I am ENTITLED to hear your thoughts on this.

[tzikeh]

taraljc and I have decided that what the hell, we'll tilt at the windmills a bit. We're putting together a Centralized Fandom Primer website. Once it's up, we hope that people who run lists or have archives or build faqs or run cons or what-have-you will choose to point a link our way somewhere in their cyber-existence. Obviously, nobody *has* to link to it, and we're sure to get our fair share of "who are you to tell us blah blah!?" But between T and me, we have closing in on 50 years in fandom (geez), so we think we have a decent handle on where it's come from and where it's got to. BUT WE WANT EVERYONE'S HELP.

If you would be so kind, drop a comment here and let me know: What kind of things do you wish new folks had a handle on before they arrived in fandom? What do you wish someone had told you when you first got involved? If you could announce one thing to every fannish mailing list in existence, what would it be?

We don't want to preach. We don't want to direct. (Well, actually, I do want to direct, but that's a whole other thing.) All we want to do is lay it out in plain words - "Here's where fandom came from, here's how things generally are in fandom online; here's how we treat one another. You can choose to ignore this - that's your right. But it's easier to be part of a community when you live by the community's generally agreed-upon guidelines. Some of this is common sense. Some of it is common courtesy. You'd think it doesn't need to be said, but - well, fandom's a queer duck, and online life is a queer duck, and you put those two together and sometimes people do things they'd never do if they'd actually sat and thought about it for a minute."

Let me know, guys - and ask your friends.

ETA: There are some great ideas being posted here and I just wanted folks to know that we are reading them all - please don't think if I haven't responded directly that I didn't read / didn't care what you said. I just don't want to pad out the replies with "Thanks!" fifty times.

Comments

[luminosity]

I've been thinking about this and agree that it's a great idea. Stream-of-consciousness thinking here:

You can tell the truth to someone in a social situation without being rude. There's a lot of power in that. There's no power in shrugging off common courtesy, even if it does make you feel good for ten seconds.

Know in your heart that (online) fandom is an incestuous society, and who you privately trash today could be your friend tomorrow, and vice versa. So... Don't. Or Do, but know that.

Everyone has a favorite dead pony. Respect that right even if you don't respect the horseflesh.

I wish someone had told me that being involved in fandom was going to be an all-encompassing part of my social life. I can't look at anything without somehow relating it to something that I'm involved in or know about or is related to fandom. Rose-colored glasses? I have fandom-colored glasses.

Subparagraph B: Internet fandom is not the be-all, end-all of fandom. It's not even the majority. If there was ever a place were there is a Silent Majority, it's in fandom, and what we think or say or write is not everything. And slash fandom? It's a fringe of that minority part of fandom. It just *feels* all encompassing. (note: Slash is MUCH MORE out in the open than it was a mere 6 years ago when I became involved in online fandom, but that doesn't mean that it's OUT THERE.)

For (insert deity of choice)'s sake, keep an intact sense of humor. It's necessary in order to live a healthy fannish life.