Dear Listeners,
In April 2021, I moved. It was a four hour drive from my previous home (I do not drive) for the sake of schooling (I was not the one going to school) and as such I needed a new job. This job had my longest commute yet- a thirty minute walk (because I do not drive). I was somewhere I'd never been before, only knowing the two people I came with, and I was scared and nervous and lonely. In that moment, I returned to a place of comfort- Welcome To Night Vale.
I was first introduced to Night Vale in the summer of 2014, thanks to Tumblr. The two days I spent packing for my Sophomore year of college were spent listening to the first two years of this podcast that I immediately fell in love with. It quickly became one of my main fandoms, even though I was a staunch lurker at the time (which is still my default state to this day, a testament to how much the 22 fics I have published on Ao3 have buzzed through my brain). Time passed, I would miss episodes and catch up again. I would be refreshing podbay at midnight then binging as I did classwork. I graduated, I couldn't afford internet, the gaps became bigger and bigger.
Then suddenly it was 2021, my commute was the length of an episode, and I started from the beginning. I would quote along and laugh as I walked, remembering old fanart and memes. The twitter screenshots with the floral background. The unassuming users not knowing a deep philosophical quote was from Noght Vale. How the fact that this happened so much became a meme itself. How long it had been since I'd seen those quotes, those reactions, that community.
And so, I became what I wanted to see. I wanted quotes from Welcome To Night Vale to be shared and spread across tumblr, to reach the corners where no one knew us, and for those people to find beauty in us. Because it is there.
Today, Tumblr Staff has rolled out a change. One that I do not have, luckily (turn off auto update on your apps, folks), but the spirit of this change... destroyes the purpose of this blog. I WANT you all to reblog these quotes, to leave fun tags about other fandoms or real people, to comment fully on the post with your thoughts! I post these quote to SEE that, for ALL OF US to see that.
Instead, I will only be able to see tags if you reblog directly from me. I will only see comments left directly on my quotes. The community, the conversation, the FUN of running this blog... is gone. The point of this blog was not to serve you quotes. The point was to have quotes for us all to share.
This change has fallen during my spoilers break. As I wait for the podcast to reach their summer break before queueing up the second half of the season's quotes, I am left wondering. "Are staff going to roll this back?" "Will running this blog continue to be worth it?" "Am I going to have to stop?" And there's only one answer I can come up with.
I don't know.
-intern z
