Snowflake Challenge #2

[author_by_night]

 In your own space, talk about your fannish origin story. Post your answer to today’s challenge in your own space and leave a comment in this post saying you did it. Include a link to your post if you feel comfortable doing so.

I have already talked abouty origin story many times, so the short version is that was always very fannish even before I found online spaces. Once I did, I was part of a very large fandom (Harry Potter* - that fandom practically had its own fandoms) and a microscopic fandom. I'm no longer really in either, but have fond memories and several friends. (As well as bad memories, of course.)

Something I have learned is that every fandom is different. And, if the fandom is big enough, sometimes the fandom itself depends heavily on where you go. Especially in the days of forums and websites. Like I said, or alluded to, websites indeed could basically be their own fandoms within a fandom.
 

Comments

[vendettadays]

"Fandoms within fandoms" that's very true. Thank you for sharing your origin story again!

[lunabee34]

Yeah, in really big fandoms, depending on where you are hanging out, you could be having a very different experience from someone in a different subset.

[sisterdivinium]

Here through Snowflake :) The number and variety of websites has dwindled throughout the years but I think the fandoms within fandoms or different facets of fandom that develop depending on the space you're in thing still holds true today, yeah.

[dickinsons]

Very true about the fandoms within fandoms, especially when it's a big fandom!!

[silveradept]

Very much that there are fandoms within fandoms, and that some of them function more like factions than friend groups, which colors the experience of people who are coming to those fandoms and sub-fandoms. hen things weren't quite so crushed together, you could stay within your own space and not interact with other fans, except maybe at conventions or when someone wandered into the space. In some ways, that was better, and in others, not.

As with so many things, I want the good bits of the past without having to also bring back the bad parts.

[lightbird]

And, if the fandom is big enough, sometimes the fandom itself depends heavily on where you go.

Yeah, you definitely have to curate your own experience with larger fandoms (I wasn't very involved in the HP fandom, but I was immersed in the AtLA fandom, and there were definitely topics/discussions that I didn't want to be involved in).

[musyc]

And, if the fandom is big enough, sometimes the fandom itself depends heavily on where you go.

Oh, very accurate, yes. Sometimes I see the iceberg of another part of fandom drift by and I think I'm very glad I'm on my iceberg instead. XD

[delphi]

I was part of the Harry Potter fandom too, and absolutely - it was like one of those man o' wars that's actually made up of dozens of completely separate species. People will mention "famous" stories, writers and artists, events, and it'll be like: "I have literally never heard of any of these people or things in my life."

[author_by_night]

Yes! No two people seem to have had the same experience. And I know so many people who were in the fandom, yet I'm pretty sure we never interacted (unless that's how I met them).