Where should I go if I want to make connections?

[kanedafanatic]

It's me, again. Already made a few threads here but, never been actively part of any Touhou enthusiast forum or group. I wrote here first to test the waters, and saying vague questions on my behalf didn't lead to what I wanted. So, I'd like to see what else there is and go interact with others/or making my own and add other people within.

So, I'd like to ask: where should I go if I want to "externalize" Touhou instead of keeping myself isolated? Where should I go if I want to interact with others, wherever on this website or anywhere else? Or how do I start one? What I mean by "externalizing" is finding a way to translate the passion I have for this series into a medium: game, story, headcannon, drawings, whatever else.

I will not beat around the bush: I've had enough. Enough keeping to myself and not touch any circle or forum that would allow me to have connections or even friendships with a shared common interest. I fear that it may dilute my own views and my own standards. I fear that if I share my own view of what this series is to me, I'd alienate people that hold the same interests. I'm willing to admit that I should lower my standard for now, temporarily, because it makes me secluded within my own realm. I had enough to keep everything to myself with no means to express it.

I have no better way to say it. I want to make connections, I have enough to reside by myself within my own head. Where should I go for that? What should I do for that? Maybe I sound pathetic writing that third paragraph. Do whatever you want with that. I want a means to finally be able to express myself and be complete, without fear of being left out. If this allows me to break my wannabe hermit habits then, I'll do it. I want to change for once.

 

[Napechi97]

I think this site is perfect for that, you can use chat or the "What are people thinking?" thingy, you can join the discord server, post drawings and other things in the an album and it will show in the Shrine Gallery as well, as well as join a social group. Forums are just one of many things you can use here

 

[YuyuFumo]

Really sounds like you're overthinking things. If you're afraid that people are going to give you shit over what you want to share or create around the series, go create an account on Maidens of the Kaleidoscope and post there; It's a sterilized version of this site without the piracy or political incorrectness. Forums here tend to be a little more orderly than the goblinposting in the Discord server, and, unless you're going out of your way to post something blatantly retarded, people here are pretty cool. Just throw yourself into it, that's the best advice I can give.

There's also 4chan's /JP/ board as well, though I find it's a mixed bag between actual content and people posting questionable art to get their rocks off.

 

[kanedafanatic]

I see. Thanks for the replies, I'll try with any of the social groups around and see the Maidens of the Kaleidoscope forums.

Now, I'm not too hot with the idea of touching a Discord server. Please correct me if I am wrong, that's purely my subjective and opinionated view: I feel like a majority of servers revolving around Touhou is either between two extremes. Either it's not taken seriously, treating itself like like a schoolyard server where it's more vibes over function, or it's very competitive servers where the stereotype of the "1CCer" is taken to ridiculously high standards (I guess I'm not better). There could be servers, forums or social groups that situates in between, it's certain that there are. Yet, I don't have the patience to jump between each servers just to find it's either "be retarded" or "Holy shit this is dedicated, I feel like I don't belong here."

I'll do my part but, I wonder if there is a side on either this, a Discord server, or the MotK forums that's more... "teahouse"-like? It's definitely one way to phrase it; what I mean is something more like a small group where anybody share their ideas, art, fanfic, suggestions, without the ambience of a shitpost channel you see on every Discord server. I think of the occasional braindead dumbfuck behavior appearing from time to time, during conversations, but just something that doesn't revolve only around that. Picture the kind of place where Alice and Patchouli would go, tell a few dumbass jokes, gaggle and choke on their spit, tell new ideas, debate over rules, inconsistencies or fallacies, and hangout without the usual IQ-diminishing effect that goes with it.


In case there's none, then I'll try it myself here. I see no reason to try, maybe even those who read this might be tempted. I am doing this do get out of my old habits and actually have fun, without sacrificing the deepness and complexity of Touhou and it's rules. It's one of my main concerns and the thing I prioritize the most. Having a group where I don't have to dilute my ideas, show the output with like-minded people, think outside of the box and interact, that's what I need. If this allows to make me happier, then I'm willing to change a few parameters for the people that are into the idea.

 

[RiceCookies]

Well, allow me to suggest a slightly different take then.

Why don't you start your own 'teahouse'? Since it seems all you need is some kind of social space where like minded individuals gather. Make your own personal discord server, blogspot (I have no idea if that is still a thing) or basically any kind of space on a free site where you can post all your ideas to in one place.

