as much about me as about the show itself, and after the fourth week of finding myself live-tweeting "why am I not having fun?" I realised that I was probably stopping everyone else from having fun, so I ... stopped. I got to the first scene with Maggie Sawyer, and it was ALIVE and VIBRANT and AMAZING, and then the next scene was so flat by comparison, I really couldn't ignore my feelings. 

Anyway, I'll probably pick up season 2 at a later stage, but I'm more inclined to wait for it to hit Netflix than go through all the trouble of acquiring it through other means.

8. Your TV boyfriend of the year?

Draco Malfoy. Yes, I'm as surprised and appalled as you. He was just so great in Cursed Child! (Honourable mention to Scorpius Malfoy, the most precious cinnamon roll of all.)

9. Your TV girlfriend of the year?

I remain faithful to Lin Beifong, as always.

10. Your biggest squee moment of the year?

I was pretty happy that the Smoke and Shadow arc in the AtLA graphic novels ends with Mai single and on speaking terms with Zuko again! 

Other sources of squee: 

• The grimdarkest timeline in Cursed Child
• Actually, I spent a lot of Cursed Child wriggling in glee and sending happy texts to my increasingly exasperated BFF

11. The most missed of your old fandoms?

The Avatarverse fandom for sure. So much of the fic is (highly westernised) Korrasami college AUs, and that's not my thing at all. I miss having a wider range of fic (about characters and pairings I'm invested in).

12. The fandom you haven't tried yet, but want to?

Meh. I feel increasingly disengaged from the whole concept of fandom. 

13. Your biggest fan anticipations for the New Year?

STAR WARS EPISODE VIII! NEW STAR TREK ON THE TELLY!

Been a while, eh? Here's what I've been doing in the meantime...

(Mostly my own stuff, reblogs only when I've added something of substance.  I mean, I figure you've all seen the stuff that gets reblogged already, right?)

Legend of Korra stuff

Post-finale (oldest to newest):

• I suggest that pairing Korra with Mako in fic doesn't actually make her not-bisexual.  Judging by the current state of the discussion, which I keep hate-reading because it's terrible, no one listened.
• How Lin feels about thinly veiled homophobic concern trolling re: Korrasami / And how I feel about it!
• Lin has serious doubts about Bopal
• I raise my eyebrows a LOT at the notion that Korrasami devalues platonic friendship
• Talking about the age gap between Lin and Su
• Ikki and Huan are ready to give you a makeover
• Yes, I'm still talking about oppressive capitalism in Book 1
• Putting Lee Lin Chin tweets on Lin Beifong screencaps is my new hobby / no, really
• 2014 fic round-up (look, it's all LoK.  It's all Lin Beifong.  Stop judging me.)
• Yes, I do think a lot about Lin being an heiress!
• Art prompt: Lin/Mako time travel McGuffin '50s-esque Cold War Republic City noir (inspired by this sketch by Will Ruzicka, which I'm slightly obsessed with)

Pre-finale (newest to oldest because I forgot to order them!):

• I still don't understand why people were talking about deleting their Tumblrs after the finale, but it's definitely doing fandom wrong
• Despite my issues with Tumblr social justice, I wish it would filter a bit more down to LoK fandom, because it's been terrible lately / fandom reveals an ableist streak for Book 4 and I hate it a lot
• An important realisation about Varrick, which I still secretly believe is true
• I just think Lin was the most precious nine-year-old authoritarian control freak you ever saw
• Why ship Bolin with a well-developed, layered female character when there's a one-note dude right there? / What do you mean, sidelining a female character for a dude has a dash of misogyny? / Where am I going to get LGBT representation if not with dude characters? (That ask is extra hilarious in light of the finale!) / Whyyyyy did people keep asking me about Bolin shipping?!
• I argue in favour of Lin's characterisation in "Operation Beifong" (and I didn't even touch the issue of Chinese filial piety, on account of knowing nothing about it, but I totally meant to do some research before everyone got distracted by the finale)
• But seriously, I empathise with Lin a lot
• Anon asks if I ship Tokka (AHAHAHAHAHA NO) / Conversation about Toph and Azula as AMAZING (terrible) parents and also saddling fictional cranky people with babies: a perfectly normal hobby
• I really don't understand why people are so mad at Tenzin for not launching a pre-emptive strike for his ex-girlfriend's family.
• I make a completely inaccurate prediction about "Operation Beifong", but stand by Team How About Not Just Declaring War For The Hell Of It nonetheless
• FANDOM WAS WRONG ABOUT THE EMPRESS DOWAGER CIXI AND I WAS NOT HAPPY ABOUT IT
• Baatar Jr is going to be in so. much. trouble.
• Someone on Tumblr said that if the Twelfth Doctor was a woman, she would be Lin Beifong
• Notes on Lin's bending
• On Kuvira's internment camps
• Ableism and PTSD in Book 4
• Preceded by ... a rant about ableism in the fandom! (Also, just by the by, if you want to watch a serious trainwreck, check out Ikkin's Tumblr post-finale, which has steadily devolved from "I can't be homophobic because I'm ace" to "But how can parents be expected to explain bisexuality to their children?")
• Meditations on Lin and Zuko

...everything else

• 2015: The year I stop wasting time on second-rate fanworks
• Having trouble with the glorification of police in TV right now / and some more
• A delightful cartoon about my suburb of Brunswick
• Social Media Behaviour for Fandom/Celebrity Interactions (a reblog, but deserve more attention, although I suspect it's nothing new to anyone here)
• So my mother used to be an informant for QLD's Special Branch
• The greatest thing ever said about me on an anon meme
• OitNB sketch: Piper
• I really love academic feuds
• Sexism in history
• Historical bias in Egyptology
• I sold my first short story!  (To an anthology I inspired with a Tumblr post!)
• Also, I co-edited a book!  About Doctor Who companions!  (I just read the whole thing again today, and I have to say, it's pretty rad.)

