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

[kenaressa.livejournal.com]

My Kanjani8 fandom mainly uses a forum...I'm kinda bad about keeping up with it though.....although that isn't all that different with how I am at posting here ^^;

I got into that forum by meeting some of the people in person and I was already in the fandom, though not active online....so it doesn't fit the other questions.

No real difference in the people here and the people there (some of them are here too) but I'm more active on lj (for various qualities of active). I think it's just easier to check because of the list format.

[flake-sake.livejournal.com]

1) BtVS
2) A forum
3) today
4) yes
5) I participate both on boards and on journaling sites and I think both places have their advantages and flaws. On journaling sites you can go into more intricate complex discussions about controversial points in the show, also it's great for posting ans reading fanfiction. But it is easy to get caught in just your preferred corner of fandom, while on the boards you'll find a broader range of opinions, which is good but also leads to more controversy, which undermines some discussions, simply because people get too aggressive/defensive.
6) Journaling sites
7) Journaling sites stimulate creativity a lot more, you have more motivation to creat content yourself, fanboards allow for interaction with the authors on occasion and also they give you a look at what people you'd not friend on LJ are up to, for better or for worse. Sometimes on the boards the aggreiveness gives me the heevies.
8)Pretty much answered that one above. Yes, there is a difference. I think people who are more drawn towards interacting with the story, by creating fanart are mostly on the journaling sites. The fanboards are more to exchange opinions about current events in fandom, with a wider crowd than one would pick on LJ.
9) A lot less enthusiastic than on LJ, while here I get the impression that slash is pretty much something everyone does. In the boards everything revolved around the canon pairings and slasher are seen as a fringe group.
10) I don't know if i had gotten into fandom via the forums, because they don't do much in the way of celebrating wha I loved about the show. On there it's too often about defending your view to others.
While on the journaling sites, you can just enjoy the art, fic, meta until you're ready to create some yourself.
11) LJ

[stefanie-bean.livejournal.com]

1) What fandom was it?
LOST
2) What was the medium? (e.g. was it a forum, a mailing list, etc)
www.thefuselage.com
3) When was this?
This morning!
4) Are you still active in that fandom?
Yes
5) Why did you participate there, and not at a journaling site?
Because I wanted to hear other peoples' opinions about Tuesday's (most recent) LOST episode.
6) Are you more active in fandom on journaling sites or at other places?
My LOST activity is mostly done on The Fuselage.
7) How did the different mode of interaction affect your fandom participation?
Since most of my f-list is interested in Phantom of the Opera, I don't inflict my LOST obsession on them, through LJ :D
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?
The Fuse has a pretty large body of people who kind of wander through to leave comments; as well as a smaller, more "hard-core" group. Also, I like the way The Fuse is organized. You can either discuss individual episodes, or go to another section specifically for meta (theories, speculation, philosophy, etc.)
9) What were the fen in the other medium's thoughts on yaoi? (No, seriously. What was the general sentiment towards slash?)
I really haven't found much discussion of LOST slash in that forum. Lots of het 'shipping, though.
10) Was it easier or harder to get into a fandom through a medium other than a journaling site?
Getting involved with The Fuse was quite easy - I just jumped in and started discussing stuff.
11) Which medium do you prefer? For discussing LOST, I prefer forums. But I spent a lot of time on www.phantomoftheopera.com, too (another forum), until I realized I was repeating myself on a lot of points. With LOST, since it's a story still-in-progress, there's new stuff to talk about each week.

