The New Fanart Wank
Nov. 24th, 2019 09:41 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
lierdumoaSo there's this a kerfuffle in tumblr's art community right now. And by art community I mean digital fanart community. Art posts get way more likes than reblogs. A lot of tumblr artists are really pissed off about this, because "if you really liked my art you'd promote it." To me, these numbers just reflect the stark reality of how feedback works on the internet -- you always get more views than likes. You always get more likes than comments. You always get more comments than promotions (except on tumblr, where it's actually easier to promote a post than it is to comment on it).
To the tumblr art community, however, these numbers represent a "toxic culture" of selfish consumerism. I saw a post literally telling people who like art posts without reblogging them that "you're the reason this website is dying."
Arrogant and delusional. I've written about my thoughts on the subject at length [here, here].
In this post, I just want to talk here about my general takeaways re: this kerfuffle.
Tumblr visual artists view fandom as a market. They view tumblr fandom as a place for content creators to find potential customers and clients. I assume money is the end goal, or they wouldn't be so upset at the lack of promotion. There's a general attitude of "if you don't pay us fairly we'll strike."
This is so diametrically opposed to my understanding of how fandom works, and why I choose to participate in it. I do art professionally. Fandom is my escape from the art market. Fandom is my vacation away from customers and clients. Over the years my main contributions to fandom have been 1) vidding and 2) meta writing and to a lesser extent 3) fanfiction and in my mind, the purpose of the first two especially is to instigate conversations. In my mind, the purpose of good art in general is to instigate conversations -- to spark new ideas and ways of thinking.
I think, whether you write meta, or you talk about your headcanons, or write fic, put together recommendation posts, or make fanart, or whatever -- we're all participating in the same conversation. We're all contributors to that conversation. Lurkers are just people who haven't found a voice yet. No one is a customer or a client. No one is a selfish consumer. Fandom is not a market.
Fandom is a town meeting.
I think this particular kerfuffle is the first thing that's really made me feel like I don't belong on tumblr, moreso even than the porn ban or any of the other tumblr wanks I've been involved in. It makes me want to unfollow every fanartist I follow on tumblr and blacklist the fanart tag. I look at these people who supposedly share my interests, who are in the same fandom communities I am in, and their reasons for being here are anathema to me.
They're not here to have conversations. They're here to become influencers. They think I'm morally obligated to help them become influencers. They want to talk at me, instead of to me. I find this attitude grotesque.
I think this larger conflict also ties in to the whole "Why won't you let us link our patreons on AO3" mini-kerfuffle which I've also talked about (here)
To the tumblr art community, however, these numbers represent a "toxic culture" of selfish consumerism. I saw a post literally telling people who like art posts without reblogging them that "you're the reason this website is dying."
Arrogant and delusional. I've written about my thoughts on the subject at length [here, here].
In this post, I just want to talk here about my general takeaways re: this kerfuffle.
Tumblr visual artists view fandom as a market. They view tumblr fandom as a place for content creators to find potential customers and clients. I assume money is the end goal, or they wouldn't be so upset at the lack of promotion. There's a general attitude of "if you don't pay us fairly we'll strike."
This is so diametrically opposed to my understanding of how fandom works, and why I choose to participate in it. I do art professionally. Fandom is my escape from the art market. Fandom is my vacation away from customers and clients. Over the years my main contributions to fandom have been 1) vidding and 2) meta writing and to a lesser extent 3) fanfiction and in my mind, the purpose of the first two especially is to instigate conversations. In my mind, the purpose of good art in general is to instigate conversations -- to spark new ideas and ways of thinking.
I think, whether you write meta, or you talk about your headcanons, or write fic, put together recommendation posts, or make fanart, or whatever -- we're all participating in the same conversation. We're all contributors to that conversation. Lurkers are just people who haven't found a voice yet. No one is a customer or a client. No one is a selfish consumer. Fandom is not a market.
Fandom is a town meeting.
I think this particular kerfuffle is the first thing that's really made me feel like I don't belong on tumblr, moreso even than the porn ban or any of the other tumblr wanks I've been involved in. It makes me want to unfollow every fanartist I follow on tumblr and blacklist the fanart tag. I look at these people who supposedly share my interests, who are in the same fandom communities I am in, and their reasons for being here are anathema to me.
They're not here to have conversations. They're here to become influencers. They think I'm morally obligated to help them become influencers. They want to talk at me, instead of to me. I find this attitude grotesque.
I think this larger conflict also ties in to the whole "Why won't you let us link our patreons on AO3" mini-kerfuffle which I've also talked about (here)
