Yuletide numbers

[carbonel]

I knew the numbers had varied (and probably decreased) over the years I've been doing Yuletide, but I'd never seen them together. Here are the numbers (as provided by the yuletide_admin mods) from 2014 to present. The change is more significant than I'd thought before I started. (Corrections provided by primeideal and morbane.)

2023: 1,390
2022: 1,369
2021: 1,401
2020: 1,482
2019: 1,454
2018: 1,533
2017: 1,579
2016: 1,721
2015: 1,857
2014: 1,895

Comments

[primeideal]

According to Yuletide 2017 Ao3 profile, there were 1554 signups.

[marquisguyun]

The mods said about last year that the numbers on the profile weren't accurate bc of things like deleted accounts, so that number may not be accurate fyi!

[twistedchick]

I have been doing Yuletide since it started. I can think of quite a few people who no longer do it or are no longer around. I do not think I am unique in this. We have been through a plague it did affect fandom. Also, of the people I know who write for Yuletide, not all do it every year, either.

[carbonel]

Thanks, will add!

[morbane]

As marquisguyun points out, that number isn't quite accurate. Checking the pinch hit spreadsheet for that year, I think the sign-up number was 1579.

[a_belladonna]

My memory is a bit fuzzy, because my fandom-activity was a bit "on hiatus" those years, but what happened in fandom between 2015-2016 & 2016-2017 that could have caused those bigger drops in participants?
Is it simply that the novelty wore off, or were there some fandoms that became ineligible and thus caused people to not sign up? Or was it something else?

[trobadora]

When Yuletide started, it was the only exchange of its kind. Now there are dozens of multifandom exchanges year round! So the entire exchange landscape is just fundamentally different from what it used to be. I always thought that was the main reason.

[bethynyc]

I'd be interested to see the numbers from the beginning -- signups, fandoms, works posted, popular fandoms. I think seeing the statistics of Yuletide would be fascinating. Yuletide being around for 20 years is a huge accomplishment, even if the numbers of participants has gone done since 2014.

[roga]

It might also have to do with how much more fragmented and spread out fandom has become. When the core part of fic/writing fandom was centered in LJ/DW, it was hard not to at least know about yuletide happening if you were here, as well as "infect" other people with the excitement surrounding it. With so much of fandom spread out elsewhere today, maybe less people/newer generations aren't hearing about it as much.

[lirazel]

Agreed re: all of this! And it's worth noting that while they have gone down...over 1,000 every year is nothing to sneer at!

[a_belladonna]

That sounds very plausible! It doesn't help that you can't really read Tumblr without an account any more, for instance.
I had a fandom hiatus of about 10 years from 2009-2019. The first couple of years after I came back, I could browse Tumblr and at least read what others wrote about the fandoms I was interested in, even if I didn't interact with them (I've for some reason never felt comfortable with the way Tumblr works, so I've never had an account there).
But I also quickly found out that some other fandoms were more active on Discord, which I feel even less comfortable about using.
So I haven't been able to tell potential other participants on those platforms about Yuletide, for instance, because I don't interact with them.
I can only hope that they learn about Yuletide if they notice the Yuletide-tag on fics at AO3 (because even if they're mainly on Discord or Tumblr, they still use AO3 for fics).

[a_belladonna]

Hm, I guess you're right. Back when I was more active in fandom, it was mainly HP, where there was a billion holiday-exchanges, so that sort of took care of my fic-exchange needs. ;)
But then, wasn't it also a bit more common to be more invested in one fandom only, back then 15-20 years ago?
I certainly remember that my flist was comprised of relatively fandom-monogamous people (or perhaps it was just my flist). I remember that it kind of shook things up a bit, when people suddenly began getting into Dr. Who, for instance, alongside HP.

Where are those multifandom exchanges, though? I've mostly encountered challenges such as seasonofkink or the unconventionalcourtship :)

[(Anonymous)]

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