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Fannish Fifty #1 - My Fandom Story
My fandom History
First of all, I had never heard the word fandom until I got a computer in the late 1990s AND finally got the internet. The first fandom I encountered at all online was the CATS Broadway show fandom. I joined a group and we all squeed over one of the actors and chatted every night about them.
Through that, I was introduced to the tv show Babylon 5. Its original run was already done but one of CATS friends had recorded it on video and sent me a big box of Season 1. I was lucky enough that Sci-fi (as it was known then) was showing an ep every night at 7 pm. I was hooked.
I started looking for other fans of Babylon 5 and stumbled into fandom. I discovered fanfiction somehow during this period though I have no real idea how. It was a long time ago. I started to write a little. I still run a couple of B5 things and still rewatch the show every few years. I’m nothing if not loyal.
Around this time, I also discovered Yahoo Groups and I saw The Fellowship of the Ring. Well, I’d loved Tolkien since I was 14 or so and read The Hobbit. I went looking for stuff about Orlando Bloom. And I fell into a rabbit hole. I discovered slash fiction and that, as they say, was that.
The LOTR fandom was filled with Legolas Mary Sues and 15-year-olds. And never ending arguing and fighting over rpf/fpf, het/slash, canon/au, and on and on. There were factions and BNF’s reigned supreme. Cassie Claire wrote the Very Secret Diaries about this time. This was pre-plagiarism and pre-fame days for her. It was a wonderful time to be in the fandom.
I got tired of that stuff and said screw this. I started my own Yahoo group – LOTR Adult Fiction. It was open to all types of LOTR fiction and no one was turned away. Fiction was posted directly to the group and went out in digests or in individual posts to members. I read EVERY SINGLE STORY posted there …which was more than 100 stories/chapters a week. We expended to a slash only group called Of Elves and Men Slash and a few members suggested we make a website, where the stories from both groups were archived. Since they were willing to do the work, I said okay. Why not?
At first, we used a free host but grew too big for that rather quickly and one of the members said they’d host it along with their own site. That ended because of personality things (batshit crazy people) and I found a host and an archivist and in 2004, Of Elves and Men was born. Over its lifetime, it hosted around 4000 fics from several different authors.
Livejournal came along during this time as well and we all sort of got to know one another as people and not just fans. In those days, one had to have a code from someone else to make an account so it was maybe a little clicque-ish, but it was a great time for fandom.
It was also a great place for wars to pop up and for Fandom Wank to appear on LJ first then Journalfen, once LJ banned them. This was fandom at its very worst. If you are interested, you can check it out at Fanlore. Fans can be really vicious.
My daughter was killed in a car crash in 2005. My fan friends send dozens of flowers, cards, letters, phone calls. Not sure I’d have survived that without them. I continued to write and expanded my fandoms somewhat though LOTR was still the main one.
Ao3 came about in 2008, after Livejournal banned over 500 users in one day because they decided to impose censorship of content. Most of us moved our work elsewhere and many of us moved away from LJ, which only got worse when a Russian oligarch bought it in order to quash dissident voices in Russia. I have ceased to use it since Russia invaded Ukraine.
In 2011, I saw Captain America, The First Avenger and in 2014, I wrote my first MCU fiction. I never really jumped into the fandom though I wrote a LOT of fiction. I really never actually read much MCU fic either, though over time, I did join several Captain America/Iron Man groups on DW, Discord and Tumblr.
Around 2015, our OEAM host wanted a LOT of money, all of a sudden, to keep out little site going so I finally asked Ao3 to archive OEAM and they have. You can find it here - Of Elves and Men.
My writing was the only thing that kept me going after the 45th president was elected. I withdrew from life for several years. Health stuff and the pandemic have slowed that writing a lot but here I am – still a fangirl in my 60s.
If you have questions about anything at all about me, please feel free to ask. You can also DM me if you prefer.
You can find my works in this collection: Alex's Story Book
First of all, I had never heard the word fandom until I got a computer in the late 1990s AND finally got the internet. The first fandom I encountered at all online was the CATS Broadway show fandom. I joined a group and we all squeed over one of the actors and chatted every night about them.
Through that, I was introduced to the tv show Babylon 5. Its original run was already done but one of CATS friends had recorded it on video and sent me a big box of Season 1. I was lucky enough that Sci-fi (as it was known then) was showing an ep every night at 7 pm. I was hooked.
