Carry on my....well, you know.
Aug. 29th, 2025 01:19 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
rogueslayer452This question I saw on author_by_night, which I gave my answer there but I wanted to elaborate more here:
What's a fandom that honestly made you quit the fandom and/or the piece of media itself?
Out of all of the fandoms I've been involved in, the only one that has truly made me quit both the media and its fandom was Supernatural. Anyone who was around back then on LJ knew how deep I was with the show during the very early seasons (S1-S6), I was quite invested with not only watching the show but also engaging with the online fandom. I participated in fan discussions, wrote episode reviews immediately after watching an aired episode, wrote metas, did fanmixes, it was also the fandom that I ended up going to my first convention for and met some online friends in real life. Those were some of the upsides to my fandom experience, however the downsides sadly far outweighed all of those positives. There was a lot going on with my frustrations with the direction the show was going during the sixth season along with the aggressively toxic nature of the fandom itself, which unfortunately that negativity regretfully bled into my own attitude and behavior at times upon interacting with the fandom, something that I am honestly ashamed of. It was all becoming too much for me to handle, mentally and emotionally. Stepping away from both the show and the fandom itself turned out to be the best decision for my own sanity. It truly became a hard lesson for me to learn about quitting something that was making me unhappy, that even if I wanted to stay with it for a particular character/actor or even for the online friends I had made along the way, it's just not worth it.
Interestingly, now that the show is over I have just recently been returning back to reblogging things about it on my Tumblr once again. I guess time and distance, and also having a closed canon, was all that was needed, as well as a very different fandom atmosphere then when I had last left it. Less toxic and more introspective, the never-ending memes, etc.
author_by_night, which I gave my answer there but I wanted to elaborate more here:What's a fandom that honestly made you quit the fandom and/or the piece of media itself?
Out of all of the fandoms I've been involved in, the only one that has truly made me quit both the media and its fandom was Supernatural. Anyone who was around back then on LJ knew how deep I was with the show during the very early seasons (S1-S6), I was quite invested with not only watching the show but also engaging with the online fandom. I participated in fan discussions, wrote episode reviews immediately after watching an aired episode, wrote metas, did fanmixes, it was also the fandom that I ended up going to my first convention for and met some online friends in real life. Those were some of the upsides to my fandom experience, however the downsides sadly far outweighed all of those positives. There was a lot going on with my frustrations with the direction the show was going during the sixth season along with the aggressively toxic nature of the fandom itself, which unfortunately that negativity regretfully bled into my own attitude and behavior at times upon interacting with the fandom, something that I am honestly ashamed of. It was all becoming too much for me to handle, mentally and emotionally. Stepping away from both the show and the fandom itself turned out to be the best decision for my own sanity. It truly became a hard lesson for me to learn about quitting something that was making me unhappy, that even if I wanted to stay with it for a particular character/actor or even for the online friends I had made along the way, it's just not worth it.
Interestingly, now that the show is over I have just recently been returning back to reblogging things about it on my Tumblr once again. I guess time and distance, and also having a closed canon, was all that was needed, as well as a very different fandom atmosphere then when I had last left it. Less toxic and more introspective, the never-ending memes, etc.
no subject
Date: 2025-09-05 10:14 am (UTC)Plus, I gotta admit, the whole November 5th thing really kind of united fandom together, not just the SPN fandom but the general fandom overall, in a way that I hadn't seen before. Yeah, it's become a meme since, but it's something that I don't think I could've fathomed back when I was in the fandom many years ago.
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Date: 2025-09-09 12:46 pm (UTC)There will always be fandom drama. It's just good when it doesn't make the whole fandom feel unwelcoming to new fans.
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Date: 2025-09-09 09:34 pm (UTC)Yeah, all fandoms have drama and negativity, and it's better to find spaces that are more welcoming than not and know how to navigate through the drama that occurs, filtering and blocking have gotten better on certain platforms to avoid those things which is good.
no subject
Date: 2025-09-18 01:23 pm (UTC)Good point about how filtering and blocking has improved. It's easier to avoid people who want to be espcially rude or gatekeeping in fandom. There are also so many spaces for fandom so if one is toxic it's possible to go somewhere else and see new people.