We are welcoming Sacha Judd to talk about "The Good Internet: How Fandom Can Reclaim the Web" at FFConf 2025.

We wanted to also thank Sacha for taking the time to answer our questions so we can all get to know her a little bit more before 14th November.

About Sacha and their talk

• Title: The Good Internet: How Fandom Can Reclaim the Web
• About the talk: How to escape the algorithmic doom loops and reclaim our digital lives (Sacha has a longer description on their speaker page)
• Sacha's origin story: My first computer was a Commodore Vic 20, aged ten. I was one of the first home users of the internet in Aotearoa/New Zealand in 1993, much to the chagrin of my parents who didn't enjoy paying astronomical rates for dial-up for me to hang out in LambaMOO. My first fandom was The X-Files, and I've lived and breathed transformative fan communities ever since. They're the best (and sometimes the worst!) of the internet. Now I'm weirdly micro-famous for giving tech talks all over the world about Harry Styles.

The warm up questions

If your Vic-20 could talk, what do you think it would say about the modern internet?

"You have all of those extra bytes and that's what you did with it??"

I often think about the fact that I had a 16k expansion pack for my Vic 20 and that's smaller than most of my text messages now.

I actually like to think about what ten-year-old me, who used to painstakingly type in BASIC programmes out of magazines or books from the library would think of the modern internet.

I think in some ways that's why I'm so focussed on us celebrating that early spirit of creativity. It takes me back to when we made things for ourselves.

If you were to build a fan site today from scratch - GIFs, guestbook and all - who or what would it be about (or is it foregone that it's Harry Styles!)?

LEGO. I have a truly unhinged LEGO collection, that started as a covid lockdown hobby and got completely out of hand. I now have a city that takes up one whole wall of my living area. If you're lucky I'll show you some videos!.

About the work and the talk

You make a powerful case for fandom as the birthplace of the "good internet". What do you think fandom communities got right that we’ve lost along the way?

I don't want it to seem like it's black and white. Fandom got a lot of things wrong back then and continues to do so today. But I think what it got right was a continued focus on operating outside of corporate-controlled spaces.

In the beginning we had to, because rights holders, and studios, and authors didn't approve of what we were doing. And it led to building creative, resilient spaces outside the walls that continue to flourish today.

Meanwhile the rest of us got funnelled into this handful of algorithmically controlled platforms, and that's why most people think the internet is a dumpster fire.

Rebuilding the web feels like a huge task. Where do you recommend people start if they want to escape algorithmic feeds and reclaim a bit of online space for themselves?

I am going to talk about this! I think it starts as small as making something for yourself -- something weird or useful or funny or without purpose. And I think it starts with teaching other people how to do the same.

The web can be a double-edged sword for marginalised communities—both a sanctuary and a target. How could we build personal online spaces that are safer and more expressive?

This is a great question, and it doesn't have easy answers. One of the real contradictions I explored in an earlier talk I Still Believe in Heroes is that messy, unmoderated, public spaces like Twitter are terrible for underrepresented voices because they get harassed, drowned out, and driven away.

But structured, moderated, controlled spaces often don’t allow underrepresented voices to call out racism, transphobia and misogyny without asking for permission. So much of this is how we build these spaces from the outset, setting expectations and creating inclusivity in the foundations (unlike, say, Substack).

How do you see fan communities evolving now that platforms like Tumblr are fading and newer ones like TikTok are algorithm-heavy and corporate-controlled?

Wash your mouth out, Tumblr will never die!

What we are seeing is an increase in activity on Reddit (of all places, becoming one of the last refuges of actual humans on the internet).

And we're seeing fandom Discords spring up (both fan run, and officially sanctioned). I have some thoughts about that -- I think Discords are hard to find and lack the stumble-upon discovery of say Yahoo Groups. But until someone creates a free community space like that (that isn't Facebook), needs must.

It's also an era where people are much more comfortable to do their fandom on main. In my day, I'd rather have died than put my face to a tiktok talking about my fanfic, but times have changed!

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Find out more about Sacha online on their website, Bluesky or LinkedIn.

Join us in November to see Sacha's talk: 2025.ffconf.org