I assumed you meant "my primary fandom *just* before lj," and so I picked the one that was there... but in retrospect I probably should've said 'something else,' because, well, I suddenly remembered that I *blogged* heavily before lj, and was doing at least as much SV as BtVS/AtS. Sorry about that.
just to clarify, X-Files was my *first* big internet fandom (mailing lists, trolling websites for fic). But prior to LJ I had also been through TPM and the first six months or so of the popslash explosion, which was all mailing-list-based as well as on AIM.
I also have mostly lurked in the three major fandoms (Smallville, Harry Potter, and SGA) that I claim to have "participated in" above. My friends write stories in them, I read more and less widely in them, I've been known to have long AIM conversations about them, but I virtually never actually post about them, and I've never written for them.
I misread this: I answered one of the middle two choices up top (discovered fandom on LJ) and my first fandom on LJ was:
I fall into the first two choices, and I was in Smallville fandom but not on LJ. My first LJ fandom was something else. (just so your results won't be skewed.)
I filled out "something else" for #2. What I meant was, I read a lot of fic on websites (beginning with Chronicle X) and periodically I emailed an author who then emailed me back.
I only answered Smallville because I created and for a while ran a site for a Smallville writer and betaed for another Smallville writer. Other than that, I wasn't in the fandom at all. Large fandoms are not my thing.
Although I'm no BNF and not really in the fandom any more, I was a large part of getting HP fandom onto LJ (from predominantly Y!groups and website message boards) back in the days of invite codes. I ran an invite code clearing house where people could donate their extra codes and suggest writers and artists who should be offered codes. I think 40 or 50 people got livejournals due to this project.
To clarify my answer to the third question (which my primary fandom was)...
...well, it depends on how you define it. heh.
My first real online fandom experience was Trekverse (vulcan-l mailing list! and usenet), only I didn't know it was fandom and didn't know what fandom was and I was just chatting with people who liked the same thing. The first standard online fandom experience was Buffy -- though Phantom of the Opera was between there, it's just never counted really -- but the first time I was actually /conscious of being in a fandom/ as such would be TPM.
I still vividly recall my first slash moment. I was 14 (eight years ago), at a massive fanfic archive, reading Mulder/Scully romance, and I clicked carelessly on a link and found myself very confused by one particular story. I went back to the top and read the first few paragraphs a couple of times, and suddenly, it dawned on me: It was Krycek talking about Mulder. I haven't had an epiphany like that since. After that I drifted quickly into Star Trek and then Sports Night, and from there, the world.
For the record, my primary pre-LJ fandom was Les Miserables (off the novel) and was based on web sites and Diaryland, followed by M*A*S*H, which was based on y!groups.
I am still a little weirded out that suddenly I'm clicking the radio button for a big fandom. WHEN DID THIS HAPPEN TO ME?
I was kind of peripherally on Le Café; I lurked for a long time, I think, and probably posted about five times in my life. I went by "spirrogg" in those days, and published all of about four (deeply mediocre) stories to ff.net, which later got archived on the LMFFI. This was all about... oh, five years ago? Six?
But I definitely know who you are, although I'm not sure we ever interacted directly. I remember loving lots of your fic--you wrote "Corner of the Sky," right? And "The Blood of the Martyrs"?
I'm still working on both of those - research is hell when you actually care. I'm only just now (five years later? nearly?) at the point to getting Feuilly a job that doesn't involve breaking and entering. And I'm bogged down mostly with figuring out how/when he should care about the Greek War of Independence. Never let a poli sci geek get anywhere near fandoms where canon is thoroughly political. Or a stickler for historical accuracy read anything written by Victor Hugo.
It's always interesting to see old Le Café people around, just to see where they've gone fandom-wise in the intervening years.
Due South and X-Files were my first big fan loves but it wasn't until Babylon 5 that I had access to the net and BOOM, I was in an mailing list. Then there was some kerfuffle about this new Muppet show "Farscape" and I joined the Skiffy board and now I'm an old hand.
I answered "something else" for primary pre-lj fandom and first LJ fandom. That would be Farscape, my personal OTP. Oh, I currently flirt with both SGA AND SG1 at present.
My something else was Hercules: the Legendary Journeys, the first fandom that got me online and actively participating. I was in X-Files fandom as well, but I wouldn't have called it my primary pre-LJ fandom. And depending on the time frame, primary could have been anything from Herc to Sentinel to Due South.
I was also tempted to check "something else" about fannish activities, b/c I've not been to many proper conventions as I've been to fannish gatherings. Just weekends where I've met up with fandom friends and we've done fannish things. No payment or celebrities involved. We usually just called them -fests.
My demographic will not be represented in this survey until you add a tickybox that says "You are not involved in fandom in any way; you just like to follow me around with a clipboard."
