My fannish history
Sep. 19th, 2019 12:56 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
shadowscastIt seems like a number of people in my extended circles are in the mood for contemplating the last couple of decades of fandom, and musing about the changes they've seen.
I've seenlabingi with: What Happened to Internet Fandom (and What to--Maybe--Do)
Labingi was responding tomxcatmoon's post: The State of Fandom Meta
And then also there wastozka with rec lists, rec lists, who's got the rec lists, which starts with a timeline.
This has put me in the mood to summarize my own 20-ish years of fannish history, just for my amusement. So here we go!
1) How I discovered slash.
It was late 1998 or early 1999. I was in my third year of university, and my first year of living in an apartment with roommates (two boys and a girl).
Boy roommate #1 had (gasp!) -- an internet connection! And he let us all use his computer.
One day, I was watching Due South on TV (as one did, in those days) with boy roommate #2. I became convinced that Fraser and Ray were flirting with each other (this was Ray #2, aka RayK). Not just a little, or subtly, but really really explicitly! Boy roommate #2 thought I was crazy. He totally didn't see it.
"Maybe somebody on the internet sees what I see!" I said. "I'll go check!"
So I went and checked. Ran some searches on, hm, I guess it would've been AltaVista?
I found nothing.
Oh wait, sorry, that was the story of how I failed to discover slash!
(Well, search engines were not so sophisticated back then. And I clearly did not know the right search terms to use!)
2) How I actually discovered slash.
Still in 1998 or 1999, still in that apartment, I went looking online for episode summaries or transcripts for the show Once A Thief. The reason I did this was because I liked the show but only managed to catch it sporadically, and back in those days there was no possible way to catch up on episodes that you'd missed. Remember those days? Anyway, I went looking for summaries or transcripts so that I could find out what had happened in the episodes that I'd missed.
And I did find some summaries or transcripts!
I also found a story about the two male leads (Mac and Vic) having sex while hiding in a closet.
And I was like, Oh my God. That makes so much sense.
And that's how I discovered slash. And also fanfic. (It took me another year or so to figure out that the terms weren't synonymous, I think!)
3) The mailing lists era.
I subscribed to a Due South slash mailing list, and a Once A Thief slash mailing list. My Due South list history is lost to the mists of time and a discontinued email address, but I still have my subscription notice to the Once A Thief mailing list, dated July 17, 2001. (By then I was in grad school, and I had my own internet connection.)
I never wrote any Due South fic myself, but in April of 2002 I finished my first Once A Thief fic. I posted it to the mailing list. Over the new few years I wrote some more fics and posted them all to the mailing list. They also got archived at the central Once A Thief fanfic archive, The Agency, which still exists, though it hasn't been updated in many years! That archive was the personal project and labour of love of two fans, ned & leny. In the heyday of the mailing list, they archived all of the fic that was posted to the list at their site.
Later, in the waning days of that mailing list, the list-maintainer reins got passed on to me. In fact, technically the list still exists, and I'm still its maintainer. I still have the password and everything!
4) The message boards era.
In 2003 I got interested in That '70s Show fic. I don't know what came over me? Specifically I really wanted to slash Eric and Hyde. I went looking for where the action was, and discovered it was on a message board. (I can't even remember now where the board was hosted.) I made a couple of friends, had some fun discussion threads, read some fic, and eventually wrote some.
Slightly bewilderingly to me, my Eric/Hyde stories are, to this day, just about the most popular things I've ever written. I put them on AO3 when I eventually got an account there (that would've been in 2009, I guess, when AO3 went into open beta?), and now they have more hits and kudos than anything else I've written except for my most popular Spike/Xander story. I haven't been active in That '70s Show fandom since 2003, so it's amazing to me that people are still finding those stories. Every few days (!!) I get a little notice from AO3 saying that somebody else has left a kudos on one of them. It's pretty awesome, actually!
5) The LiveJournal era.
I first got a LiveJournal in May of 2003, but it wasn't for fannish purposes; a bunch of my real-life friends got LJs all at the same time, and we used them to stay in touch with each other. (That ended when Facebook started; sigh. I miss having my RL-friends on LJ! I never did get the hang of Facebook.)
I got into Buffy the Vampire Slayer in 2003/2004; a friend recommended it and loaned me the DVDs and VHS copies (for the seasons that weren't out on DVD yet), and my husband and I watched it through together. (We almost managed to catch up before Angel: the Series finished airing, but not quite; I missed the finale by about a week.) And then I discovered a thirst for Buffy fanfic, and I went looking, and while I did discover mailing lists and message boards, I quickly found out that LiveJournal was the real place to go.
So I made a fannish LJ in April of 2004 to participate in Buffyverse fandom (and that's why I've always had two online journals, one fannish and one for RL stuff).
I started writing fic almost right away; my first Buffyverse fics were posted in June of 2004. There followed what I now realize was the golden era of my fannish participation: lots and lots of fun fannish discussions about all things Slayer-related, all over LJ. By friending and being friended on LJ, I made actual friends. (Some of you are still out there. Hi!)
