9) What were the fen in the other medium's thoughts on yaoi? (No, seriously. What was the general sentiment towards slash?)
There's a few whiny yaoi-hating fanboys [How I hate them] in the yuri forum, but they are drowned out by more sane people who are either yaoi fans themselves, or who don't have an issue with it (the later usually by the argument that guys coupled means women are free to be coupled with each other. It also helps that several popular yuri mangaka also do yaoi)
Umineko seems neutral on the issue. Some people ship several male characters with each other (which isn't that easy, actually, more female characters again), others ship het. I only have seen grumbling about yaoi fans twice. The yuri pairing gets more people hating, despite a canonical "I love you" from one character, and a couple dozen "I looooveeeeee heerrrr" from the other.
The Touhou fandom, finally, is an odd case, it's the only of the three that is largely male (I'd guess at least 70% guys in the fandom). There's some dislike for yaoi, but there are also some very well known and popular fans that love yaoi, and ship it for Touhou. That sounds easier than it is: Touhou has a couple dozen female characters, and about three male characters. Two of them only exist in one line in a female characters description. Another runs a shop and exists only in side stories. As you can imagine, shipping them is difficult. Nevertheless, yaoi material made it even into larger "online-fanzines" the fandom used to put out, and there weren't all that many complaints. But to be fair: Some people DID complain. I personally like the work of the few yaoi shippers. It's adorable!
10) Was it easier or harder to get into a fandom through a medium other than a journaling site?
Easier, only because I find navigating forums a little easier: Seeing 50 topics at once is easier for me than scrolling through a long friend page. But it doesn't matter that much.
11) Which medium do you prefer?
None, I care more for content, less for medium. If LJ hosted the fandoms of three forums in ways that worked for me, while forums wouldn't, I'd be more active in LJ.
LJ, to me, is not the ultimate or perfect way to do fandom, it's just one way. It's not particularly more or less suitable, in my eyes. What really matters is WHAT is discussed.
Re: By Metafandom
There's a few whiny yaoi-hating fanboys [How I hate them] in the yuri forum, but they are drowned out by more sane people who are either yaoi fans themselves, or who don't have an issue with it (the later usually by the argument that guys coupled means women are free to be coupled with each other. It also helps that several popular yuri mangaka also do yaoi)
Umineko seems neutral on the issue. Some people ship several male characters with each other (which isn't that easy, actually, more female characters again), others ship het. I only have seen grumbling about yaoi fans twice. The yuri pairing gets more people hating, despite a canonical "I love you" from one character, and a couple dozen "I looooveeeeee heerrrr" from the other.
The Touhou fandom, finally, is an odd case, it's the only of the three that is largely male (I'd guess at least 70% guys in the fandom). There's some dislike for yaoi, but there are also some very well known and popular fans that love yaoi, and ship it for Touhou.
That sounds easier than it is: Touhou has a couple dozen female characters, and about three male characters. Two of them only exist in one line in a female characters description. Another runs a shop and exists only in side stories. As you can imagine, shipping them is difficult.
Nevertheless, yaoi material made it even into larger "online-fanzines" the fandom used to put out, and there weren't all that many complaints. But to be fair: Some people DID complain. I personally like the work of the few yaoi shippers. It's adorable!
10) Was it easier or harder to get into a fandom through a medium other than a journaling site?
Easier, only because I find navigating forums a little easier: Seeing 50 topics at once is easier for me than scrolling through a long friend page. But it doesn't matter that much.
11) Which medium do you prefer?
None, I care more for content, less for medium. If LJ hosted the fandoms of three forums in ways that worked for me, while forums wouldn't, I'd be more active in LJ.
LJ, to me, is not the ultimate or perfect way to do fandom, it's just one way. It's not particularly more or less suitable, in my eyes. What really matters is WHAT is discussed.