random poll

[ratcreature]

As another decade ends (I can't believe it's going to be 2010 in just a few days. yikes!) you see all the usual retrospectives etc.; also I've been editing fanlore (and you should too, the wiki needs more people /end shameless plug). This led me to wonder: if you've been in fandom a long(-ish) time, do you ever feel nostalgia for fandom how it used to be? ("Fandom" in this case intentionally vague as I just mean whatever form of fandom you were involved in the era you are nostalgic for.) And if so, for which time period? So I thought I'd do a poll.

The first is a question of whether you feel nostalgia, and in the second you can check tickyboxes to indicate for which time period you are feeling nostalgia. That I have split into two options for each period for an indication whether you actually were in fandom in that time period and feel nostalgia due to firsthand experience, or feel nostaligia because you have read or heard about that time and wish you had been in fandom then, because it just sounds more awesome to you than fandom now. I did give up to the early 2000s as options to feel nostalgia for, though I am a bit dubious whether you can call it "nostalgia" proper if it's less than ten years ago.

Poll #1929 fandom nostalgia poll

Open to: Registered Users, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 158

View Respondents

Do you feel nostaligia for fandom as it used to be?

View Answers

Yes.
32 (20.8%)

No.
29 (18.8%)

Sometimes.
85 (55.2%)

I have not been in fandom long enough to feel nostalgia.
8 (5.2%)

For which time period do you feel fandom nostalgia?

View Answers

pre-1950s fandom, which I knew firsthand
0 (0.0%)

pre-1950s fandom, because it sounds awesome
8 (6.3%)

fandom in the 1950s, which I knew firsthand
0 (0.0%)

fandom in the 1950s, because it sounds awesome
4 (3.2%)

fandom in the early 1960s, which I knew firsthand
1 (0.8%)

fandom in the early 1960s, because it sounds awesome
2 (1.6%)

fandom in the late 1960s, which I knew firsthand
2 (1.6%)

fandom in the late 1960s, because it sounds awesome
2 (1.6%)

fandom in the early 1970s, which I knew firsthand
3 (2.4%)

fandom in the early 1970s, because it sounds awesome
2 (1.6%)

fandom in the late 1970s, which I knew firsthand
3 (2.4%)

fandom in the late 1970s, because it sounds awesome
6 (4.8%)

fandom in the early 1980s, which I knew firsthand
7 (5.6%)

fandom in the early 1980s, because it sounds awesome
6 (4.8%)

fandom in the late 1980s, which I knew firsthand
11 (8.7%)

fandom in the late 1980s, because it sounds awesome
5 (4.0%)

fandom in the early 1990s, which I knew firsthand
22 (17.5%)

fandom in the early 1990s, because it sounds awesome
9 (7.1%)

fandom in the late 1990s, which I knew firsthand
62 (49.2%)

fandom in the late 1990s, because it sounds awesome
12 (9.5%)

fandom in the early 2000s, which I knew firsthand
73 (57.9%)

fandom in the early 2000s, because it sounds awesome
8 (6.3%)

Comments

[ratcreature]

Getting into fandom via a borrowed computer is tough. My first forays into fandom were via the computer that my older sister used at the university (nobody had private internet then), and there I used the first search thing (that was before there was a web, it was called "gopher" and gave you lists of material on ftp servers, it was the predecessor to the WWW, that must have been 1992 or thereabout) and also browsed comic newsgroups. But I couldn't use the university computer for long, and I could only print out a moderate amount to read later and had to do so discreetly (I still have a file folder with comic fandom stuff from then).

Then when Compuserve first offered private internet in Germany my brother got that, but that was expensive, and I could not go there often to use his anyway. I tried subscribing to a Due South list I had found with his email, but that flooded his mailbox (that must have been 1994 or 1995?), so he was pissed off, so then I decided to wait for my own internet connection for further fandom forrays, which wasn't until 1997. The cost for that once I found fandom was somewhat ruinous though, what without flatrates.

I've also been in offline comic fandom earlier, ever since I was a kid and found my local comic store. My parents were very fandom friendly, so they paid the expenses for me to go to out of town comic conventions as a teenager, and wrote me notes for teachers so I could skip school and arrive there Thursdays and stay the whole weekend... Also my older sister was a Trek fan (all the novels, merchandise, and I once found drawerfic on her computer) and also collected comics, and my brother was a huge D&D geek...so I've never really been outside of fandom.