Fandom Snowflake Days 14 & 15
In your own space, write a love letter to Fandom in general, to a particular fandom, to a trope, a relationship, a character, or to your flist/circle/followers. Share you love and squee as loud as you want to. Leave a comment in this post saying you did it. Include a link to your post if you feel comfortable doing so
I've had sort of two fannish incarnations (see below for the other) but since I found my way back to such corners of the internet (and had an internet), fandom on LJ and my flist - and the people I've got to know through comms, or exchanges - has been wonderful. The way LJ (and now Dreamwidth, too) works suits me. I love the comms and most of all I love my flist. I came here via Teaspoon, because people had links to their journals on their author pages and I was immediately enchanted by the idea that here was a place you could get together and actually talk about writing and play writing games. Nobody ever let me waffle about writing before! And after the first embarrassing period of sitting there talking to myself and being too shy to friend anyone, so it was. I'm a different person now, and while that wasn't what I had in mind when I signed up, but it's a good thing.
And now, since I've been ill, it's not only been a pleasure, it's been a lifeline. You all have been in different ways. That time the DDoD attacks nearly killed LJ in 2011? They nearly killed me along with it. It was terrifying without everyone. (I have some more resources of my own now, but that wasn't fun.) I got a Dreamwidth then, but it was very lonely and I was so glad to have everyone back.
Anyway, thank you very much for all the fun, all the memes, the encouragement, reading my ramblings, reading my fic, standing by while I learned to icon and attempted to vid, for making me lovely things, for giving me sympathy when I needed it. For all the wonderful prompts, for joining in on my comms, for the people who've sent me things through the post, and for those who've given me things online of any sort. People have been so amazingly kind. Over and over - not just my flist, but passing strangers, people lately in Yuletide and in Fandom Stocking. But especially my flisters. You've reduced me to tears in the good way on many occasions. (Admittedly, that isn't all that hard these days, but you have.) And you've all been there for me all this time, which is often the most important thing. I feel I need better words than these to express my gratitude, but they're all I have for the moment, so:
♥ ♥ ♥
*cough* Well, that was enough of being emotional and all that...
In your own space, share a favorite memory about fandom: the first time you got into fandom, the last time a fanwork touched your heart, crazy times with fellow fans (whether on-line or off-line), a lovely comment you’ve received or have left for someone. Leave a comment in this post saying you did it. Include a link to your post if you feel comfortable doing so.
Hmm. So many to choose from. I think - the above notwithstanding - it'd still have to be the first time I learned that fandom existed, even though it didn't have that name. I was studying Information and Library Studies at uni and our lecturer introduced us to the joy of newsgroups. For the rest of my three years there I spent hours and hours on alt.drwho.creative and even popped into rec.arts.drwho sometimes. Doctor Who fandom was relatively small then and all pretty much in that one place. You were chatting to people from DWM and Virgin authors and things before you knew it. There was an exciting feel that you were only one step away from moving into something semi-official if you were lucky enough. It was also terrifying though. There wasn't really much privacy, or protection from flamers and spam and trollers. Or all the people who hated various Doctors with a passion.
And there was a huge buzz that came with the TV Movie - there was a sudden infusion of people and life, especially on adwc (it had only had about a dozen posts a month for a while before that). And we got together and expressed sort of non-aggressive dissatisfaction with the first EDAs and started up the Internet Adventures and it felt as if we were really making Doctor Who somehow. Even if what we were actually doing was having a lot of fun creating a motley collection of round robin stories. (Occasionally some of them even managed to be quite good and made sense. Most had some good chapters and... didn't really. :lol:) But, yes, it was fun and I'll always be glad that for once in my life, I actually joined something at the right time.
