Around the year 2000, I joined a forum for a webcomic about God and the universe, where God was a cute little girl and the universe was a goblin-lookin' thing named Irving who accidentally ate her. There weren't many webcomics back then, but more importantly, there weren't many ways of meeting internet strangers back then (not ones I felt were safe to pursue as an 18-year-old girl, anyway). AOL chat rooms and instant messaging random people was my world before the AR forum, and the tight-knit nature of writing and responding to a small group of people increased my love of the internet a hundred fold.
Since then, so many things gained popularity. I made a LiveJournal in 2002, a deviantArt account in 2004. And while I met a few new friends-of-friends on those, it was mostly keeping up with the core people I met in the AR forum or from high school. I was never the cracker-jack blogger or artist that made compelling pieces and built a big audience. I just went about my life, doodled a bit, and talked about it sometimes, and people responded.
So I can't say Facebook didn't support what I was already doing when I eventually made my account there in 2008, but the more I participated, the more I didn't like a few things about the new face of social media:
- How it discourages lengthy posts. Some places did it quite deliberately by limiting your characters, but others just encouraged you to add hundreds and hundreds of acquaintances, such that if you wanted to catch up on everyone's activities, you really had to tl;dr the ones that took too much time.
- How it encourages resharing of someone else's content instead of writing your own. Why write your own post when you can reblog to someone else and say "what she said!" And even when that tells me what you like, I don't know why you like it.
- How it limits back-and-forth discussion. Some of this is tied to the length of post or stupid controls (I'm looking at you, Tumblr), but it's mostly caused by things floating off your radar within a day, if not sooner.
- How much it draws people's time and attention away from the really amazing communities.
This last one is key. The greatest communities I've seen formed not by a mass gathering of people who already know each other, but by a small gathering of strangers with a common enthusiasm for a writer, blogger, webcomic, storyteller, artist or creative project. Comment sections can be nice, but again, when an update is made, it curtails the discussion in a way that feels inorganic.
Which returns me to the forum experience I stumbled upon in 2002, and when I joined Sarah Ellerton's Seraph-Inn forum in 2009 (which had its roots in her first webcomic in 2004). But in a world of people who've been trained to accept that social media is something you do from your smartphone, and who are (understandably) loathe to make yet another account somewhere? I just wonder if it's still possible to build one today.
I don't tend to respond to these sorts of things. Blanket disagreement is overdone on the internet, and only promotes a feeling of divisiveness and hatred toward people you will never meet or talk to beyond the context of the argument. But it hits close to home because this girl happens to be from Ventura County, which was where I was a Girl Scout for several years. Girl Scouts swear to be a sister to every Girl Scout, so I write this not as a random internet grumbler with the intent to divide, but as an older sister with the intent to unite.
( I think I'll probably snail-mail this.Collapse )
With today's page posted, that finishes Volume 1 of Sombulus! Thank you massively to everyone who has enjoyed and read the comic so far. I feel like I've learned so much in the last 179 pages!
Sombulus is taking a short break right now between chapters. The new chapter of the story will be in full color (YAY!) and starts on Valentine’s Day (Tuesday, February 14) because I <3 you all for reading my comic (and because I need time to get the next chapter's art together)! In the meantime, I’ll be featuring some of the fantastic Sombulus art I got from 2011.
If you would like to make art for Sombulus, reply here! I would love to showcase it!
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(Archives, RSS and links still down, unfortunately.)
So PAX. Very awesome con, despite my nasty case of PAX Pox. Stayed with the very gracious 
psychominako and hubby and rode the ferry across Puget Sound to the show.
Most of our time was spent talking to people and playing games. The few times we did stand in lines for things, it was a surprisingly pleasant experience. Instead of making people stand in the cold, the queue areas were all well marked and planned on the maps, and beach ball throwing and dance or costume contests happened while you waited, sometimes sponsored by actual companies. So much nicer than my Anime Expo memories of angry con volunteers making you hold a string or wait for a wristband to get a ticket.
We played a Boggle-esque fighting game that has thoroughly convinced me that I need a smartphone, and a Boggle-esque board game made by a woman and her husband and their 7-year-old (who drew their logo). They were so excited when I bought a copy, because I guess they hadn't sold a game to anyone in Los Angeles before.
We finally found a copy of Red November, which was supposedly re-released only weeks ago but that we remember fondly from a party of layah's. Also found Munchkin Axe Cop, which is a crossover between a card game about rules-mongering your opponents to death and a webcomic written by a 5-year old and drawn by his brother Ethan (age 29). Glorious.