Well, that takes us back two months.  You can probably get the highlights for the rest if you check my Lin Beifong tag.  I DON'T HAVE A PROBLEM, I CAN STOP ANY TIME.  But also, did I mention I sold a short story and co-edited a book?

As many of you probably know, I'm on the committee for Continuum, a Melbourne science fiction/fantasy/genre convention held annually in June. (Some of us are currently fighting to extend "genre" to "TV series about ballet". So far the rest of the committee is dubious.)

For the last two years I've run a vidshow, but this year, in addition, I wanted to screen vids based on Australian source (either visuals or music or both). I will accept both premieres and existing vids, in any format that will play in VLC. (Higher quality is better, for obvious reasons, but don't feel you need to go overboard.)

Content-wise, my vidshows generally have a blanket "choose not to warn" status, and I'm pretty much open to anything. Except talky face and wrong aspect ratio. The only limitation is that the video and/or music must be Australian.

Of course, that can be a grey area! For example, most of Baz Luhrmann's movies are filmed here, but Strictly Ballroom and Australia are the only ones that are actually set in Australia. (OTOH, an overview of his entire work would count.) Crowded House counts, because it was formed in Melbourne and 50% of its original line-up were Australian. (But we can't nab Lorde, much as I'd like to.) Don't even get me started on the problem of Farscape. My totally arbitrary preference is in favour of flexibility, but, you know, to a point. (OTOH, I would absolutely accept a Miranda Lawson vid.)

Deadline is Saturday 31 May, any time zone, and submissions and suggestions can be sent to liz.barr@gmail.com.

...it's just had more time to practice.

For example, every now and then I like to look at old issues of DWM and fanzines. There is, of course, the infamous case of the Liverpudlian fanzine that shut down after a tasteless joke about the death of Colin Baker's infant son. (Some versions of the story have the child dying as punishment for bad acting, others have something about Baker digging the baby's body up for some purpose. The boy had died of what we now call SIDS, so Baker was deeply unhappy about the whole affair.)

Anyway, nothing I've found has been quite that terrible. Yet. I have to say that the idea, currently being put about, that Steven Moffat is a pedophile who writes children into stories to get himself off, comes pretty damn close. (And seriously, if you actually believed that ... what does it say that you're still watching?)

But I have discovered that, true to form, the fandom reacted with DISMAY and HORROR when Doctor Who began to be released on VHS. Because then you might realise it wasn't very good, you see. And plus, with home video, anyone could start watching it.

But I'm particularly charmed by this article from Doctor Who Bulletin, a publication for which the saying that a Doctor Who fan is someone who hates Doctor Who might have been created.

( There's a large image behind here. )

Your main fandom of the year?

AVATAR/LEGEND OF KORRA. With Doctor Who a close second.

Your favorite film you watched this year?

A very close tie between The Hunger Games, Avengers and Brave.

Your favorite book read this year?

It's so cute how you think I can choose!

Your favorite album or song to listen to this year?

I rediscovered a lot of old favourites when I found a file of mp3s I had misplaced. Love Outside Andromeda's self-titled debut is still amazing, and it worries me deeply how you could make a Community vid to pretty much every single song Regurgitator have ever released.

Your favorite tv show of the year?

Legend of Korra, Doctor Who, Dance Academy, Elementary.

Your best new fandom discovery of the year?

Dance Academy! Which takes a whole lot of YA and teen TV cliches and executes them with heart, and I'm absolutely devastated that season 3 will be the last, even though it's a natural place for the story to end.

Your biggest fandom disappointment of the year?

Fandom itself, really. The fake geek girl stuff has been horrible, and a lot of fannish discourse, though it has roots in social justice, has been giving me flashbacks to my ultra-conservative Catholic childhood. And when I say "flashbacks" I mean "actually triggery", so I've had to disengage from a lot.

Your fandom boyfriend of the year?

♥ TENZIN ♥

Your fandom girlfriend of the year?

♥♥ LIN BEIFONG ♥♥ -- with Amy Pond, River Song, Joan Watson, Abigail Armstrong, Natasha Romanoff and Toma Saya as very close runners up.

Your biggest squee moment of the year?

ChicagoTARDIS -- I met people I've known for years online! I was in a book! IT WAS AMAZING!

The most missed of your old fandoms?

Mary Russell. The new book sparked some life back into my love, but Holmes fandom in general seems even less welcoming of female-dominated reinterpretations than it was a few years back.

The fandom you haven't tried yet, but want to?

I really need to watch Breaking Bad and Warehouse 13. I am aware that these are slightly different. And I plan to read Saga and Captain Marvel over the Christmas break.

Your biggest fan anticipations for the coming year?

MOAR KORRA. Season 7.2 of Doctor Who. And I live my life in an eternal, probably futile wait for Marvel to do a Black Widow film.

I thought, "Everyone's talking about the Lizzie Bennet Diaries. That's a YouTube thing, right? I'll download it and watch it on my iPad on the flight over!"

OH NO. THERE ARE GAZILLIONS OF EPISODES. Well, 52. So far. That's a lot of KeepVidding. Not to mention the parts of the story on Tumblr and Twitter.

So, I know there's a fandom. Is there, like, a handy download bundle? Maybe including the blog parts in some easily readable form? That would be SUPER HANDY.