Anyway, so I recognise half the names in all the epic dedications in Virgin novels and it was all anarchic and scary and fun. And then I left university and had no proper internet access for about seven years. And when I came back fandom had changed! People had all left adwc and they had ships and things. (Apparently they had those in other fandoms before, but my corner was busy trying to get into "proper" Doctor Who most of the time.) And this I probably like better now, but I'll always be a little bit nostalgic about that time back in the 90s and the people I knew then. (A select few are also people I know now, too - they know who they are! ;-D)
Crossposted from Dreamwidth -- Comments there:
I've had sort of two fannish incarnations (see below for the other) but since I found my way back to such corners of the internet (and had an internet), fandom on LJ and my flist - and the people I've got to know through comms, or exchanges - has been wonderful. The way LJ (and now Dreamwidth, too) works suits me. I love the comms and most of all I love my flist. I came here via Teaspoon, because people had links to their journals on their author pages and I was immediately enchanted by the idea that here was a place you could get together and actually talk about writing and play writing games. Nobody ever let me waffle about writing before! And after the first embarrassing period of sitting there talking to myself and being too shy to friend anyone, so it was. I'm a different person now, and while that wasn't what I had in mind when I signed up, but it's a good thing.
And now, since I've been ill, it's not only been a pleasure, it's been a lifeline. You all have been in different ways. That time the DDoD attacks nearly killed LJ in 2011? They nearly killed me along with it. It was terrifying without everyone. (I have some more resources of my own now, but that wasn't fun.) I got a Dreamwidth then, but it was very lonely and I was so glad to have everyone back.
Anyway, thank you very much for all the fun, all the memes, the encouragement, reading my ramblings, reading my fic, standing by while I learned to icon and attempted to vid, for making me lovely things, for giving me sympathy when I needed it. For all the wonderful prompts, for joining in on my comms, for the people who've sent me things through the post, and for those who've given me things online of any sort. People have been so amazingly kind. Over and over - not just my flist, but passing strangers, people lately in Yuletide and in Fandom Stocking. But especially my flisters. You've reduced me to tears in the good way on many occasions. (Admittedly, that isn't all that hard these days, but you have.) And you've all been there for me all this time, which is often the most important thing. I feel I need better words than these to express my gratitude, but they're all I have for the moment, so:
♥ ♥ ♥
*cough* Well, that was enough of being emotional and all that...
In your own space, share a favorite memory about fandom: the first time you got into fandom, the last time a fanwork touched your heart, crazy times with fellow fans (whether on-line or off-line), a lovely comment you’ve received or have left for someone. Leave a comment in this post saying you did it. Include a link to your post if you feel comfortable doing so.
Hmm. So many to choose from. I think - the above notwithstanding - it'd still have to be the first time I learned that fandom existed, even though it didn't have that name. I was studying Information and Library Studies at uni and our lecturer introduced us to the joy of newsgroups. For the rest of my three years there I spent hours and hours on alt.drwho.creative and even popped into rec.arts.drwho sometimes. Doctor Who fandom was relatively small then and all pretty much in that one place. You were chatting to people from DWM and Virgin authors and things before you knew it. There was an exciting feel that you were only one step away from moving into something semi-official if you were lucky enough. It was also terrifying though. There wasn't really much privacy, or protection from flamers and spam and trollers. Or all the people who hated various Doctors with a passion.
And there was a huge buzz that came with the TV Movie - there was a sudden infusion of people and life, especially on adwc (it had only had about a dozen posts a month for a while before that). And we got together and expressed sort of non-aggressive dissatisfaction with the first EDAs and started up the Internet Adventures and it felt as if we were really making Doctor Who somehow. Even if what we were actually doing was having a lot of fun creating a motley collection of round robin stories. (Occasionally some of them even managed to be quite good and made sense. Most had some good chapters and... didn't really. :lol:) But, yes, it was fun and I'll always be glad that for once in my life, I actually joined something at the right time.
Anyway, so I recognise half the names in all the epic dedications in Virgin novels and it was all anarchic and scary and fun. And then I left university and had no proper internet access for about seven years. And when I came back fandom had changed! People had all left adwc and they had ships and things. (Apparently they had those in other fandoms before, but my corner was busy trying to get into "proper" Doctor Who most of the time.) And this I probably like better now, but I'll always be a little bit nostalgic about that time back in the 90s and the people I knew then. (A select few are also people I know now, too - they know who they are! ;-D)
Crossposted from Dreamwidth -- Comments there: