Fandom Snowflake Challenge: Day 2

[rogueslayer452]

Day Two: In your own space, talk about your fannish history.


I got introduced to the online fandom community through searching fansites, forums, and message boards way back in the day. It was 1999/2000 when I first started reading fanfiction on fanfiction.net, and privately writing my own in my own time. The first slash fic I ever read was Jake/Marco from Animorphs.

In 2003 I joined LiveJournal, which was the first online platform I ever actively joined since before I was just merely lurking about. At this point you still needed to get an invite code to join LJ before they discontinued it later in the year. The fandoms I was in at this time were Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Harry Potter. My username is a combination of two my favorite characters from two different fandoms, Faith Lehane (BTVS) and Max Guevara (Dark Angel). My introduction to the fandom community that resided here on LJ was perhaps the most influential part of my online experience, from the specific fandom communities where you could participate in discussions to befriending like-minded individuals who shared the same fan enthusiasm as you did. Yes, fandom wasn't always a picnic as there was plenty of drama and controversies that occurred for one reason or another, as that's part of the fandom experience in general no matter where you are, but overall it was still a good experience nonetheless and I liked how lively this place was with fandom activity and how there was always something for everyone, regardless of what fandom you were in.

My fandom history on LJ is more or less just me being an enthusiastic fan about the things I liked. I wrote episodic reviews weekly for the shows I was watching, participated in discussions in communities or on other people's journals, I wrote metas and even did some fanmixes/ficmixes every now and then. I really stretched my writing muscles with doing metas and things like that during fandoms like Heroes, Veronica Mars, and Battlestar Galactica, and while I was in the Supernatural fandom for a brief period of time it was also the fandom that got me to go to my first ever fan convention, which would contribute to my love of going to conventions such as Dragon*Con and other smaller local based ones.

Throughout this, however, I also witnessed firsthand the unfortunate downward spiral of the fandom community on LJ. The Strikethrough of 07 was definitely the biggest blow fandom took on this site and it shook everyone up, and people tried to find different platforms to migrate to.

In 2011 I joined Tumblr, and in 2012 I created a backup DreamWidth account that I haven't done anything with aside from friending people there who bounced permanently from LJ just to continue keeping tabs on them. Otherwise, I mostly just still use LJ and Tumblr for my fandom outlets, for different reasons of course. Tumblr is where most of fandom resides nowadays (aside from Twitter, which I don't have) and it's where I can reblog things that are relevant to my fannish interests, and LJ, even if less fandomy that how it used to be, is where I can still express my thoughts and opinions about the things I am currently consuming in media since I don't feel comfortable doing so on such places like Tumblr where performative wokeness also sadly resides.

I am still very much into fandom. I might not be as much of a participant as I used to be, but I am still within the community. I just can't not ever stop being in fandom because it is my form of escapism. No matter whether online or in real life, no matter what platform fandom migrates to next, I will always be a fangirl and love fangirling about things and sharing this love with other people who are just as fannish as I am.

Comments

[author-by-night.livejournal.com]

My username is a combination of two my favorite characters from two different fandoms, Faith Lehane (BTVS) and Max Guevara (Dark Angel).

Ahhh. See, I always assumed it was a play on Wesley calling himself a "rogue demon hunter" on his first appearance in Angel. Except rogue slayer instead of "rogue demon hunter."

I don't do fandom on twitter, but I'm sort of involved in the writing community there, and... it's okay? It really wants to be LJ of 2006, but because twitter has algorithms and posts get lost and all this other stuff, it isn't. I added all of these other writers and I see more retweets and liked tweets than I see posts from people I am actually following. There's also a character limit, so you can't really interact. I would imagine there are similar issues with fandom.)

I tried tumblr when it was new because I was taking a class on digital media, and ironically had a "this will never take off" moment. I said that tumblr wanted to be too many things at once, and no one would ever get into it. I should've just said "four man bands are out, go back to Liverpool"* while I was at it. ;) I never did like tumblr, though. Especially not after it stole a bunch of my friends.