I talked to the creator of Modest Medusa, who added my webcomic to his reading list, and I talked to the Digital Game Museum folks about volunteering my web design services cause it sounded like fun.
We also obtained mountains of swag. As in, I may never need another sleep T-shirt. bookmark, lanyard, or Renaissance Faire costume again.
- Current Mood:
chipper
New vote incentive went up this morning. Male costumes are difficult for me, especially ones that have to allow for wings to come out the back. I have not made a back view yet, and I'm a little afraid to. Anyway, your votes are much appreciated! I don't think I've ever had so many in one month! It's fantastic! You can vote once per day, and doing so helps push my comic to the top of the list. Vote here!
I'm trying to figure out the dA phenomenon of Stressed Jenny. She has over 1000 followers, and gets pages and pages of comments and lots of fanart for her webcomic. You figure it must be a pretty whizbang story until you find out... she hasn't started it yet. I don't know who referred her to me or when I started following her, but figuring out how things like this happens is almost fun for me. Is she some celebrity I don't know about? Did she finish some other webcomic that was popular and that's where she has all these fans from? Is she a hypnotist? I'd kill for that kind of traffic! And my comic even exists!
On the subject of webcomic traffic, I ran a banner ad on the Evil Diva site, and got a lot of hits, but it doesn't seemed to have affected my after-ad traffic. And I feel a little guilty about switching back to black and white right after running it, so I'm thinking I'll try again after it wheels back around to color in a few pages. And after PAX, which looms ever closer.
Also, we got an Aarrow spinner on our corner. I don't know if these guys have a formal presence in places other than Southern California, but they're awfully fun to watch:
Another new vote incentive, this time with Rana in floofy sleeves and bellbottoms. Please vote if you have a moment, because your votes support me and my comic! That's a good thing!
I spent this week:
- Trying to find a way to read Septimus Heap 2 on audiobook. The first book, Magyk worked out really well for me on audiobook for many reasons. One, I've got so many freelance jobs and art work to do for Sombulus that I don't have time to sit and read. Two, I spend about 1.5 hours a day in a car. Three, my local library had it, and it was free!
But the most important? The fact that I didn't have to read that god-awful-bastard spelling of "Magyk" every time it was mentioned.
Of course, the library doesn't have volume 2 on audiobook. So I'm either going to have to swallow my inner grammarian or find another library. Or read some of Rick Riordan's new Olympian/Egyptian books and bide my time. Maybe I'll do that. - Thinking about making my Sombulus discussion forums live. Again. I'm really super-curious about what the Getting Past Forums: The Future of Community panel is going to say about forums. While I don't mind going to where the people are (hence, having a bajillion accounts spanning Tumblr/Twitter/Google + and all that garbage), I really miss a good threaded conversation place that doesn't force me to block out a really interesting person because they also talk about boring stuff. And the community aspect always engages me, much more than a stale thread of the same old people posting about what's happening to them instead of contributing new thoughts based on a discussion topic.
I met my husband on a forum, despite him living 2000 miles away in Alabama. I still post around the Seraph-Inn forums even though the comic ended several months ago. I love the community, I love meeting new people, and I really want that for Sombulus, too. I hope there are people that still feel that way in this crazy distracting Facebook feed-frenzy world. - Thinking about moving. Again. I want a yard so I can get a dog to destroy it, dammit!
- Reminiscing about 1000 Blank White Cards. We used to play this game all the time in the back room in my college anime club. It was hilarious. I highly recommend it for anyone with a mostly-creative and ridiculous group of friends.
- Listening to "Join Us", They Might Be Giants' new CD. I'm a little more hardcore than casual TMBG fans, but I have to confess, I didn't pick this up until I saw it at Borders for 20% off. Not as catchy as The Else, in my opinion, but TMBG songs have a way of growing on me when I least expect them to. Of course, the thing I've found most endearing about the band isn't their indelibly solid music, but how much fun they sound like they're having making it. Even their songs about hating someone and wanting them to die are suitable for My Little Pony videos:
Aaaand.... I think I'll leave you with that. Have a good weekend, everybody!
I've got some cool art to show off from the next chapter of Sombulus, so that means... new vote incentive! The NaNoMangO folks will probably recognize it. The Topwebcomics rankings have reset for August, so now is an especially courteous time to vote for me. Thanks for helping me out in advance!
Other random life stuff I've been up to:
- Writing a lot of stuff on Tumblr. LiveJournal was down a lot last week and I had a crazy writing itch and a lot of opinions. Particularly about Harry Potter and Evil Diva. I feel like I cheated on LJ with Tumblr, but... a woman has needs, you know? And there's enough of me to go around.
