occasionally, I do rant
Battlestar Galactica fandom is small, but already very well-ordered. I've joined/friended 13th_colony for discussion and friended galacticanews for news. I've followed links and recs, and even though I've been watching the show for less than a week I can already tell you the people posting lots of BSG content are bantha_fodder, rheanna27, meyerlemon, and so on. I'll be keeping an eye on their LJs and friendslists for just that reason.
This is what I do when I'm curious about new fandoms. I go hunting. I hit Google to look for archives and search LJ interests to look for communities, and when I find good authors or rec'ers or episode reviewers, I also pay attention to the people they link to. I may ask my own friendslist for links to things, but I'm always, always going to do a fair amount of digging on my own. Sometimes, just to contribute a little something back to the fannish balance, I'll report back on what I've found.
In short, I do the work.
I'm a bit irritated tonight, because I just happened to see yet another post asking, "Why aren't there Harry/Ron people?" ("Harry" as in Harry Potter, for those of you not familiar, and "Harry/Ron" as in a pretty sizable pairing in the fandom including -- I'll just come clean here -- a couple of stories written by yours truly.) This isn't the first time I've seen someone ask something like this. It's just the first time I've commented on it.
Okay. Big picture. Outside of that particular post (recognizing that you gotta be careful these days linking to an individual when you mean to speak in generalities) -- it frankly irritates me whenever I see someone ask something or state something that three minutes of quick searching would have yielded a wealth of information about, making said question/statement pretty much unnecessary. For example: someone who posts, "Why aren't there any [blah/blah] stories?" when hundreds of [blah/blah] stories written by hundreds of hard-working authors are in half a dozen different LJ communities linked off of a single search for "[blah/blah]" under LJ interests.* That someone is irritating to me. That someone is not doing the work that my ten year old cousin could do.
My point is, I think the ease of searching on the Internet and LJ, as well as the current hyper-linkedness of fandom, make such posts a) wasted effort, and b) ignorant [eta: and c) a slap in the face to said hard-working fans/authors -- this, I think, is the real source of my irritation]. These days, it's so easy to find something you want in fandom that there's really no excuse for complaining that you can't.**
I do understand that someone who's mostly in BTVS or some such doesn't necessarily have the time or the interest to look up every random pairing in HP that they happen to have a blink-and-you'll-miss-it thought about. Fine, whatever. I have those days, too. On those days, however, I know I'm being irritating. And I'm just posting this to make sure you know that when you do it, you're being irritating, too.
Finally, I take this opportunity to reiterate that people who delete comments are annoying as hell. Incredibly so.
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* This search option, by the way, is at the top right of your userinfo page. "Interest" is in the drop-down menu under "Username."
** Obviously, if you've done the work and you still can't find what you want, you have cause to complain. Otherwise, no. You're just being irritating.
This is what I do when I'm curious about new fandoms. I go hunting. I hit Google to look for archives and search LJ interests to look for communities, and when I find good authors or rec'ers or episode reviewers, I also pay attention to the people they link to. I may ask my own friendslist for links to things, but I'm always, always going to do a fair amount of digging on my own. Sometimes, just to contribute a little something back to the fannish balance, I'll report back on what I've found.
In short, I do the work.
I'm a bit irritated tonight, because I just happened to see yet another post asking, "Why aren't there Harry/Ron people?" ("Harry" as in Harry Potter, for those of you not familiar, and "Harry/Ron" as in a pretty sizable pairing in the fandom including -- I'll just come clean here -- a couple of stories written by yours truly.) This isn't the first time I've seen someone ask something like this. It's just the first time I've commented on it.
Okay. Big picture. Outside of that particular post (recognizing that you gotta be careful these days linking to an individual when you mean to speak in generalities) -- it frankly irritates me whenever I see someone ask something or state something that three minutes of quick searching would have yielded a wealth of information about, making said question/statement pretty much unnecessary. For example: someone who posts, "Why aren't there any [blah/blah] stories?" when hundreds of [blah/blah] stories written by hundreds of hard-working authors are in half a dozen different LJ communities linked off of a single search for "[blah/blah]" under LJ interests.* That someone is irritating to me. That someone is not doing the work that my ten year old cousin could do.
My point is, I think the ease of searching on the Internet and LJ, as well as the current hyper-linkedness of fandom, make such posts a) wasted effort, and b) ignorant [eta: and c) a slap in the face to said hard-working fans/authors -- this, I think, is the real source of my irritation]. These days, it's so easy to find something you want in fandom that there's really no excuse for complaining that you can't.**
I do understand that someone who's mostly in BTVS or some such doesn't necessarily have the time or the interest to look up every random pairing in HP that they happen to have a blink-and-you'll-miss-it thought about. Fine, whatever. I have those days, too. On those days, however, I know I'm being irritating. And I'm just posting this to make sure you know that when you do it, you're being irritating, too.
Finally, I take this opportunity to reiterate that people who delete comments are annoying as hell. Incredibly so.
______________________________
* This search option, by the way, is at the top right of your userinfo page. "Interest" is in the drop-down menu under "Username."
** Obviously, if you've done the work and you still can't find what you want, you have cause to complain. Otherwise, no. You're just being irritating.