*Disclaimer: This may be an urban legend. Google isn't being helpful.

[rogueslayer452.livejournal.com]

Haha, I can see where one would make that assumption. But Faith is my favorite character and she was described as being a "rogue slayer", so that's where I got it from. I wasn't exactly creative when coming up with usernames at that time, and I did think about changing it a few times over the years, but then I decided that nah, this is my online identity here and let it be.

I'm sure that there are some areas that are good, but I've just heard how incredibly toxic the Twitter community is in general, that the notion of fandom migrating onto Twitter is just a big fat nope for me. Also, I just don't really understand Twitter as a platform. Like, I get it on a social media level, but I don't think it's sustainable for fandom considering its limitations. I also don't like how people act on Twitter, adding more fuel to the reactionary/outrage culture and I have seen the results of this from the sidelines and it's not pretty.

I think Tumblr wouldn't have become as huge as it has without fandom, to be fair. Initially it was never supposed to have been what it currently is, since it was mostly just a photo sharing site, until fandom ended up doing a massive migration and tried to turn it into something it's not. That's why communication there sucks. I wasn't sure that such a place would be sustainable for fandom either considering, and even though it takes some time to get used to it (and by now I am used to it, having used it for as long as I have) it still barely works as a whole because there are missing components that are fundamental to the fandom community experience, mainly interacting with others, communication, and able to engage in a discussion.

[author-by-night.livejournal.com]

I like Faith a lot too. And I hear you about name changing - I'm no longer the fifteen year old who called herself Author By Night on ff.n because it sounded sooo edgy at the time, and yet it's become my online identity.

. I also don't like how people act on Twitter, adding more fuel to the reactionary/outrage culture and I have seen the results of this from the sidelines and it's not pretty.

Yeah, it can get scary. Reactionary culture in general is so ugly, and on twitter it tends to spiral. I recently saw a tweet that was taken completely out of context, but even once the context was understood, it was retweeted so often that the OP and other people kept having to re-explain what she meant. Shouldn't we just give people the benefit of the doubt?* I can't tell you how many times people IRL have misspoken or been misunderstood, how many times I have misspoken or misunderstood, but because only a few people hear, the problem's quickly resolved. I've seen it elsewhere, but I think it spirals out of control faster on twitter.

*And I know, we've been giving problematic people the benefit of the doubt for years, but I think it's okay to make sure we understood correctly, too.

I've come across fans who don't even realize communication with others used to be a major part OF fandom. It's sad.

[rogueslayer452.livejournal.com]

I recently saw a tweet that was taken completely out of context, but even once the context was understood, it was retweeted so often that the OP and other people kept having to re-explain what she meant.

This is definitely a massive problem when it comes to social media in general, sites like Twitter and Tumblr have the retweeting/reblogging function that even if you correct the misinformation spread there will still be people who are still believing in that one post they saw. This is, unfortunately, the way people are conditioned now with social media to not only not give benefit of the doubt but to also believe everything they're seeing, not thinking critically or double checking the facts. This creates a lot of unnecessary drama and toxic behavior. We really need a brand new course of online etiquette for the social media age.

I've come across fans who don't even realize communication with others used to be a major part OF fandom. It's sad.

I know. Some think that just a simple like/reblog/retweet is the only communication needed, or that typing out a not even long paragraph to someone is "too long" and they just ignore it, and that's just really depressing. Granted, it could just be another factor of how social media has conditioned people to thinking that likes/retweets/followers are a measure of popularity and socialization without actually having to....socialize and communicate with others.

[itsnotmymind.livejournal.com]

"four man bands are out, go back to Liverpool"

According to George Harrison, it's true. From the Beatles' Anthology: Years later I found out they'd signed Brian Poole and the Tremeloes instead. The head of Decca, Dick Rowe, made a canny prediction: 'Guitar groups are on their way out, Mr Epstein.'

