Age of Interactivity Meta Series Part 1/8: How do You Define Success in the Fandom?

[hollow_echos]

Author's Note: This meta series is something I've been working on for more than six months. It's not quite done (I currently have about 6.5 of the planned 8 pieces completely written), but in an attempt to motivate myself to get up and finally finish this series, I am going to start posting the first few parts. This meta series will focus on the

Comments

[x_varda_x]

Interesting! I'd say BNF reviews and other reviews are good indicators of success. For me, recs are also indicators. Or how often a story is requested/flagged on genre/storyfinders. Discussion about your work going on outside your circle and without any prompting from you can be good or bad, but at least means you've made an impression!

[hollow_echos]

Recc's are something I hadn't actually thought off, but I agree, that's another benchmark to consider. Thanks for sharing!

[bluevsgrey]

I never put much thought into it before being mostly a lurker but I am looking forward to the rest of your series as it is a different perspective I hadn't considered before, not really.

[hollow_echos]

Thanks! I'm probably going to post one a week or so. I hope you enjoy the rest of the series just as much.

[elspethdixon]

My personal "I feel that I have been successful in fandom this week/this month/whatever" benchmark is whether I actually manage to leave a review or reply to any reviews. I've completely fallen down on the entire social aspect of fandom over the past two years or so. So "giving recognition/interactions," I guess would be my success criteria.

Things like fic popularity are kind of the result of being in line with or unknowingly anticipating the fannish zeitgeist and being picked by The Claw, so you can't really do much to affect that. Being a lurker in my own main fandom is something I can control and something I wish I were better at. But it's just so much easier to go re-read Vathara's "Embers" or freece's "Captive Prince" or Transformers/Naruto/Final Fantasy/BtVS badfic again in fandoms I'm not a part of and not do the draining social thing or dive back into discussions in my home fandom where the characters are deeply important to me and everything is therefore less escapist.

[hollow_echos]

So "giving recognition/interactions," I guess would be my success criteria.

I do agree. This is something I've been working more on. I love getting reviews, they make me smile, and I can only assume it does the same for most other authors too. For that reason, I do really try to review almost everything I read.

Things like fic popularity are kind of the result of being in line with or unknowingly anticipating the fannish zeitgeist and being picked by The Claw

This is such a great way to describe it and something that can be frustrating at times. You can write a fic you are *so* proud of, and if the right person stumbles across it they may recc it to friends and the fic does very well and gets lots of readers/reception. On the other hand, if you post on a weekday at midnight and your post gets buried in reader's flists, it might have a much smaller audience. It can be frustrating that it's so "luck of the draw" sometimes.

Via metafandom list

[anonymous]

Wait, what? When did being a fan involve being a "success in the Fandom"?

Sure, there are people who crave the status and attention of being a BNF, but are they really a trufan of the "work" or are they merely using the "work" and its fandom as a tool?

Personally, I've learned to walk off when "fandom" gets obsessed with Marxist critical theory or political activism issues. If that makes me a failure in this fandom's opinion...well, whatever. I'm off to play with making a Time Lord robe. Red velvet...mmmm...

Re: Via metafandom list

[hollow_echos]

Thanks for chiming in, I'm glad you sharing your personal perspective because it is different than my own and that is the best way for a discussion to advance.

I guess for me I at least like to see my stuff getting commented on and having these interactions in the fandom. On the other hand, I'm not going to stop writing because a fic of mine gets no comments. In the end, I do write for me and I participate in the fandom because it's fun, not for any attention-seeking agenda. So on the whole, I do at least think about what I'm doing in the fandom, but it doesn't dominate my fandom life.

I'm glad to see there are people out there that can focus completely on the fun in the fandom, it's an excellent way to do things.

[anonymous]

Here via metafandom.

I think as your meta captures actually that the definition of "success" will differ individual to individual as much as it does in other aspects of life (eg. money vs personal happiness). I don't personally ever define my fandom experience as wanting to achieve "success" in a fandom - I would never talk about it in those terms because it gives a formality to the experience that I don't ascribe to it. Fandom=fun for me. If I'm having fun than great; if I'm not having fun that I disengage with that fandom.