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Fandom far afield
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!
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!
no subject
1) What fandom was it?
Two fandoms, His Dark Materials (books, not the movie) and Obernewtyn, an Australian fantasy series.
2) What was the medium? (e.g. was it a forum, a mailing list, etc)
Forums.
3) When was this?
For HDM, since 2003, for Obernewtyn, since 2008.
4) Are you still active in that fandom?
Extremely.
5) Why did you participate there, and not at a journaling site?
I joined the HDM forum after googling 'His Dark Materials+fansite', and it was the first thing that came up. At that point I hadn't heard of any of the main journalling sites (or, indeed, of blogging at all). I joined the Obernewtyn forum on the recommendation of a real-life friend.
6) Are you more active in fandom on journaling sites or at other places?
I'm much more active in fandom on the other places; I'm a passive participant in fandom on journalling sites (commenting on people's fanfic occasionally, using icons that people have made).
7) How did the different mode of interaction affect your fandom participation?
Incredibly. I'm in fandom for discussion and commentary. I don't write fanfic or read it much, I can't make icons, and it seems to me that journal-based fandoms are much more interested in producing fanworks rather than providing an outlet for discussion. I don't know if it's related to the medium, or just the types of people who tend to use the different media.
With both my forums, I'm well-known to the other users, and have met a substantial number of them in real life. I chat to them in IRC conversations almost every day, have added them on Facebook and read their blogs. I've established friendships that go beyond their fannish origins.
On Livejournal, I'm not known at all. I don't interact with other fans beyond occasional comments to their posts and replies to such comments.
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?
I think the difference is more in the kind of activity taking place in each respective medium, rather than the media themselves. Journalling fandom, for better or worse (at least in the kinds of communities of which I am a member), seems to encourage a hierarchical form of interaction, with producers of fanworks (writers, fanartists, vidders and so on) privileged over consumers of such works. I'm not saying that such people are being deliberately exclusive (since if I really wanted to I could learn how to make graphics or try to write fanfic and so on), but that the type of fannish interaction taking place encourages that type of exclusivity. When fannish activity is centred on discussion, everyone is on much more of an equal footing.
Of course, the nature of the media exacerbate this contrast in hierarchical/non-hierarchical fandom: journalling sites have a post (privileged)-comments (not-so-privileged) structure, whereas forums have threads where all responses are equal.
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Oh! This is really interesting! Several people have said LJ is more fanworks-centric. I think that this is true, though I can't understand why. I feel like forums would be so much better to host a multi-chaptered fanfic, you know?
When I first got on LJ, I was very discussion oriented. Between discussion and fanfic, I have to say I was far more interested in fanfic, but I've always been a very metatative person. I write a lot of meta and like to get into big long discussions about canon and interpretation, and I did not think LJ suited to that. In fact, I still don't think LJ is suited to that--for similar reasons to not thinking it's suited to posting fanfic.
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.
It's interesting too, what you say about knowing people personally on the forums, vs. not knowing people on LJ. I've found it far easier to build personal relationships on LJ; I wonder if this is at all related to our differing experiences regarding the ability to have deep, complex discussions?
seems to encourage a hierarchical form of interaction
This is really interesting! I know that hierarchy exists, and since there's a lot more fanfic on journaling sites, it makes sense that that hierarchy would be here and not elsewhere. Still, I've seen people who are "privileged" as producers of meta--which isn't quite the same as discussion, I supposed, since meta can be produced independently. But meta is also seen as a facilitation of discussion. Huh. Thanks for this food for thought--I never thought about it in quite this way.
journalling sites have a post (privileged)-comments (not-so-privileged) structure, whereas forums have threads where all responses are equal.
Oh, yeah--again, as both you and I are saying, LJ is really just difficult for conversation. I still fail to see why I've had so much better discussion experiences here. I have to think about it more!
Thanks again.
no subject
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.