Dec 3: December Meme

[brightly_lit]

"What other fandoms have you been involved with and what were they like, and are there any that you're considering dipping your toe into?"


SPN is my first proper fandom! The closest I ever came before was quite a small bandom for a semi-obscure musician, but a bandom appears to be a WHOOOLE different animal. I can tell you, it wasn't nearly as friendly a place as this, lots of sniping and fighting and scandal among the fans (and with the musician himself), bleh.

I peeked into Merlin fandom when I thought I was about to get really into that show. I'm seriously considering Teen Wolf fandom, because GAH, that show is so good! (I think you're of a mind, asker alexisjane ...?) But then I worry I won't find the quality of deep, thought-provoking fic as one finds in SPN fandom. Plus, SPN fandom is amazing and special in so many ways, and I love all my buddies here, so I don't want to unbalance all the good stuff I've got going on here with something else--not to mention that the Teen Wolf canon is still comparatively few episodes. What impressed me most about SPN was that it maintained such a high level of quality for so many seasons; I'm not yet ready to give my heart to a show that may not be able to go the distance. But if it keeps being this good ... you never know. ;->


That was such a great question, kind of wasted on me since I have so little experience with other fandoms, so I'd like to ask my f-listies: What other fandoms have you been involved in? Do you find it throws a wrench into your dealings with people from previous fandoms? (I worry, for instance, that my SPN buddies would be unhappy to see Teen Wolf fics start showing up on my lj.) Do you end up transitioning to the new fandom completely, or is it possible to be a big fan of multiple shows at once? Grant me your wisdom, oh friends list ....

Comments

[alexisjane.livejournal.com]

Ooooo, I'm dying to know which musician now...*chinhands*

I have similar reservations about trying other fandoms, I think partly because our little corner of the world is really so lovely and crammed full of friendly, talented people but also as I don't know if I love and respect anything as much as I do spn. If there's an entry exam, I won't make it x

[toratio.livejournal.com]

What is it about bandom? I was in one years ago, and it gets so nasty. Must've been a nice surprise to join the SPN fandom after that!

[anactoria.livejournal.com]

Well, I've been involved in online fandom in one way or another for about 13 years, mostly under this username. The first fandom I was actively into, as opposed to just reading fic and lurking, was for a not-very-well-known (but very good!) manga series called Petshop of Horrors, and that was in the early days of LJ fandom. Things were based on ff.net and mailing lists at first, but that soon changed. I'm no longer in touch with anyone I knew there, because I had a series of pretty big life upheavals that led me abandoning a giant WIP, and I was too embarrassed to post anything after that!

My other major fandoms were Watchmen -- which was pretty awesome: small but active, lots of quality fic, little to no wank -- and Sherlock, which also has a lot of quality fic but also seems to have reached Critical Wank Mass some months ago. I've been peripherally involved in quite a lot of other fandoms, in that I might've written one or two fics, but I didn't really get to know people. There are some people I still follow or talk to from previous fandoms, but not a huge number. Honestly, I think the LJ-to-Tumblr/AO3 shift has a lot to answer for on that front, because those platforms are less conducive to actually getting to know people outside of fandom. I'm definitely more likely to talk to people from previous fandoms if they still interact on LJ than if they've completely moved over to Tumblr. And of course, canons end and people drift away and fandoms die. *sniff*

Sherlock's the only fandom I've ever made a conscious decision to move away from, for various reasons. That wasn't particularly because I'd got into SPN (though having something new to love definitely made it easier), though -- more a combination of the new series not being to my taste and a feeling that interacting in that environment probably wasn't doing me a lot of good. A couple of other people jumped ship to SPN around the same time, and I chat to them quite a lot. :) That's an exception, though, and I don't tend to leave previous fandoms behind completely -- they may be mostly dead, but I'd be really happy if I ran into new fic or someone who wanted to chat about them. It's perfectly possible to be multifannish, IMO, and it's easier to do that on a platform like LJ where we get to know each other as people rather than an endless stream of gifs. ;)

[milly-gal.livejournal.com]

I think the SPN fandom has probably spoiled a lot of us for future/further fandom exploration, gotta say. Having said that, I was a member of the BtVS and AtS fandoms, Doctor Who, Life on Mars, Harry Potter.

A lot of my fandom leanings have been intense and blazed for a little while then I've faded back into the distance, maybe because I'm actually quite shy and finding a new place to hang your hat is always daunting but also I think I lurked for so long in the SPN fandom, reading and enjoying the talent here, that when I came out of hiding last year I came out like a bullet out of a gun and I can't see me calling anywhere else home.

I've been knocking around on lj for a while, didn't get active on here til I was 15 though, since then I've never looked back :)

It wasn't a wasted question hun, I really enjoyed your answer *hugs*

as for the worrying about other fics popping up on the flist feed, I think of it like this, as I've been writing for one fandom or another for nearly 15 years...cumulatively I think I've written about four books...That can't ever be bad, lol!