Fandom far afield

[lettered]

When was the last time you participated in fandom on the internet not through a journaling site? I don't really mean posting fanfic to something like fanfiction.net, unless you also post and discuss in the forums there. I mean discussion, meta, the posting of fanfic, the making of graphics, etc, all being share through a medium other than LJ, DW

Comments

[kenaressa]

My Kanjani8 fandom mainly uses a forum...I'm kinda bad about keeping up with it though.....although that isn't all that different with how I am at posting here ^^;

I got into that forum by meeting some of the people in person and I was already in the fandom, though not active online....so it doesn't fit the other questions.

No real difference in the people here and the people there (some of them are here too) but I'm more active on lj (for various qualities of active). I think it's just easier to check because of the list format.

[lettered]

Yeah, LJ's definitely easier to check. At first I thought it was crazy, keeping up with your flist. I...still think it's crazy, but it's easier than keeping up with a forum!

[flake_sake]

1) BtVS

[lettered]

What BtVS forum? As fen, I'm curious.

On journaling sites you can go into more intricate complex discussions about controversial points in the show,

True! Which is interesting, because when I first got an lj I thought I would not be able to get into as many complex discussions. Everything on a journaling site has to do with time. If you don't make your sally at the correct moment, no one will ever see it--or, if someone sees it, other people won't know it's there to join in. I thought that this would make for some very narrow discussions, but there are enough people here that once in a while someone sees you and they are AWESOME and you are AWESOME and you just have this AWESOME discussion.

But it is easy to get caught in just your preferred corner of fandomThis is interesting. I found myself more caught up in a corner on forums. I can figure out whether this was due to the difference in fandoms or the difference in mediums. The thing is, while you're more likely to see a broader range on a forum, I tend not to pay

[flake_sake]

What BtVS forum? As fen, I'm curious.

http://www.buffyforums.net/forums/

True! Which is interesting, because when I first got an lj I thought I would not be able to get into as many complex discussions. Everything on a journaling site has to do with time.

That's true, on the board you have quicker access to a larger audience, but I got the impression that a bigger portion of discussions tend to end in pointless screaming matches, in which each person tries to gather as many followers as possible and the topic becomes quickly less important than the winning.

This is interesting. I found myself more caught up in a corner on forums. I can figure out whether this was due to the difference in fandoms or the difference in mediums. The thing is, while you're more likely to see a broader range on a forum, I tend not to pay attention to it. I just think, "those people over there are talking about something I have no interest in". But on lj, if I happen to have someone

[lettered]

I got the impression that a bigger portion of discussions tend to end in pointless screaming matches,

Other people have had the same impression. I wonder why this is. Someone also mentioned they found the "cult of nice" oppressive on journaling sites. LJ certainly has it's share of wank, but I find it . . . more avoidable, if I want. Maybe it's just because LJ is more splintered--I can hide in my corner, if I like.

There is more controversy on the boards but they rarely change my mind,

Why, though? Do you think it's a different kind of fen? Or is the nature of the medium less conducive to reasonable discussion?

That might be just me.

Oh, but I don't think it's just you. I definitely came to LJ in a large part for the fanfic--i.e., this was where the fanfic (that I liked) was happening. But it made NO sense to me that this was where the fanfic was, because it's such a bad medium for archiving.

There are usually a lot more men on the boards than on LJOther people have said this too. I wonder why men are less likely to

[lettered]

Oh, that's interesting. I wonder if many people switch between mediums for closed canon and open canon, like you do? It's weird to me though that the forum works better for the open canon. My problem with LJ when I first got here was the time factor--you post something and pretty much three days later, it's probably ancient history, unless you got recced around. Even if you get really interested in someone you're unlikely to read their whole journal--just the last couple posts. So it seems to me a journaling site would work so much better for the changing-every-week stuff.

Maybe the reason the forum is better for that is just the nature of the people who use it--as you say, people just passing on through. And I guess the reason for the difference in the users is that if you get an lj you're sort of making an investment; you're saying, "I am here for the long haul". Well, maybe getting an lj isn't saying that, but talking about a new fandom, finding new friends for it, getting involved in comms and such--that's an investment.

Non-Journaling Fandom Survey

[vaysh]

1) What fandom was it

Re: Non-Journaling Fandom Survey

[lettered]

There were no fic fests organised in the archives or mailing lists (and to my knowledge, there still aren't)

This is my experience too. Why do you think this is? Is it because anyone can organize a fest on LJ, whereas in a forum or mailing list people feel like they have to be a mod or something?

Thanks for answering these questions. My experience at non-journaling fandom spaces has been so different, and I just don't understand why!

[dlgood]

Do College Basketball discussion boards count? There's pretty much no Yaoi there.

[lettered]

They count sort of. I just watched this movie called "Big Fan". It was interesting from a fandom perspective--there were some things that were so fannish (in my sense of the word), and other things that seemed so alien. I think the film worked well as a snapshot, but bad as a film--it seemed very static.

Anyway, this is how it counts: do you think college basketball fans would ever use journaling sites to discuss college basketball? Why or why not? What about the format isn't suited to discussion of college basketball?

[dlgood]

Yeah - we talk about sports on journaling sites.

I didn't see Big Fan - hear mixed things.

[lettered]

Er, I mentioned that film because it's about a sports fan, not a fiction canon fan ;o)