Snowflake Challenge #15

[malenkayacherepakha]

 Challenge #15 - Create your own challenge.

My challenge - which is mostly for myself but if other people wanted to do the same that would be amazing - is to reach out more. 

I think a lot of people in fandom (myself included) want to feel like a part of the community and make friends, and sometimes it can feel a bit like shouting into the void - everyone is so busy (with fandom things like writing and reading and commenting, as well as real life) and lots of sites move so quickly that it can be hard to build that connection with people.

So I want to start making an effort to build those relationships. I want to comment more, rec more, chat more. I want to reach out to people whose writing I love or who I've always wanted to chat to, as well as people who are newer to fandom (I've not been here long, I remember vividly what it was like to be new - and still feel like it sometimes too!).

I'm terrible at opening up to people but I want to try. I want to keep building the friendships I've already made since joining fandom, and I want to support people with their writing and more. I want people to feel like they can talk to me and rely on me, for beta help or just a general chat. 

Being more active on Dreamwidth has been a great start to this - I've loved all the interaction on here, and I want to carry that forward both here and in other fandom spaces ❤

Comments

[magpie_fngrl]

That's a wonderful challenge ❤

[malenkayacherepakha]

Thank you - I'm excited for it!

[gracerene]

Such a great challenge!

[malenkayacherepakha]

Thanks!

[walgesang]

Great challenge! ♥ It certainly can be tricky to build those relationships, I know I've been trying to challenge myself to do similar. Dreamwidth is a great place to encourage that!

[malenkayacherepakha]

Thanks! It's tricky cause part of it is just giving it time to happen naturally, but DW definitely seems like the best place to encourage those kind of friendships.

[paulamcg]

What a beautiful entry! Thank you for the challenge I’ll be happy to share. I still cherish the memories of feeling I was part of the community in my early fandom years, and recently, thanks to the interaction on DW, I’ve felt it is still possible.

I couple of weeks ago I came up with one idea to reach out and give more. I looked for a fic by someone who’d given kudos on a few of my fics, and since I really liked the one I read, I wrote a proper comment. I haven’t made my challenge-15 post yet, and I wonder if I could use this idea.

[malenkayacherepakha]

Yes being on DW has given me a taste of that kind of community feeling and I really want to keep it going!

Ooh I love that idea for your challenge, and I'd be up for doing it too.

[writcraft]

This is a wonderful challenge. I think it can be really difficult to work out where to start - it's one of my eternal criticisms of tumblr that anon messaging functions and DMs really don't suit everyone in terms of community building - I've had anons that I'm like I WANT TO KNOW WHO YOU ARRRRRE because they are so lovely and thoughtful and I'd love to speak to the person who sent the message, but have no way of reaching them. I do think the journals are good for building that regular dialogue with someone in a way that feels a little less daunting than sliding into the DMs (not that there's anything wrong with doing that either, I've made great friends that way!!).

I think in terms of meeting people / community building on AO3, having a consistent name across platforms / icon can help. I often get confused and don't realise X on AO3 is Y on tumblr - I know that doesn't apply to you but just something I've been thinking about as my icon is all over the place whereas it used to be the same across all platforms.

[malenkayacherepakha]

Just realised I never replied to this! It's definitely hard to know where to start with getting to know people beyond just reading and commenting on their fics. I find the tumblr dm system quite hard just cause of how temperamental the notification system can be. I've definitely enjoyed the more regular dialogue I've been having with people since joining DW, it's made a big difference in feeling like I actually *know* people if that makes sense.

Definitely agree on the name and icon, particularly the name. Sometimes I wish I'd chosen a name that's easier to remember/spell but at least it's easy to get it on every platform!