Yesterday we put up a tiny poll and took it down after .02 seconds because we realized ONE POLL WOULD NOT BE ENOUGH. So: Take this super tiny, unscientific poll either by responding to this post OR by voting on Twitter, then watch this space for TINY POLL PART 2 coming in a day or two! We’ll post all the results here and on Twitter when they come in…
This has generated SO MANY discussions, it’s delightful.
My initial thought was defining “in” for me was a distinction of *in* versus ~in. I still feel like I’m ~in Harry Potter fandom. But I am *in* Black Sails fandom rn—that is the thing I spend lots of time thinking about. Like…lots of time. Help.
Other people are finding that the tricky part is defining “fandom” on a personal level. One person said they wrote tons of fic for YOI but didn’t think they were in the fandom—but never read or wrote fic for something else but totally felt like they were in *that* fandom.
Some people have tried to gauge by time spent or merchandise purchased or pure “participation,” which like, go with God, folks, this is about self-definition, but for the record, Flourish & I are not placing any sort of gatekeeping parameters around “fandom” or “in fandom”! Just sayin. 🙂
Oh, and for the record, I can be ~in many fandoms at once—essentially the ones I was in in the past, specifically Harry Potter, since that was like 10+ years of my life. But I can only manage being *in* one fandom at a time! I am fandom-monogamous. It makes trying to reread old favorite fic from past fandoms hard—I really need to be *feeling it* actively to connect on an emotional level.
Keep telling us your thoughts (and voting in the poll)!
I appreciate the extra notes @elizabethminkel ! I am usually only *in* one fandom at a time (or none, which was the case for a few years) but am ~in TONS all the time.
In a different sense than how it works for you though I think–I’m obsessively in one fandom right now, in terms of being the most into it, thinking about it, creating content for it, but I still read a wide variety of fic. The impulse to READ ABOUT MY CURRENT OTP/FAV CHARACTER FOR THE FEELS is different than the impulse to read fic bc I want good writing (sometimes even regardless of whether I’ve ever been in a fandom) and just the experience of reading something of a certain length, or something that will make me smile–and I do have both impulses at around the same time.
Question of Smoke 