- Celebrating my wedding anniversary. shmitz and I have been officially married for 9 years this Tuesday. We had a nice dinner with assassingalaxia , layah , ks0girl and husband, and a bunch of gamer friends that I don't think are on LJ, and another mini celebration at my aunt's house over the weekend. Good to see everyone again IRL instead of just over the internet.
- Gearing up for Penny Arcade Expo. Put in my vacation request yesterday! Gonna book a flight this week! Gonna hang out with psychominako and ninja_dude ! And it's gonna be an awesome con full of awesome things that do not take forever in line to see! (I hope.)
- "Reading" Septimus Heap. What do you call audiobooks? Are they "reading"? This is the first audiobook I've ever tried. Picked it up from the library on a forum friend's recommendation from my Harry Potter ramblings. I like it a lot, but I wonder if the narrator's tone is tainting my mental image of Marcia Overstrand from "prissy grumpy lady" to "prissy grumpy old lady".
- Playing Final Fantasy: Four Heroes of Light. I have a terrible time mustering energy and time to play most video games nowadays, but Four Heroes of Light is very "put down and pick up again"-able because it's got very distinct quests and not a lot of complicated plot stuff. Maybe I'll actually finish it! (Unlike FF12, which got stuck in the "must forage for junk to alchemize it later" doldrums.)
- Bowling. In a pink wig and hip-hop attire. I regret nothing.
Happy Tuesday, everyone!
COLOR happens!
I spruced up the website in celebration, too! Check it out check it out! And if you've got a website/comic for my Friend corner, let me know. =D
I'm so, so happy about this. You don't even know.
The part I like about Google+ is that it's only attracting people who recognize the value of quality internet communication (and this is true for the introduction of any cutting edge social media, really). The "normal people" who don't know better* are bound to find out if people begin to forsake Facebook for Google+, of course. And both sites have mechanisms to hide the posts you find tedious. But I think Google+ is doing a good job of teaching its audience that who you add and what you say to them on the internet is important to qualify. So maybe people will start making fewer tedious post in the first place if they convert? We can hope.
reddog_san mentioned another aspect of following someone that had one interest you liked (maybe roller derby) but another you had no interest in (cars). It would be awfully nice if it could figure out how to hide the car posts from you, but not the roller derby posts. He mentioned tags, which are nice when people are cognizant enough to use them. But what if it was something Google cultivated over time for you? If it came to recognize you used the words "babies" or "diaper" a lot, could it eventually suggest a "baby" category automatically when your friend started to write about her one-year old again? Then perhaps when you get sick of someone talking about a subject and you want to hide their posts, it can pull up the topic tags and say, "What about the content of this message do you not want to see, exactly? We'll try to hide it from you next time."It's not foolproof, but combined with a manual tagging system, it might be a step in the right direction. Cause in a real-life face-to-face situation, my friend is pleasant and would know not to talk to me about cloth diapers, but I sift through topics that don't interest me all the time on Facebook.
What it boils down to, I think, is I don't care who I'm talking to as much as what we're talking about. On online forums, the topic of conversation is emphasized over the audience, and segmenting conversations makes much more sense to me. Even LiveJournal and dA have that to an extent with communities by topic. Which is probably why I still cling to them. Sharing my content with strangers (especially in short snippets) doesn't really bother me. I'm pretty mild-mannered, and my self-incriminating thoughts don't get put in writing at all. What bothers me is sifting through irrelevant stuff, and there seems to be more and more of it every day.
*By this, I mean pretty much every stereotype in this video:
- Current Music:Heather Nova - Walk This Way
My vacation in June found me in a comic/CD shop in Little 5 Points, where this gem of a book resides:
I thought from the cover image that the book had to be at least 12 years old. I had it all pegged in my head. Erin B. Waggoner, bless her heart, watched Angel and Buffy religiously during her formulative years, in a time where both series seemed like they'd go on forever, with no idea that they'd fade into obscurity. It was a quaint product of its time, floating around the store and retaining a late-90s charm, much like the Save Ferris CDs or vintage comic books in the shelves surrounding it. But no. It's recent, and it's serious:
I really wanted to buy it for one of my Browncoat friends, but I mulled over whether it would break my oath that I would never give Joss Whedon any of my money ever again. Eventually, I decided it was too close for comfort and settled for taking a few pictures.
But I do wonder what kinds of Whedon gender scholars exist out there, such that this book of essays was a "much-needed addition". Is there an honest-to-god curriculum for this? Can you get a Doctorate in Horribleness, or take a class in Emotive Vampiric Studies? What would you major in if you went to the University of Whedon?
- Current Mood:
pensive
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