There's Nothing Wrong With Fandom That Getting Rid Of All The People Won't Fix

[icarus]

There's Nothing Wrong With Fandom That Getting Rid Of All The People Won't Fix

Every now and then I read about a major wank, or I hear a loud declaration that fandom is all screwed up. That once upon a time fandom was warm and welcoming, filled with love and roses... but no more. Newcomers have changed it.

Or else, once upon a time we entered into a fandom with open hearts and then had our souls crushed by the [fill in the pet peeve of choice]. Now that we know better the kinds of people we'll meet in fandom, we're going to [put on our magic ring and depart like Bilbo / choose only the people we deem worthy of ourselves and f-lock mightily / other more imaginative exit designed to make our point that fandom is fucked and we are right about this].

Honestly, the only problem with fandom is that we bring ourselves to it.

Fandom is like a Rorschach test. It's a map of our own personal issues whether we're aware of them or not. Have a hair-trigger temper? Oddly enough, something in fandom will set it off. Have a lingering issue with relationships? How dare all those people talk about marriage as if it's a good thing! As it happens, Yoda was right: What's in fandom? "Only what you bring with you."

It takes a lot of self-honesty to negotiate fandom. These are personal journals where many people (unless it's their tendency to be shy)... write journals. Let it all hang out. Personal stuff, tough questions, issues, opinions and politics. At the same time, there's a quasi-anonymity that allows us to project ourselves or our own issues onto these blank slates more easily than if we saw a person and a face. I had somebody come by and make a political comment and I was quick to make an assumption that turned out to be wrong. What was that? Well, it had nothing to do with the commenter, it was my own frustration with WG's Bush-supporting family..

Now we humor our BNFs and many people believe "oh, well this BNF is surrounded by fawning fans that let them get away with appalling behavior."

Well. Not really.

You see, there's a central office located about four blocks north of Queen Street in Toronto, Ontario,* that is dedicated to BNF-management. The moment a BNF has a meltdown they get a call, "Oh, hell. How many WIPs are at risk? And a Fic-A-Thon assignment -- plus an archive? Shit. We'll get right on it."

They then dispatch professional "soothers" whose job it is to ensure the steady flow of fiction. After all, we're not paying the BNF to write. They are producing massive amounts of work for us, for free. The work of the OBNFMT (Ontario BNF Management Team, Ltd.) is a pragmatic side of the gift economy. It's not a job I could do, but I'd like to thank the soothers of OBNFMT from the bottom of my heart.

It's up to the BNF, like any other star, to be honest with themselves and recognize when they're being handled. Not that being handled isn't very nice. The palanquin alone is worth the price of admission.



* What? You're suprised it's a Canadian firm?

Comments

[hardticket.livejournal.com]

I'm guessing your Canadian because that sounded very Canadian.
LMAO.

[icarusancalion.livejournal.com]

Ah, not I. But my father's lived in Toronto for... 30, 40 years? There is a note of peaceful smug superiority, isn't there? The meek will inherit the earth and Canadians know it! ;)

Icarus

[hardticket.livejournal.com]

Hee, that is close enough to be smug too.
It's all part of the master plan.
Muhahahaha!

[slb44.livejournal.com]

It doesn't surprise me at all. I've always got a really weird feeling when I've walked in that particular neighbourhood and that would explain it. That and what the Ontario government is doing with all that lottery money they can't account for.

At least now I know it's a BNF slush fund. *beg*

[icarusancalion.livejournal.com]

I've always got a really weird feeling when I've walked in that particular neighbourhood and that would explain it.

I originally thought the odd feeling was The Beaches' neighborhood committee, but now I know the truth.

That and what the Ontario government is doing with all that lottery money they can't account for.

They're making the world a better place. *g*

Icarus

[kaalee.livejournal.com]

It's a map of our own personal issues whether we're aware of them or not.

Well put. I completely agree. ♥

[icarusancalion.livejournal.com]

*nods* It's not them, it's us.