I started looking for other fans of Babylon 5 and stumbled into fandom. I discovered fanfiction somehow during this period though I have no real idea how. It was a long time ago. I started to write a little. I still run a couple of B5 things and still rewatch the show every few years. I’m nothing if not loyal.
Around this time, I also discovered Yahoo Groups and I saw The Fellowship of the Ring. Well, I’d loved Tolkien since I was 14 or so and read The Hobbit. I went looking for stuff about Orlando Bloom. And I fell into a rabbit hole. I discovered slash fiction and that, as they say, was that.
The LOTR fandom was filled with Legolas Mary Sues and 15-year-olds. And never ending arguing and fighting over rpf/fpf, het/slash, canon/au, and on and on. There were factions and BNF’s reigned supreme. Cassie Claire wrote the Very Secret Diaries about this time. This was pre-plagiarism and pre-fame days for her. It was a wonderful time to be in the fandom.
I got tired of that stuff and said screw this. I started my own Yahoo group – LOTR Adult Fiction. It was open to all types of LOTR fiction and no one was turned away. Fiction was posted directly to the group and went out in digests or in individual posts to members. I read EVERY SINGLE STORY posted there …which was more than 100 stories/chapters a week. We expended to a slash only group called Of Elves and Men Slash and a few members suggested we make a website, where the stories from both groups were archived. Since they were willing to do the work, I said okay. Why not?
At first, we used a free host but grew too big for that rather quickly and one of the members said they’d host it along with their own site. That ended because of personality things (batshit crazy people) and I found a host and an archivist and in 2004, Of Elves and Men was born. Over its lifetime, it hosted around 4000 fics from several different authors.
Livejournal came along during this time as well and we all sort of got to know one another as people and not just fans. In those days, one had to have a code from someone else to make an account so it was maybe a little clicque-ish, but it was a great time for fandom.
It was also a great place for wars to pop up and for Fandom Wank to appear on LJ first then Journalfen, once LJ banned them. This was fandom at its very worst. If you are interested, you can check it out at Fanlore. Fans can be really vicious.
My daughter was killed in a car crash in 2005. My fan friends send dozens of flowers, cards, letters, phone calls. Not sure I’d have survived that without them. I continued to write and expanded my fandoms somewhat though LOTR was still the main one.
Ao3 came about in 2008, after Livejournal banned over 500 users in one day because they decided to impose censorship of content. Most of us moved our work elsewhere and many of us moved away from LJ, which only got worse when a Russian oligarch bought it in order to quash dissident voices in Russia. I have ceased to use it since Russia invaded Ukraine.
In 2011, I saw Captain America, The First Avenger and in 2014, I wrote my first MCU fiction. I never really jumped into the fandom though I wrote a LOT of fiction. I really never actually read much MCU fic either, though over time, I did join several Captain America/Iron Man groups on DW, Discord and Tumblr.
Around 2015, our OEAM host wanted a LOT of money, all of a sudden, to keep out little site going so I finally asked Ao3 to archive OEAM and they have. You can find it here - Of Elves and Men.
My writing was the only thing that kept me going after the 45th president was elected. I withdrew from life for several years. Health stuff and the pandemic have slowed that writing a lot but here I am – still a fangirl in my 60s.
If you have questions about anything at all about me, please feel free to ask. You can also DM me if you prefer.
You can find my works in this collection: Alex's Story Book
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And yes. I’m with you on the ”this kept me going.” 💜
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It truly has.
Some years ago, our biggest newspaper published an article about a young man who, despite his debilitating and incurable illness (not MS or ALS but something along those lines, I think), has a very rich and active social life because he was a gamer (I'd like to say WoW but I might be wrong). His parents didn't quite understand but since playing was pretty much the only thing their son could do as he was basically living his life from one room, they were happy for him. When he died, his parents were blown away by the compassion and support from his online friends. In the article, the young man's dad told how he'd been a kind and helpful gamer who had friends all over the world and when the community heard he'd died, they'd chosen a person (or they volunteered, I honestly don't remember but it doesn't really matter), and they crowdfunded their trip and stay in Finland as well as funeral bouquet. They held a speech and told the young man's family how important he'd been and how respected and a valued member of the community he'd been.
The dad said in the article that while he never understood the connections his son had, it was obvious how this community was his second family, and the dad was very touched by how the community wanted to pay their respects by being there.
It was a really lovely article.
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I am so so grateful and happy that fandom was there for you when you needed it. ~hugs~
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