The peak of my fannish participation (I realize in retrospect) was when I flew to Atlanta in August of 2006 for Writercon. That was so fun! I went there feeling nervous, like I was still a fandom newbie, but when I got there I discovered that there were so many fans and fanfic writers there who I knew through their posts and their work—and better yet, lots of them knew me! It was glorious. I felt so immersed in the fannish world.
6) The I-had-a-baby-and-dropped-out-of-fandom era.
The baby was born in October of 2007. Well. There went that decade.
7) Now.
I'm back. I'm participating cautiously, realizing that I don't have the time anymore to keep up like I used to pre-kid. I'm on DreamWidth only, because I like it, and even if there's not a lot of action compared to LJ in its prime, there's still more going on than I would possibly have the time to follow.
I'm posting about things that interest me, and writing what I feel like writing. It makes me happy to be doing this. So yay!
I've seen
labingi with: What Happened to Internet Fandom (and What to--Maybe--Do)Labingi was responding to
mxcatmoon's post: The State of Fandom MetaAnd then also there was
tozka with rec lists, rec lists, who's got the rec lists, which starts with a timeline.This has put me in the mood to summarize my own 20-ish years of fannish history, just for my amusement. So here we go!
1) How I discovered slash.
It was late 1998 or early 1999. I was in my third year of university, and my first year of living in an apartment with roommates (two boys and a girl).
Boy roommate #1 had (gasp!) -- an internet connection! And he let us all use his computer.
One day, I was watching Due South on TV (as one did, in those days) with boy roommate #2. I became convinced that Fraser and Ray were flirting with each other (this was Ray #2, aka RayK). Not just a little, or subtly, but really really explicitly! Boy roommate #2 thought I was crazy. He totally didn't see it.
"Maybe somebody on the internet sees what I see!" I said. "I'll go check!"
So I went and checked. Ran some searches on, hm, I guess it would've been AltaVista?
I found nothing.
Oh wait, sorry, that was the story of how I failed to discover slash!
(Well, search engines were not so sophisticated back then. And I clearly did not know the right search terms to use!)
2) How I actually discovered slash.
Still in 1998 or 1999, still in that apartment, I went looking online for episode summaries or transcripts for the show Once A Thief. The reason I did this was because I liked the show but only managed to catch it sporadically, and back in those days there was no possible way to catch up on episodes that you'd missed. Remember those days? Anyway, I went looking for summaries or transcripts so that I could find out what had happened in the episodes that I'd missed.
And I did find some summaries or transcripts!
I also found a story about the two male leads (Mac and Vic) having sex while hiding in a closet.
And I was like, Oh my God. That makes so much sense.
And that's how I discovered slash. And also fanfic. (It took me another year or so to figure out that the terms weren't synonymous, I think!)
3) The mailing lists era.
I subscribed to a Due South slash mailing list, and a Once A Thief slash mailing list. My Due South list history is lost to the mists of time and a discontinued email address, but I still have my subscription notice to the Once A Thief mailing list, dated July 17, 2001. (By then I was in grad school, and I had my own internet connection.)
I never wrote any Due South fic myself, but in April of 2002 I finished my first Once A Thief fic. I posted it to the mailing list. Over the new few years I wrote some more fics and posted them all to the mailing list. They also got archived at the central Once A Thief fanfic archive, The Agency, which still exists, though it hasn't been updated in many years! That archive was the personal project and labour of love of two fans, ned & leny. In the heyday of the mailing list, they archived all of the fic that was posted to the list at their site.
Later, in the waning days of that mailing list, the list-maintainer reins got passed on to me. In fact, technically the list still exists, and I'm still its maintainer. I still have the password and everything!
4) The message boards era.
In 2003 I got interested in That '70s Show fic. I don't know what came over me? Specifically I really wanted to slash Eric and Hyde. I went looking for where the action was, and discovered it was on a message board. (I can't even remember now where the board was hosted.) I made a couple of friends, had some fun discussion threads, read some fic, and eventually wrote some.
Slightly bewilderingly to me, my Eric/Hyde stories are, to this day, just about the most popular things I've ever written. I put them on AO3 when I eventually got an account there (that would've been in 2009, I guess, when AO3 went into open beta?), and now they have more hits and kudos than anything else I've written except for my most popular Spike/Xander story. I haven't been active in That '70s Show fandom since 2003, so it's amazing to me that people are still finding those stories. Every few days (!!) I get a little notice from AO3 saying that somebody else has left a kudos on one of them. It's pretty awesome, actually!
5) The LiveJournal era.
I first got a LiveJournal in May of 2003, but it wasn't for fannish purposes; a bunch of my real-life friends got LJs all at the same time, and we used them to stay in touch with each other. (That ended when Facebook started; sigh. I miss having my RL-friends on LJ! I never did get the hang of Facebook.)