Icarus

[dementedsiren.livejournal.com]

Interesting, and quite true. People tend to forget that the law of supply and demand is equally valid in fandom as it is in the real world. Things exist because there's a market for it. BNFs, badfic, Mary-Sues, etc. - someone out there wants those, someone out there wants to mock those, and so they will continue to exist until the aliens arrive on their comet and take us all away to the land of Genfic.

Where, I suppose, there will be battles over what says more about a character - their hair, or the state of their clothes.

[icarusancalion.livejournal.com]

BNFs are producing a valuable product and their little quirks must be nursed along to keep the pipeline open.

People tend to forget that the law of supply and demand is equally valid in fandom as it is in the real world.

I informed my dad, who joked about owing a consulting fee for all the Port32.com help my flist provided, that in fact he did owe a fee. I recommended he produce some fine written entertainment in exchange for the services rendered. He has now sent me two short original fics that are currently in beta review (one of which is hilarious). :D

Icarus

[kijikun.livejournal.com]

Maybe this is why I haven't been popular in a fandom since BMFM. When I was a "BNF".

I refuse to dance to anyone tune. I refuse to chater to a "BNF". I write what the hell I want to write. If I want to write kid!fic after kid!fic, well damnit I will. If I want to write incest, unpopular pairing, host challenges and awards when the 'old fans' have decided against it I will.

This might explain why I still am begged to write more in one fandom, hated and considered one a 'sock' in another, and generally stared at with a 'what do we do with her" look?

And I've forgotten my point but I refuse to care anymore. Sure I hate that I don't get feedback, I even whine over it, but what am I going to do? Start writing what they want even though I don't like it?

Screw Canon.
Screw the BNFS
Screw fanon.
I'm here to have fun.

[kijikun.livejournal.com]

Also, I want handlers damnit!

I need tea and feedback! In that order.


Heavy on the tea.

[icarusancalion.livejournal.com]

I've been puzzling at this... what is the BMFM fandom?

Icarus

[kijikun.livejournal.com]

Biker Mice From Mars.

[icarusancalion.livejournal.com]

*gapes for a moment*

You realize I've never even heard of the show. Or book. Or anime -- what on earth is this fandom?


Icarus

[sub-divided.livejournal.com]

Biker Mice From Mars is an American children's television show from the mid nineties. I didn't know it had a fandom, but I'm not surprised - it's a cult show, full of catchphrases, which leaves plenty of room for backstory, and is exactly old enough to be nostalgic for one of fanfiction's biggest age groups (people in their early twenties).

[slashophile.livejournal.com]

That's it exactly.

S'all I can say on that.

[icarusancalion.livejournal.com]

*g* The quiet people from OBNFMT: the one's who keep the fandom wheels greased.

Icarus

[slashophile.livejournal.com]

You implyin' somethin'? ;)

[enname.livejournal.com]

As it happens, Yoda was right: What's in fandom? "Only what you bring with you."

*laughs* How, very, very true. Pity that everyone seems to be so perpetually suprised by this fact.

It is a little like the industrial revolution, where everyone was harking back to the glory of a pastoral idyll with shepherds and shepherdesses frolicking with the lambs. A tad unrealistic.

OBNFMT - such a neat idea and long may the continue.

[icarusancalion.livejournal.com]

OBNFMT - such a neat idea and long may the continue.

Brought to you by Canadians everywhere. Though other nationalities may apply.

The qualifications are: a gentle, unassuming personality, the ability to say {{{hugs}}} without the least bit of irony, love for the particular story(ies) at risk, more interest in the feelings of the BNF than the actual behavior in question, an infinite well-spring of patience, an altruistic interest in the fandom at large, a moderate typing speed (35 WPM and above), and Powerpoint is nice but not required.

