The New York Times in talks to acquire Letterboxd

[gagzus 28,049]

They’ll probably paywall the app then  and give people the ability to sway critical reception.

[NUTELLA 32,374]

@gagacabana explain in lesbian terms

[bxr 3,944]

29 minutes ago, NUTELLA said:

@gagacabana explain in lesbian terms

That the first thought that surfaced to mind was “cabanagirl, this is your moment!”   

[NUTELLA 32,374]

2 minutes ago, bxr said:

That the first thought that surfaced to mind was “cabanagirl, this is your moment!”   

A testament to how out-of-the-loop I am.... the first few times she mentioned "letterboxed," I thought it was sapphic slang

[loveandpeace 2,683]

Noo not my fave platform Why do they have to ruin everything 

[bxr 3,944]

1 minute ago, NUTELLA said:

A testament to how out-of-the-loop I am.... the first few times she mentioned "letterboxed," I thought it was sapphic slang

Zomg … I never noticed how that completely works as a play on words … it could legit be a sapphic movie review site (let‘s keep the imagination station PG, though … )

 

OT: The NYT might be making a move to lean in to the Reddit thread to screenplay pipeline … and start scouting writers from the Letterbox‘d membership … sort of similar to Substack scouting for editorial media, as well … that, and, to the earlier point, they would be able to have more control over publicized sentiment (I’m thinking of when Warner bought Rotten Tomatoes via Flixster) … should be interesting to see how this one unfurls

[Helxig 46,076]

WHAT WHY?

F.uck. This is gonna suck. They're gonna start charging for it and putting ads all around and changing it up. The reason Letterboxd works is because it's a simple, non-biased interface, that allows fans to be completely unfiltered

My question is, why do they want it? What is their motive? Because there is one

[Lucas 32,159]

Wtf is Letterboxd? I literally never heard about it in my life

[gagacabana 9,367]

12 hours ago, NUTELLA said:

@gagacabana explain in lesbian terms

 

11 hours ago, bxr said:

That the first thought that surfaced to mind was “cabanagirl, this is your moment!”   

The way I have no idea what's this about but my nose wrinkled immediately... between this and ao3 getting down, what is happening to the people's archives & journals 

[gagacabana 9,367]

@alsemanche thoughts?

[bxr 3,944]

6 hours ago, Helxig said:

WHAT WHY?

F.uck. This is gonna suck. They're gonna start charging for it and putting ads all around and changing it up. The reason Letterboxd works is because it's a simple, non-biased interface, that allows fans to be completely unfiltered

My question is, why do they want it? What is their motive? Because there is one

You sort of segued into your question with the answer … within a practical capacity

A bit of Occam‘s Razor, but/and/also, not sure if the “elite capture” discourse has crossed your radar, but I read a book a few years ago that was a solid lens on the cultural strategy that seems to be at play …

Spoiler

Elite Capture: How the Powerful Took Over Identity Politics (And Everything Else), by Olúfẹ́mi O. Táíwò

“Identity politics” is everywhere, polarizing discourse from the campaign trail to the classroom and amplifying antagonisms in the media, both online and off. But the compulsively referenced phrase bears little resemblance to the concept as first introduced by the radical Black feminist Combahee River Collective. While the Collective articulated a political viewpoint grounded in their own position as Black lesbians with the explicit aim of building solidarity across lines of difference, identity politics is now frequently weaponized as a means of closing ranks around ever-narrower conceptions of group interests.

But the trouble, Olúfẹ́mi O. Táíwò deftly argues, is not with identity politics itself. Through a substantive engagement with the global Black radical tradition and a critical understanding of racial capitalism, Táíwò identifies the process by which a radical concept can be stripped of its political substance and liberatory potential by becoming the victim of elite capture—deployed by political, social, and economic elites in the service of their own interests.

Táíwò’s crucial intervention both elucidates this complex process and helps us move beyond a binary of “class” vs. “race.” By rejecting elitist identity politics in favor of a constructive politics of radical solidarity, he advances the possibility of organizing across our differences in the urgent struggle for a better world.

[ https://www.haymarketbooks.org/books/1867-elite-capture ]

 

 

ETA: Effectually, elite capture here would be in relation to the independent participatory media platform (Letterbox‘d) being “captured” by “elite” corporate legacy media (NYT) … thus, usurpring the platform‘s “identity,” and effectual agency, by the “stripping of its political substance and liberatory potential” … if any of this makes any sense how I sort of synthesized or interpreted the theoretical practice

Edited Friday at 02:33 PM by bxr

[NewEnglandWitch 358]

Letterboxd? I’ve never heard of this

[gagacabana 9,367]

7 minutes ago, bxr said:

You sort of segued into your question with the answer … within a practical capacity

A bit of Occam‘s Razor, but/and/also, not sure if the “elite capture” discourse has crossed your radar, but I read a book a few years ago that was a solid lens on the cultural strategy that seems to be at play …

  Hide contents

Elite Capture: How the Powerful Took Over Identity Politics (And Everything Else), by Olúfẹ́mi O. Táíwò

“Identity politics” is everywhere, polarizing discourse from the campaign trail to the classroom and amplifying antagonisms in the media, both online and off. But the compulsively referenced phrase bears little resemblance to the concept as first introduced by the radical Black feminist Combahee River Collective. While the Collective articulated a political viewpoint grounded in their own position as Black lesbians with the explicit aim of building solidarity across lines of difference, identity politics is now frequently weaponized as a means of closing ranks around ever-narrower conceptions of group interests.

But the trouble, Olúfẹ́mi O. Táíwò deftly argues, is not with identity politics itself. Through a substantive engagement with the global Black radical tradition and a critical understanding of racial capitalism, Táíwò identifies the process by which a radical concept can be stripped of its political substance and liberatory potential by becoming the victim of elite capture—deployed by political, social, and economic elites in the service of their own interests.

Táíwò’s crucial intervention both elucidates this complex process and helps us move beyond a binary of “class” vs. “race.” By rejecting elitist identity politics in favor of a constructive politics of radical solidarity, he advances the possibility of organizing across our differences in the urgent struggle for a better world.

[ https://www.haymarketbooks.org/books/1867-elite-capture ]

 

 

ETA: Effectually, elite capture here would be in relation to the independent participatory media platform (Letterbox‘d) being “captured” by “elite” corporate legacy media (NYT) … thus, usurpring the platform‘s “identity,” and effectual agency, by the “stripping of its political substance and liberatory potential” … if any of this makes any sense how I sort of synthesized or interpreted the theoretical practice

On point. I'm lowkey devastated now

[gagacabana 9,367]

6 minutes ago, NewEnglandWitch said:

Letterboxd? I’ve never heard of this

3 hours ago, Lucas said:

Wtf is Letterboxd? I literally never heard about it in my life

It's a film nerd community, bringing regular movie watchers and professional journalists together with curated thematic lists, interviews with movie crews, etc etc. Their catalog is based off of TMDb

[bxr 3,944]

17 minutes ago, gagacabana said:

On point. I'm lowkey devastated now

Not sure if it’s a practical alternative or something you would be interested in working through, but while the merger/acquisition is still in the liminal negotiation stages, you could start migrating your reviews to a free Wordpress site as your own movie review blog … that way, regardless of how the NYT move plays out, you still have access and agency over your work, and you have your own platform to develop your own voice and space without the immediate threat of corporate acquisition (knock wood)

But this is just a one-off consideration on the blink … it’s still a lot to take in at the embryonic stages