How To Tumblr/DW crosspost (Updated Sept 1, 2015)

 Recently there has been much discussion on the limits of  the tumblr platform to allow threaded commentary and longer meta posts. That usually is followed by even more commentary on the shortcomings of DW and LJ and how things  were not better in the olden days. That is not this post.

Instead, I will be riffing on a possible workflow  to cross-post from tumblr to DW/LJ.  The goal is to encourage more....discussion like discussions. Note: this is sadly not a technical post because neither tumblr nor DW nor LJ allow cross-posting. Tumblr does allow cross-posting to twitter and FB. See Workflow #2 Below

Workflow Method 1 - Dreamwidth To Tumblr Manual
1. When you want to make a meta/discussion post,  start with DW/ LJ.  Write up your meta post.
2. Copy a brief section into tumblr. You can  do this as a text  post or if you have a snazzy gifset, you can include  it as a link inside an image post.  Make the tumblr post as appealing/sexy/snazzy as you can.  The goal is to overcome the normal inertia of leaving a platform.
3. Click on the Add Link button and link back to your DW entry.
4, Add a note about anonymous commenting (if turned on) and OpenID. Make certain your DW/LJ post is unlocked.
5. (Optional) Add a link back to tumblr to allow DW/LJ readers to follow and peek at the tumblr reblogs.

Note: this  is a workflow mainly for text  based meta. Giftset meta you might need to reverse.

Any thoughts? Suggestions? Things I missed? 

Workflow Method 2 - Dreamwidth To Tumblr Automatic - Detailed instructions

Instructions Short version
1. Create IFTT Account
2. Use Pre-existing IFFT recipe (IFTT recipe here) 
3. Verify DW settings and make DW post
4. DW post appears on tumblr

Workflow Method 3 - Dreamwidth To Tumblr Automatic
Instructions Short Version
1. Install Mobile "Share On Tumblr" Bookmarklet into your browser
2. Navigate to the DW/LJ post you want to Share on Tumblr
3. Click on the bookmarklet - when the window pops up you can add text and tags and post to tumblr. Note: only a bare bones link will show up. Not the full text or photos unless you manually add them

Workflow Method  4 - Tumblr to Dreamwidth Automatic - more details/instructions pending
(IFTT recipe here)
Instructions Short Version
1. Create IFTT Account
2. Use Pre-existing IFFT recipe
3. Make tumblr post
4. Tumblr post appears on DW

And dear God, someone please come up with a way to automate/streamline/integrate or something to make these platfotms work for us ...instead of us working for them.


edited to add: I am testing If Then Then That to see if I can funnel selected tumblr posts to DW via Gmail. The main problem is that it does not create a link in my tumblr post to DW but will continue exploring.

Push From DW To Tumblr With Art

 
There should be a picture here.

A Random Push From DW In The General Direction

 Just the plain text, ma'am. Just the text.

Really Random Post From DW Trying To Figure Out.....

 ....why the dates on my posts are suddenly days off (both forward and backward).

Push From DW To Tumblr With Art No Adult

 
testing by removing the over 18 warning.

IFTT recipe 2 with images

 I keep wondering if there is a place for the text to show up.



adding text below.

The Fault Lies Not In The Stars....

 ...but in the RSS feed..

Second Test of Partial Feed

As the drive to raise  money to move BAM Video Vault to its new home continues, the site owner is posting some interesting updates. This one caught my eye: “The annual Digital Music Report released TUESDAY by IFPI has found that “the recording industry is making more money from fan-made mashups, lip-syncs and tributes on YOUTUBE than from official music videos.” - See more at: http://www.allaccess.com/net-news/archive/story/127968/fan-videos-generating-more-label-revenue-than-offi#sthash.7UfdGihA.dpuf” 

As fandom grows more mainstream, the more pressure our communities will face from commercial entities that  seek to monetize our culture.  We are particularly  dependent on for profit platforms (tumblr, Youtube, Facebook, twitter etc) to form the infrastructure for our communities. This is one of the reasons that AO3 was built - we need to own the servers if we want to continue to shape our communities to meet our needs and desires.  Supporting alternative streaming platforms like BAM Video Vault is another way of achieving that goal. The current fundraising target is $1000 and they’ve just raised over half of that amount. 
 

Click here to support BAM Video Vault (aka Vidders.net Vidding Network) by Garfield Stinvil

Third Test of partial feed with link back

 “

Fiction written in the community based on one television series has been printed in pale blue ink on yellow paper, which photocopies as a blank page. Editors and authors would release the work only to people they knew, and then only after the purchaser had promised not to pass the work any further. Secondary readers - those known to the purchasers but not to the editors or writers - could be given the option to read the work in the home of the purchaser, but generally could not receive full access until they became well known in the fan group."

—

Camille Bacon-Smith, writing about pre-internet fanfic communities in her book Enterprising Women: Television Fandom and the Creation of Popular Myth (via surrexi) Let’s see if I can remember the fandoms that CBS is referencing The first is….Starsky & Hutch RPS? (no, wait that was The Purple Pages) - named because they were printed on purple paper. There was a Starsky & Hutch gen and slash zine that was printed in blue ink on red paper: Pushing The Odds. You can see images of the zine here as well. So I am drawing a blank on the blue ink/yellow paper fandom.

Fourth test Full RSS Feed With Art

 

Filking is a long time fannish tradition. It exists in both science fiction and media fandom, but its roots are deepest in sci-fi fandom.

Here are excerpts from a book of filk lyrics I found in Stacy’s Doyle’s collection last week. The book is called the NESFA Hymnal.

