So, there has been another disquisition on fandom

[mme_hardy]

See here if you want details. (Why do you want details?), and God have mercy on your soul.

Here is what I know as a 60-year-old person.

I have been involved in knitting communities, SF communities, communities for individual fandoms, communities for broad categories such as "SFF" and "comics", communities for historic costume.

As an insider, they all look alike. There are people who want to welcome you and help you squee. There are people who want to judge you and see if you are worthy of being in the community. There are people who want to help you get better at being in the community.

As a polyamorous fan (thanks, Shrift and Nestra), the patterns look the same. There are people who want to be intense. There are people who want to benefit from the people who are intense. There are people who just want to hang out. There are people who want to make new stuff.

From my perspective as a person who gets intense, then dips out, they look pretty much the same. I am profoundly grateful for the people who share information. I tiptoe quietly away from the gatekeepers. And I squee with the people who just want to squee.

Fandom is the sea I float on. And I am grateful for all the other people who uplift me.

Comments

[muccamukk]

My main reply on skimming that is "Who the hell is she, and why does she give a shit about a fan hugo ten years ago?" Being pissed at Scalzi is soooooooo 2012!

Reading the 770 comments, I haven't really changed my mind on that.

[recessional]

Yeah no that's about it, with additional "...you know, you appear to be 75% of what I hate about convention based fandom."

[muccamukk]

If knowledge of this much inside baseball was what made up the true heart of real fandom, I'm glad Scalzi* killed it.


*or you know, it was a collective effort involving the move away from mimeographs and into the 21st century.

[recessional]

Right?

Especially given how incredibly inaccessible that model of "fandom" is. Etc. I have thoughts but really.....

I mean my emotional reaction is also "...you seem nice." at the essay author.

[mme_hardy]

Wow, check this comment from File770.

She was insufferably rude the various times she sniped at Scalzi on his own blog for winning the damned Hugo. Apparently she hasn’t improved, but is grasping, desperately, for new depths to sink to.

[muccamukk]

There's some serious Yikes in those comments, including that and her putting down any safe space/code of conduct moves because she survived just fine.

Definitely taking her opinion seriously, yes.

[kore]

Yeah, it seems to be "If you are not me or my personal friends, you are not a Trufan," which just....what? In 2019? Really?

All I can think of is that she wanted the clicks.

[muccamukk]

It came out in May, and is only getting clicks now because someone linked Scalzi, who linked everyone. As far as I can tell anyway. Otherwise, I suspect no one on earth would actually read it.

[kore]

Oh, I thought it had just come out! Bzuh.

[muccamukk]

It's dated May, but maybe it was mailed then, and only put online now. Hard to tell.