Fandom far afield

[lettered]

When was the last time you participated in fandom on the internet not through a journaling site? I don't really mean posting fanfic to something like fanfiction.net, unless you also post and discuss in the forums there. I mean discussion, meta, the posting of fanfic, the making of graphics, etc, all being share through a medium other than LJ, DW, Insane Journal, JournalFen, etc. This would be a forum, website, mailing list . . . if you did something like a fanzine, not online, I'm interested in that too.

1) What fandom was it?
2) What was the medium? (e.g. was it a forum, a mailing list, etc)
3) When was this?
4) Are you still active in that fandom?
5) Why did you participate there, and not at a journaling site?
6) Are you more active in fandom on journaling sites or at other places?
7) How did the different mode of interaction affect your fandom participation?
8) Does there seem to you to be a difference in fen between the other medium and journaling sites? What are the differences? Why do you think those differences exist? Is it the nature of that fandom, or do you think it has anything to do with where that fandom is taking place?
9) What were the fen in the other medium's thoughts on yaoi? (No, seriously. What was the general sentiment towards slash?)
10) Was it easier or harder to get into a fandom through a medium other than a journaling site?
11) Which medium do you prefer?

If it sounds like I'm doing a study, I'm not. I'm just dabbling around in this other fandom, the fen of which seems mainly to congregate around a forum rather than playing on LJ/DW. I'm wondering how many people share my experiences there. Forums used to be my main method of fandom access. I was comfortable in them and found LJ inconvenient and not very suited to my style. I became used to it because I decided a lot of cool people were here...and now I'm beginning to think it's the only way!

Comments

[dlgood.livejournal.com]

Yeah - we talk about sports on journaling sites.

I didn't see Big Fan - hear mixed things.

Re: Part 1 (and you said _you_ babbled!)

[hlbr.livejournal.com]

That's weird... I have felt that fandom is my fandom since I started to be multi-fannish, and that was a bit before I actually settled on lj. I do think lj makes it more comfortable to be part of a multifannish group that do not necessarily share fandoms all the time, true. (In fact, most of my--smallish--circle at dw (in which I'm more active than lj) is not on any of my fandoms at all.

I would be more comfortable participating either on dw or the AO3 (the code for challenges there is improving all the time, even), but I can help you by reaching out to the people I know. I suspect I don't know many you don't, though. Two or three authors, and a couple readers more (and I can't guarantee they will participate).

Re: Part 1 (and you said _you_ babbled!)

[tkp.livejournal.com]

I've always been multi-fandom in that I've participated in a lot of a fandoms, but I'm usually only really active in one at a time. I still maintain interest (...sometimes real estate) in all of them, though, which made me really interested in fandom as a whole. The problem was I could never find anyone talking about fandom, as in the whole thing, and the nature of fannishness. You could not step far back enough in a forum about JA, you know? But maybe there are non-journaling places who do.

Well, I want to move over to DW more completely anyway. If we're starting a movement, we might as well do it where we prefer ;o) I have to check with my friend about what she meant about JA fandom at DW--it's possible I misunderstood her. What I remember her saying was that she knew people on DW who seemed to be trying to use DW for JAF. Anyway, thanks! I guess what I really want to do is just find the people who are active in JAF on journal sites, and then find the people like me who didn't know how to find them, you know?

[alias_sqbr]

I don't use any of the forums a whole bunch, but pop into Republic of Pemberley every now and then, I was on A Happy Assembly for a bit as well.

I think Buffy is particularly meta-ish, I mean half the episodes practically have big blinking "This Is A Metaphor" signs :)

Heh. Sorry, Mary/Anne :D

*reads your conversation with hlbr*

Maybe a general "19th century lit fanfic/fanworks" comm which ran periodic fests? That way people could post links to their own fics, recs etc as well. It would give more content to keep things alive, and I know I'd be more willing to join it (I don't write under deadlines) Especially if it was for fanart and comics as well, which is what I mostly make (fanart NOT being the same as icons, ack)

[dolorosa-12.livejournal.com]

I think I agree with you that experiences on various online fandom media vary depending on where exactly you're hanging out (which LJ comms, which forum etc) and what you're doing there (discussion, fanfic etc).

