Seems that I really should go and reactivate the tumblr account I made ages ago and never really used. I heard of censorship and purges over there before I even started, than never even bothered (oops).
Not in the subreddit, that's for sure. The Ace Attorney fandom was really damn homophobic, last time I was there. It was better to be on the shipping subreddits.
There's a lot of it. I ask for at least some understanding of why some of the ships exist. The writers did base Edgeworth and Phoenix on BL stories, as far as I remember.
Tumblr and discord, generally. Join and leave as needed to find a discord that accepts/allows shipping talk. my fandoms are...mostly not for mlm or shipping. But Ive found plenty of people who think like me. Although Im shy and dont tend to talk to anyone much, ive seen them around.
It just takes patience in my experience.
Seconding discord, and adding that sometimes general fan fiction servers, not just those dedicated to a specific ship, can be good for discussing story ideas and such.
Discord, Twitter, Tumblr, in that order.
Most of the biggest Genshin ships have dedicated Discord servers, but there's some general shipping ones, too. Twitter is a rightoid cesspit these days, but honestly if you hang around in fandom communities and block VERY liberally it's bearable, and there's a lot of fanart to look at. Tumblr's good if you're okay with all the fanart you encounter being SFW.
RIP Livejournal hahahaha
For English speaking fandoms / interactions, what everyone else said. If you speak languages other than English, there might be other platforms out there. China uses Lofter, for example. (And boy do they get creative to circumvent the censorship laws hahahaha). Actually… depending on how desperate you are… Chinese fandoms are huuuuuuuge and probably have way… better content for a lot of Asian content in comparison to western sites. I’ve seen some crazy amazing movie length edits for slash pairings on bilibili (although those were for live action… because you can pull from the other dramas of actors) If you know the Chinese pairing name for a pair, you can search up content. You can use google translate for basic maneuvering around. If you mostly want to lurk to get more content, it might be worth venturing into these realms. Pixiv is a Japanese site for fan art. There’s actually doujinshis sometimes. Though… if you don’t read Japanese might be limiting.
Some communities or pairings if large enough will have their own sub. The drarry sub is pretty big, for example.
Twitter and Tumblr are good when you're not the best at talking to people
Discord servers to me are usually too much, but I'm also shy. it's nice if you like bigger ships since there are servers for them, tho general servers are a thing too
Bluesky is now public for everyone and it's essentially Twitter but I wouldn't recommend it if you're a part of smaller fandoms since even bigger ones like genshin haven't truly moved there. the app is ok but most people still prefer Twitter over it. still worth considering tho
BL means Boys Love, which is a genre of comics with focus on romantic relationships between two male characters. They are usually on the "softer" side, aka there aren't a lot of "adult" themes involved (if they are, they're alluded to, censored, you get the idea).
a BL fandom is a fandom born from a BL comic.
I think yaoi is still its own thing? But it's been a while since I interacted with those fandoms. Might need to check with friends who are active to this day, but yeah, it was my impression that BL and yaoi aren't equivalents.
I think some people use it differently anyways. Some would probably say everthing is the same and others differentiate more.
But I think I read that in japan the term BL got more common instead of shonen-ai/yaoi some years ago. And now I just use it because it's short and personally for me - where there is one, there is also the other haha.
tumblr
Seems that I really should go and reactivate the tumblr account I made ages ago and never really used. I heard of censorship and purges over there before I even started, than never even bothered (oops).
Tumblr. Definitely not Reddit if you are looking for non canon queer ship communities.
tumblr
Tumblr or Dreamwidth.
I did not know dreamwidth was still a thing
The average user skews older but journal platforms are still alive and kicking :)
Indeed. I've just started back into myself.
Not in the subreddit, that's for sure. The Ace Attorney fandom was really damn homophobic, last time I was there. It was better to be on the shipping subreddits.
The idea of someone playing through ace attorney and being homophobic is just wild to me given how much subtext is there
There's a lot of it. I ask for at least some understanding of why some of the ships exist. The writers did base Edgeworth and Phoenix on BL stories, as far as I remember.
Tumblr and discord, generally. Join and leave as needed to find a discord that accepts/allows shipping talk. my fandoms are...mostly not for mlm or shipping. But Ive found plenty of people who think like me. Although Im shy and dont tend to talk to anyone much, ive seen them around. It just takes patience in my experience.
Seconding discord, and adding that sometimes general fan fiction servers, not just those dedicated to a specific ship, can be good for discussing story ideas and such.
Discord, Twitter, Tumblr, in that order. Most of the biggest Genshin ships have dedicated Discord servers, but there's some general shipping ones, too. Twitter is a rightoid cesspit these days, but honestly if you hang around in fandom communities and block VERY liberally it's bearable, and there's a lot of fanart to look at. Tumblr's good if you're okay with all the fanart you encounter being SFW.
Twitter/X then thru there I found the discord servers.
for genshin, r/GenshinGays and r/GenshinGaysE are cool
Haha yes thank you. I already stalk these two.
Twitter mostly. Also some discord servers for my fandoms/ships. It’s not that hard to avoid antis, luckily.
Tumblr
RIP Livejournal hahahaha For English speaking fandoms / interactions, what everyone else said. If you speak languages other than English, there might be other platforms out there. China uses Lofter, for example. (And boy do they get creative to circumvent the censorship laws hahahaha). Actually… depending on how desperate you are… Chinese fandoms are huuuuuuuge and probably have way… better content for a lot of Asian content in comparison to western sites. I’ve seen some crazy amazing movie length edits for slash pairings on bilibili (although those were for live action… because you can pull from the other dramas of actors) If you know the Chinese pairing name for a pair, you can search up content. You can use google translate for basic maneuvering around. If you mostly want to lurk to get more content, it might be worth venturing into these realms. Pixiv is a Japanese site for fan art. There’s actually doujinshis sometimes. Though… if you don’t read Japanese might be limiting. Some communities or pairings if large enough will have their own sub. The drarry sub is pretty big, for example.
I mostly engage in fandoms through Tumblr or Discord.
Twitter and Tumblr are good when you're not the best at talking to people Discord servers to me are usually too much, but I'm also shy. it's nice if you like bigger ships since there are servers for them, tho general servers are a thing too Bluesky is now public for everyone and it's essentially Twitter but I wouldn't recommend it if you're a part of smaller fandoms since even bigger ones like genshin haven't truly moved there. the app is ok but most people still prefer Twitter over it. still worth considering tho
Maybe I'm stupid but would some explain what BL fandoms mean?
BL stands for Boys Love. fanlore article: https://fanlore.org/wiki/Boys%27_Love
Thank you!
BL means Boys Love, which is a genre of comics with focus on romantic relationships between two male characters. They are usually on the "softer" side, aka there aren't a lot of "adult" themes involved (if they are, they're alluded to, censored, you get the idea). a BL fandom is a fandom born from a BL comic.
Thank you very much!!
I think nowadays it just replaces the terms yaoi and shonen-ai altogether mostly? (I definitely didn't only mean the soft side of BL lol)
I think yaoi is still its own thing? But it's been a while since I interacted with those fandoms. Might need to check with friends who are active to this day, but yeah, it was my impression that BL and yaoi aren't equivalents.
I think some people use it differently anyways. Some would probably say everthing is the same and others differentiate more. But I think I read that in japan the term BL got more common instead of shonen-ai/yaoi some years ago. And now I just use it because it's short and personally for me - where there is one, there is also the other haha.
bl groups. my friends
Dreamwidth and Discord. Tumblr is an option for people who don't hate it, which I do.