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

[tkp.livejournal.com]

Oh my goodness. When I wrote that about Sansa, I thought to myself, "...I am probably talking to the one person on earth who likes Sansa." I'm sorry!

My problem with Sansa was actually the writing. I felt like here is this girl who is basically confined by her upbringing, just as Arya is. Arya casts all that off, which looks very well to our eyes, but is actually a very irresponsible and not very reasonable thing to do. Sansa, meanwhile, is using tools at her disposal. In trying to be what everyone wants her to be, she's also trying in her own way to be strong.

But partly the reason I have so much dislike for the character of Sansa was that I felt she had so much potential. It's not that I wanted her to become Arya, or to even "come into her own". Though I did want her to come into her own eventually, it did not have to be some act of defiance, or some act of generosity, to make me feel differently about her. What I wanted was some glimmer that things would change somehow--or some glimmer of awareness of her situation on her part.

I felt like that was coming, and I was very excited about all the Sansa parts in the first book. In the second book, I got really frustrated. I felt like the character was being used as a foil to show that Arya was awesome. And I did like Arya; she was my favorite. But by the second book I felt that she was meant to be, and that we were meant to hate Sansa REALLY HARD so that we could like her after some big turn, and the manipulation in that upset me. It made Sansa so 2d--and Arya 2d to boot, which made me stop reading.

So you're looking forward to the TV series? I don't know anything about the quality of the production; I was worried it could come out like the Sword of Truth adaptations (which I didn't watch, but heard about. I . . . uh, strongly dislike Terry Goodkind, but I did read a couple of the books, and was interested in the idea of an adaptations).

I liked what I read of Brienne--a lot more than most the women in those books ;o)

I associate messageboards with older fandoms/fans.

This is interesting, because some comments to this post say the same. One person posited that older, more conservative people are drawn to the control and organization of forums and mailing lists, which always have mods. But someone else was talking about Jane Austen fandom, all of which occurs on forums, and they were talking about how it was mostly the teen crowd.

It is interesting, where kids will choose to go. I wonder where the . . . actually, I'm not going to finish that thought. I'm glad that the only Twilight fandom I've experienced occurs on ONTD.

[myxginxblossoms.livejournal.com]

Totally cool, your not liking Sansa! Tyrion Lannister is probably one of my least favourite characters, so I'm quite used to not being "in step" with most of ASOIAF as a whole. XD And like I said, I understand why a lot of people dislike her, and I'll be honest--I feel like your reasons for disliking her are a lot more nuanced than some people's? There's some backlash to her because she's such a "girly" girl. >> So yeah, I think you bring up a very legitimate concern--and I think a lot of the problem is that GRRM's writing simply isn't awesome sometimes. He can be ham-handed with stuff, and Sansa's rising to the challenge is a pretty slow one--by the end of A Feast For Crows, you get a sense that she'd better Do Something, but she hasn't done it yet. So I spent half a year ignoring all plotthings and writing femslash of her and Mya-the-girl-with-the-mules. XD

I couldn't remember if you would've gotten to Brienne or not! But yeah, she is so bamf. I am sort of okay with the possibility of the series never being finished, because then I can imagine that she has a happy ending with Jaime.

The TV series has an amazing cast so far. (One of the reasons I'm looking forward to it hardxcore is because if anyone can make me like Tyrion, it's Peter Dinklage, omg. :D) I'm told that HBO doesn't always handle various Stuff and Things all that well, but I am looking forward to giving it a chance.

Also, the kids playing the Stark children are adooooorable. /o/

It is interesting, where kids will choose to go. I wonder where the . . . actually, I'm not going to finish that thought. I'm glad that the only Twilight fandom I've experienced occurs on ONTD.

Ahahahaha. ♥ I haven't any idea where Twilight fandom resides, either--I imagine it's large enough that there're several places. How curious how some messageboards skew younger.

[tkp.livejournal.com]

I like Tyrion, and Peter Dinklage is great. I suppose I'll give it a go!

There's some backlash to her because she's such a "girly" girl.

Yeah, her being so girly read as just so much set up to me. Not that she would ever be ungirly, but that we would see the ways in which girliness could actually be a strength. And it would be juxtaposed against Arya, who took a very male approach.

I was interested partly because I was totally a girly girl when I was little. I meet so many gals now who I consider far more girly than me (what? you brush your hair?), who talk about how tomboyish they were when they were young. I just wasn't, which was weird, because I went for a lot of badass sword wielding heroines. I also just liked pretty dresses and ponies and the idea of balls.

I love things that show us a woman trying to express herself individually and exert power within the paradigm of male dominated society, juxtaposed against a woman who defies that paradigm. Depending on the context, the latter can come off positively or negatively, and same with the former.