I got into Buffy the Vampire Slayer in 2003/2004; a friend recommended it and loaned me the DVDs and VHS copies (for the seasons that weren't out on DVD yet), and my husband and I watched it through together. (We almost managed to catch up before Angel: the Series finished airing, but not quite; I missed the finale by about a week.) And then I discovered a thirst for Buffy fanfic, and I went looking, and while I did discover mailing lists and message boards, I quickly found out that LiveJournal was the real place to go.
So I made a fannish LJ in April of 2004 to participate in Buffyverse fandom (and that's why I've always had two online journals, one fannish and one for RL stuff).
I started writing fic almost right away; my first Buffyverse fics were posted in June of 2004. There followed what I now realize was the golden era of my fannish participation: lots and lots of fun fannish discussions about all things Slayer-related, all over LJ. By friending and being friended on LJ, I made actual friends. (Some of you are still out there. Hi!)
The peak of my fannish participation (I realize in retrospect) was when I flew to Atlanta in August of 2006 for Writercon. That was so fun! I went there feeling nervous, like I was still a fandom newbie, but when I got there I discovered that there were so many fans and fanfic writers there who I knew through their posts and their work—and better yet, lots of them knew me! It was glorious. I felt so immersed in the fannish world.
6) The I-had-a-baby-and-dropped-out-of-fandom era.
The baby was born in October of 2007. Well. There went that decade.
7) Now.
I'm back. I'm participating cautiously, realizing that I don't have the time anymore to keep up like I used to pre-kid. I'm on DreamWidth only, because I like it, and even if there's not a lot of action compared to LJ in its prime, there's still more going on than I would possibly have the time to follow.
I'm posting about things that interest me, and writing what I feel like writing. It makes me happy to be doing this. So yay!
(no subject)
Date: 2019-09-19 02:04 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2019-09-20 02:14 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2019-09-19 09:29 pm (UTC)I missed the mailing lists, and never was comfortable with boards, so I basically really started with Buffy and lj (lurking since 2002!) I think I was most active around 2005-6, and then slowly Buffy fandom got quieter and I never got passionate enough to really feel fannish again until now.
Having kids also was a factor - unless we can count parenting as another fandom :))
And now I am addicted to your comments on AO3 :)))
(no subject)
Date: 2019-09-20 02:24 am (UTC)Oh, yes! Enthusiastically discussing my beloved shows with my friends and family has always been a thing in my life. :-D
And now I am addicted to your comments on AO3 :)))
I'm really enjoying reading your story and commenting chapter-by-chapter and having that interaction with you, the author. Like in the old days! (Sorry I'm a little behind right now, btw—I'm trying to finish reading a book by a deadline for my real-life book club.)
(no subject)
Date: 2019-09-19 11:22 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2019-09-20 02:27 am (UTC)Hm, that's a point! If there's a whole cohort of us who went away (or semi-went away) to raise kids and are coming back around now and saying "What is this Tumbler weirdness, I want to interact fannishly via a long-form journal with well-organized threaded comments sections!" we can definitely just do it. :-D
(no subject)
Date: 2019-09-20 12:22 am (UTC)I didn't realize you're the mod of a mailing list!
Very cool about That 70s Show. In a way it doesn't surprise me because it's still available in so many places that successive generations of people are likely familiar with it. While Buffy is still popular, it's not being re-run in that way, and a lot of people who are interested probably read a lot of those verse works years ago.
Sounds like you started your LJ account only a few months before I did. I'm not sure when I first started hanging around LJ but I know it was several months before I opened an account.
You make a good point about how even with the reduced activity going on at Dreamwidth, there's still a lot to keep up with. I've noticed a lot of people are no longer around, usually because of other life issues going on. Mind you, I also check Pillowfort each day and it's about as busy as DW, but then I also have very flexible days.
(no subject)
Date: 2019-09-20 02:38 am (UTC)Haha! Good for him.
Actually, Dave has gotten pretty good at seeing slashiness potential, too, come to think of it.
I guess I just didn't have long enough to work on boy roommate #2. (Plus, he was like 20 years old at the time.)
I didn't realize you're the mod of a mailing list!
Yes! Well, considering that the last time anybody other than me posted to it was in 2014, it's not a very active role.
(no subject)
Date: 2019-09-20 03:05 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2019-09-20 11:35 pm (UTC)You might be able to see it if you follow this link:
https://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/RatBoat/conversations/messages
(I'm not sure, though, whether you can see it without being logged in, or without being a member.)
You can join if you want, LOL! I'd definitely approve your membership.
(no subject)
Date: 2019-09-21 12:36 am (UTC)Now that Verizon's got it, I have to wonder how many days it has left. It's probably not costing them money like Tumblr did but I expect its sale probably means the sale or shutdown of a number of other Yahoo properties.
When it goes down it's going to be like Geocities all over again.
(no subject)
Date: 2019-09-21 01:21 am (UTC)Oh, gosh. Well, nothing lasts forever.
The list was formed in September 2000, and its activity was highest in 2001-2003. During that period it was averaging 60 messages a month. (That's not an estimate; I just looked at the archive, and calculated it!) The all-time best month was April 2002, with 181 messages.