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

Adding my cents

[(Anonymous)]

I agree with Ellenore. I think lurking is key to understanding a new fandom, or a new (uh, word search... collective? group? on-line community?) It gives you an idea of the flow and personality of the fandom.
Sometimes lurking brings you into a new fandom.

I was introduced to fandom by a friend in jr high. It was a couple years before I personally connected to fandom via the internet.
I was introduced to spoilers and posting boards by my first fandom.
(There was a sci-fi club at my high school, learned a lot through that too.)
What was my first fandom?
Star Trek
I learned about conventions, fan fiction, value of fandom related items, and lots of other cool things. Each year the club would have its own little convention. We served "Romulan Ale" (I think it was club soda with blue food coloring), "Gachke" (sorry about the spelling), and other fun things.

My interest in Star Trek has wained (and I basicly just prefer ST:TNG) and I'm all about "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" It is my #1 obsession. It is my life.
Novels, comics, magazines, posters, magnets, calendars, videos, DVDs, etc. I have floppy discs, zip discs, and CDs full of things I've downloaded or saved from the web. More than half of the files on my hard drive are related to BTVS.

People think I'm nuts.

But I know I'm not.

It's all just part of fandom.

:P

BTVS Chick
Lilly Rosenburg

btvschick2@gurlmail.com

=====
"Peace, Love, and Mickey Mouse"

ANYA
"He drove a really hard bargain, but I finally got him to throw in a
limited edition Backstreet Boys lunch box for....

A friend." (Bargaining pt.1)