We are all here and sort of excited for trying a new platform now that Reddit have turned from bad to worse. Still, I have a good deal of dejavu from the 2015 AMAgeddon. Back then plenty of subreddits also locked down in response to Victoria getting fired as manager for the AMAs. Back then myself and many other redditors swore we were done with the site and tried to goto other sites. I think Empeopled was the main choice back then and it was fun there for a little while. And then everyone came back and Reddit only grew with millions of users until today.
Is this time going be different? Is the blackout bigger and more widespread this time? I am thinking the big difference is that this is has more direct consequences with many (and very active) users losing their apps and tools, but I am not sure it will really matter much in the end. I am hoping Lemmy will get momentum, but I also see myself and many others saying the same things about Reddit as in 2015.
I would like to hear peoples thoughts on short stories. Is it something you read, occasionally or often?
Most other readers I know read mostly novels - and often long series with recurring characters or same universe. I have been there myself, mostly in the science fiction genre, but in the last couple of years I have switched to mostly reading short stories. I found many novels that had decent stories, but they were simply too long and felt padded. Many 600 pages novels that could have been 200 pages - or even less. With short stories I can get the joys of several good stories in a week and the bad ones doesn’t feel like a huge time waste.
However it seems like the trend with many forms of cultural consumption these days are familiarity. Season after season of the same tv series. Series of movies in same universe. Book series with recurring characters and many seem to think the longer the better. Especially in fantasy.
Many writers start with short stories before their first novel and many readers will try a short story as a sort of sample of that author. Nothing wrong with that, but short stories deserves recognition on its own merit and I love when otherwise well established authors are still publishing short stories.
A novel is usually better for longer character developments or grand world building, but for me there is great value in “less is more”. Don’t always need the entire backstory or have every loose end tied up neatly. Focus on one thing. Especially in a genre like science fiction where a short story can be a great way to explore a concept or an idea, limited to some thousands words and get to the core of what the authors wants to tell.
@ampcold
@beehaw.org