One-Question Poll: What's your fandom age?

[rsadelle]

The discussion on eleanor_lavish's cranky old fangirl post (friends locked; sorry) made me wonder just how long people have been in fandom. So let's have a poll! Feel free to pepper the comments with anecdotes about your entry into fandom. Also, due to LJ restrictions on the number of options, I've had to chunk things out a little. Luckily, this data is only going to be used to satisfy my curiosity and not to make any sort of point where good data matters.

[Poll #1641213]

Comments

[lakeeffectgirl.livejournal.com]

This poll made me realize we have been friends for ten years! :-D

[dine.livejournal.com]

wow, I feel ancient when I realize how long I've been doing this! though I'm eversohappy to have had those years

I first stumbled into online fandom in 1998, when my workplace first got internet - I was seeking info on Homicide: LotS which lead me to a fic site, which quickly lead me to slash stories, and I had found my people, I was home!

[allyndra.livejournal.com]

I'd been fannish pretty much all my life, but I didn't find online fandom until the build up to Serenity. The official Universal fan forums were an awesome, active place, and they introduced me to a whole bunch of aspects of online fans and fandom. My first fic fandom was Buffy. I was curious, so I Googled 'Buffy fan fiction' and found an angsty, human AU Spike/Buffy fic. I was like, "People read this for fun???" But I kept looking, and came across an epic Spike/Xander fic that just blew me away. I never looked back.

[rsadelle]

I know! ♥

[rsadelle]

Ah, yes. I stumbled into fandom when we got internet at home. My first fannish experiences were all in X-Men newsgroups.

[rsadelle]

I love how similar fangirl stories are! So many of us were always fannish and then stumbled over fandom on the internet. It's also making me think there's a good argument here for not locking down fandom. (I think that ship has more than sailed, but some people are still nervous about how public it sometimes is.)

[sleepherealone.livejournal.com]

8-9 for online fandom, I'll always remember stumbling into Final Fantasy VII fandom when I was 12 years old and being scared off from ever participating in anything past lurking until I got my LJ in 2004. Prior to online fandom, I do remember making up sequels to the Lion King movies with my best friend when we were between 8-10 and I still have some documents of wannabe movie scripts on my family's oldest computer.

[idahophoenix.livejournal.com]

It's a long time since I've been this "young" in anything. It's true that I've also always been fannish--all the way back to playing Lost In Space with my sister, writing alternative chapters of Little Women, having a huge crush on Danny Partridge ( the 'wrong' Partridge boy to be crushed out on) and, I suppose, having a Narnia themed commitment ceremony complete with an appearance by Aslan. Still, I'm a baby in on-line fandom. It's a relief to realize this as lately I've been freaking out about how much I don't get about all the lingo and how people make friends and how to get a beta and how not to be a complete idiot. Knowing that I'm not even a toddler yet, helps me to give myself a bit of a break around all that.

[megyal]

I'm still a baaaaaby at 4 years!

[rsadelle]

♥ I love how much this is the place we were all meant to be.

[rsadelle]

Aww, you'll learn! On the making friends: I've started reminding myself that the way we make friends is to talk to people, which has made me more likely to comment on things by people I don't know or don't know well. You'll find some snobs and/or people who aren't ready to make new friends at the moment, but fandom as a whole is pretty welcoming of other fangirls.

[rsadelle]

Awww, you are, but we're glad you're making fandom your home now! So far you're the second youngest person to take the poll. I'm finding it fascinating how long the people I know in fandom have been in fandom.

[idahophoenix.livejournal.com]

Thanks. Actually, people have been mostly great. Of course I shouldn't read things like "cranky old fangirl" postings in my babyhood because I'm too young to be cynical--except for one thing, it made me laugh really hard. I guess I'm a newbie just waiting for the day that I've been around enough to be jaded :)

[rsadelle]

What made me laugh about this particular cranky old fangirl post was that I found myself being cranky about how I've been in fandom longer than everyone in the discussion who disclosed how long they'd been in fandom.