Homestuck was my introduction to conventions and greater fandom culture circa 2013. Cosplay and fandom culture was incredibly different back then, and for Homestuck specifically it was even crazier. In-character "Ask the [insert beta/alpha trolls/kids/dancestors/whatever here]" panels were nearly guaranteed to be at every con, with varying levels of hilarity/awkwardness ensuing. You can probably still find a few recordings of them on youtube, but for the unaware, they were groups of cosplayers lined up at a table, answering audience questions as the character they're cosplaying, playing games like truth or dare, etc.

Alongside panels, there were also huge cosplay meetups. Older fans would hold "barstuck" meetups at conventions with hotel bars. I'm under the impression that these were much more chill compared to the hectic all-ages meetups. Cosplay meetups weren't necessarily limited to conventions, either. Depending on your local community, people organized meetups for 4/13 or even just random dates at parks, ice rinks, malls, amusement parks, etc. I'm insanely jealous of California Homestucks, since they're really the only ones having meetups or events these days. Promstuck 2025 especially. What other fandom goes "fuck it, let's get dapper" and has a whole event about it. I went to two promstucks, one in 2014 and another around 2016, both held under random park ramadas. At the first one I was still a young babbystuck cosplaying Roxy with my friend as Nepeta. A really nice Jade gave me a piggyback ride, and we danced around with her and a cute Feferi. It's difficult to briefly convey, but as crazy as they could get, Homestuck meetups were genuinely pretty magical. I've never had an experience since then that felt like entering a space full of friends you've never met.

There was also unfortunately a toxic side though. The Homestuck fandom already had a bad reputation due to crazy convention stories, videos of people doing stupid shit, and just how weird it was at the time. Inside the fandom, it could get really cliquey and toxic with infighting, interpersonal drama, and general cruelty. At one point there was a dedicated tumblr page for posting shitty Homestuck cosplays and criticizing them. This was around the time that Steven Universe and Voltron fandoms became huge, and fandom culture gained a really odd aggressiveness to it for a while. In tandem with the general declining popularity of Homestuck, the change in fandom climate ended what I consider the "golden age" of the Homestuck fandom.

Having new updates coming out, new merch, seeing new fans getting into it, and literally posting on a forum about it: we're truly in the renaissance/revival era. It comes with all the good and the bad, but live it and enjoy it all. Don't worry about missing the old times. Make this era your own!!