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Comments from various people in their LiveJournals got me thinking about fandom responsibility. Really, you (the royal you, everybody in the fandom) are ultimately the only person responsible for your fandom experience. You can make it as wonderful or as horrible as you want. No one else is responsible for picking you up or bringing you down. If you want to view the show as being fun with flaws, or as being crap with some good moments, that's your choice. It's up to you.
That said, there are a few things about fandom in general that can affect the view from your perspective. In these instances, I'm going to approach it from my perspective since that's what I have to go on.
1. Discussion on the show and what lenses it's viewed through.
The fact of the matter is, the divisions there are in the fandom come mainly from how you view the show and discuss it. Is any one way wrong? No. (And this isn't slash vs. het vs. gen, so pay attention now.)
Discussion of the show is either: of the show/episode as a whole, about one character in specific, about all of the bad things/good things. People can overlap with these discussion methods or switch from one to the other. I myself do all three, depending on mood and episode. For the most part, I like to discuss an episode as a whole. If I'm going to discuss a character though, it'll most likely be Chloe (or Pete or the MB). And if I'm just in a pissy mood and/or hated the episode, I'll discuss all of the bad things.
How you discuss the show though, with those three factors, influences who actively keeps up with you or your journal entries and which circles you run in. The fact that Chloe is my character of preference puts me in the Chloe segment of the fandom. I am more likely to discuss the show with people who feel similarly about the character if we're choosing to discuss the character. Likewise, while I love what MR does with Lex as a character, I don't watch the show for Lex. It's an unconscious thing, but I tend to gloss over his portions of the show. Therefore, I am not going to actively seek out people to discuss the show with on a Lex-heavy episode if in their entry they're mainly discussing Lex. I have nothing to add to the discussion, so why do so?
How you discuss is why there are people that overlap in what are considered the 'accepted' divisions in the fandom. But that's also why there are people who don't discuss the show outside their own circle of friends. Your choice of discussion affects your discussion partners.
2. What parts of fandom you participate in.
Not everyone participates to the same degree in fandom or in the same ways. Not everyone reads fanfic. Not everyone writes fanfic. Not everyone wants to discuss the episodes. Not everyone wants to squeal over the hotness of KK, MR, TW, AM, SJ, AOT, JS, JG, etc. Not everyone wants to discuss Superman. Not everyone has a website. Not everyone reads spoilers.
The people who participate in more portions of the fandom are more likely to have conflict because of overlapping interests. I know number two is short, but that's because it leads to...
3. Fandom courtesies.
I'm not getting into who does what and what's considered the best thing to do, etc. I'm just going with generalized ideas of what's acceptable.
a. Cut tags
Cut tags in regards to spoilers are key. If you're talking about spoilers posted on a website, or if you're talking about an episode that aired 10 minutes ago, you use cut tags. Why? Not everyone wants to know what's coming up, and not everyone is from the US. Heck, not everyone in the US gets the show on it's scheduled night. Cut tags are a common courtesy that most people use. If you don't, believe me, people on your friends list will blast you for it or defriend.
And that right there is one part of the fandom experience that each person *can't* control...what information others deem to give out, even if you don't want to know. As anyone who has had that happen will tell you, the only solutions are to let the person know you didn't want to hear that, please cut tag next time, or defriend. People we would *like* to interact with everyone, but if you can't be courteous, then we can't interact on a day to day basis. I won't let you affect my fandom experience in a negative way, even if it affects *you* in a negative way.
(I know there have been spoiler discussions and arguments lately. This has nothing to do with any of those. We're talking in general terms, what's accepted as a fandom rule, not specific cases or in regards to specific instances or what constitutes a spoiler to an individual.)
b. Disclaimers
In regards to fanfic, for those that participate in that portion of the fandom...disclaimers are key. There are tons of stories out there. Many places to look for the stories. Some archives guarantee you a certain knowledge about what you're getting (if you go to SSA, you know there'll be slash, and the same with other archives like Wild Coyote for het, or Fanfiction.net for anything rated R or under). But as far as disclaimers...
As a writer, there's a desire sometimes to surprise the reader. Giving the characters involved can hurt the enjoyment for the reader. But there *are* ways of fixing that. Give an enticing generalized summary. Rate it. And have the courtesy of saying whether it's slash, het or gen.
