Thank you for taking the time to write this and sharing it. You reaffirmed my faith in what is good and right about fandom and all the reasons to love it, even need it. Your experience of fandom is a lot like mine-middling attention, but deep, emotional participation. I've never counted my comments, but the total would pale in comparison to lots of big-name writers, and I don't care. I care about the dozen or two dozen people whose faces I feel like I can picture and who are friends rather than followers (damn you, Tumblr!).
And this?
Another side effect to this smaller sitting-on-the-sidelines role, is a buffering from some of the more adverse sides of Fandom. Arguments pass me by on a regular bases without any notice and things such as shrinking participation rates don't really affect meSo true. And thankfully so. I manage to avoid 98% of the wank and whining but just this week I had a brush with that side of fandom and it made me recoil, which is all the more reason I am happy to have friended you and found this post
( ... )
Thanks for reading it! It was kind of a long rambling thing, sorta got away from me there ... haha.
I hate when I see fandom wank or naysayers. Rather just keep with people like you and my little livejournal group of f-listers and keep my head down. Tumblr is fun, but it's a bit too much for my taste and I am SUPER anonymous on it. I don't make and post stuff there, only reblog, and I never go through tags but rather follow specific tumblrs so as to avoid the darker moments of fandom that has a habit of emerging over there. My blog is more of a "Did this make me laugh? Yes? Sweet, reblog."
Commenting is hard. lol. I don't know why, but it totally is.
Glad to have someone who agrees with me about the emotional value of the work we create outweighing the popularity of works. Kind of a quality over quantity mind frame I guess you could say. :)
My approach to Tumblr is also the same! I don't track tags and I have zero desire to be Tumblr famous. The original text posts I make are mostly just to announce new fics! I'm am expert reblogger. :D
Commenting is hard! I'm always afraid my compliments will be misconstrued or I'll come off as too gushy or silly, or not gushy and silly enough. IT'S SO STRESSFUL. Which is dumb! Because fandom thrives best on comment culture.
Glad to have someone who agrees with me about the emotional value of the work we create outweighing the popularity of works.
I LOVE that comment. It's kind of a funny story because last year I was stressing out about PL to my parents and they didn't get why I would worry about fan fiction. I gave them that comment to read and a few others that I like to "save for rainy days" and they have never bothered me about writing fanfiction since.
And I am so impressed you managed to read through all of that (which is pretty much my mind going every which way) ... here's your virtual cookie *passes virtual cookie*
BTW, I was actually going to go on about how when people are saying how certain fandoms (such as Merlin) are dying down and I just look around going ... really? I am in four merlin writing challenges, modding the re-watches, and then there are awesome people like you who have just celebrated their five month anniversary in fandom! So it's definitely a "who you know" kind of feeling, but it doesn't seem to be slowing down in my corner of fandom at all. :D
... and I am still loving your icon ... it makes me chuckle every time. (I think it is the faces you use)
and then there are awesome people like you who have just celebrated their five month anniversary in fandom! So it's definitely a "who you know" kind of feeling, but it doesn't seem to be slowing down in my corner of fandom at all. When I first decided to give Merlin fandom a go, I knew that I didn't want to stay on the fringe for long; I am at heart a leader and want to be the one out there asking people to do things, so joining the few friending memes were awesome and I am so pleased with the group of people I seem to have connected with. Thank you for being a part of that. I will forever credit the re-watch community with being my introduction into fandom and I couldn't be happier with where I am now. I'm still trying to decide what I want to do with this new love of Merlin and Colin ... other than keep writing (and marry Colin and have his children - lol) but that will come with time
( ... )
What an awesome post! I definitely share your view about what it means to be in a fandom and my fandom experience has been similar.
That comment you got is AMAZING and I definitely see why it inspires you.
I've never gotten a comment like that, but I have gotten some interesting comments and made a couple of friends by commenting on other people's stories. It's definitely hard to leave comments. But when I really love a story, I can't help it.
Yeah, like I said that comment is kind of an "extreme" example of how people are affected by the fanworks and how comments benefit the author. I doubt I will get another quite like it again, but it has definitely made a huge impact on me. All comments have the same benefit though, even the ones that are simply "nice" or "well done."
Thanks for reading all the way through. After I finished writing it I kind of looked up and went "well ... I had more to say than I thought I did" lmao. Just a bit longer than the average post.
I will give the cookie right back to you, because, DAMN. Yes. That. All of that!!
I create, and I give it to the world through the internet. I am grateful when someone is able to leave me a comment on that gift, and cherish the fact that the comment is a gift back. Especially because I am pants at expressing what it is I love about a fic. Art I can do. Fic... I kind of just flail. But I'm trying to be better about just flailing at an author because I know that I love knowing I made someone incoherent, and why would a writer be any different? LOL. And I really do hope that what I do makes others happy too, even if I never know about it.
I think that comment from Shilo-shadow is the most amazing comment I've ever seen, and I'm so glad that they wrote to you to let you know how you'd touched their lives. What an amazing, amazing gift!
Anyway. Fandom as an allegory for High School. YES, that too. I existed on the side lines, I knew folks, they knew me, but I was never popular. And that was OK then, and it's OK now.
