The Fandomening

[sholio]

Whumptober ficlet status: 12/31 (4 Biggles, 2 Bab5, 6 Murderbot)

I put in a tentative signup for trickortreatex. This is the first time in at least 3 years that I'm not requesting Biggles, because greerwatson (of "Unrequested Nazis Are Awesome, Actually" fame) usually does this exchange and I don't want to accidentally summon her. :P However, it's early yet and I'm still adding fandoms, so I'll see if I feel like it's worth the risk later on. (I don't really mind so much being assigned to her as a writer; I can always write the minimum and leave it anon. But ugh.) Also, while my motivation is - let's be real - mostly avoiding Greer, it made me realize that I've requested Biggles in every exchange since spring 2022 and it might be fun to cast my net wider this time, and request some fandoms I haven't asked for in a while.

Also, I put in a signup for spook_me, the annual Halloween/horror challenge with art prompts that I've been doing every year, or at least most years, since their very first round back on LJ in the late 2000s.* True, my years of finishing anything for it are relatively rare, but it's genuinely one of my favorite events of the year, and I will be very sad whenever they stop doing it.

*(Edit: their first year was - HOLYSHIT - 2006, I found their master list on LJ, and I did actually write for it that year. I thought I remembered participating in the first one! This means this is their 20th year, and I've signed up for most of those years. What even.)

**(Edit2: The first spook-me signup post from 2006. I completely forgot that early on, they asked you to veto what you *didn't* want to write for, and then assigned you a creature and art prompt!)

In other news, Casefic Exchange revealed! I wrote Smuggler's Beach, a 13K post-Buries a Hatchet Biggles/EvS fic that is basically Biggles Goes Alone but with Erich along this time.

Comments

[yalumesse]

Is this the year of me and most people I know being stunned at how long we've been in fandom? I think it is. I was recently skim-re-reading fic I wrote back in 2008 or something and still can't get my head around the number. HOW?

Sounds like a lot of fun though! I hope you get good stuff.

(Fingers crossed The Unwanted Person doesn't turn up if you decide to try it, or at least leaves you be if they do.)

[sholio]

I got a comment on a DBZ fic from the early 2000s this past month saying that they weren't born when I posted the fic. ;-; On the one hand, it was genuinely a neat comment to receive, and I'm glad they wrote it - I can't even imagine how intimidating it would be to comment on something posted before you were born! On the other hand, AAAAAAAAAAAAUGH.

[pauraque]

This has happened to me more than once.

[sheron]

The other day I was reading a post by someone who discovered the original Star Trek series and was in all seriousness asking their friends if it's worth shipping Kirk/Spock or if there wouldn't be any further ~vibes~ as the series went on :D

It was amusing to read the comments after they Found Out.

[yalumesse]

Oh man, I can imagine that very easily, and EEEEE.

I remember being late teens and reading fic by an author who mentioned somewhere (in their LiveJournal) that they were in their 40s, and I took a moment to recalibrate my brain. And then I realised several of the really good authors I read were that good because they were, you know, not children.

[recessional]

That is AMAZING.

[philomytha]

It's such a shame WEJ didn't give us Biggles Goes Alone (with Erich), but you've written a great version of it <333

And yeah, I posted my first fic in 2000... 25 years in fandom now!

[sholio]

It was 2000 for me too! Really astonishing to realize it's been so long. (And thank you! <3)

[sheron]

I was so delighted to read Biggles Goes Alone With Erich XD It was exactly what I wanted.

[sheron]

Also..
The most interesting thing about those signups from 2006 are mods cheerfully interacting with the participants. There was just SO Much more willingness for people to say something to each other back then! I wrote emails to authors to comment on their fic when I first joined fandom and it was okay. Now you can't convince people who like the same pairing as you to do more than click a Kudos button lol I miss those old days because I think we all used to talk to each other more in the fannish sphere. I don't know if it's just things moving off DW to short-form platforms like Discord and stuff or what but it's just stunning to see some of those old LJ fic threads with lots and lots of people interacting!

Ah yes, phones, I forgot. Reading on a phone and thus being inhibited from human interaction by having to type comments on the keyboard would be another one, as we were talking about the other day!

[sholio]

Re: mods interacting with participants - the spook-me mods still stop by to comment individually on each signup (and then personally send you your prompts). It really is not quite like other exchanges now - well, okay, actually it IS sort of like Tumblr exchanges, which also still often have that interpersonal quality.

But yeah. It is different. Going through my oldest email account a while back, I came across a reply from an author in 1999 who I had emailed about her SG1 fic! And she wrote me a long email back. This isn't someone I got to know outside of that one interaction, but it does make me think about how many of my early online friendships in my pre-LJ days were more or less like that.

[sheron]

Same here! I met lots of people this way, just ...interacting!

[brightknightie]

I, also, miss Letters Of Comment as they once were, and conversations on and around fic! And fannish conversation in general. < nostalgia >

I'm in a large, active, not-yet-canceled fandom for the first time in my life -- I posted my first fanfic to an email list in '96; I just gravitate to small and/or canceled fandoms for some reason -- and I've been unable to find discussion anywhere but YouTube and podcasts. Folks write fanfic and draw art, but conversation of any kind doesn't seem to be a thing in text anymore...? As you say, phones are likely significantly implicated...

[aelfgyfu_mead]

I love that you've been doing the exchange for so long!