Stats

[sombrefan]

So the Whedonesque Syndicated Feed currently has 2133 subscribers on LJ. This figure hasn't really changed in five years and we're always in around the top 40 most subscribed feeds.

Last March I wrote that Whedonesque had 3346 followers on Twitter. Today that figure now stands at 18,183.

Is this a similar trend for other sites in different fandoms I wonder. LJ interest remaining static while the fandom grows on Twitter?

Comments

[sueworld2003.livejournal.com]

Twitter the newest 'big thing' for the cool crowd next year It'll probaly be somewhere else. Horses for courses.

[flake-sake.livejournal.com]

Hm, I guess Twitter is also something where more casual fans would subscribe. I don't know if I'm representative, but on Twitter I'm not very selective, I subscribe to pretty much anything that mildly interests me, while on LJ which I really use every day I have very few active feeds.

[deborahw37.livejournal.com]

Sort of chimes in with the fact that JM's Official Facebook page has over 9000 members and updates are Tweeted.

New media changes the way we get info all the time.

[ubi4soft.livejournal.com]

IDK if you can have a conversation tweeting by the phone! yes, no, here's the pic and that's 90% of twitter

[menomegirl.livejournal.com]

I'm agreeing with sueworld2003 on this one.

[angearia.livejournal.com]

Could've said the same thing about Facebook almost a decade ago. And now everyone and their mom is on Facebook...

I think Twitter is bringing new fans into Fandom who never would've stumbled upon it anyways. Which is cool. Maybe Twitter is encouraging them to discuss any and everything and it's the first time they've started doing this with their favorite TV shows. Whatever it is, it's cool. And I think it's premature to say it'll go away anytime soon considering that Twitter has been around for quite a while, it just only in the past few years achieved such massive popularity. And I doubt it will go defunct not with celebrities posting on it regularly.

I think LJ is where you'll find the hardcore, creative fans. The ones who write fic and essays and create fanart (icons, wallpapers, etc). But there's also a whole group of fans who don't create, but consumer these creations and who also just like to talk about the show. And talking about the show seems well-suited for Twitter in the casual, non-hardcore-obsessed manner.

here via sueworld2003

[ruuger]

I think the difference in popularity comes down to the different ways that people interact in fandom. LJ has a more community/creative/discussion culture to it, whereas Twitter is used by many more as a news agregate, so people are more likely to follow a site like Whedonesque through Twitter than LJ. I, for example, have shifted from following feeds on LJ to following feeds on Facebook simply because it is better suited for that than LJ, even though LJ is my main social media website (I would actually probably follow those feeds on Twitter if I hadn't had bit of a privacy scare that caused me to delete my Twitter account).

Also, Twitter is much more mainstream than LJ, so it's logical that the feeds there would gain followers faster than on LJ. And thanks to Twitter's own 'follow friday' culture that encourages people not to wander off-site, a casual fan is more likely to stumble upon the Twitter feed than the LJ feed - on LJ, if someone pimps Whedonesque, they will link to the site itself rather than the LJ feed, whereas on Twitter they will likely link to @whedonesque.

Re: here via sueworld2003

[sueworld2003.livejournal.com]

Exactly. I totally agree with that summing up.

Re: here via sueworld2003

[simonf.livejournal.com]

"LJ has a more community/creative/discussion culture to it, whereas Twitter is used by many more as a news agregate"

Though I have seen many episode discussions of Buffy, Angel, Dollhouse etc on Twitter and they have been very good. It's like an informal community discussion where anyone can drop in.

Re: here via sueworld2003

[a2zmom.livejournal.com]

I agree. I like a place where I can engage in discourse with my fellow fans. That is definitely not twitter.

[quinara]

I was going to reply on sueworld2003's LJ, but I thought I might as well mention it over here - I don't really follow that many communities, but at least four new Buffyverse ones have been mentioned on my flist in the last two months (buffyquestions, whedonpb, spuffy_daily, genfic_minis) and they're being joined by a number of people whose journals are less than a year old. Whether or not the overall size of LJ fandom is declining, it certainly isn't static.

[sd-herald.livejournal.com]

Oh and speaking of Twitter-the people who update this: Verse on Twitter (http://whedontrivia.moonfruit.com/#/verseontwitter/4534383984) haven't added to it in awhile. Do you know who to contact about it, Simon?

[simonf.livejournal.com]

I think that's run by a guy called Buffysmglover . Their twitter site is still active so you could tweet I guess. http://twitter.com/whedontrivia (http://twitter.com/whedontrivia)

[menomegirl.livejournal.com]

Thank you. I sent them a tweet asking about it.

[crossoverman.livejournal.com]

Not to be cynical, but I wonder how many of those followers are spam bots. It seems to me that the more followers I get, the more spam bots seem to follow me. And I've got nowhere near that many followers, but the problem might be exponential.

That said, I agree with other people here - people are less discriminating when following on Twitter.

[menomegirl.livejournal.com]

Yes and have you posted something and had a bot follow you within a minute after you posted? It's irritating.

[simonf.livejournal.com]

Well that is a factor but Twitter does periodically shake off the bots. Though I will say that there is an element who think Whedonesque is Joss Whedon on Twitter. Despite us saying in the profile "NOT Joss Whedon's blog and we're NOT Joss Whedon on Twitter".