!FOUND Looking for fandom history post on tumblr, way too many fandoms and characters to list.

[pronker]

I hope to find it and this is one of the few places I can think of to look because searching google and tumblr produced nada. Tumblr posted a fascinating bit on fandom history circa 2017 entitled "Old Time Fandom Used Kerosene Lamps And Involved Horses" (paraphrased) It generated many reminiscences and I forgot to bookmark it. :/ Please let me know if you recall it. Thanks.

Comments

[full_metal_ox]

Was the title uphill-through-the-snow-both-ways hyperbole, or referencing the point that a lot of the characteristics of Fandom™ were already taking shape among Dickens’, Bram Stoker‘s, and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s readership?

Your first hyperbole, I think? Any help appreciated.

[pronker]

Well, hi there, Full_Metal_Ox! :)

The tumblr (and I'm not 100 percent certain it was not on twitter, only 99 percent) post began circa 2017 with newcomers to tumblr "thinking they were the first generation online fans" per the poster, who was a tumblr oldbie. OP began describing webrings, usenet, personal websites, Geocities and other aspects (I got into online fandom Dec. 2005 and recall these things, though they seemed on the downswing in fandom then) in a teasing way; many, many responded with their own reminiscences and the answers got huge. I recall that TVTropes and perhaps fanlore also mentioned this post, but haven't any luck searching them, either. :/

Yes, the answers pointed out that venerable "fandoms" such as Shakespeare contained groupies, for lack of a better word, and that Stoker's and other 19th century popular authors' works received parodies, self-insert fics ... it was like all of fandom in a massive post. I think a subheader was "the three ages of fandom" which meant that online oldbies on usenet, etc. were Gen 1, LiveJournal and fanfiction.net users were Gen 2, and current (2017) users made up Gen 3.

Re: Your first hyperbole, I think? Any help appreciated.

[full_metal_ox]

One Tumblr you might try searching is the aptly-named olderthannetfic (AKA franzeska—-you’ll note her very low serial number, as a founding mother of AO3—-and franzeska); she hosts a lot of meta and fandom history discussions, often accruing great sprawling fractal link lists and involving fanlore, and has quite likely reblogged the post you’re looking for at some point.

In fact, give me a moment: would this be it? (If so, the “horses” actually alluded to a famous wank/weirditude meme.)

https://fanlore.org/wiki/The_good_old_days_before_google_were_dark_and_involved_horses

(The original, on LiveJournal: https://seperis.livejournal.com/801880.html)

Re: Your first hyperbole, I think? Any help appreciated.

[pronker]

EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE that's it!!! Thanks ever so much for the retrieval, now neatly bookmarked. Yes, it was facetiously titled and spawned much discussion, huh, it originated on LJ ...

[(Anonymous)]

could the three generations of fanfic (https://fanlore.org/wiki/The_three_generations_of_fanfic) be the initial post that inspired all of the discussion and the good old days before google were dark and involved horses (https://fanlore.org/wiki/The_good_old_days_before_google_were_dark_and_involved_horses) be the specific post you're thinking of?

[pronker]

Thanks, anon, yes that is indeed it! :)

[kattslavenkoko]

Lovely, I never saw that thread, but I began reading fanfic over twenty years ago and I do recognise some of the things. Thank you for asking this!

[pronker]

You are welcome! It was amazing that so many platforms, LJ, tumblr, twitter and so on got linked in that one fanlore article. Happy reading to you, pronker