December Daily: fannish history

[resonant]

minutia_r - top five pieces of fandom history

I don't think I can rate these, but I can natter.

There are a lot of people who've been in fandom longer than I have, but I've been in fandom since before Twitter, before Tumblr, before Dreamwidth, before LiveJournal. Before TikTok, before YouTube. Before AO3.

When I first started out in fandom, I would go on a search engine (I remember using Yahoo and Netscape) to find a story with a search that went something like +slash +"paris/kim" -chakotay, and then at the bottom of the story you might find a link to the author's personal page (maybe on Myspace or Geocities) or to the mailing lists that the author used. Then you'd sign up for the mailing list, and stories would arrive via email. Or you might find a recs page (the one I valued most was torch's) to help you find new stories, because it was very easy to slurp up all the findable content in one pairing and be forced to look for another one where you didn't know the names yet.

If you liked a story, you might be moved to email the author and say so, and sometimes the author would email you back and you'd become friends. Eventually someone explained to me how to use IRC chat, because it's easier to beta that way than via email. Even in work chats I still sometimes try to type /laughs.

When I started reading and writing due South, someone (possibly sigridthehaughty?) made me a videotape of some of the most significant episodes and sent it to me in the mail so I could watch it on my TV/VCR. (There were people vidding then. I can't even imagine how.)

For many years, my profile in every journal said, "I'm on dial-up, so I'm not watching vids or eps."

(As I write this, I'm reminded of my grandfather-in-law, who was a teamster back when that meant he managed a team of horses.)

I loved the journaling era. I mean, you notice I'm still here! I'm not really anywhere else! Still clinging to a version of the internet that's interactive without being algorithm-driven for maximum profit.



Upcoming prompts below the cut.




12 celli - Top five TV episodes of all time
13 duffy - Top 5 OTPs in television or movies. Could be romantic or friendship. (Canon is NOT a requirement!)
14 minoanmiss - Top five poets? top five titles?
15 the_future_modernes - top five things you look forward to as you grow older
16 clevermanka - Five pieces of treasured advice
17 dine - Top five ice cream flavors
18 rhi Five favorite Christmas treats (cookies to make, mulled cider, Advent calendars, e.g.)
19 china_shop - Top five devices/appliances/bluetooth thingies/whatever :-)
20 dorinda - Top 5 comfort movies? Or comfort reads, if you'd rather
21 summerstorm - because it puts me in mind of blackjack, do you play any card or board games regularly? Or videogames? top 5 games?
22 summerstorm - top 5 poems?
23 fox - Top five Advent carols, maybe
24 fox - Top five Christmas carols
25 break for Christmas
26 ride_4ever - top 5 dS fanworks other than fic (arts, podfics, vids)
27 azurelunatic - 5 reasons you enjoy a party in the dark times of the year
28 james - Top 5 places in the past you would like to visit. Top 5 places in the present you would like to visit.
29 laurenthemself - Top five snack foods (sorry, the requested date got taken between the time you posted and the time I edited)
30
31 mergatrude - what five complements/encouragements would you give your young self.

Comments

[misbegotten]

We circulated video tape compilations of the best scenes of minor characters too. I may still have a copy of "The Real Old Guy Channel" (all of Methos from Highlander's scenes) on VHS somewhere.

[resonant]

I've moved a couple of times since then, so all the videotapes have been weeded out, but it's hilarious in the modern streaming world to think of carrying out a fandom by mailing pieces of plastic to each other.

[dine]

oh, this takes me back! except for the writing part, this is pretty much my fannish history - barely discernible VHS tapes of episodes/compilations, mailing lists and webrings, all the individual author sites to track for updates. and IRC chats (though I'd forgotten all the prompts)

[resonant]

Remember when you could subscribe to a website and get an alert when it changed? And that was how you knew if someone updated. (I don't even remember HOW it alerted you.)

[dine]

I don't remember either! e-mail, maybe? but I honestly cannot recall - apparently my brain is filled with cotton wool instead of important fannish history

[sixbeforelunch]

I miss mailing lists. I don't know that they would work these days, but it was so much fun getting stories landing in your inbox, and you never knew when a new one was gong to come in.

I think I joined fandom right around the same time as you, maybe a little after. I still remember being in an IRC chat and people talking excitedly about this newfangled thing called LiveJournal.

[resonant]

Yeah, there are people in the comments who came in with Usenet. I'm old enough, but I didn't discover fandom until long after that.

[krait]

Very cool memories! Thank you for sharing.

