fandom yay and nay

[schmerica]

I actually went to check out the fanfic_hate thread on Smallville, but it turned out to be incredibly horribly boring. Honestly, if I'm going to go to the effort and guilt to go through all of that, you'd think it could at least be entertaining in a car-crash or I'm-a-horrible-person-for-reading-this sort of way. Instead it just seems to be round #8,000,124 of the "Smallville is mean to newbies" argument.

On the other hand, I am anticipating the ds_undercover stories with much excitement. So much new fic by so many cool people! All at once! Whee!

Comments

[not-vacillating.livejournal.com]

Instead it just seems to be round #8,000,124 of the "Smallville is mean to newbies" argument.

The thing that really gets me about that? It may be some people's experience that SV is mean to newbies, but when I wandered into the fandom (mostly, admittedly, on lj) about a year ago, I distinctly recall remarking on how friendly it was and how welcoming people were-- it's not quite as friendly as M*A*S*H, which is so tiny everyone knows each other more or less, but it's a lot friendlier than HP.

[bethbethbeth.livejournal.com]

but it's a lot friendlier than HP

...and yet, I've had almost nothing but positive experiences with HP from the moment I wandered in, knowing nobody. You know, it strikes me that all these discussions about friendliness in particular fandoms boil down to two things: (1) where you first pop up in a fandom (i.e., what corner of the fandom) and (2) how much you care about being in whatever you perceive to be the "in crowd"

(Note: there's almost never a single "in crowd" in a fandom. HP, for example, has scores of people who are called BNF's, yet half of them don't even recognize the other half's names when they're mentioned because the fandom's just too big.)

I mean, yes...I was lucky with HP. I wrote a couple of joke stories (and was roundly ignored *g*), then posted some comments about the movies and characterization (and...um...was ignored again. *g*), then posted a story that had *no* pairing (pure gen) and a not-terribly-happy ending (usually a recipe for disaster, in terms of being read) and *that* was noticed, at which point people started actually talking to me.

My friend Becky (blunaris), who's pretty much out of SV now, similarly entered that fandom without really knowing anyone and after a time (she's not a writer, but she is an artist) was taken under the wing of some people there. Whether you perceive a fandom as "friendly" has more to do with the luck of the draw than anything else, I think.

And as for my second point - i.e., how much you care about being in the in-crowd - one of the things that always strikes me as so weird in the discussions of how exclusionary certain cliques are in various fandoms is the number of people jumping on the bandwagon to say they were excluded...and they all know each other! *g* It's like, "But...you're all friends! And there are a lot of you! Isn't that enough?" Because really, even if the BNF's of a fandom (and I'm not even going to pretend that the term BNF is meaningless, but to me it just means "well known for participating in a fandom") all decide together at their secret meetings (*g*) to unfriend you or not friend you or not rec your stories or whatever, well...hell, there are still hundreds of other people who might like your work or might like you as a person. Ignore the 7 or 8 people you think are so important, and they'll stop seeming as if they matter so much.

(And amchau? I'm not directing this toward you...just using the universal "you" *g*)

BTW...Erica? Have you *seen* all the posts from people writing for ds_undercover, still desperately trying to finish their stories at the last minute? I wouldn't be so sure about the "so much new fic" thing. :)

-Beth, desperately trying to finish my story at the last minute. *g*

[not-vacillating.livejournal.com]

...and yet, I've had almost nothing but positive experiences with HP from the moment I wandered in, knowing nobody. You know, it strikes me that all these discussions about friendliness in particular fandoms boil down to two things: (1) where you first pop up in a fandom (i.e., what corner of the fandom) and (2) how much you care about being in whatever you perceive to be the "in crowd"

Yeah. I'm not much worried about (2), but I think I was unlucky with (1). There are some really great people in HP fandom as a whole-- and I'm starting to come back to it-- but my experience is that you have to tread carefully to get the nice people and not the crazy people.

It also seems to me that the main thing that creates BNFs is not the BNFs or potential BNFs themselves, but the fear of BNFs. I've never actually encountered a BNF who was seriously trying to make a cabal, only people who were complaining that cabals existed.

I'm not directing this toward you...just using the universal "you" *g*

Yeah, understood. *g*

[pearl-o.livejournal.com]

BTW...Erica? Have you *seen* all the posts from people writing for ds_undercover, still desperately trying to finish their stories at the last minute? I wouldn't be so sure about the "so much new fic" thing. :)

-Beth, desperately trying to finish my story at the last minute. *g*

I *believe* in you all, Beth! I *believe*!

*crosses fingers*

[pearl-o.livejournal.com]

Oh, people with good experiences never count. You're strange anomalies -- nothing to worry about. I learned that back when I tried to pipe up with *my* experiences, back in the first few hundred rounds.

[not-vacillating.livejournal.com]

You're strange anomalies -- nothing to worry about.

Well, obviously: anyone who has good experiences must be a freak.