(no subject)

[odditycollector]

All of these question memes going around has reminded me I am curious about everyone!

So here is a question I would love to know your answer to:

 
How did you find/become involved with fandom?

Alternatively, if you don't consider yourself part of fandom, which I guess is possible, tell me about that!
 

Myself, do not remember *not* being a fan. I was writing fic in crayon. My family got internet access when I was a preteen, and pretty much the first thing I used it for was seeking out the fanfic I somehow* instinctively knew was out there. I joined a couple Forever Knight LISTSERV lists and behaved, well. Less embarrassingly than some baby fans have.

After that, there were a few yahoo lists I never really got into, a couple boards I did, and then I eventually found LJ via bravecows' GO page.

*I was not the first fan in my extended family. I expect there were hints.

Comments

[caia-comica.livejournal.com]

I found the internet and promptly found X-Men message boards! And then I found fic!

I didn't really participate much in that aspect of it though, because I was a very underage kid reading a lot of Gambit/Rogue porn and not actually reading a much of the comics.

There were newsgroups for David Eddings and later Neil Gaiman that I did participate in, though. And a Diana Wynne Jones message board.

I eventually was reading fic for all sorts of things and eventually I wrote and submitted to an archive some Les Mis fic. And then I was on a mailing list for Tortall slashfic and wrote some stuff there and acually talked to people! But college resulted in me completely *vanishing* for a year or so and I really only just read stuff again (Lord of the Rings and Harry Potter, ya rly). Around then I discovered LJ and then I discovered DC comics and everything since then is pretty much over in caia_comica.

[odditycollector.livejournal.com]

Dear the internet. You are the bestest.

(I did not know about the Harry Potter!)

[caia-comica.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I know I *was* probably protofannish pre-internet but the internet happened to me pretty young so I don't remember so much.

(Also I've always been more of a reader than a writer.)

(HP, yeah, well, it was there, there was a lot of it, and it required no emotional involvement on my part. Perfect for a busy and traumatic freshman year! And the Severus Snape Fuq-U-Fest was pretty amazing.)

[holyschist.livejournal.com]

Were you ever on the "Alanna" Tortall list? I remember a Caia from Tortall fandom but I don't recall if it was that list or another.

[caia-comica.livejournal.com]

Yup, I was on there around about 2001-ish.

[holyschist.livejournal.com]

I think you beta'd for me a few times, but since this is not my fannish journal I shall not say more.

I kind of miss the days of mailing lists....

[dine.livejournal.com]

I was fannish as a kid/teen in the 60s & 70s, but without a frame of reference. wrote terrible stories aping fave books and TV shows, played

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I was fannish as a kid/teen in the 60s & 70s, but without a frame of reference. wrote terrible stories aping fave books and TV shows, played <iBanana Splits</i> and <i>Batman</i> with my sibs and cousins, and gleefully inhaled genre (SF & mysteries) shows and books.

as I got older, my interest in genre continued, and once I was in my 20s in the big city, I found gay fiction, which became a new obsession.

The show <i>Homicide: LotS</i> completely grabbed me, and our office got internet so of *course* I looked for info. randomly following links led me to fanfiction, which quickly led to slash, and I was home. it was the best thing ever - combining my interests in TV and slash!

I joined a list (allslash) which introduced me to other fandoms and writers, and I began devouring everything I could find. I joined other lists as I came across them, and via those lists 'met' a few fans who became real friends.

the Bindlestitch (dS) list was home to a lovely anarchic collection of lunatics, and I quit lurking and became active and vocal; which holds true today. through that group I discovered LJ and life expanded even more.

"home" is still my first response when I think of fandom, and of fen

[snowballjane.livejournal.com]

The first stories I remember being fannish about are Battle of the Planets and Superted when I was teeny-tiny. I'd demand the annuals for Christmas and make up extra stories for my little brother.

As a teenager, I shared my TV/film fannishness with a small group of friends and shyly swapped books and comics with a boy from down the street. But we weren't linked to a wider fannish world.

At university I had lots of fannish friends - easily discovered since we'd all turn up in the Upper Junior Common Room (aka the TV room) at the same time to watch the final season of ST:TNG.

First online fannish experience was for the BBC Gormenghast adaptation - the show had an official forum on the BBC site, but a few of us moved off that onto a Yahoo group to discuss other fantasy lit. Through that I discovered other fannish forums and fic. I read/lurked in Buffy comms and ER comms before finally writing a pretty bad fic for ST:Enterprise. Some kind people gave me feedback with good advice and - partly because I was avoiding a horrible situation at my old workplace - I started posting and chatting more. Someone in the Enterprise group gave me an LJ account (when it still required invites) and lo! here I am.

[paiwingz.livejournal.com]

I got mad fannish about the Thundercats cartoon as a child. OK I was about 5 or 6, but mad fannish nonetheless. Then I found the comics. Then I didn't find comics again till 8 years ago (so early 20s), inbetween I got fannish about music, piercings and bonsai trees (very briefly about bonsai trees), then I found the internet about 10 years ago and then found comics sites, then comics blogs, on the internet and it's gone downhill from there.

[holyschist.livejournal.com]

I think Star Wars was probably my first fandom--I was obsessive from first viewing, and when I was a kid my friend and I would act out scenes from Star Wars and the Disney 3 Musketeers and Princess Bride.

Actually getting involved in online fandom was a combination of Star Wars message boards and a Phantom of the Opera email list which is probably pretty dead now, both when I was about 14. And then it was a slippery slope.

[bravecows.livejournal.com]

Ahaha, really? I don't even remember linking to LJ from my website!

It's so weird finding out when people discovered fandom -- like, foreverdirt found it through a Guardian article in 2000, by which time I'd been lurking in fandom and reading fanfic for four years. (I started reading fanfic when I was about 11. It meant I saved on books! \o/)