Anon Culture & Fandom (My long overdue rant)

[risti]

My first brush with fandom, so to speak, was a Rebecca St. James (no, you’ve probably never heard of her, and if you have, yes, I really mean her) IRC chatroom. It was 1998 and I was 14. The first time I went in, I naively used my real name. I was admonished lightly for this, and the next time I ventured in I made up a screenname based on a few of

Comments

[lexiewallace]

SPN fandom is a complicated beast with literally years of history. There are many valid reasons that people use socks, most noticeably so their opinions can't be tied to their real lives. Serious lines were crossed from what I understand. I can't imagine if people brought fandom wank to my work, or family, but it happens. I guess what I'm saying is its really hard to walk into well established fandoms and understand why they do things the way they do because there are literally 9 million reasons things are the way they are. Anon coms are part of that, and as much as I hate them, there are reasons for them. It's just easier to avoid nastiness if you avoid them, and hang out with only people you trust. That's why fandoms start with tens of thousands but end up in groups of maybe 20 that get smaller each time a difference of opinion of happens.