Dear Fandom
Not just the FE fandom, but pretty much everyone I've ever joined. But since those of you out there on f-list land are from the FE crowd, listen up.
This has irked me for years, but since darling raphien mentioned something about "a sinking ship," it's time for a reality check. Or at least some perspective.
Stop bitching about how fandom is dying. You know how inviting it is to join a fandom when all the regulars are already pissing and moaning about how everything is now not-good and used to be sooooo much better? Not very. And y'all were pissing and moaning when I showed up late to the party in '09 (that's two years ago, people), and from reading the then-extant archives on the FFNet fora, I already knew at the time that the pissing and moaning had been going on for a couple of years.
So that's three or four years of the long, slow, demise of the Fire Emblem online fanfiction writing community. And yet, the writers and stories keep coming. Is the fandom what it used to be? No. Review counts and such are down by any quantitative measure. The day of the epic long-form story seems to be at an end for this fandom. But a lot of what was "so great" in those days really isn't all that good in hindsight ("Fourteen Days" is crap, sorry) and a lot of the shorter pieces were totally out-of-character (bad Kent/Sain slash-- also crap), but that's the fandom you came into and stuck with. Of course you liked it better then-- it was fun!
Now, take off your rose-colored mirror-glasses and ask yourself why anyone would want to join a fandom where the old-timers are constantly screaming about the end times like it'll never be 2005 again. Damn, people. You're lucky anyone who came in the door from 2007 on stuck around. So stop dragging up personality conflicts from a Very Long Time Ago-- it doesn't help. Stop gazing misty-eyed at the fandom days of yore, because in your blindness you're stepping on the feet of writers who would like to be a part of the fun but have to wonder if there's any fun to be had.
After all, these old-time fans are so bloody miserable about everything. Why join them?
This has been brought to you by the Committee to STFU.
This has irked me for years, but since darling raphien mentioned something about "a sinking ship," it's time for a reality check. Or at least some perspective.
Stop bitching about how fandom is dying. You know how inviting it is to join a fandom when all the regulars are already pissing and moaning about how everything is now not-good and used to be sooooo much better? Not very. And y'all were pissing and moaning when I showed up late to the party in '09 (that's two years ago, people), and from reading the then-extant archives on the FFNet fora, I already knew at the time that the pissing and moaning had been going on for a couple of years.
So that's three or four years of the long, slow, demise of the Fire Emblem online fanfiction writing community. And yet, the writers and stories keep coming. Is the fandom what it used to be? No. Review counts and such are down by any quantitative measure. The day of the epic long-form story seems to be at an end for this fandom. But a lot of what was "so great" in those days really isn't all that good in hindsight ("Fourteen Days" is crap, sorry) and a lot of the shorter pieces were totally out-of-character (bad Kent/Sain slash-- also crap), but that's the fandom you came into and stuck with. Of course you liked it better then-- it was fun!
Now, take off your rose-colored mirror-glasses and ask yourself why anyone would want to join a fandom where the old-timers are constantly screaming about the end times like it'll never be 2005 again. Damn, people. You're lucky anyone who came in the door from 2007 on stuck around. So stop dragging up personality conflicts from a Very Long Time Ago-- it doesn't help. Stop gazing misty-eyed at the fandom days of yore, because in your blindness you're stepping on the feet of writers who would like to be a part of the fun but have to wonder if there's any fun to be had.
After all, these old-time fans are so bloody miserable about everything. Why join them?
This has been brought to you by the Committee to STFU.