Non-Journaling Fandom Survey

[vaysh11.livejournal.com]

1) What fandom was it?
LotR
2) What was the medium? (e.g. was it a forum, a mailing list, etc)
Forum and Mailing Lists
3) When was this?
2003 to 2006
4) Are you still active in that fandom?
No
5) Why did you participate there, and not at a journaling site?
Journaling sites were not used. The mailing list and posting stories to archives and personal websites was how fandom worked.
6) Are you more active in fandom on journaling sites or at other places?
Much more active in fandom on journaling site.
7) How did the different mode of interaction affect your fandom participation?
Much more interaction between writers, readers, commenters. Much more discussion. Much more RL information easily shared. I learned more about coding. I wrote more fic. There were no fic fests organised in the archives or mailing lists (and to my knowledge, there still aren't)
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?
In my experience, the differences have not much to do with the different fen of LotR and HP. Both fandoms went into journaling sites, it's just that I am active in HP now.
9) What were the fen in the other medium's thoughts on yaoi? (No, seriously. What was the general sentiment towards slash?)
The mailing lists I was active on were all slash lists. Some of the big archives had issues with slash, but in general it was more the other readers, not the mods.
10) Was it easier or harder to get into a fandom through a medium other than a journaling site?
Harder.
11) Which medium do you prefer?
Journaling site, for sure.

Interesting stuff! :)

[dlgood.livejournal.com]

Do College Basketball discussion boards count? There's pretty much no Yaoi there.

[rahirah]

When I first got into online BtVS fandom, I started out in the Usenet newsgroups. From there I joined several mailing lists and forums, and eventaully LJ. I still check the Cold Dead Seed forum for updates on the Buffyverse actors, and I use the episode guides, transcripts, and screencaps on other sites for fic research and occasional iconning or manipping.

In my previous fandom, back in the age of the dinosaurs, I participated in local fan clubs, and in by-mail fan clubs, most of which involved making fanzines (at various times I wrote, illustrated, edited, and did layout and printing for half a dozen different zines.) One of the clubs I belonged to had several email mailing lists, and I eventually created a website for it.

I think it's easier to get into fandom via non-journaling sites, because you know that everyone there is there for the same reason you are. On journaling sites, it's a lot harder to connect with other fans unless you know someone who's already there.

[grey-hunter.livejournal.com]

I used to belong to mailing lists and a forum, both in the HP fandom, but I stopped participating when I discovered LJ because the format suited me more. Besides, my most common "activity" in any fandom is to read fics. The mailing lists were author-owned, or specific fanfic oriented, so there wasn't much of a difference between those and LJ. The forums were more general and RPG centered, and I'm not really into RPG. I did join another forum later, in the CSI fandom, planned to check it out regularly, but then I just couldn't be bothered and I'm no longer in that fandom, so it's doubtful I'll ever go back. At both of those forums, some members were slashers and the rest was fairly tolerant to both slash and fanfiction writing, so I didn't have a bad experience in that regard.

[doro-chan.livejournal.com]

1) Varied? It's a multi-fandom archive.
2) Multi-fandom archive with added forums.
3) Since you refer to discussion: yesterday.
4) see 3)
5) Because the fandom in question doesn't really use journaling sites (much).
6) Lately: other places. It varies.
7) Well, less complicated meta discussion that builds on years of discussion before that. I'm also a mod there, so my role is a different one most of the time.
8) Different language (German). Mostly younger fen than on journaling sites. Less meta, different meta. Explaining the why would take a long meta post.
9) Varied. There are slash fen and slash haters, since it's a huge multi-fandom archive.
10) No. I actually found it far more difficult to get into a fandom through journals, which are too decentralized. I also participated there first.
11) Both have their advantages and disadvantages. I prefer a mix.

[hlbr.livejournal.com]

1) What fandom was it? Jane Austen
2) What was the medium? (e.g. was it a forum, a mailing list, etc) Forum, and mailing list
3) When was this? Yesterday? Something like that.
4) Are you still active in that fandom? Yes.
5) Why did you participate there, and not at a journaling site? Because it's not at a journaling site. (Apart from that, I tend to prefer community participation in places less splintered than journaling sites, but it's not like when the fandom is here I have much choice. I just use what the particular fandom uses.)
6) Are you more active in fandom on journaling sites or at other places? Eh, no idea. I post fic currently only at the AO3. I post blog type thing to my dw and lj. I discuss stuff where discussion arises. Meta tends to be in dw/lj. Fic discussion is at both places. I really only write in the JA fandom, and that takes a big chunk of my interaction, I guess, but I read in many other fandoms and discuss fannish stuff in many fandoms, aside for having an interest in meta.
7) How did the different mode of interaction affect your fandom participation? It's more isolated in journaling sites, it seems to me--and there's more connection with you as a person not a fan, as your lj/dw is directly connected with whatever you say.
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? There are differences, but I've participated in those types of places in other fandoms (particularly, HP), and the differences were others, so I think that the only thing the types of places determine is that different mediums crosspolinate very little.
9) What were the fen in the other medium's thoughts on yaoi? (No, seriously. What was the general sentiment towards slash?) From indifference to distaste. Some interest, it has been my impression that mainly from people who're already multifannish. (But JA fandom is a very heterocentric fandom--HP had forums where slash was the genre and forums where it was not--for different reasons. I actually have a theory of why, but I think it exceeds this poll.)
10) Was it easier or harder to get into a fandom through a medium other than a journaling site? Er, about the same? Both have the thing about not knowing anyone and thinking everyone knows each other already, and I have no frieeends, who would care about what I think stuff. It was easier for me lj/dw, but that's because when I got into it I already had friends from forums and archives.
11) Which medium do you prefer? Mhh. Depending for what. For blogging? A journaling site (dw). For posting stories? Archives (A03). For community interaction? Some sort of forum, though I haven't found software that really works for me yet.

[st-crispins.livejournal.com]

In MFU fandom, we still have several active mailing lists on Yahoogroups. The main one, Channel D [which has been going nonstop since 1996] is currently buzzing like a hive over a possible new feature film.

We also have print zines, some due out this May at MediaWest. We also have panels at MediaWest and get together informally for dinner and parties.

There are several other mini-cons in which groups meet, particularly one in the UK every spring.

And yes, we also have several LJ communities.

I, like others, participate in all of them.

[myxginxblossoms.livejournal.com]

1) What fandom was it? The Cal Leandros series by Rob Thurman.
2) What was the medium? Most of the active internets fandom can be found on the Tumulus messageboard (http://robthurmanbooks.proboards92.com/index.cgi); there are comms, but they're rarely in use.
3) When was this? Up until this spring, I was reasonably interested/active in the fandom. People still use that forum, but it's not a large fandom.
4) Are you still active in that fandom? No. The book series continues, but my patience with the author does not.
5) Why did you participate there, and not at a journaling site? As mentioned above, that's where the fandom's centered. Thurman herself used to post there, too.
6) Are you more active in fandom on journaling sites or at other places? I'm more active on journaling sites overall.
7) How did the different mode of interaction affect your fandom participation? It felt less immediate than it might on eljay; people on not-journaling sites aren't on them nearly as often.
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? The fans tended to be/come off as much younger than in many of my fandoms, so most differences can be chalked up to that and the feeling of "what if the author is watching." Saying anything critical of the series wasn't especially welcome, for instance.
9) What were the fen in the other medium's thoughts on yaoi? Shallow fangirling. Not that there's anything wrong with that--it's a series for that sort of thing--but the attitude was basically, "they're pretty, sounds good."
10) Was it easier or harder to get into a fandom through a medium other than a journaling site? About the same? I don't feel a very strong connection to fandom outside of people I already know anyway, for a lot of reasons. If I was aiming for a closer bond with other fandom people, I would find it a lot less gratifying in the short term, though.
11) Which medium do you prefer? Journal sites, because that's where my friends are.

I've had other fandoms where the fandom presence is stronger/extant at all outside journal sites, but in at least one case (A Song of Ice and Fire, I'm looking at you), I've heard enough about how disagreeable the general viewpoints of non-journal fandom are that I have little desire to go seeking it.

Also, my experiences with fandom tend to be less social in general than I think others' are. I already have my small group of friends to get excited over things with; I don't necessarily want to go try and bond with strangers.

