AMV Communities on Social Media?

[KiddTheManiac]

I know that The Org is the biggest site out there when it comes to AMVs, but what about other online editing communities? Where do people on Tumblr go to discuss their AMVs, or on Twitter? Are there all kinds of little mini AMV hubs?

[Bauzi]

I have no clue to be honest. Everything feels fractured to me now. There are still great bigger communities like .org or AMVNews. On social media I'm only in my countries (Austria) group with 100+ members. Posts reach 35 to 60 people. It works quite well for us.

[Mol]

FB, YT, Reddit ,skype/discord groups, amvcentral. A bit decentralized imo

[Kionon]

I tried one of the discord groups, but it just wasn't a good fit for me. The IRC still exists, but isn't utilised much. I don't use reddit at all (lots of bad experiences with several sub groups). FB and Twitter, I usually interact with specific editors, but not communities. I believe (although I'd love to be wrong), I am not welcome at AMV Central for a variety of reasons.

The Org is pretty much still my go-to community. It's disappointing that we have a significant enough generation gap, that many of the older editors are retired or only post from time to time, and newer editors find the format of the Org to be uncomfortable. One of the reasons one of the discord groups was a bad fit for me (and indeed, was "discord") is because I couldn't choose which conversations to be a part of in the main channel. Everyone constantly spoke at once. I wasn't able to have the kind of detailed conversations, some of them controversial or argumentative (in the rhetoric sense, not in the hostile sense) I really love having in forums. Discord was too fast for me, I could not keep up with conversation changes, and no one wanted to engage in long-winded discussions. Likewise, many of the discord participants informed me that they considered forums to be too slow, too broken up (in terms of different sub forums, topics, and posts), and too serious.

This is an issue that doesn't just face the AMV community, it has been repeated several other times in various communities. We start in small communities (as we did in the 90s) because we aren't aware of a bigger movement. Then a central place is established (the Org) which attracts everyone. Once the movement is known to be large enough, and communication is easy enough, people select their own groups, and once again the movement becomes fractionalised. I've seen the AMV community during all of these phases. It is what it is, it's normal. No sense being bothered by it. You just have to choose your group and commit. Mine is the Org.

[Bauzi]

The problem I see is: We are a community (and maybe even a generation) of self promoters. In Reddit, FB and others I don't see much beside self promotion. Yes I do this as well, because I don't find enough time to participate or start discussions.

[qyll]

I know that The Org is the biggest site out there when it comes to AMVs

That's debatable. I would say YouTube is the biggest, although the site layout doesn't really facilitate discussion. There are also plenty of AMV fandoms in Russia, China, France, and Spain.

[Kionon]

The problem I see is: We are a community (and maybe even a generation) of self promoters. In Reddit, FB and others I don't see much beside self promotion. Yes I do this as well, because I don't find enough time to participate or start discussions.

That's something I really don't do. But then I barely release videos on any kind of normal timescale, so... This has never really been about self-promotion for me. It's about "visual fanfiction" as Quu used to say.

That's debatable. I would say YouTube is the biggest, although the site layout doesn't really facilitate discussion. There are also plenty of AMV fandoms in Russia, China, France, and Spain.

It used to be. Just not anymore.

[DJ_Izumi]

I want Kionon to be wrong but it's sadly true. The internet is kinda boring at this point even if I can't deny what an amazing thing it has become at the same time.

This used to be a place where we explored and discovered. I had never heard of The Org when I made my first AMV but I was pointed here. I would roam the internet, searching in WebCrawler and Infoseek and such discovering cute little websites about my favorite anime with 'obscure scans' from art books and bits of information I didn't know.

Now you can stream most series to any console, phone or PC.
Now there's a Wikia for every fandom with every detail you could want.
Now you can buy the artbooks or just pirate them in one giant clump of a torrent.

It's amazing and truly a great thing but at the same time, when everything you could ever want is in the first five results on Google, it's not fun anymore. :/

[DJ_Izumi]

Okay, that was a little negative... I stand by what I said but there are truly great things too. The western anime fandom successfully blew up from a niche of VHS fansub traders to a mainstream pop-culture powerhouse. I can buy (Some) English translated visual novels when once the best you could hope for would be CG sets posted on obscure websites. Now, on Saturday, me and friends will drunkenly group-play a VN that I bought on Steam. That could never have been done years and years ago. You can access the vast majority of anime instead of hoping for what scraps you could locate and be tipped off of. Whole 'New this season!' breakdowns on ANN and Kotaku. No need for 'tips from knowledgeable friends', we have the full TV Guide treatment now.

...Also once when I was bored, I ordered a working 1/2 scale Gashapon machine... So that was cool and that kind of access didn't exist once upon a time...

[Kionon]

Izumi's absolutely right.

Also, I happily point out that for those who remember, Izumi and I had a spat that went on far too long (many years, a decade?), but we buried the hatchet some time in the last couple of years. Was it on Kotaku? It might have been (some of my journalism work has been shared there). I now work for an affiliate of ANN. Anyhow, digression from the topic, but I am glad to have removed Izumi from my "foe's list" both literally (as in the forum software) and figuratively too, off of the very small list of people towards whom I still hold a grudge. Some things certainly get worse, but some things get better. I hold onto hope I can remove the other couple of names, some day.

Every now and then I think about the fact that 20 years ago, when I first really started getting into anime/manga/AMVs etc, there was next to nothing out there. I remember reading manga I purchased with printed off translation scripts (not scanlations, actual text files) with panel directions. I remember watching everything at Blockbuster. I remember VKLL fansubs for Sailor Moon on multi-colored VHS tapes. I remember the whine of 20 VCRs all copying Maison Ikkoku before VIZ licensed it. I remember the joy of discovering and falling in love with Ayukawa Madoka, Kasuga Kyosuke, and Hiyama Hikaru. I remember thinking Japan seemed like such an awesome place.

Now I have been in Japan for a decade. There are significant social, economic, and political problems in Japan. Specifically, I spend a great deal of time on LGBT issues and labor issues in Japan. I also struggle as an immigrant to find my place. It can be easy to get jaded. But then I think about where we started, what Izumi has just relayed, and what I've said too. And... I live in Tokyo, I'm an anime journalist, an English and Social Studies teacher in the Japanese school system, I'm almost finished with my citizenship process, have a legal Japanese name and identity, actually got to spend a year as a Japanese JHS student and graduate despite being an adult, and have built a life with friends I care about and places I belong.

I couldn't have done that without fandom as it had been, but I also no longer need it anymore. So I won't be too upset if the landscape has changed, because I've changed, too.