Snowflake Challenge 02025 #13: Say Hello

Challenge #13 asks us to expand our circle of people we've made contact with.

For me, one of the best parts of fandom is the opportunity to interact with people who share my passions. Whether that's directly through comments or fanwork exchanges, or more indirectly by moderating communities, or reccing new work to people we already know -- talking to each other is one way I show fandom love.

Challenge #13

Interact with someone in fandom you haven't talked with before.

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We all have different levels of comfort in putting ourselves out there. And while we here at Fandom Snowflake love to challenge people to go out of their comfort zone, we also want you to feel safe. You don't have to strike up a conversation with a total stranger (unless you want to). You could try any number of things! Comment on someone else's journal, or comment on a fanwork. Speak up in a Discord conversation. Leave kudos on a work at AO3. Reblog a fanwork on Tumblr. Fill a prompt at a community. Chat up the random person who posted about your favorite fandom here in our challenges. Find someone to wave to in tags. Really, anything that has you communicating with someone else counts.

Here's some suggestions if you want them:

- Challenge #8 asked people to post a promo or manifesto for one of their beloved fandoms. Look at the comments for someone who shares your interests, and leave them a comment!

- Challenge #9 asked people to create a fanwork. It's a great place to find new people!

- Go to AO3 and sort the fics in your favorite fandom by comments, and leave a comment or kudos on one you've never read before.

- If you would like to find a community that suits your interests, try ysabetwordsmith's Follow Friday tag. The communities are sorted by topic. Maybe comment on a recent post there, or post something relevant yourself.

One of the things that helps build community is having shared things to talk about, and so when Snowflake rolls around, I try to make a concerted effort to comment on various challenge posts and the like. Of course, because so many people participate, I inevitably fall behind on taking care of such things, but I do try to give comments where I have something to talk about with someone else. And most of the time, the people that I'm talking to are usernames that I haven't seen before on Dreamwidth.

( On the matter of talking to people you've never met before )

In any case, this post, like all the others, is a perfect place to jump in and say hello! Ask questions, drop factoids, show links, all of those things. Just remember that it's more of a salon in my living room (as jenett says) than the public square, and comport yourselves accordingly.