( ... )
It's interesting. I usually have a harder time commenting on art. Maybe we're more comfortable commenting on things we also work on. But I agree, sometimes I enjoy incoherent comments better than coherent comments because I go "wow ... i really got them." lol.
Yeah, I kind of liked being the side person in high school, and I kind of enjoy it in fandom too. I think there are some misconceptions about being a side-player: such as that we somehow don't have an impact on fandom or that we can't take leadership roles within the community. Which are just not true. I know plenty of lj people that mod different communities and have made huge contributions to fandoms without ever being in the spotlight. So, it's interesting.
Well I'd like to give YOU cookies, a big royal blue box of Danish Butter Cookies ( or Marks and Sparks selection, if you prefer!!). Thank you for so thoughtfully penning down this, it's really about finding our place in the (fandom) world, and carving out an identity that feels authentic and which we are happy with. Much as we might like to, we're not all cut out to be big name fans with many followers, I reckon
( ... )
Haha, thanks, it had kind of been brewing for weeks (fuckyeah's post was back on May 14 and that was kind of what made me stop and think about it), because apparently I had a lot of thoughts.
Fandoms are like big safety blankets, and in many ways, during hard times when we feel a difficult time communicating with those we love and people in real life, it offers a safe and judgement-free zone to find that emotional and cathartic release and community we need. At least, that was my experience. either way it is nice to have support during trying times.
Commenting is hard. I don't know why it just is. Oooh, reel_merlin ... I was going to do that but then I kind of used that idea to do my perverse_bang ... so I don't know anymore ... :D
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And this?
Another side effect to this smaller sitting-on-the-sidelines role, is a buffering from some of the more adverse sides of Fandom. Arguments pass me by on a regular bases without any notice and things such as shrinking participation rates don't really affect meSo true. And thankfully so. I manage to avoid 98% of the wank and whining but just this week I had a brush with that side of fandom and it made me recoil, which is all the more reason I am happy to have friended you and found this post ( ... )
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I hate when I see fandom wank or naysayers. Rather just keep with people like you and my little livejournal group of f-listers and keep my head down. Tumblr is fun, but it's a bit too much for my taste and I am SUPER anonymous on it. I don't make and post stuff there, only reblog, and I never go through tags but rather follow specific tumblrs so as to avoid the darker moments of fandom that has a habit of emerging over there. My blog is more of a "Did this make me laugh? Yes? Sweet, reblog."
Commenting is hard. lol. I don't know why, but it totally is.
Glad to have someone who agrees with me about the emotional value of the work we create outweighing the popularity of works. Kind of a quality over quantity mind frame I guess you could say. :)
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Commenting is hard! I'm always afraid my compliments will be misconstrued or I'll come off as too gushy or silly, or not gushy and silly enough. IT'S SO STRESSFUL. Which is dumb! Because fandom thrives best on comment culture.
Glad to have someone who agrees with me about the emotional value of the work we create outweighing the popularity of works.
Definitely!
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And I am so impressed you managed to read through all of that (which is pretty much my mind going every which way) ... here's your virtual cookie *passes virtual cookie*
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... and I am still loving your icon ... it makes me chuckle every time. (I think it is the faces you use)
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That comment you got is AMAZING and I definitely see why it inspires you.
I've never gotten a comment like that, but I have gotten some interesting comments and made a couple of friends by commenting on other people's stories. It's definitely hard to leave comments. But when I really love a story, I can't help it.
Stacey
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Thanks for reading all the way through. After I finished writing it I kind of looked up and went "well ... I had more to say than I thought I did" lmao. Just a bit longer than the average post.
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I create, and I give it to the world through the internet. I am grateful when someone is able to leave me a comment on that gift, and cherish the fact that the comment is a gift back. Especially because I am pants at expressing what it is I love about a fic. Art I can do. Fic... I kind of just flail. But I'm trying to be better about just flailing at an author because I know that I love knowing I made someone incoherent, and why would a writer be any different? LOL. And I really do hope that what I do makes others happy too, even if I never know about it.
I think that comment from Shilo-shadow is the most amazing comment I've ever seen, and I'm so glad that they wrote to you to let you know how you'd touched their lives. What an amazing, amazing gift!
Anyway. Fandom as an allegory for High School. YES, that too. I existed on the side lines, I knew folks, they knew me, but I was never popular. And that was OK then, and it's OK now. ( ... )
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Yeah, I kind of liked being the side person in high school, and I kind of enjoy it in fandom too. I think there are some misconceptions about being a side-player: such as that we somehow don't have an impact on fandom or that we can't take leadership roles within the community. Which are just not true. I know plenty of lj people that mod different communities and have made huge contributions to fandoms without ever being in the spotlight. So, it's interesting.
and we can split the cookie. :D
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YUM. Some things are better shared! *hugs*
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Fandoms are like big safety blankets, and in many ways, during hard times when we feel a difficult time communicating with those we love and people in real life, it offers a safe and judgement-free zone to find that emotional and cathartic release and community we need. At least, that was my experience. either way it is nice to have support during trying times.
Commenting is hard. I don't know why it just is. Oooh, reel_merlin ... I was going to do that but then I kind of used that idea to do my perverse_bang ... so I don't know anymore ... :D
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