In a case of parallel evolution the dynamic also reminds me of Helldump on Something Awful. SA originated as a place for a soi-disant internet elite to mock and look down on aspects of the internet they considered perverted, stupid, immoral, or otherwise deviant, and it didn't take long for the principle to be turned back on "goons" themselves. It even has the same progression where one user started a thread to denounce another and other people would dig through the suspect's post history to find scandalous quotes to post out of context, and anyone who spoke up for the victim of the internet struggle session was considered an accessory to internet deviancy and targeted as well. It was and still is considered a best practice to not even try to defend oneself when being helldumped (Helldump is gone but Helldump threads live on in the suggestions and complaints forum) but rather hide and hope the whole thing blows over. Something Awful's politics were different from fandom LJ and Tumblr's (originally right-libertarian, now tending towards opposing camps of generic liberals and authoritarian "tankie" socialists) and so is the particular sort of paranoia (that the internet in general and the forums in particular are infested with crypto-pedophiles and sexual freaks) but the dynamic is strikingly similar.
I've actually suspected a lot of online culture on Livejournal was the precursor to what people blamed on "Tumblr politics" for years, I just never had real "proof" because I was too young (was in highschool when Strikethrough happened) to experience it outside of lurking public journals/communities. A lot of OG Tumblr troublemakers had a reputation before that, but Livejournal being a less public space with "FLocked" posts/communities and cutting friends list "contained" it more. I also know for a fact that a lot of "old school fandom" like Racewank was ground zero for social justice politics becoming this way now, but again, wasn't quite there to experience it.
I laughed derisively at that Andrew Slack quote, but then again, one of my first forays into internet political and cultural writing was in a Harry Potter forum lol. I was a big Harry Potter fan in early high school, so that's probably how I ended up there. But I didn't stay there to discuss the books themselves. Instead, there was a misc sub-forum where you could discuss things like politics that were totally unrelated to the books. I was comfortable in that space and people sort of knew who I was, so that's where I first publicly expressed and debated grown-up topics. If I never outgrew my HP fandom, I can easily see how that would become infused with my politics too, especially once I left the tiny isolated world of some random HP forum and a bigger universe like LJ or Tumblr or Twitter.
This is interesting to me because I remember '00s Livejournal *not* being a dogpile space. Nowadays I look back at my old Livejournal account frozen in amber and marvel at how civilized the political conversations were (when they happened, which wasn't often). That was a marked contrast to Tumblr, which seemed to be built for dogpiles from the very start.
I'd never heard of Racefail before, but it does sound like a precursor to early-'10s Tumblr social-justice warfare. It seems like certain corners of Livejournal may have been this way, but they could be avoided if you weren't looking for them. Whereas there seemed to be so little coming out of Tumblr that *wasn't* some sort of "OP IS A TERF DO NOT REBLOG" witch-hunt. (Well, unless it was porn.) Tumblr may have basically taken the bad tendencies that remained relatively self-contained on Livejournal and amplified them.
So glad you wrote about Livejournal - agree that many people seem to have missed that entirely. A lot of what I’m seeing about Tumblr is clearly written by people is clearly from people with no familiarity with online spaces or how they flowed into one another. I definitely remember LJ moving into Dreamwidth. I’d dropped out and never did Tumblr. Tumblr evolved out of the rest and the culture seems to have gone more extreme with it.
Also - icons!! My friends and I loved these, we used to print them and put them on our school notebooks too haha. I probably still have some saved in my old HD somewhere.
Finally! Someone wrote about Livejournal! I'm so happy to read this. I've also noticed a lot of discussion about Tumblr lately and a complete lack of acknowledgment of what I consider Tumblr's most important influence/predecessor: LJ. All of the language I see in fandom/SJ circles now was commonplace by the mid-00's on drama communities and fandom communities.
One thing I remember from my Livejournal days, which may be a result of the greenhouse effect you mention, is the LJ drama/meta communities like LJ_drama, stupid_free, sf_drama, etc. went from irreverent "we're laughing at everyone" groups to hyper-vigilant spaces consisting mostly of slapfights about who is more progressive. It felt like it changed overnight, but if I had to make a guess I'd say it took a few years, maybe ranging from '03 to '07 before the mass exodus to Dreamwidth & co, and Tumblr. I think so many people flooding Tumblr at once thanks to the Livejournal buyout, makes it impossible to ignore that this culture was imported directly from LJ and morphed into something similar but more aggro on Tumblr (thanks to its format, as you highlight).
I could say so much more since LJ was such a huge part of my life back in the day, but I'm just so happy to see someone publishing this. I don't think it should be left out of the conversation.