Icarus

[enname.livejournal.com]

I fear I don't really qualify for any of those points except for the typing speed. Willing am I to leave feedback for a story that I like, but anything else requires effort and niceness. However, perhaps this should be placed in career inserts the world over? Pasted as flyers to walls. Emailed throughout the space. It is after all a reasonably important task.

[lillian78.livejournal.com]

You know I must be the most oblivious creature since the dawn of time because these "BNF's" as people refer to them, to me anyway, are very mysterious, exotic creatures. Never sighted one myself. Or, perhaps I didn't know who they were at the time. I've seen a lot of wank about them though. Rather like trying to prove the existence of God. :-D

[icarusancalion.livejournal.com]

Oh, I can name BNFs right off the bat. Since some people find the term perjorative, I'll name some BNFs from late 2003 in the HP fandom (any kind of fame is rather fleeting): Telanu, Sushi, Cybele, Resonant, McTabby, Snaples, Cassandra Claire, Isis... um, who else? Midnight Blue, Amanuensis, Switchknife, Heidi, John (though he was drifting off at the time)... well, that should do.

They're the visible people, the ones who do things that people notice, like run archives or write very popular stories.

You know someone has hit BNF-visibility when people go ga-ga if the potential BNF, say, reviews their story or friends them out of the blue. It means more because it's them. I know because it's happened to me, both sides of the fence.

I went ga-ga when Telanu commented on Primer to the Dark Arts and told me she'd like it for her Harry/Snape "Walking The Plank" archive once it was done. That made my month. And I was called a BNF in HP from about late 2003 to mid-2004, possibly a little later. It started dispersing once I started writing an unpopular character, Percy, and not so much Harry/Snape. :)

Icarus

[slashophile.livejournal.com]

Percy is DAMN AWESOME. And anything with him makes my day excited.

[orca-girl.livejournal.com]

That once upon a time fandom was warm and welcoming, filled with love and roses... but no more. Newcomers have changed it.

*falls about laughing uncontrollably*

[icarusancalion.livejournal.com]

You know how many times I've heard that one?

Especially in the Lord of the Rings fandom. I suppose I shouldn't be surprised -- nostalgia plays a prominent role in the LotR.

Icarus

[orca-girl.livejournal.com]

This is true... but it's especially ironic in LOTR fandom, given how far back the book fandom of that goes, and it's silly for anyone to pretend that there weren't fannish wars back then that were just as internicine, if perhaps more *contained*, as anything on the internet.

(Now I can well imagine the book-LOTR fans complaining constantly about how the movie-LOTR fans have RUINED EVERYTHING because it was all so PURE and HIGH-MINDED before the movies came along and people came into the fandom who had not had to pass the acid test of being able to hack reading Tolkien's prose style... yes, yes, I can imagine that all too well. But to pretend that pre-movie LOTR fandom was all sweetness and light? Oh, please.)

I wish there were some easily-findable histories-of-fandom/s not dissimilar to the recent Msscribe history that got put out, although obviously they'd be *longer*. But it would really be fascinating, and I have a feeling that if someone hasn't done it or doesn't do it, the folks who have the memories and the documentation and all will steadily be lost. A pity, because as entertaining as the Msscribe thing was in a "looking at a trainwreck" fashion, so would be some of the early fandom histories, and sometimes they'd just be wacky and fun.

The closest I can think of to it -- besides the work of people like Jenkins and so on -- is that when I was very young, I went through a phase of reading all of the collected volumes of the Hugo Winners, and in those, for each year, there would be an introductory essay by someone about what was going on in sf fandom that year that led up to the Hugos, and you'd get anecdotes about Fred Pohl and L. Sprague de Camp muttering in the back of an elevator about bumping off Harlan Ellison -- good times, good times. Fandom when it was teeny and small. But oh lord, that hardly means the politics were any less vicious than they are now.

[dossier.livejournal.com]

Asimov's two volume autobiography has *loads* of stories of First Fandom, and there were some really viscious feuds that make LJ kerfuffles look like kitten fights.