I predate LJ, too, though not by much. I believe I discovered online fandom sometime around 1997-1999, at least the fringes, though it was probably 2000-2002 when I became more deeply involved and really got into the fanfic side of things.

[resonant]

I came in by way of fanfic, and there are still shows that I've read millions of words of fic in without ever seeing a single episode.

[krait]

Heh, you're sort of the opposite of me, then! I started as a fan of original SFF art and fiction, which led to fanart, which eventually led to fanfic. :D


there are still shows that I've read millions of words of fic in without ever seeing a single episode

Well, I started later than you, but I ended up with some of those, too! I call them my "read-only fandoms," because I just read the fic and not the canon itself. :P

[adafrog]

I got BSG on video once! hee!

[resonant]

All of it?

[adafrog]

I think it was the first year.

[delphi]

'Essential viewing' VHS tapes really take me back! I didn't have a fancy cable package in that era, but I was in Canada, and the CanCon legislation meant a lot of fandom-popular canons (some Canadian, some just filmed in Canada) played frequently in reruns. I had a good trade going swapping episodes of Due South, Highlander, X-Files, and Once a Thief for US and UK shows, as well as for such specialist collections as "every movie where Ewan McGregor takes his clothes off."

[resonant]

Oh, man, I hadn't really even thought about how people came to have those videotapes in the first place, but of course they'd have had to tape them off TV. (Or made a copy of a copy of a copy from someone who had.) I'll bet the commercials would really take me back.

[delphi]

I used to sit with my finger poised over the stop/record buttons to cut out the commercials as the show taped, because that meant being able to fit one more 48-minute episode onto a 6-hour cassette, but I wish I'd left them in there for posterity. There's a guy on Youtube who has a regular feature of watching old VHS tapes he finds at thrift stores, and the commercials are invariably the best parts.

[via_ostiense]

Still clinging to a version of the internet that's interactive without being algorithm-driven for maximum profit.

Yes! I love DW and this tiny corner of the internet that is determinedly still sticking to its original vision, and hasn't capitulated into running ads or choosing what content I see for me. It's the only place I still feel like there's a community where I've known people for years. My other social media is IG, and I interact with people there, but it feels more like drive-by, fleeting interactions.

[resonant]

I don't have a Tumblr any more but there are quite a few that I read. And Tumblr seems to be usable in a non-algorithmic way if you take a little trouble. But it doesn't have the same feeling to it.

[minutia_r]

I started on the compuserve forums and then moved on to usenet, but I didn't really get into the fic side of fandom until livejournal. Man, I am intimidated by the amount of work it takes to make a vid nowadays, let alone with a VCR.

[resonant]

I think I might have dipped a toe into AOL forums, but they were tough to navigate and not really rewarding enough.

[lunabee34]

I am in awe of people who made vids in the VHS era. Mad props.

[resonant]

Right? I can't even imagine.

[oracne]

I remember those days...they felt like a brave new world, after finding zines meant going to conventions and getting paper fliers.

[resonant]

And if you have a zine you have to put it somewhere, whereas a mailing list meant never having to explain slash to a four-year-old.

[kass]

/me waves

Hello, fellow-traveler!

[resonant]

Aw, man, hi to you and your Blair icon too!

[out_there]

For many years, my profile in every journal said, "I'm on dial-up, so I'm not watching vids or eps."

Hee! I was on dial-up for so long and this brings back strong memories. I remember reading online about US fans living on college campus and having access to amazing download speeds, while I had to rely on online recaps of episodes and wait the typical 6-9 months delay to watch shows like Smallville on TV. Man, I take cable internet and Netflix for granted these days.

(But it's also lovely not to spend 6 hours downloading an hour episode where the file only plays on a size of a 1" by 2" screen. And yet, I remember being desperate enough to watch s4 of Prison Break that that was how I watched the season.)

[resonant]

Wow, that's dedicated. I just kind of gave up on downloading video content. It was rough enough to get music.

[out_there]

The trick was to set it up at 11pm and come back to it at about 5.30am, before anyone else needed the phone lines. And to hope the connection didn't get interrupted during the night. *laughs*

[exceptinsects]

Ahhh, torch’s recs page was amazing!! I really miss recs, I don’t know if there’s a good place for them these days? I guess also there are sooo many fandoms now that you can’t just follow the herd like you used to.

I remember back in college I was on a Usenet group for fans of Nothern Exposure and one time I missed an episode so another member said she had taped it so I MAILED HER A CHECK and she MAILED ME A VHS TAPE what a time that was