After that simply go searching and creating. For example when I think touhou art, I think of a site like safebooru that has millions of them (Though I don't know if one can upload their own images there or only links to them). When I think story, I think of sites for fanfiction like archiveofourown. When I think games, I think of itchio. Head-cannons would be more like social sites like twitter or maybe a Minecraft server (I remember there is this server that aims to recreate Gensokyo in full, so lots of passionate talented fans over there.) All of those have their very own toho spaces. Many different people with many different ideas of how Gensokyo looks like and is supposed to be. And you dislike some, yet love others. And that's why there is a need to give people the ability to follow you - so that other fans can decide if they like your take, and if they do, they will also know where to find you... and if they don't, then they will also know where to find you and you'll be able to choose between getting in to a good old-fashioned online argument or ignore/block them. So in the end any space catered towards artists is probably fine. Most probably have a toho group somewhere anyway as the fandom is simply THAT big.

In such a big fandom, probably the best way to find people like Alice and Patchy is to start a chat with an artist you like, or to become the artist others try chat with. Maybe someone who posted a short comic you liked or is also starting out their expressive adventure? And then you can force them to join your Discord server XD

Edit: Oh, and I forgot - music is SoundCloud or Bandcamp.

 

[kanedafanatic]

That'

Well, allow me to suggest a slightly different take then.

Why don't you start your own 'teahouse'? Since it seems all you need is some kind of social space where like minded individuals gather. Make your own personal discord server, blogspot (I have no idea if that is still a thing) or basically any kind of space on a free site where you can post all your ideas to in one place.

After that simply go searching and creating. For example when I think touhou art, I think of a site like safebooru that has millions of them (Though I don't know if one can upload their own images there or only links to them). When I think story, I think of sites for fanfiction like archiveofourown. When I think games, I think of itchio. Head-cannons would be more like social sites like twitter or maybe a Minecraft server (I remember there is this server that aims to recreate Gensokyo in full, so lots of passionate talented fans over there.) All of those have their very own toho spaces. Many different people with many different ideas of how Gensokyo looks like and is supposed to be. And you dislike some, yet love others. And that's why there is a need to give people the ability to follow you - so that other fans can decide if they like your take, and if they do, they will also know where to find you... and if they don't, then they will also know where to find you and you'll be able to choose between getting in to a good old-fashioned online argument or ignore/block them. So in the end any space catered towards artists is probably fine. Most probably have a toho group somewhere anyway as the fandom is simply THAT big.

In such a big fandom, probably the best way to find people like Alice and Patchy is to start a chat with an artist you like, or to become the artist others try chat with. Maybe someone who posted a short comic you liked or is also starting out their expressive adventure? And then you can force them to join your Discord server XD

That's an idea I'm actually giving a shot. As we speak, I began with a small step by making a social group here, on this site. I'm going small but, that's already somewhere to start. It made me begin talking in other sides of the site as well and interacting with others.

In the case of the social group, I thought that the name was appropriate enough: "kanedafanatic's Virtual Teahouse", so I kept it.

In the case of creating... for now, I don't really know. Sorry for the Akira metaphor but, where Kaneda and his gang, the Capsules, had bikes as their main schtick; I kind of stand with nothing. True, we all begin somewhere but, I don't have a efficient means to translate what's on my mind. I don't believe I'm "no good" but I don't have a sufficient pipeline. Stress-testing Gensokyo by introducing new rules, exchanging architectural systems (the Yukari kind of architectural), put new concepts is something I do regularly but, words don't seem enough.

Then again, maybe I'm asking myself too much. Output is what matters for now, I don't need to go fully in detail over each speck of dust.

 

[RiceCookies]

^ That sounds like a good mindset. I like your taste in movies. Nice pick.

I'm in a similar situation actually. I wanna make something, yet not necessarily toho, just something. Creative juices are begging me to unleash something on to the world... yet I'll default to this series anyway as I've been in this fandom so long it feels like a great starting point. So if you want tips for free software, just type me. Should spare you a few minutes (or hours) of search. Nowadays there are great opensource alternatives for everything.

Edit: 'I don't have a efficient means to translate what's on my mind.' A lot of artists struggle with this, so you are not alone. The advice I've heard is to not try too hard. A go with the flow, worry later kind of thing.

Edit 2: So as an example, for people that don't like drawing because they can't get the lines to look like they do in their head... "It's impossible!". Artists don't do that anyway, they just work with what they get and make it look pretty.

Something along the lines "You don't just become good at drawing. It's a segmented process - you can learn how to draw people well, but that won't mean you'll be good at drawing a dog or flowers. You could learn how do draw hands well, but still have horrible anatomy. To become 'good' you will have to learn how to be good at drawing many different things and for each you will need a lot of practice." and "If you want to make art, then you have to fall in love with the process. If all you want is the result of 'Oh, hey, I made something cool' because then you won't have any motivation when you start learning and suck, and realize you suck because you just started leaning. Having goals? Great! Expecting high things of yourself? Fantastic! But realistically you will not put in all the time it takes to get to that point unless you can also like making art, not just having made good art." are things I've heard from popular tutorials.

