RE: This is gonna be the thread where we talk about stuff
03-02-2013, 11:28 AM
I'm inclined to agree with Supes in that the definition posited by Fogel did have at least some subjective sentimentality behind it, because in cold-hearted retrospect I can't really concretely say Forum Adventures was/is The Best Thing.
I'd hazard my definition of a "community" is just a group of people who congregated under some manner of common interest, but whose association is later redefined/better-defined by the fact they know each other as people. People with jobs and school and problems and family and love lives and the constant cosmic joke that is growing up, and in some capacity or another you try help each other out. Usually that's just giving good life advice from relevant personal experience, but you might find other ways of doing it.
Whatever definition a "fandom" has definitely needs to encompass the fact that a fandom is composed of people who define their (online) personality (to some extent) based on the media they like. A fandom is great because you're going to meet people who like the things you like, which gives you something to talk about. Then you learn down the track that some people in that fandom have hobbies (drawing, composing, coding, crafting) and you shift to talking about those crafts (what you produce and how you produce it, as opposed to what some uninterested third party is producing) instead. You're extremely unlikely to ever get to know anybody online as a person without that initial point of interest, which is why fandoms aren't all bad.
The corollary of course is that if you never bother to seek out that human element from the other participants in your fandom, then individual names/faces can come and go over time and you can still be totally content because there's always someone to talk to about That One Show.
Unpopular opinion: I would probably go as far to say that Grand Battles is a fandom, not a community. A fandom with pretty good author-reader dialogue, sure, and with a decent community within it, but still. fandom.
E:
Stone-cold truth (that I would be a hypocrite if I said you should follow, please bear in mind!): if you wanted to maximise human betterment with your leisure time/hobby money, you'd be better off spending it doing humanitarian things either locally or into an overseas venture. I am not saying you should and that you are a bad person for not doing so. Wheat is not saying it either, seeing as I sorely doubt he's abstained from consumption of such media.
An interesting distinction I just realised is that you've (as in Superfrequency specifically) paid for the music you listen to, and the games you play. A lot of the Big Fandoms get their kicks for free, because it's freely distributed online (MSPA), through the Original Idiot Box (cartoons), or they can enjoy it for free because of rampant piracy (emulator-compatible games or TV shows whose popularity incentivises people to illegally distribute them, a la Pokemon or Madoka Magica or MLP+Adventure Time or scanlations of manga).
It never occurred to me how much a work being freely available also quickly shifts the dynamic of how entitlement/negotiating clout works. Fandoms get outraged when the show they've been enjoying through technically-illegal torrents/youtubes faces cancellation. If it's free, the whole thing's suddenly hell of a lot more ephermeal - the fandom just doesn't acknowledge that and takes it just as seriously as if they'd been financially shortchanged. Just look at MSPAFA, and how our attempts to negotiate what we felt were constructive changes to the system.
I'd hazard my definition of a "community" is just a group of people who congregated under some manner of common interest, but whose association is later redefined/better-defined by the fact they know each other as people. People with jobs and school and problems and family and love lives and the constant cosmic joke that is growing up, and in some capacity or another you try help each other out. Usually that's just giving good life advice from relevant personal experience, but you might find other ways of doing it.
Whatever definition a "fandom" has definitely needs to encompass the fact that a fandom is composed of people who define their (online) personality (to some extent) based on the media they like. A fandom is great because you're going to meet people who like the things you like, which gives you something to talk about. Then you learn down the track that some people in that fandom have hobbies (drawing, composing, coding, crafting) and you shift to talking about those crafts (what you produce and how you produce it, as opposed to what some uninterested third party is producing) instead. You're extremely unlikely to ever get to know anybody online as a person without that initial point of interest, which is why fandoms aren't all bad.
The corollary of course is that if you never bother to seek out that human element from the other participants in your fandom, then individual names/faces can come and go over time and you can still be totally content because there's always someone to talk to about That One Show.
Unpopular opinion: I would probably go as far to say that Grand Battles is a fandom, not a community. A fandom with pretty good author-reader dialogue, sure, and with a decent community within it, but still. fandom.
E:
(03-02-2013, 03:36 AM)Superfrequency Wrote: »I don't think this is fair. The majority of my free time (and money, when I have it) is spent on my hobbies or other creative endeavors. I collect records and games because I am passionate about music and games as art forms. The joy I experience and share with others is just as meaningful and life-changing to me as anything I've experienced in the "real world". If I had just one hour a week to myself I would still spend it gaming or writing music. You can't make sweeping generalizations about fandoms of any one kind of media like that just because a lot of Hussie's fans are shitty. That is fallacious.
Stone-cold truth (that I would be a hypocrite if I said you should follow, please bear in mind!): if you wanted to maximise human betterment with your leisure time/hobby money, you'd be better off spending it doing humanitarian things either locally or into an overseas venture. I am not saying you should and that you are a bad person for not doing so. Wheat is not saying it either, seeing as I sorely doubt he's abstained from consumption of such media.
An interesting distinction I just realised is that you've (as in Superfrequency specifically) paid for the music you listen to, and the games you play. A lot of the Big Fandoms get their kicks for free, because it's freely distributed online (MSPA), through the Original Idiot Box (cartoons), or they can enjoy it for free because of rampant piracy (emulator-compatible games or TV shows whose popularity incentivises people to illegally distribute them, a la Pokemon or Madoka Magica or MLP+Adventure Time or scanlations of manga).
It never occurred to me how much a work being freely available also quickly shifts the dynamic of how entitlement/negotiating clout works. Fandoms get outraged when the show they've been enjoying through technically-illegal torrents/youtubes faces cancellation. If it's free, the whole thing's suddenly hell of a lot more ephermeal - the fandom just doesn't acknowledge that and takes it just as seriously as if they'd been financially shortchanged. Just look at MSPAFA, and how our attempts to negotiate what we felt were constructive changes to the system.
peace to the unsung peace to the martyrs | i'm johnny rotten appleseed
clouds is shaky love | broke as hell but i got a bunch of ringtones
eyes blood red bruise aubergine | Sue took something now Sue doesn't sleep | saint average, day in the life of
woke up in the noon smelling doom and death | out the house, great outdoors
staying warm in arctic blizzard | that's my battle 'til I get inanimate | still up in the same clothes living like a gameshow
clouds is shaky love | broke as hell but i got a bunch of ringtones
eyes blood red bruise aubergine | Sue took something now Sue doesn't sleep | saint average, day in the life of
woke up in the noon smelling doom and death | out the house, great outdoors
staying warm in arctic blizzard | that's my battle 'til I get inanimate | still up in the same clothes living like a gameshow