Because for me, I don't care who writes it, you cause me to stumble blindly in and start reading Jonathan Kent slash, I'm never going to read anything you've written again. You can write Jonathan slash all you want. As long as you tell me and keep me from reading it, we're fine. But as soon as I stumble on it...history baby.
That's my scenario, but it plays out for people all across the fandom. NC-17 Clana? There are a lot of people who'd rather avoid it. Labeling a fic, even general labels, are helpful to the reader and the writer. You are *more* likely to attract readers by labeling than not. A lot of people only read certain things. Without labels, they're going to pass it by, even if they're unknowingly passing by what they want to read. Providing a hint keeps you from alienating anyone.
(I know there are also plenty of differing views on whether or not to label fic, how to do so, etc. I'm not getting into that, because as long as I've been in fandom, most people have operated with labels and disclaimers. At this point, claiming for artistic convention that labels hinder the reader's ability to be surprised is just an excuse. There are ways of labeling without being specific. I *have* seen people label a fic as other/other when Clark is involved in that pairing, but still give enough information to inform the readers generally of what they're getting ready to read. We're creative people. Really creative people. There's no reason for not having a disclaimer of some sort.)
That said, there are a few things about fandom in general that can affect the view from your perspective. In these instances, I'm going to approach it from my perspective since that's what I have to go on.
1. Discussion on the show and what lenses it's viewed through.
The fact of the matter is, the divisions there are in the fandom come mainly from how you view the show and discuss it. Is any one way wrong? No. (And this isn't slash vs. het vs. gen, so pay attention now.)
Discussion of the show is either: of the show/episode as a whole, about one character in specific, about all of the bad things/good things. People can overlap with these discussion methods or switch from one to the other. I myself do all three, depending on mood and episode. For the most part, I like to discuss an episode as a whole. If I'm going to discuss a character though, it'll most likely be Chloe (or Pete or the MB). And if I'm just in a pissy mood and/or hated the episode, I'll discuss all of the bad things.
How you discuss the show though, with those three factors, influences who actively keeps up with you or your journal entries and which circles you run in. The fact that Chloe is my character of preference puts me in the Chloe segment of the fandom. I am more likely to discuss the show with people who feel similarly about the character if we're choosing to discuss the character. Likewise, while I love what MR does with Lex as a character, I don't watch the show for Lex. It's an unconscious thing, but I tend to gloss over his portions of the show. Therefore, I am not going to actively seek out people to discuss the show with on a Lex-heavy episode if in their entry they're mainly discussing Lex. I have nothing to add to the discussion, so why do so?
How you discuss is why there are people that overlap in what are considered the 'accepted' divisions in the fandom. But that's also why there are people who don't discuss the show outside their own circle of friends. Your choice of discussion affects your discussion partners.
2. What parts of fandom you participate in.
Not everyone participates to the same degree in fandom or in the same ways. Not everyone reads fanfic. Not everyone writes fanfic. Not everyone wants to discuss the episodes. Not everyone wants to squeal over the hotness of KK, MR, TW, AM, SJ, AOT, JS, JG, etc. Not everyone wants to discuss Superman. Not everyone has a website. Not everyone reads spoilers.
The people who participate in more portions of the fandom are more likely to have conflict because of overlapping interests. I know number two is short, but that's because it leads to...
3. Fandom courtesies.
I'm not getting into who does what and what's considered the best thing to do, etc. I'm just going with generalized ideas of what's acceptable.
a. Cut tags
Cut tags in regards to spoilers are key. If you're talking about spoilers posted on a website, or if you're talking about an episode that aired 10 minutes ago, you use cut tags. Why? Not everyone wants to know what's coming up, and not everyone is from the US. Heck, not everyone in the US gets the show on it's scheduled night. Cut tags are a common courtesy that most people use. If you don't, believe me, people on your friends list will blast you for it or defriend.
And that right there is one part of the fandom experience that each person *can't* control...what information others deem to give out, even if you don't want to know. As anyone who has had that happen will tell you, the only solutions are to let the person know you didn't want to hear that, please cut tag next time, or defriend. People we would *like* to interact with everyone, but if you can't be courteous, then we can't interact on a day to day basis. I won't let you affect my fandom experience in a negative way, even if it affects *you* in a negative way.