And yet, I've managed to get into more involved discussions on journaling sites than I can ever find going on in forums. Maybe I'm going to the wrong forums? I think the main thing is that on LJ things tend to blossom into much larger topics (for good or ill). I might make a post about Lyra, see, and say something about gender, and then someone gloms onto that and is talking about gender politics in HDM, and then someone gloms onto that and is talking about gender politics in general media, etc. On a forum, people totally go OT all the time, but it tends to be more narrow in my experience.

This is a very interesting point, since I have seen this exact discussion develop along very similar lines! I do think forums have the potential to encourage long, drawn out discussions (although they do tend to focus narrowly on the texts being discussed, rather than branching out into other texts), but it depends on the forum and the people who use it.

Re: My comment was too long...

[dolorosa-12.livejournal.com]

Thanks so much for your advice about getting more involved in journal-based fandom. It is something I'm interested in, but I just need to work on getting a bit more confident about delurking and joining with conversations.

I wonder if this is because there was no focus on fanfic? I mean, that sounds obvious, but for me, discussion has always had a lot of elements of "what if?" This might be because I also write fic, but there are some canons I'm interested in for which I'm not interesting in writing fic; I mostly just want to discuss. But even for those canons I'll tend to get shippy, or tend to want to explore things which aren't explicitly in canon, but which canon suggests.

This is what I was trying to get at and not expressing particularly clearly. On the forums, I've found discussion is more on what is there, and less on potentials or possibilities. That's not to say that discussion of characters' relationships didn't ever happen, but it took place as a part of a much greater whole. I think it ties back in with the lack of fanfic thing, since it's my experience that the majority of people interested in fic are primarily interested in pairings and shipping. (I know there are many out there who aren't, or who are interested in shipping as part of a greater whole, but that's certainly the impression that I get from reading fanfic and meta about fanfic.) Does that make sense?

[kiwisue.livejournal.com]

The Professionals and the MFU areas are quite at ease with the reality of slash.

The Professionals lounge (board) used to have fairly open, adult discussion of a range of topics, although the rule was always no slash in the fanfic section. There was a Private Message circulation list for slash recs and everything. Since the membership has expanded to include some younger teenagers (who are known to be teenagers, as opposed to anyone underaged who may have stumbled across the board in the past) the atmosphere has become much less slash-tolerant. And it's remarkable in its self-policing, by the more active members these days who weren't there early on when things were freer, so they're going *oooh!* at comments that wouldn't have rattled a single cage two years ago. A lot of the slashers have decamped or aren't as involved any more.

[blktauna.insanejournal.com (from livejournal.com)]

Ahhh I don't visit the Professionals side of the Lounge. The Sweeney side is funny enough but I'm not surprised about their lack of tolerance. They are terrified of it in that protesting too much way. That and it being mostly older men.

[vamp-ress.livejournal.com]

I truly believe they're not thinking about these issues. They're posting like they would on a "classic" fanfic archive - there, the simple act of posting a story or chapter already presents it in the best possible manner. But they also want the freedom of LJ, without realizing that it takes a lot more work to turn a weblog into your personal fanfic archive.

[next_to_normal]