My first fandom was QAF US. It was pretty small and cosy, and was kinda perfect for an introduction to the mysterious world of online fandom. We had great fic, even greater badfic, lots of wank and shipper wars. And now I'm all nostalgic. *g*
I was a something else for #3. I started out in X-Men comics (alt.comics.fan-fiction) and played around in Ranma 1/2 for a bit, but basically stuck through X-Men up until I got out of fandom in 2000-ish... and then got back in recently through Harry Potter, Stargate Atlantic, and Doctor Who. Although at this point I write a -lot- of various fandoms, I really don't read as much anymore.
Of course, I interact a lot more now I'm on lj - I read a lot of fic on archives, for example, that I didn't leave fb for. I wonder as well the first question should ask rather than age length of time in fandom? Or do you think younger/older fans are drawn to different mediums/forums?
My "something else" is X-Men comics. Before internet days, living in rural Australia, I organised RPGs in Dragonlance, Arthurian and X-Men fandoms, at my parents' house. Then I went to university and there were bulletin boards and forums! Yay!
I started out in "fandom" (and it didn't feel at all like LJ fandom or even FFnet/forum fandom) in online roleplaying games on specialized servers, called MUSEs (Multi-User Simulated Environment), MUSHes (Multi-User Shared Hallucination), and MUXes (Multi User eXperience) over nine years ago--and I didn't really think about the existence of another side of fandom for nearly seven years. When I did get into thsoe other sides of fandom, it was through FFnet, Livejournal, and to a lesser extent forums, and to a large extent my fannish activities on LJ and the associated web-places continue to feel separate from my MU*ing activities.
The two of them feel so separate, in fact, that I had to change my answers to this survey, because I'd initially answered "other" for 'my primary pre-LJ fandom' simply because I'd had trouble associating my early experiences on Star Trek MU*s with the concept of "fandom" as I know it now (although to be fair, I'm not sure they were my primary pre-LJ fandom, as they only lasted a couple of years for me, and then I moved to Pern, and then to comics, and finally to video games and anime, whence I jumped off into LJ fandom).
Arguably, my first fandom was Star Trek (I talked my parents into taking me to a con when I was nine, and I read my first fic in it when I was twelve), and my first big online fandoms were TNG and DS9, Sailormoon, and Ranma 1/2, but I didn't really consider myself in fandom until I hit Farscape - a fandom I joined almost immediately after the pilot aired, and had my little 16 year-old self at a fan get together within a year.
So, most people who are my age started on LJ - I was just a bit precocious and going to fan cons in high school.
My first online fandom and principle pre-LJ fandom was Stargate SG-1.
My primary pre-internet fandoms (late 80s-early 90s) were Star Trek and Dr. Who, which I participated in via conventions and an honest-to-goodness in-person fanclub.
Yes, I kick it Old School.
And I find the people on LJ who think they invented fandom to be comically deluded. LJ is still just a portion of fandom, and not a particularly good way of interacting as fans.
I didn't answer question 3 because I wasn't sure what it meant, although looking at Te's comment I realized it probably did mean the fandom I was into right before I got onto lj, not the primary fandom of all those fandoms I went through in the years before lj. right? *G* Maybe I should retake the poll...
okay, there I go with the "something else." I got into popslash and onto lj at roughly the same time; in the period right before that, I didn't really have a primary fandom but sort of fluttered around with Gundam Wing and Eroica and Harry Potter. Also, I said I hadn't participated in HP fandom on lj, even though I've posted HP stories now and then -- I mean, I don't really feel I've participated or even tried to get into the fandom.
My "other" preLJ online fandom was science fiction (mostly through cons but also through mailinglists and on usenet), Tolkien (Stockholm Tolkien Society offline, usenet and mailinglists online), and after I discovered fanfiction in 2000 far too many fandoms to mention (anything from X-files to Yoroiden Samurai Troopers and Harry Potter :-)
I agree with others that popslash should definitely be called a large LJ fandom. It was (and is) my primary LJ fandom.
I checked "something else" because I just kind of lurked. I read fic and didn't talk to anybody until I found out about LJ. So, not so much with the participation but definitely fandom.
Here via metafandom. I clicked that I participate in Smallville and Supernatural, but I'd qualify that a lot, because neither are my main fandoms but I've read (or written) fic for both. My 'something else' was X-Men movieverse and Dark Angel in terms of interacting with fandom as I do now, though I've always been fannish about a lot of things. There's been some bleed-over to lj, but it was/is mainly off-lj.
I participated a tiny bit in Misty Lackey fandom online back when, on GEnie. (You didn't give the big services an option -- GEnie, CompuServe, Prodigy, AOL, etc.) Before the web it was them or Usenet, and if you didn't have a university or corporate account with access to Usenet then the big pay services were the only large-scale game around.