[princessofg.livejournal.com]

as a relative newbie to All This, both the net, fanfic and slash, all this is totally fascinating to me, still yet.

and to think i labored under the delusion, for years, that a bnf was someone who was famous for being a terrific writer -- nothing more.

it's true that whatever faults there are are in ourselves and not in our stars (pun intended), but that doesn't mean the meta is any less fascinating.

what amazes me is how it seems apparent that we are doomed to bring all our authority and affiliative issues into the net fandom, a totally voluntary place with no actual rules at all. i mean, the thought police can't kill you and eat you for writing kid fic or HS au's or unpopular pairings, but some of us cower as if they could.

thanks for the perspective, and the fic. *tries on OBNFMT lapel pin* don't know if I can actually do this, as I am an Ugly American from that Imperialistic Country South of Canada......lol

[icarusancalion.livejournal.com]

as a relative newbie to All This, both the net, fanfic and slash, all this is totally fascinating to me, still yet.

I don't think it ever stops being fascinating, to tell the truth.

For some reason this reminds me of the time I tried waitressing back in the late 80s. I was a terrible waitress. I was a waitress so bad the regulars lined up at the bar, smirking, just to see what would happen. I never remembered anyone's order, had terrible hand-writing, and most of all didn't care.

So one day this guy ordered tea with a slice of lemon. I got him his tea, but there was no lemon. He got all upset because he didn't get his damned lemon and started making a big fuss. I put my hands on my hips (the regulars leaned over to watch because they knew this was going to be good) and told him:

"There're people starving in Africa, leprosy in India, the Chinese have taken over Tibet and are torturing Buddhist monks, but what you're upset about is the fact that you didn't get a slice of lemon?" I stomped over to get him a slice of lemon, which he huffily tried to say he didn't want anymore. "No. Here. I want you to have your lemon. I want you to be happy. But you have to understand that if you're going to get all upset about a slice of lemon, your priorities are all messed up."

He got even huffier and acid, and said something along the lines of 'well, what are you doing about world hunger, huh?' Which was really the wrong thing to say because, "I'm a Buddhist. I protest the occupation of Tibet on a regular basis -- not that it seems to be doing much good, though I think practice and prayer is more long-term solution -- I spend my entire life devoted to spiritual practice and I'm building a Buddhist temple -- except when I'm forced to be here to pay the bills. Serving you lemon. Now. Drink your tea."

He looked a little flabbergasted and whimpered, "But I just wanted some lemon...."

"Yes. You should have your lemon. You should be happy. But don't get all upset about it."

I think the other waitresses practically expired trying not to laugh. As I stomped off, I heard one of the regulars say "We warned you not to complain."

Apparently I was very entertaining for the three weeks before I was fired. And I suspect that the entertainment value was the main reason it took that long. ;)

Appropos of nothing of course, except that my mind apparently jumped tracks. ;)

the thought police can't kill you and eat you for writing kid fic or HS au's or unpopular pairings, but some of us cower as if they could.

It's funny, this post isn't really in reference to people discouraging pairings or certain fics, though I can see how it would seem that way because I've discussed that lately.

I had a friend storm off, blasting fandom, and I've seen that so many times. At the old LotR site there was someone who went by the name Red, and she would leave about once a year. Her departure I think was more embarrassing for her because she always came back. She was a big wheel, and there was always someone clinging to her leg as she left (I fell for it the first year).

After a while you realized it was really her issues, because the topics that she complained about changed, but her behavior repeated.

That said, going back to the topic of several days ago, people should be able to have the freedom to write whatever they will without attacks from the thought police.

I should point out that technically, in the Harry Potter fandom, there is a very legitimate concern about underage fic in Australia. The child pornography laws have been written in such a way that just owning Keri Hulme's The Bone People, which contains some scenes of child molestation (fade to black), could potentially get you arrested with a permanent record. I'm sure the framers of that law assumed that "real literature" couldn't possibly have child molestation. *eyeroll*

/long-winded, rambling response. My excuse is it's lazy, sleepy weather and I'm posting meta because I can't seem to concentrate to write.

