SMOF News, volume 4, issue 12
Contemplating the end of X as an essential social network, and news in brief.
It May Finally Be Time to Let X Go
Two years ago, SMOF News covered the developing situation at (as it was then) Twitter shortly after Elon Musk had taken control of it, with particular attention to a study on past migrations of fandoms between platforms (PDF). One big point of the study was that there is a significant lag between the events that provoke people to leave a platform and the actual mass migration to a new one. LiveJournal, for instance, started making changes that would eventually drive people away in 2007, but it was not until 2010 that there was a significant shift to Dreamwidth.
Likewise, after Musk’s takeover in 2022, many users chose to stay on what became X, even though they hated the changes that had already been made. But a critical point seems to have been reached in the last couple weeks, with the news that Musk will become part of the incoming US administration, and a Queensland University study showing that X has made deliberate changes to boost right-wing voices in general and Musk in particular (PDF).
One other thing that has changed since 2022 is that TikTok is no longer the obvious next step. There are now a number of Twitter-like platforms in widespread use. BlueSky is currently adding a million users per day. Mastodon has seen a significant rise in signups and downloads. Threads claims far more users than both of them put together, though it has picked up few high-profile defectors.
With multiple viable options, the centers of gravity for different fandoms may wind up moving to different places. Or any given fandom may wind up with multiple centers on multiple Twitter-like platforms, and the new platform that every con posts to may wind up being a social media management tool that allows posting to accounts on all the alternatives.
In Brief
The trial of Thomas Dunbar and Andrew Giaume for the theft of a pallet of Magic: the Gathering cards from Gen Con in 2023 has been rescheduled yet again. The new date is January 29, with a pretrial conference on January 23.
Nominations are now open for the next Trans-Atlantic Fan Fund delegate, who will travel from Europe to North America for the 2025 World Science Fiction Convention in Seattle. Nominations will close on December 20. The nomination process is explained in Taffluorescence #6 (PDF).
Bids have appeared to hold Eastercon, the UK’s national science fiction convention, in Birmingham in 2026 and Glasgow in 2027.
Fan Expo Portland (Portland, Oregon, January 17-19) has added Jared Padalecki, Dan Slott, Chris Yost, Craig Kyle, Bill Morrison, Michael Golden, Tom Grummett, Stan Berkowitz, Dan Riba, Peter Bagge, Carl Potts, Enid Balam, Mike DeCarlo, Steve Leiber, Kevin Maguire, Karl Kesel, Mark Russell, Jeff Parker, Randy Emberlin, Guy Gilchrist, Andy Mangels, Aaron Reynolds, Arthur Suydam, Stephen Green, and Keith Tucker.
The Great Con-Junction (Borehamwood, UK, February 8-9) has added Warrick Brownlow-Pike.
Game On Expo (Phoenix, Arizona, April 4-6) has added Steve Downes and The Living Tombstone.
Event Calendar
Weekend of November 22-24
Philcon 2024, Cherry Hill, New Jersey, USA
MiniCon 2024: Polish Prosperity (anthropomorphic), Hlavatce, Czechia
Consequences Q: Quintessential Consequences (gaming), Christchurch, UK
Spel (gaming), Antwerp, Belgium
LFG Canberra (boardgames), Griffith, Australia
Asian Board Games Festival, Singapore
Milan Games Week & Cartoonomics (media/gaming), Milan, Italy
Free Play Florida (retro video games), Lakeland, Florida, USA
HotaruCon 3 (anime), Milton Keynes, UK
Akimatsuri (anime), Richmond, British Columbia, Canada
M.A.G.E (anime), Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA
Miryokucon (anime), Baltimore, Maryland, USA
Con Nichiwa 2024 (anime), Tucson, Arizona, USA
Colossalcon North (anime), Wisconsin Dells, Wisconsin, USA
Memphis Comic and Fantasy Convention, Memphis, Tennessee, USA
Heroes Dutch Comic Con, Utrecht, Netherlands
Weekend of November 29-December 1
Loscon 50, Los Angeles, California, USA
Dragonmeet (gaming), London, UK
GobbleCon (gaming), Burlingame, California, USA
Tabletop Oahu (gaming), Oahu, Hawaii, USA
Geek Days Lille (media), Lille, France
Fan Expo San Francisco (media), San Francisco, California, USA
Stars of Time Comic Con, Weston-super-Mare, UK
Anime Dallas, Dallas, Texas, USA
Anime Festival Asia Singapore, Singapore
Comic Con Arabia, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia
Just added: Comic Con Stuttgart, Stuttgart, Germany
Chicago TARDIS (Doctor Who), Lombard, Illinois, USA
Starbase Indy 2024: Exploring New Worlds (Star Trek), Indianapolis, Indiana, USA
Weekend of December 6-8
Nordcon: The Weird West, Jastrzębia Góra, Poland
XXVIII Mereth Aderthad (Tolkien), Altafulla, Spain
Dragonsteel Nexus 2024 (Brandon Sanderson), Salt Lake City, Utah, USA
Smofcon 41 (con-running), SeaTac, Washington, USA
Midwest Furfest: Heist (anthropomorphic), Rosemont, Illinois, USA
FURUM 2024: Furkini Bottom (anthropomorphic), Selangor, Malaysia
TsunamiCon (gaming), Wichita, Kansas, USA
PAX Unplugged (tabletop gaming), Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA
Shorehammer (miniatures gaming), Ocean City, Maryland, USA
Emerald Con (Pathfinder & Starfinder RPGs), Bellevue, Washington, USA and online
30 Manga Barcelona (anime), Barcelona, Spain
Otaku U III: Junior Year (anime), Livonia, Michigan, USA
Yama Con (anime), Pigeon Forge, Tennessee, USA
Anime Wonder Festival, Tucson, Arizona, USA
Anime Frontier, Fort Worth, Texas, USA
Maui Comic Con, Kahului, Hawaii, USA
Tokyo Comic Con, Tokyo, Japan
Comic Con Okinawa, Camp Foster, Okinawa, Japan
GalaxyCon Columbus (media), Columbus, Ohio, USA
Creation Nashville (media), Murfreesboro, Tennessee, USA
CCXP 24 (media), São Paulo, Brazil
Weekend of December 13-15
Sac Gamers Expo (video games), Sacramento, California, USA
Anime Weekend Atlanta, Atlanta, Georgia, USA
Permian Basin Comic Con Holiday Edition X, Midland, Texas, USA
Ocean City Comic Con, Ocean City, Maryland, USA
Weekend of December 20-22
Winter Furry Fusion, Shanghai, China
CEOtaku (anime fighting games), Orlando, Florida, USA
Con+Alt+Delete (anime), Rosemont, Illinois, USA
KisuuCon (anime), Portland, Oregon, USA
Holiday Matsuri (anime), Orlando, Florida, USA
Nashville Anime Day, Murfreesboro, Tennessee, USA
Comic Fiesta, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
Coda
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