alexcat: (Default)
alexcat ([personal profile] alexcat) wrote2022-01-25 03:05 pm

Snowflake Challenge Day 13

Challenge 13.

In your own space, share a favorite memory about fandom: the first time you got into fandom, the last time a fanwork touched your heart, wild times with fellow fans (whether on-line or off-line), a lovely comment you’ve received or have left for someone. Leave a comment in this post saying you did it. Include a link to your post if you feel comfortable doing so.


I began my fandom-ness in Babylon 5 and Tolkien back in the early 2000s, right after the first LOTR movie came out. I got into some Yahoo groups and wrote both character fic and real person fic. I got tired of the infighting among the writers of both so I made my own Yahoo group - LOTR Adult Fiction. It grew and grew and became Of Elves and Men, a website that was up and running from 2004 onward until we finally had to take it down in 2018 because the hosting site was no longer a good place to have it and I had no way to move it elsewhere. It is now in the process of being loaded onto Ao3.

I told you that to tell you this. I made a LOT of friends in the LOTR fansom and am friends with many of them to this day. From this group, I became involved in an RPG and I played Gil-galad. One day, Gil-galad met another elf named Oropher who was hungry and cold. He took him in, gave him a banana (it was all he had) and some purple socks. After a few weeks, I asked Oropher's person about herself and we became friends - best friends. She lives in Germany and me in the eastern US. Up until the pandemic, she's visited twice a year since 2005 and we've visited her and her family in Germany twice so far. We talk every week and chat online as often as we can.

Sooo - fandom has given me more than I can ever pay back.

When People talk about the evils of the internet, I have to disagree that it's as bad as they say, since it's given me so much!



Snowflake Challenge promotional banner with image of gingerbread Christmas trees, a silver ball, a tea light candle and a white confectionary snowflake on a beige falling-snowflakes background. Text: Snowflake Challenge January 1-31.
tellshannon815: (charlie liam)

[personal profile] tellshannon815 2022-01-25 09:44 pm (UTC)(link)
Totally, much more positive things about being online than a lot realise! Thanks for sharing
cornerofmadness: (Default)

[personal profile] cornerofmadness 2022-01-26 03:21 am (UTC)(link)
that's great to hear
svgurl: (Default)

[personal profile] svgurl 2022-01-26 08:37 pm (UTC)(link)
That's great that you have so many cherished experiences and found such a wonderful friendship. Sometimes, you just have to take the first step and you never know what you can happen next. :D
spikedluv: (summer: sunflowers by candi)

[personal profile] spikedluv 2022-01-27 02:04 pm (UTC)(link)
How wonderful that you met someone who is also special to you irl.