Icarus

[princessofg.livejournal.com]

will you marry me?

rotfl. Thanks for the waitress story; there's so much there. it would be really fun to write that up as a short story, because i love the actual punch line: the guy should have his fucking lemon, fine, that's the rules and the whole point, but he SHOULDN"T get so excited about it. that's the part where he loses perspective.... i love how you don't minimize the fact that you, in fact, were a terrible waitress by the rules they had, yet the irony was that you became kind of a standup comedian.... that's a meta, right there. so thank you for that. it cheered me up immensely in a twisted monday morning kind of way. bless you for that.

buddhism daunts me for this reason (so if you can shed some light on it for me, have at it): i have a hard time making the leap from love of my kids, for example, to the kid of universal, unattached compassion that it seems to require. i don't know how that works; i can't grok it. it seems to me that my love for my kids or husband is inextricably linked with a kind of desire, you know? also i don't actually get how it helps you in a situation where achievement and ambition and persistence is actually necessary -- like in a high-pressure work situation. it would seem that just the setup, the rules, if you will, of American-style achievement are antithetical to Buddhism. you would have to throw out the system and start over to actually apply its vaules.

but i love what i know about meditation, the sense of humor it can give you, the egalitarian nature of it, the idea of attachment and nonattachment, which really resonated for me because of my use of 12-step principles about detachment. i've sample a lot of religious/spiritual ideas in a misspent life, so i love talking about it..... anyway. another digression, since we're not writing. :)

about the fandom thought police thing: well, i was throwing out examples of how bnf's can pressure writers and people in fandom to do things their way, and how we fall for that.

your example of the person huffing in and out of that lotr site is something i've seen before also. bnf's aren't always drama queens, and drama queens aren't always bnfs, and we all have our issues, don't we?

btw, i've been happily reading my way through your big stargate recs list. thank you for doing that. you've also got some stories and authors i haven't found on other lists, and that's really great. some of the older listings are inactive now, but you probably knew that. it's a moving target in fandom.

thanks again for making my monday all shiny.

[icarusancalion.livejournal.com]

i have a hard time making the leap from love of my kids, for example, to the kid of universal, unattached compassion that it seems to require. i don't know how that works

You don't make a leap. You make a promise to make a leap, and then you chip away at it.

For example, I could have empathy for starving people in Africa, but bugs? Yealch. So I worked on it for a while. I ran across one of those National Geographic nature shows on a bored Sunday afternoon and watched how, geeze, the life of a bug sucks. There's no maternal care, they're under constant threat of predators, and most of them die horribly (hitting a windshield, squashed under a tire, eaten alive -- augh).

Their lives are so devoid of anything good that they only have two modes: Fear/Not-Fear. Try to help a bug and watch it panic.

So I guess looking at things from a bug's point of view (walking a mile in a bug's mocassins?) helped me stop viewing at them as just ew-bugs, but see their circumstances. And then you find something or someone else that you just can't see having compassion for and work on that for a while.

i've been happily reading my way through your big stargate recs list. thank you for doing that. you've also got some stories and authors i haven't found on other lists, and that's really great. some of the older listings are inactive now, but you probably knew that.

You're welcome. I noticed the other day that Keiko Kirin's website is gone, so there goes another one. Sigh.

Icarus

[princessofg.livejournal.com]

also forgot to say: yeah, i had heard about that new australian law. something similar comes and goes in the US, though we did get a crucial supreme court ruling a few years ago about virtual porn, and the First Amendment is a pretty broad protection of speech that is not considered mainstream. they even defeated a "ban flag burning" amendment to the constitution this year; yeah. a ray of hope in a desolate landscape. don't get me started on USA politics, kay? :)

[lynnenne]

Here via metafandom. This post is utterly hilarious and right on the money. And I think I used to work next door to that office. :)

[icarusancalion.livejournal.com]

The place with the low murmuring voices all night and the bubble-machine out front?

