What are your rules for fandom?
Jul. 24th, 2008 02:19 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
lunabee34I've been thinking lately about politeness and civility in fandom and what it means to me. As I said before in a previous post, I believe that fandom is a collection of communities made up of individuals who come to fandom for very different reasons with very different emotional temperaments and backgrounds and who as a result participate in fandom in different ways. As such, I don't think there are overarching rules for how to behave in fandom.
However, I do believe that each fan has a set of *personal* rules for how to behave in fandom that may or may not be shared by the average fan. Since these rules aren't written and it's often hard to tell what's important to a fan just by reading journal posts, I thought that maybe if we talked with each other about what we thought was important in terms of acceptable fannish behavior we could . . . Hmmmm . . . not reach consensus, because I don't think there's a consensus to be reached. But I do think that maybe if we understand a little better what our flists (and the fans we are acquainted with to a lesser degree) feel is important in terms of fannish behavior then maybe the controversy over those few things we can't agree about wouldn't be as heated.
So, to that end, if you had to distill your ideas on what constitutes acceptable fannish behavior into three rules, what would they be? (Remember, these are your ideas about how fans should communicate and interact with each other rather than any other aspect of fandom.)
Mine would be:
Normally I would lead off with "Treat other people how you'd like to be treated" but that's hugely problematic because how does anyone know how I'd like to be treated? And what if the things that don't bother me really piss you off?
1. In terms of ficathons and exchange type challenges: If someone writes a story (or makes art, etc) for you, you should acknowledge the story. Even if you don't like it. You don't have to lie about what you think about the story or create false enthusiasm. All you have to say is, "Thank you for writing this story for me. I appreciate the time you spent working on it." In my early fandom days I participated in several ficathons and the people for whom I wrote did not acknowledge my stories, not even negatively. While this didn't send me sobbing into my pillow at night, it did leave a bad taste in my mouth re: ficathons and so I didn't participate in them again until this year. Also, if you must back out of an exchange challenge, let the mods know so they can tell the writer what happened. There is no shame in backing out of a ficathon. Real life does not pause for Big Bang. (Although I wish it did because So. Much. Love.) In one of the ficathons I participated in this year, I was one of the only, if not the only, people not to receive a story in exchange. I never said anything about it to the mods, but it did disappoint me. Even without a story, I would have felt so much better about the situation if I'd known that Fan A was studying for midterms or working long hours or just stuck with writer's block.
2. Remember that tone is often not readily apparent in a post or an email. Be slow to anger. I know in my newbie days (and probably still!) I made a few people angry when I thought I was just being clever or witty. I have seen many times a thread where the people talking were having two different conversations unbeknownst to each other because of misunderstandings in tone. Ask for clarification if you don't understand what someone is saying to you or if what s/he is saying can be construed a different way than the one that is enraging you/hurting your feelings.
3. Give and receive constructive criticism graciously. If you say in your fic post that you welcome constructive criticism, you lose the right to bitch about said criticism if someone gives you some. You do not lose the right to disagree with the commenter or to take affront at flames, but you do lose the right to complain about the concrit you've asked for. If you say in your fic post that you'd rather not receive constructive criticism, people should respect that wish *in your journal.* I still feel that if that reader wants to post a negative review on his/her journal, that is an acceptable fannish practice. However, I think we all should try our best to respect the personal boundaries that people set up within their own spaces (personal ljs). On the other side, I think we should deliver constructive criticism with tact and with the knowledge that constructive criticism is useful for all writers, not the just the writer to whom we are offering writing suggestions. I learn more about how to make my writing effective by discussing yours. As I dissect what you have written, as I discover what you do that works and what you do that doesn't, my own writing improves.
I don't have a lot of personal rules re: fannish behavior because for the most part my fannish experience has been extraordinarily positive. I've never gotten a flame before; no one has ever seriously hurt my feelings in a fannish interaction; fandom has been three and a half years of almost uninterrupted fun for me. I tend to not make rules about things until I have experienced them which accounts for what may seem the weirdness of this list.
ETA![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
synecdochic is smarter than me, not surprisingly, and this post pretty much articulates much of what I feel on the subject of concrit, reviews, recs, etc.
However, I do believe that each fan has a set of *personal* rules for how to behave in fandom that may or may not be shared by the average fan. Since these rules aren't written and it's often hard to tell what's important to a fan just by reading journal posts, I thought that maybe if we talked with each other about what we thought was important in terms of acceptable fannish behavior we could . . . Hmmmm . . . not reach consensus, because I don't think there's a consensus to be reached. But I do think that maybe if we understand a little better what our flists (and the fans we are acquainted with to a lesser degree) feel is important in terms of fannish behavior then maybe the controversy over those few things we can't agree about wouldn't be as heated.