In a case of parallel evolution the dynamic also reminds me of Helldump on Something Awful. SA originated as a place for a soi-disant internet elite to mock and look down on aspects of the internet they considered perverted, stupid, immoral, or otherwise deviant, and it didn't take long for the principle to be turned back on "goons" themselves. It even has the same progression where one user started a thread to denounce another and other people would dig through the suspect's post history to find scandalous quotes to post out of context, and anyone who spoke up for the victim of the internet struggle session was considered an accessory to internet deviancy and targeted as well. It was and still is considered a best practice to not even try to defend oneself when being helldumped (Helldump is gone but Helldump threads live on in the suggestions and complaints forum) but rather hide and hope the whole thing blows over. Something Awful's politics were different from fandom LJ and Tumblr's (originally right-libertarian, now tending towards opposing camps of generic liberals and authoritarian "tankie" socialists) and so is the particular sort of paranoia (that the internet in general and the forums in particular are infested with crypto-pedophiles and sexual freaks) but the dynamic is strikingly similar.
I've actually suspected a lot of online culture on Livejournal was the precursor to what people blamed on "Tumblr politics" for years, I just never had real "proof" because I was too young (was in highschool when Strikethrough happened) to experience it outside of lurking public journals/communities. A lot of OG Tumblr troublemakers had a reputation before that, but Livejournal being a less public space with "FLocked" posts/communities and cutting friends list "contained" it more. I also know for a fact that a lot of "old school fandom" like Racewank was ground zero for social justice politics becoming this way now, but again, wasn't quite there to experience it.
I laughed derisively at that Andrew Slack quote, but then again, one of my first forays into internet political and cultural writing was in a Harry Potter forum lol. I was a big Harry Potter fan in early high school, so that's probably how I ended up there. But I didn't stay there to discuss the books themselves. Instead, there was a misc sub-forum where you could discuss things like politics that were totally unrelated to the books. I was comfortable in that space and people sort of knew who I was, so that's where I first publicly expressed and debated grown-up topics. If I never outgrew my HP fandom, I can easily see how that would become infused with my politics too, especially once I left the tiny isolated world of some random HP forum and a bigger universe like LJ or Tumblr or Twitter.
This is interesting to me because I remember '00s Livejournal *not* being a dogpile space. Nowadays I look back at my old Livejournal account frozen in amber and marvel at how civilized the political conversations were (when they happened, which wasn't often). That was a marked contrast to Tumblr, which seemed to be built for dogpiles from the very start.
I'd never heard of Racefail before, but it does sound like a precursor to early-'10s Tumblr social-justice warfare. It seems like certain corners of Livejournal may have been this way, but they could be avoided if you weren't looking for them. Whereas there seemed to be so little coming out of Tumblr that *wasn't* some sort of "OP IS A TERF DO NOT REBLOG" witch-hunt. (Well, unless it was porn.) Tumblr may have basically taken the bad tendencies that remained relatively self-contained on Livejournal and amplified them.
So glad you wrote about Livejournal - agree that many people seem to have missed that entirely. A lot of what I’m seeing about Tumblr is clearly written by people is clearly from people with no familiarity with online spaces or how they flowed into one another. I definitely remember LJ moving into Dreamwidth. I’d dropped out and never did Tumblr. Tumblr evolved out of the rest and the culture seems to have gone more extreme with it.
Also - icons!! My friends and I loved these, we used to print them and put them on our school notebooks too haha. I probably still have some saved in my old HD somewhere.
Finally! Someone wrote about Livejournal! I'm so happy to read this. I've also noticed a lot of discussion about Tumblr lately and a complete lack of acknowledgment of what I consider Tumblr's most important influence/predecessor: LJ. All of the language I see in fandom/SJ circles now was commonplace by the mid-00's on drama communities and fandom communities.
One thing I remember from my Livejournal days, which may be a result of the greenhouse effect you mention, is the LJ drama/meta communities like LJ_drama, stupid_free, sf_drama, etc. went from irreverent "we're laughing at everyone" groups to hyper-vigilant spaces consisting mostly of slapfights about who is more progressive. It felt like it changed overnight, but if I had to make a guess I'd say it took a few years, maybe ranging from '03 to '07 before the mass exodus to Dreamwidth & co, and Tumblr. I think so many people flooding Tumblr at once thanks to the Livejournal buyout, makes it impossible to ignore that this culture was imported directly from LJ and morphed into something similar but more aggro on Tumblr (thanks to its format, as you highlight).
I could say so much more since LJ was such a huge part of my life back in the day, but I'm just so happy to see someone publishing this. I don't think it should be left out of the conversation.
OMG - who gives a flying fuck?
The impact of Goons, Sh*t Reddit Says et al on spreading proto-wokeness cannot be understated.