I was a Trek fan back when I was watching the original series on TV and playing Star Trek on the playground in first grade :D but have never participated in Trek fandom online.
I did a tiny bit of fannish stuff online more recently, right before I got my LJ, reading and commenting in some of the archives and web sites, before someone I e-mailed told me about LJ and helped me get a journal.
Oh, and I participate a tiny bit in HP fandom on LJ -- mainly reading and commenting if Amanuensis posts a HP story, or if Isis recs a HP story -- but my major fandom on LJ is LOTRiPS, which qualifies as "large" even if you don't bundle it with regular Lord of the Rings fandom. :)
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One thing --
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I also have mostly lurked in the three major fandoms (Smallville, Harry Potter, and SGA) that I claim to have "participated in" above. My friends write stories in them, I read more and less widely in them, I've been known to have long AIM conversations about them, but I virtually never actually post about them, and I've never written for them.
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I fall into the first two choices, and I was in Smallville fandom but not on LJ. My first LJ fandom was something else. (just so your results won't be skewed.)
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xx
the last question
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...well, it depends on how you define it. heh.
My first real online fandom experience was Trekverse (vulcan-l mailing list! and usenet), only I didn't know it was fandom and didn't know what fandom was and I was just chatting with people who liked the same thing. The first standard online fandom experience was Buffy -- though Phantom of the Opera was between there, it's just never counted really -- but the first time I was actually /conscious of being in a fandom/ as such would be TPM.
Confused yet? *grin*
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I am still a little weirded out that suddenly I'm clicking the radio button for a big fandom. WHEN DID THIS HAPPEN TO ME?
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But I definitely know who you are, although I'm not sure we ever interacted directly. I remember loving lots of your fic--you wrote "Corner of the Sky," right? And "The Blood of the Martyrs"?
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I'm still working on both of those - research is hell when you actually care. I'm only just now (five years later? nearly?) at the point to getting Feuilly a job that doesn't involve breaking and entering. And I'm bogged down mostly with figuring out how/when he should care about the Greek War of Independence. Never let a poli sci geek get anywhere near fandoms where canon is thoroughly political. Or a stickler for historical accuracy read anything written by Victor Hugo.
It's always interesting to see old Le Café people around, just to see where they've gone fandom-wise in the intervening years.
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Other: Ranma 1/2 (anime and manga) on USENET and pre-yahell mailing lists, with a smattering of B5 and ST:DS9 via a friend with zines.
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I was also tempted to check "something else" about fannish activities, b/c I've not been to many proper conventions as I've been to fannish gatherings. Just weekends where I've met up with fandom friends and we've done fannish things. No payment or celebrities involved. We usually just called them -fests.
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I wonder as well the first question should ask rather than age length of time in fandom? Or do you think younger/older fans are drawn to different mediums/forums?
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-Lisa
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The two of them feel so separate, in fact, that I had to change my answers to this survey, because I'd initially answered "other" for 'my primary pre-LJ fandom' simply because I'd had trouble associating my early experiences on Star Trek MU*s with the concept of "fandom" as I know it now (although to be fair, I'm not sure they were my primary pre-LJ fandom, as they only lasted a couple of years for me, and then I moved to Pern, and then to comics, and finally to video games and anime, whence I jumped off into LJ fandom).
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So, most people who are my age started on LJ - I was just a bit precocious and going to fan cons in high school.
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My primary pre-internet fandoms (late 80s-early 90s) were Star Trek and Dr. Who, which I participated in via conventions and an honest-to-goodness in-person fanclub.
Yes, I kick it Old School.
And I find the people on LJ who think they invented fandom to be comically deluded. LJ is still just a portion of fandom, and not a particularly good way of interacting as fans.
Here via metafandom
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I agree with others that popslash should definitely be called a large LJ fandom. It was (and is) my primary LJ fandom.
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My first online fandom was Roswell. I did a lot of forum stuff, but I also read a lot of fic on archives, which is why I picked 'something else' too.
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I participated a tiny bit in Misty Lackey fandom online back when, on GEnie. (You didn't give the big services an option -- GEnie, CompuServe, Prodigy, AOL, etc.) Before the web it was them or Usenet, and if you didn't have a university or corporate account with access to Usenet then the big pay services were the only large-scale game around.
I was a Trek fan back when I was watching the original series on TV and playing Star Trek on the playground in first grade :D but have never participated in Trek fandom online.
I did a tiny bit of fannish stuff online more recently, right before I got my LJ, reading and commenting in some of the archives and web sites, before someone I e-mailed told me about LJ and helped me get a journal.
Oh, and I participate a tiny bit in HP fandom on LJ -- mainly reading and commenting if Amanuensis posts a HP story, or if Isis recs a HP story -- but my major fandom on LJ is LOTRiPS, which qualifies as "large" even if you don't bundle it with regular Lord of the Rings fandom. :)
Angie