Yep. That's the one.

They get complaints every now and again but they're such nice people that the neighbors quickly forget what the issue was. Plus, they have fresh-baked cookies.

Icarus

[dossier.livejournal.com]

Heh. I was a BNF in fandom before the internet, then graduated to SMOF (Secret Master of Fandom), then went off the radar completely. I've resurfaced as a slowly self-reforming lurker. :)

That heinous admission off my chest, I fear that the OBNFMT would fire me after a couple of weeks for yelling and telling them to get over themselves--you're a BNF--so what, big deal! LOL

But yeah. I can see the vested interest in people petting their BNFs, but I fear that some said BNFs merely accept it as their rightful dues. ack.

[icarusancalion.livejournal.com]

SMOF (Secret Master of Fandom)

Oooo. I thought you had to have a security clearance to know that the SMOF designation even exists.

but I fear that some said BNFs merely accept it as their rightful dues. ack.

Until the WIP/Fic-A-Thon/Archive is complete and/or no longer exists. Then, well, you've seen Grizabella the Glamour Cat, right?

Icarus

[ravenclaw-devi.livejournal.com]

You see, there's a central office located about four blocks north of Queen Street in Toronto, Ontario,* that is dedicated to BNF-management. The moment a BNF has a meltdown they get a call, "Oh, hell. How many WIPs are at risk? And a Fic-A-Thon assignment -- plus an archive? Shit. We'll get right on it."

I love you.

(in from metafandom, yada yada)

[icarusancalion.livejournal.com]

Heh. "Love" did you say? There may be a job opening in the OBNFMT for you. :D

Icarus

[fer-de-lance.livejournal.com]

Fandom is like a Rorschach test. It's a map of our own personal issues

...All of a sudden, I feel rather better about the way I always find out about major wanks and fandom scandals a week late. Perhaps I'm not a hopeless outsider, I'm just too mellow to let flak like that hit me?

[icarusancalion.livejournal.com]

It probably says really good things about you, frankly. Gossip tends to spread to the people hooked on gossip first.

I remember a situation where a group of nuns were mad at one of the nuns who spent all her time meditating and practicing, forgetting to do household chores.

I always saw them downstairs complaining about her, while she was upstairs meditating.

But I never once saw her downstairs complaining about them while they were upstairs meditating. In fact, I rarely saw the gossips meditating at all.

Icarus

[civilbloodshed.livejournal.com]

It takes a lot of self-honesty to negotiate fandom.

There's so much right with that I can't even begin to describe how it makes me feel, as well as the section precceding it.

And honestly, I know this doesn't directly relate to the recent controversy over Last Port of Call, but I think when people flip out over thing like characterization it's really just them putting too much of themselves into fandom.

[icarusancalion.livejournal.com]

I think people can't help but put a lot of themselves into fandom. The trick is to recognize it and not run around blaming this or that "online personage" or this or that story for something that's your own personal issue. What made the responses to Last Port Of Call so fascinating were the very personal reactions that had little to do with the story itself.

Someone for example said that "I can't imagine a woman [that can't relate to what's happening to Rodney] who hasn't be pushed into sex by a man." (paraphrased) There's a level of projection there that's blink-worthy.

- Rodney isn't a woman.
- There's an assumption that the author is a woman (correct in this case).
- Then there's the (incorrect) assumption that women don't push men into sex.
- Then there's the projection of a dominant-male/submissive-female paradigm onto a male/male relationship (which is not only inappropriate for m/m relationships, it's a paradigm I don't really buy).
- Then there's identification with (male) Rodney as a(female) self-insert.
- And then there's a glossing over of any responsibility Rodney might have for his own decisions/actions to visualize him as the (female) victim.
- This gloss then misses the subtlties of miscommunication within the relationship, and John and Rodney are recast in a good guy/bad guy dichotomy -- with John as the bad guy. A dichotomy that doesn't exist in the story.
- Then I'm accused of mischaracterizing John as a bad guy.

o.O It's hard to know even where to begin except, okay, someone's not reading the same story I wrote. But that happens. All you have to do is receive some fan-art to realize how differently people perceive a story.