****************************************************

(first up a song about the sadness of waiting for elevators at fan conventions. in the days before smartphones and hotel wifi, someone had to write one to pass the time while waiting.)

THE ELEVATOR SONG ( set to the Beatles song “Yesterday”)

Yesterday, I’ve been waiting here since yesterday.
Now it looks as though I’m here to stay.
Oh, all my plans have gone astray.
And just then, he went past me and went….

Bill Mallardi, Suzanne Tompkins, Jerry Kaufman, and Linda Bushyager
Copyright 1968

***************************************************

(how about a Star Trek themed filk song?)

THE FIRST DAYS OF OUR MISSION (set to “The Twelve Days of Christmas”)

On the first day of our mission
The writers gave to me:

A transporter malfunction,
Klingons on the bridge,
Harcourt Fenton Mudd,
Ten million tribbles,
Several lovely yeomen,
A nurse to love the Vulcan,
A smart-assed Russian ensign,
A sword-wielding helmsman…..

Uhura fair,
A Scottish engineer,
An acid-witted doctor,
A Vulcan pointy-eared,
And a starship to roam the galaxy.”

(uncredited)

*************************************************************

(a filk song finally giving the bad guys of the Tolkien universe some air time)

GIVE MY REGARDS TO ORTHANC (set to “Give My Regards To Broadway”)
Give my regards to Orthanc;
Remember me to Barad-Dur.
Tell all the boys from old Nan-Curunir
That I’ll be there for sure.

Whisper of how I’m yearning

To mingle with the Morgul throng.

Give my regards to Shelob’s lair,

And tell her I’ll be there ere long.”

(uncredited)

******************************************************

(and how about those Ents? Catchy tune, eh?)

THE ENTS’ MARCHING SONG (sung to “The Ants’ Marching Song)

The Ents go marching one by one, Hurrah, Hurrah!
The Ents go marching one by one, Hurrah, Hurrah!
The Ents go marching one by one,
To get their chlorophyll into the sun.

CHORUS:The Ents go marching
Round and round and into the ground
And out in the rain and in again.
The Ents go marching two by two, Hurrah, Hurrah!
The Ents go marching two by two, Hurrah, Hurrah!
The Ents go marching two by two!
Does a marching tree wear a wooden shoe?

(Jim Landau and Sherna Comerford)

*********************************************************

(nothing changes much in space)

DRUNKEN SPACEMAN (sung to “(What Shall We Do with the Drunken Sailor?”)

What shall we do with a drunken spaceman?
What shall we do with a drunken spaceman?
What shall we do with a drunken spaceman?
Light years out from Terra.

CHORUS: Hooray, and off she blasts,
Hooray, and off she blasts,
Hooray, and off she blasts,
Light years out from Terra.

Put him in the airlock till he’s sober…
Drop him on an asteroid till he’s sober…
Put him through a space warp till he’s sober…
Throw him in the algae till he’s sober…
Put him in the reaction chamber…
Zap him with a phaser till he’s sober…
Dump him on a comsat till he’s sober…
Hang him on a skyhook till he’s sober…
Leave him in his spacesuit till he’s sober…
Haul him by the legs with a running spaceline…
Leave him out in a Martian sandstorm…
Leave him all day in a Lunar crater…
Boost him into orbit till he’s sober…
Abandon him on a planetoid…

Further verses can be improvised until the singer’s pain threshold
is reached, or the listeners stone him to death.

(uncredited)

Repost: Fandom Does Not Use Technology. Technology Uses Fandom

Dec. 16th, 2014 01:05 pm

 

Fandom usually jumps into technologies, uses them, and then acts surprised when we realize that we have no clue what we're doing or how the use of the new tech has changed an aspect of our fandom culture. Right now a few authors are posting notices that you need permission to link to their fanworks in "public spaces". Or that they'd prefer their readers comment on their fic where it was  originally posted.  Each author gets to unilaterally define what is public with the expectation that every reader will follow because that is part of the "social contract". So for today Goodreads = public and is not a place to list or review fanfic. Tumblr is OK (for now) because it is not seen as a "public" space.*  


It used to be easier to know what to expect of other fans but the moment we went online, the fannish social contract was voided due to sheer size and complexity of online interactions. Add the fact that new platforms and new ways of interacting keep coming out every 20 minutes and you have a hot conceptual mess filled with poorly understood expectations.

I know that when we went online in the 1990s few of us had any idea  that fans would be publicly posting their porn fanfic** to open access websites (no. stop. think of the children!), displaying their explicit art where anyone could see (blush), and tweeting their love of RPS and knotting fic (OMGWTFBB!).  By those standards, we have all breached the original fannish social contract of keeping fandom a "safe space" simply by interacting with one another in public and online. And I suspect that 20 years down the road, we will again struggle to recognize "fandom" as it continues to be reshaped by technology.

So I would rather see us practice mindfulness and awareness that the tools and platforms we use change us and our culture instead of snapping at one another because we've changed and that we no longer know what to expect from one another.

Because to be honest, I have no clue any more. And I'd be wary of anyone who claims otherwise.

*Keep in mind that most fans don't bother to turn off Google indexing on their tumblr blogs (or their LJ...or their DW..or their twitter or their.....). And even if they do, every time someone else reblogs your content, if *their blog* is searchable by Google it will still be "public". 

**A few of us did have in inkling but we all kept it quiet because we did not want to scare our fellow fans with our crazy visions of the future filled with flying fans sporting jetpack keyboards and tinhats.

edited to add: here is another example of Fandom Meets Technology