Hey, so, obviously you've made it through fandom purges and migrations before. How do you do it? I have blogs full of content that I don't want to just have disappear, but it seems like there's just mass panic right now and everyone's going to scatter in the wind to different platforms. Was the livejournal-->tumblr transition like this? I don't want to become one of those stories like "oh, they dissapeared in X purge and never showed back up on the new site".
LJ to tumblr was more gradual in my fandom corner. LJ to IJ and DW, now those were a mad rush. I’ll warn you in advance, Anon, the moving process is going to sound laborious when I lay it out here, but as a matter of small actions over the course of years, it’s not as burdensome as it appears.
1. Trust no website. Terms of Service can change in a blink. Servers can fail. Hackers can strike. Site owners can decide ‘screw this’ and unplug the whole damn thing. Never think of any site as permanent. Five to seven years has been the lifespan of any non-fandom created site as a peak fandom hub in my experience, for exactly the kind of thing we saw at LJ, and are seeing at tumblr now. Until we own the servers, migration is fandom tradition.
2. Keep your own backups. So far as you are able, don’t delete your own files, get some external storage, keep your Dropbox active, check on your externals a couple times a year for file integrity and to add to the stash. Download reviews and discussions you like. Copy paste into docs and stash them on flashdrives for old times sake. It’s not foolproof, technology can fail, but don’t rely on the platform to keep all your copies for you.
3. Multiplatform. Even if you only tweet once a month, or visit your dreamwidth for Christmas, keep a presence at secondary and tertiary hubs. Makes it more likely other people who have scattered will run into you, and that you will run into them. Multiple platforms can also serve as backups for your content.
4. The split model of posting. Tumblr had images, writing, meta, memes and crack all in one bundle. Pillowfort might too. But until that’s fully viable, consider going back to the old-fashioned method of putting art on an art site, fics on a fic site, discussion on a discord or journal. Might feel like you’re spreading yourself thin if you’re used to tumblr’s one stop shop approach, but the immediate goal here is to save our content and find each other again. Cast the net as wide as you’re comfortable with handling. Either a fitting option will eventually turn up for fandom to gravitate towards, or you’ll find yourself comfortable in one or more of your new fandom neighborhoods.
5. Export and import features. Some sites offer them and it’s good to take advantage even before the writing goes on the wall. For backup purposes if nothing else.
6. Revisit the old haunts on occasion, if you haven’t been kicked right out. Post your ‘forwarding address’ to remind anybody still straggling around where you mainly are now, if they want to find you. (For this reason I do not recommend deleting your profile on your own. You don’t want name squatters moving in either.)
I hope this helps some. Even 'half-packed’ as I was, I have backing up of my own to do and can only hope we’ll all be able to stay in touch with the coming distance. Good luck, everyone.
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