Rare Fandom And Us

[birchsalt]

Happy November, my fellow Yuletiders. Soon we will enter into that festive mood of "well, I wrote my first sentence," and "this will seem easier once I drink heavily

Comments

[yahtzee63]

There are a number of fandoms on your list that are eligible not because they were always obscure but because they have fallen into obscurity over the past decade. Old, once-popular fandoms can be eligible again after a long enough time period.

Also, although some not-really-rare fandoms (particularly anime) have crept in during past years, I haven't noticed some huge rush to the Fruits Basketization of what gets written or requested.

[birchsalt]

I'd like to know which fandoms those are, though. Some people have listed, say, Animorphs and DS9 -- what defines 'obscurity'? There were stories posted to both of those fandoms in the past two days.

A great many other anime (and other than anime) fandoms have their own Christmas story-swaps. Respectfully, I feel that they can go and be written in there.

[birchsalt]

Saying "anime fans shouldn't participate in this challenge I love because there are other anime-only challenges" is restrictive in a way Yuletide strives not to be.

But I thought Yuletide was restrictive in the first place, being that its goal is to gift obscure and rare fandoms with fic. Anime fans have numerous challenges for them already. Yuletide was always our obscure-fandom crumbs in the corner.

I'm an anime fan and have written anime requests in the past for Yuletide. There are heaps of smaller, obscurer anime fandoms that more than deserve their place in Yuletide. But what Yuletide means to me is getting a story that you probably would never have gotten anywhere else (or would have gotten in very tiny amounts) which seems totally at odds with categories like PokemonI'm not going to request any fic I can get outside, and that's absolutely a privilege that nobody's trying to snatch away from me. But having huge fandoms in here that you can get fanfic from most days of the year -- that seems, to me, opposite of what Yuletide

[cjmarlowe]

Is there really an active fandom for Degrassi High? The show's been off the air for almost twenty years now.

[birchsalt]

I am totally aware that DeGrassi is not one I can comment on knowledgeably as I don't think I ever even got to watch the show: but it's got very recently updated fanworks on FF.net. I noticed some outside communities were only updated in 2004, but there seemed to be active fandom presence still.

[cjmarlowe]

Are you sure that's not just Degrassi: The Next Generation? Because I would actually like to read some good Degrassi High fic if it's out there.

[birchsalt]

I am not even a little sure. A lot of the fandoms in here I've participated in and could say with more surety, but Degrassi fans are more than welcome to slap me about the head and hands.

[birchsalt]

I know that this is the first year for skewed results. I think that the skewed results warrant pointing-at pretty immediately, though. There hasn't been a great deal of critique for the AO3 system, and although my post is not exactly a raging pamphlet against it I wanted to voice my concerns.

[carolinecrane]

I'm just really, really sad that I didn't remember to request The Sandlot this year. There are 87 fics on ff.net, sure, but they're all Mary Sues, and those sure as hell don't count.

[highfantastical]

Wow, I'm astounded that Hetalia was nominated at all - it is perhaps just past its heights, with some BNFs leaving for newer pastures, but still incredibly active in general. (And I write this as an avid fan myself.)

[spicy_diamond]

I think Hetalia falls under the mystical '1st year' rule since it's the first year it's been available -legally- in the US. Even though most fans have been aware of it for much longer.

[birchsalt]

If that was the case, though, one would've expected shows like White Collar to turn up. And Inception, and they've got (very relatively) big fandoms already.

[tzikeh]

I think she means it's the first year that the source material has been available legally in the U.S. White Collar was in the challenge last year.