have been unavoidably detained by the world

FOUND SOMEONE WHO SAW THE PLAY AND IS WRITING FIC.

On tumblr ugh, ugh, what is my life. I can't even figure out how to find other people to follow because tumblr is bad for a) comments, b) flists, c) everything.

(Also she saw it THREE TIMES. THE ENVYYYYYY.)

These are the most first-world problems in the world.

There's an effort out there to make a *BRAND NEW!* social media site combining favorite features from sites we’ve used like Tumblr and LiveJournal, and create the best kind of blogging platform we could think of."

Of course, the elements they are focusing on aren't the ones I care about anyway (Where are my spoiler cut-tags, text-focused nesting comment conversations, and tight control over my security settings so I can choose who sees what?) but I actually do with them luck. They are getting an awful lot of hate for a site that doesn't exist! I'm skeptical, but not angry. Meanwhile, the site doesn't exist yet and people are demanding it be a safe space, which is just...impossible, in my opinion?

(It's one of the reasons I like DW/LJ better. Sure, the site isn't a safe space but I have an awful lot of control what goes on in my space that the tumblr reblogging system completely removes.)

Anyway, I'm curious about how they are going to accommodate people who have a hard time with certain visual layouts online, which I think Dreamwidth has worked continuously to improve, and even LJ has ?format=light (or ?format=mine) which has made a huge difference in my ability to enjoy the site and I can handle size-8-green-text-on-yellow backgrounds if I have to.

Anyway, I'm mostly noticing this for posterity. I'm fairly neutral on the topic of a new site, because I doubt it be as good for me as DW, and even if it's better than tumblr I will have to figure out how it works and I'm just a grumbly fan-person.

I'll probably go claim my username as soon as it goes up though. Because REASONS.

ETA: Oh, nope, they don't have a funding plan. I'll...check in later when they do.

I will give tumblr this.

A tumblr I like to check in on for some international ethnic minority stuff just got reblogged by Sam/Cobberbadge. Because cheeky LOL reblogs spread EVERYWHERE.

(No, not going to link to it. She's probably overwhelmed with a lot after that reblog and she's in a different timezone so she is going to have ONE SHOCKER when she wakes up in the morning.)

To clarify, I'm not a fan of tumblr fullstop and I haven't logged in in months and I plan to barely use it.

That said, I am CRACKING UP that they are taking away their nesting comment structure. I mean, it was messy and had problems, but they are replacing it with worse. Oh, Yahoo. No.

1. I am doing a bunch of Vietnam War research for my X-Epic. The timeline between First Class and Days of Future Past is messy, yo. (Not to mention the 1940’s research for any XMFC stuff. Charles and Raven probably listened to radio dramas together for at least a year or two. Charles was probably so booored.)

2. And now that I have a FUNCTIONING computer I have to decide if I want to use tumblr or not. I’m leaning towards a “NO” with a chance of “logging in to lurk and maybe posting back to my LJ/DW posts but not replying to reblog comments because uuuuuuuuuugh.”

3. This week on “Cleaning My Childhood Room,” I found my massive collection of printed fan art that I used to tape to my walls. Mostly Harry Potter, some Lord of the Rings, a few scattered other randoms. Gosh, I forgot how much I loved that stuff and I can’t even find so much of it online anymore. Tinaling (tinling.ca/mwppmap) was one of my top sites, tons of marauder era art. Gone. Art Dungeon! According to Fanlore, that side has been offline for years. It had the best book-based-art, that was not influenced by the movies. Accio Brain! I LOVED that site, and unfortunately I discovered it after I stopped using up the ink on my parent’s printer because it seems to be offline as well. She did all of the art for the MuggleNet Harry Potter Quote Widget, and had the best Malfoy family pieces.

I think I’m going to wallow in internet nostalgia for a while and mournfully try to google for art that is apparently gone forever.

NY Times Headline: Yahoo to Buy Tumblr for $1.1 Billion.

Is it terrible that I am laughing maniacally? Because Yahoo has a terrible track record on these things. (The article didn't even mention delicious!)

LOLerskates.

Yahoo is paying in cash. I hope they mean literally and we get mob-style pictures of men handcuffed to ATTACHE CASES OF MONEY.

Also: "Pornography represents a fraction of content on the site, but not a trivial amount for a site with 100 million blogs." HAVE FUN WITH THAT ONE, YAHOO. Hee.

Thank goodness they didn't buy Hulu, 's all I'm saying.