[overlord-mordax.livejournal.com]

1) What fandom was it?
Silent Hill
2) What was the medium? (e.g. was it a forum, a mailing list, etc)
Forum
3) When was this?
Today
4) Are you still active in that fandom?
Yes
5) Why did you participate there, and not at a journaling site?
More active base; multiple concurrent discussions
6) Are you more active in fandom on journaling sites or at other places?
Journalism
7) How did the different mode of interaction affect your fandom participation?
Discussions bleeding over through multiple topics
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?
Yeah, there's a difference. Its just the nature of the medium. Journaling is focused on one post at a time, whereas a board is less linear.
9) What were the fen in the other medium's thoughts on yaoi? (No, seriously. What was the general sentiment towards slash?)
Eh, probably hostile? Never came up.
10) Was it easier or harder to get into a fandom through a medium other than a journaling site?
Easier.
11) Which medium do you prefer?
Either. Journaling has an advantage because I can check them all at ocne through my friends list though.

[deathmask-revel.livejournal.com]

J! I have a question for YOU, not concerning this list--which is interesting but which I am not answering because I am not involved enough with fandom as a whole to feel my answered would be...valid, I suppose.

Okay, my question is this:

I want to get some really good, interesting, revealing discussion going in the fandom that I AM currently involved in, but I'm not sure what kinds of questions to ask. What kinds of things have you seen in the past that have seemed to get good responses from thinky people? Things like why people are interested in a certain fandom, or a certain theme within a certain storyline--that kind of thing.

Thanks in advance!

~E

[starry-diadem.livejournal.com]

Here through metafandom

Yahoo groups is alive and surprisingly well. I last used it ten minutes ago, in the Lancer fandom which is thriving there and struggling very hard here on LJ.

(1) Lancer (1968 western)
(2) Yahell
(3) Daily
(4) Yes
(5) It's well established on Yahoo lists and has never migrated to a journalling site. When I created lancerlovers and mentioned it on list, virtually no-one there had heard of LJ and very few use it.
(6) That's fandom dependent. My other two fandoms - SGA and original series BSG migrated here to LJ years ago.
(7) Yahoo groups is clumsy and unsophisticated compared to a journalling site. You can't code, you can't use pictures in a post, it's harder to keep conversation threads together but the actual things I do - post fic, comment on other people's fic, discussions - remains the same. I think it's harder on Yahoo to keep track of a discussion, though, and the fen tend to be fairly determined and focused individuals as a result. Some of them scarily so. There is less 'personal' posting - my journal's a mix of fic and stuff about me, but that doesn't work on Yahoo.
(8) A little more traditionalist, maybe.
(9) Depends on the yahoo list. I'm a member of 14 different Lancer Yahoo groups, only one of which is slash oriented. The fandom's two characters are brothers, but unlike with Supernatural, there's no incest genre. So to talk about slash there will result in some distaste!
(10) I don't think there was a real difference. It still depends on you(generic you) posting and responding and getting to be known.
(11) Journalling site. I prefer to post properly coded fics with headers and I much prefer keeping all the comments with the post.

Here from metafandom

[blueinkedpalm.livejournal.com]

Interesting question! Fannish spaces are so much more than LJ/DW.

1) What fandom was it? There are two main ones for me outside LJ/DW--Ace Lightning, Baldur's Gate.

2) What was the medium? Both are forums.

3) When was this? Both forums have existed since ~2004 and ~2002 respectively.

4) Are you still active in that fandom? Yes.

5) Why did you participate there, and not at a journaling site? For the first fandom, I know that the fans who set it up didn't know about Livejournal, or didn't feel it suited their needs. For the second fandom, I found the forum there an interesting place more active than Livejournal.

6) Are you more active in fandom on journaling sites or at other places? Probably at other places; I like posting fic on the Pit of Voles/forums.

7) How did the different mode of interaction affect your fandom participation? A lot of Livejournal fandom seems to me to be media-based--live action television shows with large slash fandoms. Maybe that's just because I subscribe to metafandom, but the fandoms that have been my favourite so far have happened to end up with infrastructure outside Livejournal.