So, to that end, if you had to distill your ideas on what constitutes acceptable fannish behavior into three rules, what would they be? (Remember, these are your ideas about how fans should communicate and interact with each other rather than any other aspect of fandom.)
Mine would be:
Normally I would lead off with "Treat other people how you'd like to be treated" but that's hugely problematic because how does anyone know how I'd like to be treated? And what if the things that don't bother me really piss you off?
1. In terms of ficathons and exchange type challenges: If someone writes a story (or makes art, etc) for you, you should acknowledge the story. Even if you don't like it. You don't have to lie about what you think about the story or create false enthusiasm. All you have to say is, "Thank you for writing this story for me. I appreciate the time you spent working on it." In my early fandom days I participated in several ficathons and the people for whom I wrote did not acknowledge my stories, not even negatively. While this didn't send me sobbing into my pillow at night, it did leave a bad taste in my mouth re: ficathons and so I didn't participate in them again until this year. Also, if you must back out of an exchange challenge, let the mods know so they can tell the writer what happened. There is no shame in backing out of a ficathon. Real life does not pause for Big Bang. (Although I wish it did because So. Much. Love.) In one of the ficathons I participated in this year, I was one of the only, if not the only, people not to receive a story in exchange. I never said anything about it to the mods, but it did disappoint me. Even without a story, I would have felt so much better about the situation if I'd known that Fan A was studying for midterms or working long hours or just stuck with writer's block.
2. Remember that tone is often not readily apparent in a post or an email. Be slow to anger. I know in my newbie days (and probably still!) I made a few people angry when I thought I was just being clever or witty. I have seen many times a thread where the people talking were having two different conversations unbeknownst to each other because of misunderstandings in tone. Ask for clarification if you don't understand what someone is saying to you or if what s/he is saying can be construed a different way than the one that is enraging you/hurting your feelings.
3. Give and receive constructive criticism graciously. If you say in your fic post that you welcome constructive criticism, you lose the right to bitch about said criticism if someone gives you some. You do not lose the right to disagree with the commenter or to take affront at flames, but you do lose the right to complain about the concrit you've asked for. If you say in your fic post that you'd rather not receive constructive criticism, people should respect that wish *in your journal.* I still feel that if that reader wants to post a negative review on his/her journal, that is an acceptable fannish practice. However, I think we all should try our best to respect the personal boundaries that people set up within their own spaces (personal ljs). On the other side, I think we should deliver constructive criticism with tact and with the knowledge that constructive criticism is useful for all writers, not the just the writer to whom we are offering writing suggestions. I learn more about how to make my writing effective by discussing yours. As I dissect what you have written, as I discover what you do that works and what you do that doesn't, my own writing improves.
I don't have a lot of personal rules re: fannish behavior because for the most part my fannish experience has been extraordinarily positive. I've never gotten a flame before; no one has ever seriously hurt my feelings in a fannish interaction; fandom has been three and a half years of almost uninterrupted fun for me. I tend to not make rules about things until I have experienced them which accounts for what may seem the weirdness of this list.
ETA
synecdochic is smarter than me, not surprisingly, and this post pretty much articulates much of what I feel on the subject of concrit, reviews, recs, etc.
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no subject
Date: 2008-07-24 07:55 pm (UTC)You make some good points. And while I'm all for more civility and politeness in fandom, I fear that it's not going to happen. It seems inevitable that virtually every fandom has it's share of wankers and trolls and idiots. I wish it weren't so, but it is. *That* is one of the reasons I never get involved in fandom save for reading and writing. Because the fans cannot be trusted to act like reasonable adults when they think they can hide behind the anonymity of the internet.
Having said that, I may have simply spent too long today reading about the OMGWTF side of life/fandom and my cynicism is showing more than usual.
OK, shutting up now. Sorry.
No apologies necessary; convo is what this is about. :)
Date: 2008-07-24 08:47 pm (UTC)I completely agree with you that we're all never going to agree (on much of anything LOL) and that there will always be people (in any community and in any setting) who seem hell bent on Fucking It All Up for everyone. And those people can seem so much More than the rest of us sometimes. But I have to believe that most of us are not trolls and idiots the majority of the time (freebie idiocy once a year for all!) or else the thirteen year old girl in my heart starts to cry and then I have to find her pictures of Jared Padalecki photoshopped nekkid with Chad Michael Murray.
*pets you*
Re: No apologies necessary; convo is what this is about. :)
Date: 2008-07-24 08:57 pm (UTC)Also, it has to be said that most photoshopped manips make me shudder in horror because they are so damned creepy (also often badly done). Personal opinion, of course. ;)
Re: No apologies necessary; convo is what this is about. :)
Date: 2008-07-24 10:57 pm (UTC)But I will take what I can get when it comes to my CMM love. LOL