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

[lilacsigil]

Oh, no, I love journals and comms SO MUCH! This is my sixteenth year in fandom, and I think it just keeps getting better (except for those damn kids! *shakes fist*) Seriously, though, the wank is bigger but less personal - in that there's always somewhere else to go - and I love seeing all the new fandoms come to life.

[ratcreature]

That is true, kerfuffle avoidance is much easier now. On lists there was just no escaping short of a split (and I've been through some splintering flamewars in TS and those were exhausting). Though the passionate side of flamewars was also fun in a way. Though that also may have been a function of my age at the time, and of having the arguments for the first time, so it was all new and shiny.

[lilacsigil]

that also may have been a function of my age at the time

How old were you? I was 19 when I got into fandom, and thought I was about the youngest...but have since run into people who were writing all kinds of porn on those lists and they're all five or six years younger than me! I was scared of the flamewars, though, because I find a lot of Americans argue much harder and louder than I'm comfortable with, and my fandom then was majority American.

[ratcreature]

Hee. In contrast I never described half the flamewars as such, because Germans have a much more direct and confrontational discussion and criticism style than Americans, who are more circumspect and have a slightly different idea of what is polite. Also those discussions were nothing compared to the ones I had in offline political groups at the same time.

I was 20 or so when joined online fandom regularly. I had made my first online forays before, i.e. when I was 16, but I didn't have an internet connection of my own, so I did not more than browse the occassional comic newsgroup, as my one attempt to join a DueSouth discussion list had flooded my brother's email account, so I didn't try that again until I had my own mail address.

[lilacsigil]

Ha! Yes, Germans are even more direct, but take things less personally, on the whole. And yes, I was involved in offline queer and feminist groups, and the discussions were epic. I just couldn't get that worked up about whether someone's character was a Mary Sue or not, in comparison!