Sunshine Revival: Life is a Rollercoaster

[author_by_night]

 Journaling: Life in fandom goes through ups and downs. Reminisce about the "wild ride" of your time in fandom or in other online communities.

Creative: Create an image or a photo with the theme "let's go for a ride".

Well, I was in the wizards we don't talk about fandom. That fandom was bonkers. In fact, while I definitely knew it was... out there at the time, it's only recently that I've realized just how out there it was, compared to other fandoms. People have talked about how fandoms used to be nice, and that was not my experience. But it wasn't all bad; I made lifelong friends, after all. And the enthusiasm.  I don't think I've been part of a group of fans quite as enthused as those fans, although Firefly and Our Flag Means Death fans came close.  

The second of my first two fandom was ostensibly one website. There were a few others, but this was the one that lasted longest. It was for the Earth's Children book series. The admin founded in in 1996. The website/forum was interesting because while it was technically a fandom, it was really its own thing, a one-of-a-kind community. We talked about the books, we wrote fanfic (not just for the series, but other fandoms as well), however there were threads for gardening and discussing politics and all this other stuff. We talked about our lives. I felt close to those people. The site's still around, though not nearly as active as it once was. 
 
I'm currently in the Schitt's Creek fandom, and I've also dabbled in 911, Heartstopper and Our Flag Means Death in recent years (among other fandoms). Let's be honest, SC was a gateway to 911, Heartstopper and OFMD. :) I've enjoyed them, too, even if current fandom works differently. Actually, most of my Heartstopper activity is one group, in a way harkening back to my days on the aforementioned website.  

A lot of wild things have happened in my years of being in fandoms. I've seen friendships form, people fall in love, getting through traumatic situations; I've even seen lives saved. I also remember how we came together during bad global events, in some cases taking headcounts to make sure we were all okay. 

It's really a rollercoaster, for better or for worse.

Comments

[muscle_wizard]

Let's be honest, SC was a gateway to 911, Heartstopper and OFMD.

I love that phrasing, it's so true how one love can lead us to many more c:

[author_by_night]

Definitely! Look at SuperWhoLock.

[adore]

Any community is a mixed bag because people are, and fandom exacerbates some of that because everyone is passionate/feels vehemently. In my life, too, fandom has been a net positive :)

[author_by_night]

Absolutely!

[sea_thoughts]

Fandoms have never been 'nice', it has always been about curating your experience. It's just a lot harder to do that now because there aren't as many online spaces for fans to gather.

[author_by_night]

You know, I think that's a lot of it. It was easier to find the right space for you, whereas it's harder now.

[elizalavelle]

Fandom kept me housed when I was out of work and not able to find anything else. I had fandom friends who I didn't even know super well at the time say they had a house and were willing to let me move in until I found work and got sorted out. I lived with them for almost a year and that's a huge committment that they made. I'm thankful every day!

In that same fandom I've met some truly unpleasant people including one who was so salty about a charity event she ran not falling apart when she stepped down from running it that she spent the next few years trying to sabotage it culminating in accusing us of stealing the money intended for charity. Good thing I kept better records than she ever did so we had full accounting that showed every dime made it to where it was meant to be. It still meant we had to spend quite a while blocking her on every social media group we could while she was flinging accusations around without waiting for the head organization to review the accusation and proof against it. She had a lot of issues.

[author_by_night]

I'm so glad you had support.

In that same fandom I've met some truly unpleasant people including one who was so salty about a charity event she ran not falling apart when she stepped down from running it that she spent the next few years trying to sabotage it culminating in accusing us of stealing the money intended for charity.

Hm, that sounds vaguely familiar? Have you talked about it before? I could be thinking of any number of things. Either way, it does sound like she had a lot of issues. I'm so sorry.

I think too, because of how big that fandom was, there was more room for people like that.

[elizalavelle]

I'm certain I've mentioned it before because it was such a WTF thing. Especially as I prided myself on being very honest and open with the money. My whole committee knew what we brought in, what was spent on the event and then what went to charity. Frankly when she ran it she kept a lot of that stuff a mystery and while I don't think she's the stealing type it could have been a bit of her thinking she could catch me and my team in something if she'd done any skimming off the top when she was running things, maybe she thought everyone did that. More likely though she was just upset we didn't fail and wanted to see us mess it up the last year we were running things.

She'd also been grumpy with me over the aution a few times because she wanted to scoop things up cheap and give them to the global committee to auction on ebay and I outbid her - not to be mean, but because I genuinely wanted the item. I have a set of 10 Firely nesting dolls, handpainted, that she thought she'd get for under $100. They... did not.

You're right, with bigger groups of people you're going to get all sorts of people and not all are going to be ones you get along with. I'm very lucky to have made some lifelong friends from that group. Can't like everyone and that's okay, I'm sure there are people out there who didn't like me much.