In light of the recent conflict in the Supernatural fandom, I have a few questions. For sake of discussion, I'd like to use the idea of popular fan instead of BNF, since popularity and community accolades seem to be at the root of this issue. Popularity in this case simply means known by and visible to a significant number of other fans. This could ( Read more... )

Hi, everyone! I hope you all had a safe and happy holiday season ( Read more... )

I've seen a few posts lately that have me thinking about writing as it relates to storytelling and characterization. There's so much involved in telling a story, and fleshing out a character. Even if that character belongs to someone else. Especially when that character belongs to someone else. People write stories that move them, things that are ( Read more... )

One of the ideas that I see frequently in fandom is ownership. Fans of a source material will often treat it as something where they have at least partial ownership. That's present in almost every aspect of fandom, be it a favorite source, a preferred character, a favored pairing, and so on. In many cases, fandom exists as a loosely connected set ( Read more... )

There's something I have noticed, someone who makes and reads fannish posts. For purposes of discussion, a post may contain anything, be it a meta essay, pictures, a story, icons, fannish chatter, etc. I've noticed that after a specific period of time, commented reactions to that post are likely to trail off and stop altogether. Future readers may ( Read more... )

I had an interesting conversation with pyrae a day ago, and I wanted to continue it here. We were theorizing that a character's perceived or actual gender identity plays a large part in how well-liked and/or accepted that character will be within the context of fandom. This is particularly true for slash-minded fen, as characters with a fluid/inclusive ( Read more... )

My thanks to devilution for the editing work. I'm particularly grateful for your assistance with terminology ( Read more... )

I found a fascinating study that was published in the American Journal of Sociology and can be read on their website.

The Emperor's Dilemma: A Computational Model of Self-Enforcing Norms by Damon Centola, Robb Willer, and Michael Macy of Cornell University.

( An excerpt from The Emperor's Dilemma: A Computational Model of Self-Enforcing Norms )

One of the interesting things about fandom is that it is a community of shared fantasy that can and often does impact reality. Very often, your fannish experiences have an impact on your opinions. I'm very interested in this, especially as it relates to fannish opinions on sexuality and social issues versus real-life opinions on same. One does not ( Read more... )

Hello to all of you new members! Your interest in this community and the purpose behind it is very encouraging. Thank you for joining/watching this community, and welcome ( Read more... )