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 forums can become more insular than journaling sites. They're a single, centralized location, with a requirement to register to sign up; I think the culture on a forum tends to grow more homogeneous than fandom on journaling sites, because the latter is spread across communities and personal journals. Journal communities also tend to gain their own cultures and ways, though.

9) What were the fen in the other medium's thoughts on yaoi? (No, seriously. What was the general sentiment towards slash?) There were slash fans in the Ace Lightning forum from its early days, and I don't remember anyone complaining about yaoi. When I look back through the Baldur's Gate forum's older archives, though, I've come across fairly intense debates involving the classic outmoded lines like 'you make them gay!' or 'so-and-so's-one-girlfriend-makes-him-canonically-straight!'.

10) Was it easier or harder to get into a fandom through a medium other than a journaling site? In a journaling site, it's simple to post a personal entry on one's love for a fandom or post a fanfic, but if you want to engage further in the fandom you still have to go through the process of joining a community. Likewise, in a forum you typically have to register to start participating. I think the step of introducing oneself to a forum by posting an introduction/first fanfic is harder than posting some fannish love in one's own LJ, but a first post to a LJ community can similarly be difficult (depending on the community in question and one's general feelings about jumping into a new fandom and meeting new people).

11) Which medium do you prefer? I hate the way both forums and journaling sites manage archiving. I love reading fanfic, and I love being able to find fanfic, and in both cases it's more poorly organized than fanfic archives like the Pit of Voles and AO3. A forum poster of a serial story doesn't link to the previous versions; a journaling poster forgets to tag one chapter--searching forums is easier than searching journals, but in both it can be inconvenient. It torments me when I think I've missed out on something, and I like to read fic in places I can be sure of finding all the fic there is to find.

Seen on metafandom

[countess-baltar.livejournal.com]

1) Battlestar Galactica (1978)

2) Usenet, mailing list, forums (also pre-internet paper fanzines and conventions).

3) Last used? E-mail list and forums were used, um, yesterday.

4) Other than temporary real life distractions, yes.

5) Because when the e-mail lists started, there were no journaling sites.

6) I'm more active at the other places.

7) Other than the particular show, that portion of the fandom has a common bond of having to deal with the self-proclaimed "superiority" of Ron Moore & followers. One e-mail list just pretends Ron and his "re-imagined" show don't exist.

8) Yes. The journaling sites circa 2006 to 2010 seemed to be loaded with "aca-fans".

9) One e-mail list is geared towards PG-13 "genfic" and the characters' canon "heteronomativity". In other words, no slash.

10) I thought so. See next answer.

11) The fans on my chosen e-mail lists and forums are closer to my worldview and I haven't found a similar "fit" on any journaling site.

[alias_sqbr]

Huh. I would have said I did most of my discussion on lj etc, yet I have participated in several different non-lj-clone fandomy things recently

1) What fandom was it?
Dragon Age Origins and Jane Austen

2) What was the medium? (e.g. was it a forum, a mailing list, etc)
IRC
A forum
3) When was this?
Today
Last month or so

4) Are you still active in that fandom?
Yes
5) Why did you participate there, and not at a journaling site?
IRC is a totally different experience to journalling, since it's realtime

The forum is where the interesting conversation is happening (Jane Austen fandom isn't very big on lj etc)

6) Are you more active in fandom on journaling sites or at other places?
Mostly on lj clones

7) How did the different mode of interaction affect your fandom participation?
I don't like forums at all, they're very off putting. IRC isn't very deep. So in general I need the lj clones for extended indepth conversation.

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?

In the case of Dragon Age: No. It's much the same people. The forums seem to be different, more male for a start, but I avoid them.

Jane Austen fandom on lj seems to skew much younger and less meta-y.

I think being an older fandom whose canon appeals to an older audience has a lot to do with how different JA fandom is to DAO fandom including the difference in medium.

