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How Fandom Has Changed
So, I've spoken to people about this in various places in various ways, but I kind of wanted to put this out there, and get people's opinions.
Maybe it's just the fandoms I've been in, or it could just be me, but it seems like fandom has changed how they present themselves a lot since I joined. The area that I notice this the most is with vidding.
I remember making my first vid, and then having no idea how to go about sharing it. I was a poor student! I couldn't afford to buy webspace! I also was stuck using WMM (Version 1!) because you couldn't get downloads of better programs, and that was all that was available to me. It took me *months* to get my hands on all the aired episodes of QaF, because there weren't all the communities available, and while there was probably bit torrent, I certainly didn't know about it. I used Kazaa to get all my eps. :P I remember, even as I got started, there was meta going around saying that vidding was beginning to lose some of it's quality because what with WMM being on most new computers, and episode downloads more readily available everyone was trying vidding now, even if they hadn't any talent for it. I took exception to such meta, mostly because I was one of those talentless n00bs taking advantage of the new fangled technology suddenly on my computer (I still don't really agree with that idea, because for all the less than stellar vidders, there are a lot of amazing vidders who wouldn't have tried in the old days, and even if you're not an amazing vidder, I still think your work has merit if you enjoyed yourself. Hell, if I was that kind of elitist, I could never have made anymore vids, and I'd like to think that I've moved beyond the mediocre vidder I started as).
Despite it giving me problems when I first started out, I think the thing about vidding today that annoys me the most is the fact that people don't have personal webpages for their vids anymore. They just post them to Youtube or Imeem, and so, so many don't even offer a download link anymore, or if they do, they're often hosted on temporary sites such as sendspace or megaupload. I'm one of those people that always downloads vids, I watch them as I do other things on my computer, I hate streaming vids. I won't watch them if there is only a streaming option, and I like being able to go to a vidders website and downloading more of their vids if I find something I like. Half the time if I want to do that now, I end up having to root someone's LJs tags or memories, only to find that the download link has expired.
And it's not just vidders that I've noticed giving up on personal websites, it seems like so many author's have decided that their LJs are the only place they need to post fic. I had a big long discussion with![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
paradise_city about this, she was wondering why anyone would need more than LJ in fandom, and no offense to her, but that idea really... worries me and drives me crazy. Because LJ? Not really the best archive. Unless the author takes the time to maintain a master fic list, I find it so frustrating trying to find their other fics. Tags just... aren't really enough for me, and people can be really bad at keeping them updated (I know *I* am). Do people even *use* the memory feature any more? I've been lucky in SGA, that it has enough fic appearing on my flist, that I never really have to search any out, but it's not so with all fandoms. I've pretty much given up on reading Numb3rs fic, because it's always so much effort finding it. That's really the reason why I wanted to start an archive for Numb3rs, to help centralize it, but for reasons having to do with stupid eFiction those idea have been put on hold.
I know that when I started in fandom, it was literally *months* before I even found LJ, I happily did all my reading initially from personal webpages of authors, and then later from archives. Even once I was on LJ I did most of my reading off it. I really miss that. For one thing, as someone who doesn't bookmark fic as I read it, it was a lot easier for me to go back and find the fics that I had read previously, because it's a lot easier to remember a webpage than it is to remember someone's LJ.
I find myself missing the days when more fic was stored off of LJ, and not just because I feel that LJ isn't a reliable place for fandom. It's funny how fandom moves, I wonder where we'll be next.
Maybe it's just the fandoms I've been in, or it could just be me, but it seems like fandom has changed how they present themselves a lot since I joined. The area that I notice this the most is with vidding.
I remember making my first vid, and then having no idea how to go about sharing it. I was a poor student! I couldn't afford to buy webspace! I also was stuck using WMM (Version 1!) because you couldn't get downloads of better programs, and that was all that was available to me. It took me *months* to get my hands on all the aired episodes of QaF, because there weren't all the communities available, and while there was probably bit torrent, I certainly didn't know about it. I used Kazaa to get all my eps. :P I remember, even as I got started, there was meta going around saying that vidding was beginning to lose some of it's quality because what with WMM being on most new computers, and episode downloads more readily available everyone was trying vidding now, even if they hadn't any talent for it. I took exception to such meta, mostly because I was one of those talentless n00bs taking advantage of the new fangled technology suddenly on my computer (I still don't really agree with that idea, because for all the less than stellar vidders, there are a lot of amazing vidders who wouldn't have tried in the old days, and even if you're not an amazing vidder, I still think your work has merit if you enjoyed yourself. Hell, if I was that kind of elitist, I could never have made anymore vids, and I'd like to think that I've moved beyond the mediocre vidder I started as).