(I know there have been spoiler discussions and arguments lately. This has nothing to do with any of those. We're talking in general terms, what's accepted as a fandom rule, not specific cases or in regards to specific instances or what constitutes a spoiler to an individual.)
b. Disclaimers
In regards to fanfic, for those that participate in that portion of the fandom...disclaimers are key. There are tons of stories out there. Many places to look for the stories. Some archives guarantee you a certain knowledge about what you're getting (if you go to SSA, you know there'll be slash, and the same with other archives like Wild Coyote for het, or Fanfiction.net for anything rated R or under). But as far as disclaimers...
As a writer, there's a desire sometimes to surprise the reader. Giving the characters involved can hurt the enjoyment for the reader. But there *are* ways of fixing that. Give an enticing generalized summary. Rate it. And have the courtesy of saying whether it's slash, het or gen.
Because for me, I don't care who writes it, you cause me to stumble blindly in and start reading Jonathan Kent slash, I'm never going to read anything you've written again. You can write Jonathan slash all you want. As long as you tell me and keep me from reading it, we're fine. But as soon as I stumble on it...history baby.
That's my scenario, but it plays out for people all across the fandom. NC-17 Clana? There are a lot of people who'd rather avoid it. Labeling a fic, even general labels, are helpful to the reader and the writer. You are *more* likely to attract readers by labeling than not. A lot of people only read certain things. Without labels, they're going to pass it by, even if they're unknowingly passing by what they want to read. Providing a hint keeps you from alienating anyone.
(I know there are also plenty of differing views on whether or not to label fic, how to do so, etc. I'm not getting into that, because as long as I've been in fandom, most people have operated with labels and disclaimers. At this point, claiming for artistic convention that labels hinder the reader's ability to be surprised is just an excuse. There are ways of labeling without being specific. I *have* seen people label a fic as other/other when Clark is involved in that pairing, but still give enough information to inform the readers generally of what they're getting ready to read. We're creative people. Really creative people. There's no reason for not having a disclaimer of some sort.)
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And I know you didn't touch upon this, but I'm saying it anyway: I'm so sick of people telling me to stop watching if I hate the show. (These are mostly teenyboppers over at Ksite, not necessarily anyone on LJ.) I don't hate the show. I just know that it can be a better show; I know what parts I watch for and what parts I'd rather weren't included. Also, how boring would it be if everyone just loveloveloved the show? Why talk about it then? Besides, I wouldn't have made such cool friends if it weren't for all the talking, discussing, complaining and critiquing of this damn show. You know?
I like SV. It's no longer my favorite show, but more than the show, I love participating in the fandom. Most people I associate with don't tell me to just "shut up and watch," and I like that. Most people are courteous and polite even when we have differing views.
I think there's just a cloud hanging over the Internet right now. Maybe it's those pesky viruses and the stupid blackout last week making everyone gloomy.
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Oh A-men! I've actually had a few people on LJ get pissy with me like that, telling me to just stop watching it. And I just don't get that! So I complain - it's because I have seen the potential this show has and I just wish it would continue to live up to it. There are better writers out there and I would lovelovelove! to see some of them get ahold of this thing. I mean, just because I complain about my fiance doesn't mean I have any intention of leaving him or that I love him any less. He just occasionally does things to piss me off or annoy me. The same with SV. I live and breathe the show - it doesn't mean I can point out that it has faults. Sheesh!
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That may be part of my GG discussion issues. I lovelovelove it. Why discuss that? You're right, it gets boring if everyone always agrees.
That argument of "don't watch if you don't like" has gotten stale and pitiful and frankly makes me want to bop the person saying it over the head and tell them to be original.
I think there's just a cloud hanging over the Internet right now. Maybe it's those pesky viruses and the stupid blackout last week making everyone gloomy.
I felt all gloomy last summer at this time. Maybe it's the depression/gloomy because we've been without new TV for so long? *G* We are a fannish lot. No fodder makes us sad and grumpy.
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*smooches*
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I'm going to make it a point to use that at least once a day for the next week. It's too great a phrase.
*smooches right back*
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