To the more general topic at hand: A poli-sci honors student told me that the internet isn't really bringing people together all over the world, but instead bifurcating society. Because over the internet we can choose to only relate to those we find pleasing, so we don't learn tolerance or negotiation with people who are different. She may be right about that.

Icarus

[civilbloodshed.livejournal.com]

What made the responses to Last Port Of Call so fascinating were the very personal reactions that had little to do with the story itself.

That's actually quite disconcerting. I mean I realize you've gotta have some sort of connection to the characters or story to even be interested enough to continue reading, but that's a bit much.

The poli-sci student has a point, but I do think the internet brings people together, however, I've never held to the belief that they check their personality/beliefs/annoying habbits/psychological disorders at the door. Couple this with John Gabriel's Greater Internet Fuckwad Theory (http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2004/03/19), and you've got yourself "Lulz Intranets".

[harveywallbang.livejournal.com]

*sheepishly* what's a bnf..?

[icarusancalion.livejournal.com]

Ha. I had to ask that question once upon a time. I played it off for at least six months, hoping I could get it from context, but no can do.

BNF stands for Big Name Fan. The reason it's difficult to ascertain from context is because different people mean different things when they say BNF.

Some use the old definition of BNF (from the pre-internet days) which usually meant an author or someone active who "ran things" at the SFF conventions, promoting the genre. They were the people you had to know in order to get things done, the ones everyone had heard of (such as, say, Asimov).

The internet version is someone who, in a similar way, is a "name" in a particular internet community. Usually they're authors, though they can be artists or write meta, often they run archives -- you see the similarity. The question is really, how big and how well known does one have to be to be seriously considered a BNF? In truth, that depends on the fandom.

I say the sign of being a BNF is when the trolls and BNF watchers start showing up. The first clue I had that anyone in Harry Potter considered me a BNF was when I listed in a BNF Deathmatch (I was startled, then amused). Another sign is when you do something simple like review someone's story and they reply "OMFG It's YOU!" and spin in small happy circles while you wish you'd left something more than a one-liner review. *cough* Or you find you've coined a catch-phrase that gets used by people you've never heard of.

Basically, it mean you've hit critical mass in marketing. You no longer have to go out and seek readers. They instead come to you.

You can use your "powers" (har) for good or evil. You can be like switchknife and use it to promote other people's stories, or like heidi8 and start an immense archive for the benefit of fandom, or you can be petty and childish and enjoy influencing people to hate those whom you don't like. I fear in my brief brush with BNF-ness I've done both. (People stopped going "OMG, it's Icarus!" somewhere in mid 2004. :) Or, actually there's a third option: you can ignore it and just keep writing stories.

Because of the potential for "evil" *snerk* and because when you "run things" you attract a lot of problems, BNF-ness has also become associated with a kind of bulletproof egotism that hits most people who have a brush with fame. It helps the BNF to remember that the "buttering up" is largely because people want something from you.

Icarus

[harveywallbang.livejournal.com]

it's funny, cause that was my exact reaction when you first responded to one of my comments on here... i was all "OMG ICARUS *falls down and worships*". but don't worry, i see you as human now. reading about you here is just nice, cause it's a dose of someone else's reality and whatnot. :) and reading all your little workshop-type thingies, have broadened my mind and helped me improve as a writer. i prolly already told you, but when i read "primer to the dark arts", and it opened up my love for snape/harry... my mind just was flooded with all the hundreds of different types of people and situations out there... if it wasn't for fanfic, i wouldn't be such a tolerant and accepting person.
heh. so, thanks for opening that door for me.