I am too sleepy for deeper analysis right now :)

9) What were the fen in the other medium's thoughts on yaoi? (No, seriously. What was the general sentiment towards slash?)

Dragon Age: It's canon and everyone seems to embrace it wholeheartedly everywhere :D

Jane Austen: tepid at best, for the most part. That said people have been quite supportive of me writing femslash.

10) Was it easier or harder to get into a fandom through a medium other than a journaling site?

I'm mostly lj based, so a bit harder. I think the fact that Jane Austen fandom has no major lj presence does put me off a bit.

11) Which medium do you prefer?

LJ clones, though IRC is as I said it's own special thing and makes a nice addition.

[vamp-ress.livejournal.com]

Adding my two cents, because for me LJ is just a means to an end and in no way the perfect way to do fandom. So, whenever I can be away from LJ (or any journaling service), I am away from it.

1) What fandom was it?
Lord of the Rings, Blood Ties

2) What was the medium? (e.g. was it a forum, a mailing list, etc)
mailing lists, forum, multifandom archive, singlefandom archive

3) When was this?
Five minutes ago:)

4) Are you still active in that fandom?
Yupp.

5) Why did you participate there, and not at a journaling site?
Because I'm in fandom mostly for the fic and for a number of reasons I think LJ is a bad place for fic.

6) Are you more active in fandom on journaling sites or at other places?
Difficult to say, it's probably 50/50, mostly because one of my main fandoms (LotRPS) is mostly happening on LJ.

7) How did the different mode of interaction affect your fandom participation?
I think journaling sites let you see a more complete picture of a person (you just have to decide whether you actually want that), because most people use LJ as their personal space - posting meta, personal stuff, pics, fic, different fandoms. Whereas on mailing lists and fic archives the interaction centers around the fandom in question. You're more on topic.

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 don't think there's much of a difference - yes, of course, the way people will interact depends on the platform they use and certain traditions and conventions will evolve. But I don't think it goes deeper than this. Rather, I think fandoms as a whole are different from one another. One will have more fic, one will attract vidders, one will be very traditional and so on.

9) What were the fen in the other medium's thoughts on yaoi? (No, seriously. What was the general sentiment towards slash?)
In LOTR at least, the general consensus doesn't depend on the platform. It's either love or hate and you'll always find people who will flame those with a differing opinion.

10) Was it easier or harder to get into a fandom through a medium other than a journaling site?
I generally don't start out in a fandom on LJ, because I never know where to start. I prefer to find a fanfic archive and work my way through from there.

11) Which medium do you prefer?
Depends on what I want to do at the moment. If I want to read fic: an archive. If I want to discuss aspects of a fandom: list, forum, LJ. If I just want to talk with likeminded people: LJ.

[dolorosa-12.livejournal.com]

Here via metafandom

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.

My comment was too long...

[dolorosa-12.livejournal.com]

9) What were the fen in the other medium's thoughts on yaoi? (No, seriously. What was the general sentiment towards slash?)
If there was any slash-writing going on, it was taking place away from the forums. The His Dark Materials forum doesn't have a fanfic section (although some members write fic, mainly longish, adventure-type gen) and the Obernewtyn forum seems to focus much more on 'missing moments' genfic as well.

I can't remember any discussion of slash, whether in relation to fanfic or just in relation to interpretations of the books, ever coming up. Discussion was very much focused on canon, and we did discuss canonically gay pairings (the angels Balthamos and Baruch in HDM, for instance), but not in relation to pairings in and of themselves. Shipping, as a whole, was not discussed on the forums in any extensive way.

10) Was it easier or harder to get into a fandom through a medium other than a journaling site?
I think I discussed this at 6 and 7, but I'll reiterate - I found it much easier to get into fandom through my forums than through journalling sites. I think this is mainly due to my particular preferred forms of fannish interaction, rather than any particular fault of the fen who participate in fandom on journalling sites, though.

