Poll: Anon Memes

[apple_pathways]

MUST. STOP. SPAMMING. FLIST!

...tomorrow. In the meantime, I have a poll!

So I've mentioned here several times that I like to lurk/post on various anonmemes. The ones I've posted to are: fail_fandomanon, who_anon, and eleventy_kink. (Oh, and I theoretically mod concrit_anon, though it's pretty slow-goings there these days.) I've visited/perused others, but these are the ones I visit regularly.

The idea of "outing" comes up often on fail_fandomanon: as in being "outed" as someone who reads/posts to the comm. I think that's a pretty grandiose term for a fairly frivolous pursuit. Not only that, but people will refuse to name the fandom they participate in for fear of being recognized. Perhaps if you're the only Kimmy/Joey shipper in a miniscule Full House fandom you have something to worry about, but even then, I doubt it: even if you're the most visible fan in your fandom, there are still hundreds of others who are either lurkers or infrequent participants. I think the number of fans who are readily recognizable by only the general details of their fandom participation (i.e. Sherlock fan who ships Watson/Lestrade and is into BDSM) is pretty low.

Also: aren't these people being just a bit paranoid? Would they really be shunned in fandom circles in people knew they posted to an anonmeme? And is it any anonmeme, or is it this one in particular? (I mean, I can understand the panic of anon-failing on a particularly catty/vicious comment, but then: that's just karma. If you're coward enough to keep someone you dislike on your flist and then complain about them behind their back in a public forum, you sort of deserve what's coming to you.)

So, flist, help me out: What do you think? Detailed results are viewable to just me, and as always, feel free to be honest: I have a thick skin, and I wouldn't ask if I didn't want to know. (For instance: you will never hear me ask if my ass looks fat in these pants, so don't tell me! :P)

[Poll #1755088]

(Feel free to share questions, concerns, and any points I might have missed in the comments. Also, a question I forgot to add to the poll: does fail_fandomanon have a particular reputation in your fandom/circle of friends?)

Comments

[switchbladesis.livejournal.com]

I got into the SPN anonmeme (the fandom one, not the one about the actors) when I was first getting back into fandom-Supernatural fandom is go big that there aren't any real general fan comms, and it seemed like the only place I could go to not only hang out with casfans only. The stuff about individual fans didn't seem to matter as much to me-I didn't now who any of them were, and didn't really care. I just like to get different viewpoints about things, and talk about fics with other readers instead of only to the writer. And the random hilarious commentfics and threads were also nice.

Then I participated in a few friending memes, found out who most of the people I enjoyed talking to on the meme were, and added them to my friendslist. It kind of killed my interest in going to the meme proper.

Nowadays, I mostly lurk in the fic discussion post, only dipping into general fandom now and then to make a remark that's only tangentially related to supernatural. Oh I talked why a particular story had unintenional trans!fail in it yesterday, I guess. Still, nothing I wouldn't also say unanon.

Actually knowing who people are in fandom does make me feel differently about fan gossip. I have a friend who is savaged on the meme so often that she's got her own 'leave britney alone' parody macro-nothing about her fic, and nothing even all that specifically about her-just ugh, I hate her, she's so annoying, I don't understand why (BNF) is friends with her, over and over again. Like, once a week. It's really gross and bizarre, and I just don't understand why someone would spend so much time hating someone else.

Edit to add: I don't go to FFA, I know people who do, but the main thing I associate with it is that they dislike Catheryn Valente. Or at least some of them do?

[apple-pathways.livejournal.com]

I'm out the door to go to work, so I'll respond thoughtfully later, but:

I don't go to FFA, I know people who do, but the main thing I associate with it is that they dislike Catheryn Valente. Or at least some of them do?

I have no idea who Catheryn Valente is, and I've never seen her mentioned there. However, the threads I'm interested in and those that are the most popular/get the most responses are widely divergent!

[apple-pathways.livejournal.com]

I think it's funny how much activity the anonmemes generate. That's one of the things I like most: how active they are.

I enjoy getting an idea what people are talking about, and what ideas are going around fandom. I stumble across a lot of links to things I wouldn't find otherwise.

Doctor Who fandom is just too big for me to know most of the key players in it. I know the regulars at doctoreleven, and I tend to recognize the names of authors who write the sort of fic I like, but if a specific fan ever comes up on a meme, I never know them. As for Sherlock fandom, outside of the comms I mod, I don't participate much in it, so again: I couldn't tell you who the fandom darlings or the fandom whipping posts are.

I know a lot of my flisters have friends who get picked on on these memes. (Which is why I expected people to have strong opinions to the topic.) But they're in different fandoms from me, so I couldn't say where the drama comes from.

[switchbladesis.livejournal.com]

Cathryn Valente is a fantasy writer-I was reading Palimpsest (which is a book about a sexually transmitted city, if you're into that sort of thing) a while ago and talking about it with an lj friend, and she was really interested in my response to it, since all she'd heard about the author was mean things on FFA. But apparently that was mostly because of silly/stupid things she'd said on twitter.

What I really like about memes is the ability to argue with people. There's this sort of expectation on lj that if you're on someone's friendslist, you'll agree with everything they say about anything, and hold all the same views as them. And while I welcome people telling me wrong and why I'm wrong (mostly so I can come back and tell them why I'm really right :P), it's hard to tell who will welcome the same thing, no matter how polite I am. And while I'd prefer to do it in a frame where I don't get called names, I like it better than not doing it at all.

Also, reading episode reactions from people who are more involved with the A plot means that I hear about things I would have never thought about because I was too busy concentrating on the B-plot.

Oddly enough, I have come up on the spn meme before: Mostly because of my inclusion in this secret BNF cabal that is planning to a) control fandom, b) talk about fandom, c) swap recipes and baby pictures, or d) is actually just a writing comm. (Note: I don't belong to a secret BNF cabal). But that amused me more than anything else. Also, I don't think that's happened recently.

[apple-pathways.livejournal.com]

And while I welcome people telling me wrong and why I'm wrong (mostly so I can come back and tell them why I'm really right :P), it's hard to tell who will welcome the same thing, no matter how polite I am.

For the record, you are always free to disagree with me. I love discussions and arguments! (I will warn you, though: I have a pretty good track record of being right. ;)

I really think the "all niceness, all the time" attitude that pervades fandom is one of the reasons anonmemes are so popular. I don't know where the idea came from, but it seems to be out there that either you're one of the 'nice fans' who loves and squees over everything, or you're a troll. There's plenty of jerks out there who ruin the discussion for everyone, but I don't see why everyone who dares to have a differing opinion need be lumped into that category. (Though the broken record fans who need to express their dissatisfaction at every possible opportunity also rankle.)

Oh, wait: what is a 'sexually transmitted city'? /intrigued

You know, it took me forever to work out what SPN stood for when I first saw it cropping up! It's funny that Supernatural is such a big, popular show because I had never heard of it until last year when I became active on LJ again. I still have no idea what channel it's on!

[switchbladesis.livejournal.com]

Sexually transmitted city: pretty much, a place that you can go only if you've had sex with someone who's been there. I got distracted by other books, but the parts I read had a nice, dreamy feeling to them. Though I had a hard time remembering what was going on.