Linked by flake_sake

1) 24
2) Forum
3) Eh... 2002ish
4) No
5) I didn't realize there was a fandom presence on journaling sites, and forums were the medium I was familiar with from a previous fandom.
6) Right now, primarily journaling, though I do still post fic to archives.
7) I don't think forums are a very good medium for fanfic, which is why I started with archives in BtVS fandom, and then moved to LJ (which I think is a good compromise format if you want both discussion and fic, though it's not optimal for either). I was in 24 fandom for the discussion, and hardly anybody wrote fic, so a forum suited our needs.
8) I don't think there's a difference in the fans as a whole. I think the difference is that LJ is more self-selective - you choose your flist. You can flock your journal and only talk to your friends if you want. But if you like meeting new people, then there's always the opportunity to do that by being more outgoing, joining a comm or commenting on other people's posts.
9) No idea. We didn't write fanfic, and 24 is not a particularly shippy fandom (or at least, it wasn't at the time).
10) I think it's probably easier to get into a fandom through other media - LJ can be difficult to navigate if you don't know where to start. I only came to LJ after having established a group of friends on an archive, who then encouraged me to get an LJ. With a forum, it can be a bit intimidating to jump into the discussion as a newbie, but at least you can find it all in one place, rather than following a trail of discussion from one person's LJ to the next.
11) LJ. This is partly due to the nature of BtVS fandom - it's so segregated and all the different factions HATE each other, which can make participating in a forum a really unpleasant experience. (The more I see people talking about the comics flame wars debates happening on the forums, the less I want to go there.) I never felt that way with my previous fandoms. But also what I mentioned above about LJ being a good compromise format. Archives are the best for fic, but don't really promote discussion, and forums are the best for discussion, but tracking a fic can be really difficult. So if you want everything all in one place, then LJ is the best set up for that, I think.

[tkp.livejournal.com]

YAY DO YOU MAKE JANE AUSTEN COMICS? That would be awesome.

Don't fests have deadlines? Do you mean we could just say, "hey, Jane Austen month at 19th c. comm!" and try to get people to post links, rec, and generate content during that month? I'm interested in any suggestions that would get people to participate in this.

[tkp.livejournal.com]

Oh, no, I'm not laughing. I prefer anything that suggests female homosexuality is just as homosexual as male homosexuality, which the terms femslash/slash do NOT suggest.

It's my perception that LJ is a media based fandom as well; I just never thought of it that way--mostly due to the preponderance of Harry Potter. But HP isn't like other book fandoms. I don't know where Twilight is situated, but that is not like other book fandoms either, I would imagine.

Too bad about Sailor Moon :o( People are dumn.

so maybe, in a decade, it'll be different. I'd sure hope so.

I think things *are* changing. Since the late 90s there have been a lot of shows and movies in which the gay character is the helpful/comedic sidekick. I find this annoying, but still a HUGE step forward from when gay characters were not portrayed at all. If the next generation grows up comfortable with the idea of gay people being around them, being their friends, etc, eventually we may get to the point where gay love stories and gay characters become mainstream.

I feared what I wrote came across a bit harsh.

By no means. This perspective is important, and really made me think about things I hadn't considered about LJ yet. Thanks again.

[alias_sqbr]

I've only made one: http://sqbr.deviantart.com/art/Steampunk-Pride-and-Prejudice2-136075408

I keep meaning to do more but get put off by all the image refs I'd have to look up not to feel like a newb who just copied the adaptations :)

Fests have deadlines, but if you have a general comm which allows discussion and recs which ALSO posts the occasional fest then those who don't do fests can just scroll past those posts. But "Jane Austen month" would be cool too, as well as being something I would be more interested in myself.

[tigerpetals.livejournal.com]

My Black Magician Trilogy books fandom centered around a forum for years, before there was much fanfic or fanart anywhere else. Now there's more fanfic on Fanfiction.net and fanart on DeviantArt, but the forum is still pretty active. Other forums were made and there's even an LJ community, but most of the activity is at the one forum.

My interest started to fade a couple of years ago when activity was waning, but I made a comeback a few months ago, and I'm still checking in and posting semiregularly. I just posted yesterday. This is pretty much the first and only really active BMT forum, at least in a language I can read and write in, so I'm still active in it.

Oh, and there's also the W.I.T.C.H forum, for the comics. I read there regularly even when I don't post, and I am a member. I've been to other forums and the LJ communities, but this forum is the only nondead community.

I think I participated more on the forums than I ever have on journaling communities. I don't know why, but it seems easier to me. Maybe the way it's organized? In fact, the BMT forum is probably when I most active ever in a fandom.

There are a lot more slash fans recently than there were in the first few years of the BMT forum. Fandom has mostly centered around two pairings, one het, one slash, both canon.