FIAWOL and Not-FIAWOL: An All-Fandoms Poll
FIAWOL, as many of you know, stands for "Fandom is a Way of Life." The acronym originated in SF/F fandom, but it's just as relevant in our particular meta-writing/vid-making/fanfic-reading/art-creating corner of media fandom...
...or at least it is for some of us.
I don't know whether it's the change in the season or some strange planetary alignment, but in the past 24 hours, five separate, unrelated people (three on my f'list) announced that they'd had it with fandom. Nobody was flouncing off in a huff or making a bid for sympathy or attention, but the gist of each post (four of the posters were in HP) seemed to be "Okay, so...I guess I should stop fooling myself into thinking I'm still in fandom, yeah?"
All the comments they received were supportive (in that "you have to do what's right for you!" kind of way), and only a few were the sort of "yes, well, we all have to grow up sometime" comments that make late-forties-me laugh, but it got me wondering how many of us are in fandom for the long haul and how many of us are just passing through.
So. A Poll.
ETA: For the sake of this poll, "mono-fannish" means, at the very least, that when you're involved in a fandom, you don't have any involvements at all with other fannish sources. In other words, if you're in HP, no reading and reccing LotR, too. So...serial monogamy counts as mono-fannish, but not having a *main* fandom and dabbling in others.
Poll FIAWOL: Your Relationship With Fandom
...or at least it is for some of us.
I don't know whether it's the change in the season or some strange planetary alignment, but in the past 24 hours, five separate, unrelated people (three on my f'list) announced that they'd had it with fandom. Nobody was flouncing off in a huff or making a bid for sympathy or attention, but the gist of each post (four of the posters were in HP) seemed to be "Okay, so...I guess I should stop fooling myself into thinking I'm still in fandom, yeah?"
All the comments they received were supportive (in that "you have to do what's right for you!" kind of way), and only a few were the sort of "yes, well, we all have to grow up sometime" comments that make late-forties-me laugh, but it got me wondering how many of us are in fandom for the long haul and how many of us are just passing through.
So. A Poll.
ETA: For the sake of this poll, "mono-fannish" means, at the very least, that when you're involved in a fandom, you don't have any involvements at all with other fannish sources. In other words, if you're in HP, no reading and reccing LotR, too. So...serial monogamy counts as mono-fannish, but not having a *main* fandom and dabbling in others.
Poll FIAWOL: Your Relationship With Fandom