Despite it giving me problems when I first started out, I think the thing about vidding today that annoys me the most is the fact that people don't have personal webpages for their vids anymore. They just post them to Youtube or Imeem, and so, so many don't even offer a download link anymore, or if they do, they're often hosted on temporary sites such as sendspace or megaupload. I'm one of those people that always downloads vids, I watch them as I do other things on my computer, I hate streaming vids. I won't watch them if there is only a streaming option, and I like being able to go to a vidders website and downloading more of their vids if I find something I like. Half the time if I want to do that now, I end up having to root someone's LJs tags or memories, only to find that the download link has expired.
And it's not just vidders that I've noticed giving up on personal websites, it seems like so many author's have decided that their LJs are the only place they need to post fic. I had a big long discussion with
paradise_city about this, she was wondering why anyone would need more than LJ in fandom, and no offense to her, but that idea really... worries me and drives me crazy. Because LJ? Not really the best archive. Unless the author takes the time to maintain a master fic list, I find it so frustrating trying to find their other fics. Tags just... aren't really enough for me, and people can be really bad at keeping them updated (I know *I* am). Do people even *use* the memory feature any more? I've been lucky in SGA, that it has enough fic appearing on my flist, that I never really have to search any out, but it's not so with all fandoms. I've pretty much given up on reading Numb3rs fic, because it's always so much effort finding it. That's really the reason why I wanted to start an archive for Numb3rs, to help centralize it, but for reasons having to do with stupid eFiction those idea have been put on hold.I know that when I started in fandom, it was literally *months* before I even found LJ, I happily did all my reading initially from personal webpages of authors, and then later from archives. Even once I was on LJ I did most of my reading off it. I really miss that. For one thing, as someone who doesn't bookmark fic as I read it, it was a lot easier for me to go back and find the fics that I had read previously, because it's a lot easier to remember a webpage than it is to remember someone's LJ.
I find myself missing the days when more fic was stored off of LJ, and not just because I feel that LJ isn't a reliable place for fandom. It's funny how fandom moves, I wonder where we'll be next.
Changing Fandom 2
And that's actually one of the reasons why I feel that archives are necessary. Because, yeah, it's great for us, we're at the height of a big fandom right now, but that's not always the case. Take, for example, the Due South fandom. That show was aired from 1994-1999, and while it was airing it had a nice fandom for the show, that kind of died out when the show finished airing, but then a few years ago the DVDs were released and suddenly fandom is starting up again. Now, they are probably turning out enough fic that you can go by newsletters, but just think of all the fic that was written while the show was still airing that the new fans are going to miss? As I was saying to
I just feel that archives can offer that kind of stability, even more so than personal webpages, because sometimes people let their personal webpages go. Archives are sometimes let go, but there are generally people willing to take it over, and, once the OTW is up and running, they have a program that they are implementing where they will take on the maintenance of older archives if no one around is interested in running it anymore.
I just feel that LJ is great for the here and now, announcements and comments, but it just isn't built for any kind of longevity, and fandoms don't just die when the show is over. Think of all the renewed interest in SG-1 as SGA gains more viewers? Or brought new viewers into the franchise when it started up. Or all the people that wanted to check out Farscape when Ben and Claudia joined SG-1. I've seen Traders or First Monday fic crop up now that David and Joe are on SGA (although I'm not sure how much of a fandom was there originally). I'm sure starting up Dr. Who again brought a renewed interest in the older fandom, or the people flocking to the comic book fandoms after all the movies that have been released. Or books even, and not just from movies, I just discovered Good Omens, and I know it has a fandom out there, but I don't think they have a central archive, which has made it kind of hard for me to find fic in that fandom, and it takes quite a bit of searching.
If you're (general you here) the type of person that is only in a fandom once it's well established and is at its peak, then yeah, LJ is just fine for you, but if you are interested in fandom anywhere outside of that shortish time frame, especially if you're a veracious reader, it can be an awful lot of work finding what you want.
And that's not even really bringing up fandoms outside of the media fandoms (I mentioned books). Anime fandom is hugely different, since a lot of the shows over there are only 13 episodes, or similarly short. There aren't all that many animes that go on for seasons (although some of the popular ones do like Inu Yash, Naruto and Full Metal Alchemist to name a few off the top of my head). People find these shorter animes at different times (there are different times between when they air originally, when they are fan translated, and when they are legitimately translated, all points bringing in new and different fans) so the fandoms have different, and multiple peak points.