There. Should be less ambiguous then my initial words and therefor more helpful.

 

[mofuplasty]

I see. Thanks for the replies, I'll try with any of the social groups around and see the Maidens of the Kaleidoscope forums.

Now, I'm not too hot with the idea of touching a Discord server. Please correct me if I am wrong, that's purely my subjective and opinionated view: I feel like a majority of servers revolving around Touhou is either between two extremes. Either it's not taken seriously, treating itself like like a schoolyard server where it's more vibes over function, or it's very competitive servers where the stereotype of the "1CCer" is taken to ridiculously high standards (I guess I'm not better). There could be servers, forums or social groups that situates in between, it's certain that there are. Yet, I don't have the patience to jump between each servers just to find it's either "be retarded" or "Holy shit this is dedicated, I feel like I don't belong here."

I'll do my part but, I wonder if there is a side on either this, a Discord server, or the MotK forums that's more... "teahouse"-like? It's definitely one way to phrase it; what I mean is something more like a small group where anybody share their ideas, art, fanfic, suggestions, without the ambience of a shitpost channel you see on every Discord server. I think of the occasional braindead dumbfuck behavior appearing from time to time, during conversations, but just something that doesn't revolve only around that. Picture the kind of place where Alice and Patchouli would go, tell a few dumbass jokes, gaggle and choke on their spit, tell new ideas, debate over rules, inconsistencies or fallacies, and hangout without the usual IQ-diminishing effect that goes with it.


In case there's none, then I'll try it myself here. I see no reason to try, maybe even those who read this might be tempted. I am doing this do get out of my old habits and actually have fun, without sacrificing the deepness and complexity of Touhou and it's rules. It's one of my main concerns and the thing I prioritize the most. Having a group where I don't have to dilute my ideas, show the output with like-minded people, think outside of the box and interact, that's what I need. If this allows to make me happier, then I'm willing to change a few parameters for the people that are into the idea.

I get what you mean, Discord servers are usually bottom of the barrel, or genuinely just too big to have any meaningful discussion with people. Your best shot is probably just to look for smaller ones on sites like Disboard but then again, it's Discord servers, you're gonna be hanging out with teenagers. Not saying it's weird necessarily, but you can imagine that a "connection" with those kinds of people is just... eh? They aren't fully mature emotionally, joke around and don't take things too seriously. You need to work to understand their humor, and fit in with them, if this makes sense.
There's probably also other Discord servers with older more seasoned fans but those are typically around a certain niche such as music, circles or development.

This forum is overall a nice place and community, however I can understand why it doesn't feel like a "complete" community since it lacks ease of messages and 1 to 1 connection, as, well, it's a forum.

There's also 4chan's /JP/ board as well, though I find it's a mixed bag between actual content and people posting questionable art to get their rocks off.

/jp/ was alright in the past years but many people recently have been correctly calling it a dead board. I've made plenty of friends and more off /jp/ and those turn out to be pretty likeable all things considered, so I guess it qualifies as a "place where you could connect", but... dude, just, bro, no.
There's only ever really one general Touhou thread, and, unless you start one yourself, barely any about the actual Touhou lore or just game discussion. Half are unrelated Otaku interests such as V-Tubers, and the other half are the remaining surviving Touhou threads, which, you can imagine, won't be of the highest quality or civility.
It really does come down to "which 2hu wud u fuk" most of the time, except with different flavors of fetish, if not then it's just surface level discussion. It's not just mindless goon-posting, but it's... not really the best way to connect with people right off the get go, y'know?
What I'm saying is, if you're into that, I'm sure you can connect with people through it. If you're just looking for peaceful, pure discussion... yeah, better luck somewhere else, or in your own threads. Just one of the many pools where you can find 2hu fans, I suppose.

 

[kanedafanatic]

It really does come down to "which 2hu wud u fuk" most of the time, except with different flavors of fetish

I was scrolling down my YouTube recommended today and I saw a "which 2hu wud u smash" kind of video. Felt deceived, looked at the channel and figured out the rest. Don't need to lick every sidewalk to tell myself it's awful when the person had already two videos about fucking Touhou characters.

I kinda thought of something like a YouTube channel once. Who did not ever dream of starting a YouTube channel? I mean, I do have a certain audience here so, a bit of time can lead to something. I won't tease that I'm really in the idea but if the teahouse thing doesn't work then there's that to try.

This forum is overall a nice place and community, however I can understand why it doesn't feel like a "complete" community since it lacks ease of messages and 1 to 1 connection, as, well, it's a forum.

Time is needed for something to grow so, I'm not too concerned to stay here for a while. When I'll be ready, maybe I'll expand elsewhere (I'm talking like I'm some hot shit goddamn) to other forums or so but, for now? It's fine in here. I like it.