[itsnotmymind.livejournal.com]

I discovered fandom in 2006-2007, when I was into Marvel comics. Scans_Daily was one of the first online communities, and I remember disliking the sexual jokes. Scans_Daily was created by Batman/Robin shippers, which squicked me because of the mentor/student and adult/teenager dynamic.

But I remember this moment. I was reading an old Scans_Daily entry with pictures from the series Spider-Girl (about Peter Parker's teenage daughter from an alternate future). And this two people were going back and forth about the characters and the history, and what really struck me was how much they talked about "love". Not necessarily in a sexual way. Just casually observing that Matt Murdock (Daredevil) "loves" Peter Parker. And I just, I thought, this is my place.

I tried Tumblr for a year and gave up on it. It made me miserable.

[rogueslayer452.livejournal.com]

One of the aspects I like about fandom is being able to curate your own fandom experience. You're often trying to find a space in a specific fandom and deciding whether it's the right place for you or not, and then when you find it, whether it's the right community or the people communicating with each other or the content being produced/talked about, you're like, "ah yes, this is it."

I tried Tumblr for a year and gave up on it. It made me miserable.

I'm curious, what about it made you miserable? I'm often intrigued by the reasons people have been put off by the site as well as why people stay, since there seems to be quite a divide considering how scattered the fandom community seems to be.

[itsnotmymind.livejournal.com]

Part of it was how whenever I logged in, it showed the number of followers and mutuals I had in big numbers. It was hard for me not to obsess about it whenever the number went down.

I also disliked the lack of personal space. When I make an LJ post it stays on my LJ and people can come to my LJ if they want and talk to me, but it's all my space. When someone responds to one of my Tumblr posts, suddenly it was on their space. Not only was it hard to follow conversations, it took away any sense of having my own space.

[rogueslayer452.livejournal.com]

Sadly, that is the state of what most social media sites are like nowadays. They get people so obsessed over their number of followers that they'll do whatever to maintain that or get more. It's definitely unhealthy. What's interesting is that Tumblr didn't used to show the number of followers or the level of activity people had when they liked/reblogged a post from you. If you wanted, you checked for that separately. But then some years ago they made that the first thing you see when you went on your dash. It was quite jarring, and I didn't like it.

And I hear you when it comes to the lack of personal space. It's one of the biggest downsides since it's hard to really express yourself without someone unwelcome coming in and interjecting themselves in your space, except in reality it isn't your space, not really. This is an issue when it comes to many more online spaces becoming open forums instead of controlled environments where your space is yours, and where conversations can be contained in a single space instead of spread everywhere and can be misinterpreted or hijacked by random people.

So it's completely understandable why many are turned off by the site, because it can be quite miserable for how invasive, isolating, and impersonal it all is. I am, of course, on there because it is where most fandom resides and I do need my fannish fix (and I have been introduced to some amazing fandoms that I wouldn't have otherwise known about had it not been for Tumblr), but it's also why I mainly talk about my fandoms on LJ because I feel more comfortable sharing my thoughts and conversing on here than on over there.

I do hope that somehow fandom finds alternative that can return to the self-contained personal space again. I know that we must adapt as Internet culture evolves, but the way social media culture operates that is not sustainable for the fandom experience, imho.

[impala-chick.livejournal.com]

Yes, fangirling is really the ultimate escape. And I rag on tumblr but I love all the new fan content on it.

[rogueslayer452.livejournal.com]

I discovered a lot of fandoms and content that I wouldn't have otherwise known about if it wasn't for Tumblr, especially smaller fandoms that don't get a lot of attention elsewhere, both new and old. And the fan content created can be really awesome too, from gifmakers to fanartists.

Tumblr may have it's fair share of issues (plenty of issues), but fangirling/the fan content being produced there is not one of them.

[impala-chick.livejournal.com]

Same! Like Shadowhunters, The Witcher, 9-1-1... I'm sure I'm forgetting others.