Something that's been confusing me about 'recent' changes in fandom:
fandom seems to have moved to livejournal almost completely, even for those things that aren't necessarily best served by LJ. In fact, very little except the pure socialising part of fandom - which is, of course, an important part, no contest about that! - is *really* best served by LJ. Forums are better suited for discussion, since they allow
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Well, yes, *exactly*. But posting it in a very small, very private corner of the web where nobody but ten friends will see it - is that really 'getting it out there'?
I do understand that some people feel shy, and I don't have any issue with that. I do have issues with laziness and disregard for the readers and the community. I'm *not* saying the the shy people are lazy or feel disregard for their readers, but I do think that there are people out there who post only to LJ for those reasons, and not out of shyness.
There have always been shy people, and there is never a way to ensure that everything that's worth reading really will reach an audience; heck, Kafka wanted his manuscripts burnt instead of published after his death! If Max Brodt had complied with his wishes, there'd be considerable less Kafka around now.
But I'm not saying we should all be Max Brodts and force shy writers to publish more widely - I'm willing to live with a certain amount of loss. But what appears to me to be happening on LJ is on a larger scale than could be explained by just a few shy people trying to keep out of the limelight. It seems to me - I may be wrong, I'm only human - that there is a real, massive trend towards going more and more private in one's fannish experience and production. And that I find fairly disquieting in its implications.
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