History...
I've been doing some archiving the last few days, and it's had me digging through some really old links - fanfics, fanart, fanwanks (of course)! It just struck me how long ago all of it is, now. It's actually a bit strange to think about - I wrote my first LJ entry on March 27th, 2002. In a month that'll be *eighteen years ago*. That is kind of insane. I remember when I felt amazed that I'd hit five years, and ten, and that it seemed like an impossibly long time.
I was so different, then - so much younger. It's funny to read my first entry where I said 'if you don't know me, why are you reading this'? Of course, the internet was crazy different back then, too. I feel really lucky that I got to sort of grow up alongside it - just in that sweet spot where I could explore safely, without ending up being stuck in the insanity and bullying that followed. There was a post on Reddit the other day and it sounded like other people felt the same - that they were grateful to have missed the current dynamic online.
I miss how small the internet felt, back then, but of course there were downsides. Could BNFs exist now? I've been idly pondering about that and I'm not entirely sure. I mean there are people who are absolutely huge on Youtube and elsewhere, so maybe? I mean there are still scams and drama and all sorts of crap, so I guess that just shows that people are just... people, no matter the medium and no matter how many of us there are.
I do miss the more 'connected' feeling that it all had, though. I used to know the names (at least pseudonames) of the people whose stuff I read. Now... Nope. Occasionally Harry Potter comes up over on Reddit and I see people reminiscing about stuff that happened when I was in the fandom and I find myself wondering if I 'knew' them, back then. I think most people have gone off to Tumblr, or Twitter... You can never go back, only forward. I remember the group of people that I gathered up on Neopets and how we all came together for that brief period of time - then it passed, and it was never quite the same after. I feel like the HP fandom was the same way.
There are
comments at Dreamwidth. https://kerri.dreamwidth.org/1433391.html#comments
I was so different, then - so much younger. It's funny to read my first entry where I said 'if you don't know me, why are you reading this'? Of course, the internet was crazy different back then, too. I feel really lucky that I got to sort of grow up alongside it - just in that sweet spot where I could explore safely, without ending up being stuck in the insanity and bullying that followed. There was a post on Reddit the other day and it sounded like other people felt the same - that they were grateful to have missed the current dynamic online.
I miss how small the internet felt, back then, but of course there were downsides. Could BNFs exist now? I've been idly pondering about that and I'm not entirely sure. I mean there are people who are absolutely huge on Youtube and elsewhere, so maybe? I mean there are still scams and drama and all sorts of crap, so I guess that just shows that people are just... people, no matter the medium and no matter how many of us there are.
I do miss the more 'connected' feeling that it all had, though. I used to know the names (at least pseudonames) of the people whose stuff I read. Now... Nope. Occasionally Harry Potter comes up over on Reddit and I see people reminiscing about stuff that happened when I was in the fandom and I find myself wondering if I 'knew' them, back then. I think most people have gone off to Tumblr, or Twitter... You can never go back, only forward. I remember the group of people that I gathered up on Neopets and how we all came together for that brief period of time - then it passed, and it was never quite the same after. I feel like the HP fandom was the same way.
There are
comments at Dreamwidth. https://kerri.dreamwidth.org/1433391.html#comments