**

Yes, Marissa Mayer might legit make this one successful. I have mixed feelings about her, though I do wish her the best. I just can't help the cackling, vindictive little voice in the back of my head, ok? >.>

I'm actually super-busy this week as well, although you wouldn't know if from my posts. Shhhh, I won't tell if you won't.

But I just had to say that tumblr went down today and I've just been gleeful for hours. Sorry tumblr folks, but hahaha. *cackle*

I literally had to dig up my twitter password so I could respond to John Green, who suggested that a tumblr-collapse and a return to livejournal would be a horror movie. I love you sometimes John Green, but no.

If LJ just figured out free and streamlined image support instead of the new flist and profile pages, livejournal could try to compete. *sigh*

I am now engaged in the most hilarious facebook conversation with two friends about the tumblr-downtime. We are remembering internet past and discussing the possibility of recreating our own internet IRL. SM will spellcheck, I'll re-enact gifs. :D :D :D

(If anyone's curious why facebook doesn't infuriate me as well, it's probably because my facebook friends are (mostly) people I interact with on a regular basis. It's by no means my main form of communication with most of them. Fandom friends don't have that advantage.)

Back when tumblr was just another option instead of the primary and/or only platform People I Want To Talk To Are Using, I started to write a post about Fanfiction on Different Mediums.

So, that was a real essay. Maybe one day I'll finish it. But I've actually read a few nice old-fashined fics on tumblr, where they are doomed to be virtually lost unless they are reposted elsewhere. So I'm going to write these less-organized thoughts instead.

Here's the thing. Livejournal is not an ideal fanfiction platform. We (fandom) have come up with pretty great conventions in the standardized header format to make the fic we publish on this platform nicely accessible. We use linking and lj-cuts to neatly hide our fic so we don't flood our friends with text. We (well, most poeple) make masterlists to make it easy to find fic within blog posts. Some people make separate blog accounts for fanfiction posts. Some people tag their fics extensively.

This is all to try and make fics well organized here and easy to find here on LJ/DW/etc.

( But the thing is, the ideal place for fanfiction is still going to be archive sites. )

Week II of tumbr! I have decided to use it in a non-traditional way to frustrate everyone including myself. Let's see if I can stand it! (Thank you, L, who suggested I try this. Sorry for ranting about my Hatred of The Tumblr to you for nearly nine days. I'm trying to stop. Really.)

This week's plan: Use it to inspire posts I actually want to make. Cross-post everything.

***

So, here is a gif-set that manages to neatly encapsulate why I don't like movie!Loki.

His motivation makes no sense. I mean, it was bad enough in Thor where they clearly thought if they throw in enough family angst and confusion we'll forget how much it doesn't make sense, but it's just awful in The Avengers. He's working for someone sometimes for something and maybe he's supposed to be making the Avengers work against each other except he ends up making them even more united and at some point he shoots Coulson?

I don't get it. I don't get it and I don't like it. Listen, finding villain motivations is surprisingly difficult. It's hard to wrap your mind around, and especially once you leave the Big Three of power, money and sex (I'm getting this from half-remembered research into cultists) there's not an awful lot left that makes enough sense to ring true to most watchers. I get it. I have a hard time writing bad guys with sensical motivations as well.

But watching Thor and The Avengers, Loki seems to motivate by nothing more than making the plot go forward. Which is unbelievably meta for a supervillain who shows no signs of awareness that he's in a fictional story.*

It's nonsensical and annoying. Tom Hiddleston's fandom seems to not like talking about it, which is fine. Far be it from me to criticize fans for irrational behavior.

I think it was rexluscus who gave the reason as simple malicious trickster games. Which is...an interesting motivation, at least. Although it doesn't quite jive with the aaaaangst of Thor, or even parts of Avengers. But it's rationale for the irrational, at least, which fits with everything he does in lack of clearness.

My last, smaller complaint about Loki is that we are told his great power is his speech, his ability to manipulate with words. In all of his appearances, it's an informed power, at best. The only time he tries to turn on the charm, Natasha walks all over him. It would be a million times more impressive if we ever saw him do it successfully.

It's a power that could have been amazing to see on screen vs. reading in a comic. Tom Hiddleston could have injected the inflection and body movement no static page can sell. Instead, well, he managed to distract from Loki's lack of direction extremely well, which was extremely impressive. As it stood, I had to explain to my friends why his mouth was covered in the end of the film.

***

*This would make an interesting fic, but I'm offering it to the world. I'm not going to write it.