11) Which medium do you prefer?
I prefer the forums for the reasons outlined above, but I wish the situation wasn't like this. There are a lot of people in my LJ-based fandoms whom I'd love to get to know better, but I don't really know how to go about it or how to interact with them when I feel like I'm coming from such an unequal position (ie not producing fanworks that other fen can enjoy).

[penguineggs.livejournal.com]

1) What fandom was it?

Lord Peter wimsey (Dorothy L. Sayers)
2) What was the medium? (e.g. was it a forum, a mailing list, etc)

Yahoogroups
3) When was this?

Within the last few weeks
4) Are you still active in that fandom?
Intermittently

5) Why did you participate there, and not at a journaling site?
I actually do both, but the core group is on the yahoogroup

6) Are you more active in fandom on journaling sites or at other places?

Journalling
7) How did the different mode of interaction affect your fandom participation?

My participation in mailing list fandoms has dried up.

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?

Age and social class. Also political outlook. Mailing list and yahoogroup fandoms have been predominantly right of centre, socially conservative, well-off and middle-aged if not elderly. the reverse is true on journalling sites. If asked to speculate, I'd say the older group are happier with a more organised (moderated) list than the free-form of journaling sites.


9) What were the fen in the other medium's thoughts on yaoi? (No, seriously. What was the general sentiment towards slash?)

Detestation combined with bafflement, coupled with an assumption that the small minority of people who raised topics such as homosexuality (even in cases where it was a topic clearly signalled in canon) were doing so specifically to annoy the rest of the group and were, in fact, acting immaturely and childishly.

10) Was it easier or harder to get into a fandom through a medium other than a journaling site?
easier to get in; not to develop further.
11) Which medium do you prefer?
Journalling.

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

Lancer?!?! Lancer!!!!! OMG Johnny!!!!!

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

Your questions

1) What fandom was it?
The Sweeney, The Professionals, MFU

2) What was the medium? (e.g. was it a forum, a mailing list, etc)
2 message boards and two mailing lists

3) When was this? within the last few days.

4) Are you still active in that fandom?
Absolutely

5) Why did you participate there, and not at a journaling site?
I rather dislike journaling sites for activities other than journaling. There's no means of seeing all the contributions, no means of keeping up with all the discussions and no proper form of archiving.

6) Are you more active in fandom on journaling sites or at other places?
Depends on your version of "in fanom".

7) How did the different mode of interaction affect your fandom participation?
depends on your definition of "in fanom"

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?
Yes there is a difference. The boards and mailing lists are as smothering, controlling, or as eager to make everyone conform to "nice"
It's hard to withold information and ignore people on mailing lists and forums. Of course you can make a kill file, but you don't cut the other person off unless you banhammer them.


9) What were the fen in the other medium's thoughts on yaoi? (No, seriously. What was the general sentiment towards slash?)
Well for the Sweeney... they are terrified of it. Total no go on their turf. I knew about that before hand so it wasn't anything I mentioned, but several others have and the reaction has been... a whole lot of protesting too much ;) The Professionals and the MFU areas are quite at ease with the reality of slash.

10) Was it easier or harder to get into a fandom through a medium other than a journaling site?

Far easier outside a journaling site.

11) Which medium do you prefer?
Actually I like mailing lists. Great archive, easy to access from any device, easy to keep up with, great archiving.

Forums are nice as well. I really am not a fan of LJ and I use it as little as possible. You can never find anything, if you do it's always locked down, there's no sort of central area for anything, no reasonable search method, no reasonable archiving of past discussions, if you could ever find them in the first place... I have never understood the allure of journals except as journals. They work poorly for anything else.

[starry-diadem.livejournal.com]

Yes indeedy!

I have the full set of DVDs and he is just *amazing*.

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

oops, typo

Yes there is a difference. The boards and mailing lists *aren't* as smothering, controlling, or as eager to make everyone conform to "nice"
It's hard to withold information and ignore people on mailing lists and forums. Of course you can make a kill file, but you don't cut the other person off unless you banhammer them.