Snowflake Day 2? Favorite fan moment
Jan. 2nd, 2018 04:43 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
labingiIn your own space, share a favorite memory about fandom: the first time you got into fandom, the last time a fanwork touched your heart, crazy times with fellow fans (whether on-line or off-line), a lovely comment you’ve received or have left for someone. Leave a comment in this post saying you did it. Include a link to your post if you feel comfortable doing so.
So back in 2004, I was exploring the internet for Blake's 7 fandom, like you do (well, did), and I came upon this charming RPG that was a Blake's 7/Farscape crossover on a site called LiveJournal. I started poking around and found the journal of oneastrogirl, who I believe was playing Stark in the RPG, and very rapidly I came to find that I was surrounded by an amazing community of (mostly) women who were fannish geeks in exactly the same way I was, who knew what I was talking about when I discussed the dynamics between Blake and Avon (and cared!), and wrote and read excellent fic and meta about the sci fi of obsessions of the day. To date, it has been a unique experience in my life of feeling I had found "my people," in the form of a fairly large, active, unified community, a unique experience of feeling understood and appreciated for who I am. I really miss those days. I really miss that internet--and, more broadly, culture that still had major touchstones like that that almost all fannish geek girls shared.
So back in 2004, I was exploring the internet for Blake's 7 fandom, like you do (well, did), and I came upon this charming RPG that was a Blake's 7/Farscape crossover on a site called LiveJournal. I started poking around and found the journal of one
astrogirl, who I believe was playing Stark in the RPG, and very rapidly I came to find that I was surrounded by an amazing community of (mostly) women who were fannish geeks in exactly the same way I was, who knew what I was talking about when I discussed the dynamics between Blake and Avon (and cared!), and wrote and read excellent fic and meta about the sci fi of obsessions of the day. To date, it has been a unique experience in my life of feeling I had found "my people," in the form of a fairly large, active, unified community, a unique experience of feeling understood and appreciated for who I am. I really miss those days. I really miss that internet--and, more broadly, culture that still had major touchstones like that that almost all fannish geek girls shared.
no subject
Date: 2018-01-04 10:18 pm (UTC)It does seem to be in line with general online trends, though.
Yeah, and this makes me feel superannuated. A few years ago, I was reading Jaron Lanier about how we need to take mindful control of how we want the internet to evolve as a social tool before coding infrastructure becomes too embedded to be adaptable and simply drives us in more of the same direction. He used the example of communication by forms, where you tick one of three boxes and if none provide an accurate description of your situation, tough. I think fundamentally he's right that we have to undertake, on a large scale, a long overdue discussion of what we want out of internet culture and how to get it.
I don't know how that may relate to fandom. But simply liking and replicating copies of posts would not be on my list of desires for internet communication.
Well, maybe parts of fandom will move offline again, and that would be interesting.
no subject
Date: 2018-01-05 01:50 am (UTC)You and me, both!
I think fundamentally he's right that we have to undertake, on a large scale, a long overdue discussion of what we want out of internet culture and how to get it.
What you say (or paraphrase from Lanier) doesn't sound wrong to me, but, for good or ill, I don't think it's ever really been possible to shape social forces with that kind of careful, deliberate planning. People, both individuals and corporations, will keep doing whatever it is that seems to meet their needs in the moment, and how do you stop them?
The really big, spontaneous trend in social media of all kinds seems to me to be an emphasis on, well, less. Everything shorter, quicker, more easily digested. I'm not a fan of that trend, despite falling prey to it in a lot of aspects of life, but I think the social and psychological and technological forces that make that short-attention-span engagement attractive are really strong, and make it really hard to fight.
Well, maybe parts of fandom will move offline again, and that would be interesting.
Interesting for some. But I remember what it was like before online fandom, and it was a cold and lonely time for me. :(
no subject
Date: 2018-01-12 09:10 pm (UTC)This fits right in with work I'm doing through my Workable Utopias platform, so I have to mount a gentle rebuttal. I agree with you that precise planning of human affairs won't work, and when it's been tried, it's been oppressive, as in the USSR. But deliberate social planning that has been more or less successful at changing systems and improving cultures is everywhere. A few examples:
* US Constitution
* Global abolition of slavery
* Social safety nets (ex. Scandinavia)
* Universal public education
* Democracy
* The Civil Rights Movement
We probably mean different things by social planning, but these are all examples/outcomes of deliberate movements to change how social systems work, and they're all imperfect, but they've all done a lot of good.
As to fandom, you're right, it was a cold and lonely offline place for me too.
no subject
Date: 2018-01-12 10:06 pm (UTC)