today online contact is of course one billion times more familiar, more common, less somehow magical. Nothing wrong with that, but it's very hard now to think of ways to communicate just how SPECIAL it felt back in the late 90s and early aughts.
I think it's not just that people are more used to online discussion (although that's obviously a big part of it); it's that people don't consider fandom a separate thing anymore. I used to have work, and home (errands, meals, cleaning, family and non-fannish friends), and fandom, which was a separate, special place where I wasn't thinking about bills or the project I had due at work the next week.
And every conversation was that focused; people didn't add extraneous things to their posts -- not personal things, not thoughts on other fandoms, nothing, just the topic at hand. You could really immerse yourself in fannishness. That's what I miss, as much as anything.
There was just nothing like being able to click on an email folder and get all the Sentinel discussion, and nothing but Sentinel discussion, with no other distractions.
You made our own Wayback Machine.
Hee! Nah, that's Fanlore, but I'm really glad to have done the posts and contributed! This has been a blast, not just writing them but reading everyone's comments. <3
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today online contact is of course one billion times more familiar, more common, less somehow magical. Nothing wrong with that, but it's very hard now to think of ways to communicate just how SPECIAL it felt back in the late 90s and early aughts.
I think it's not just that people are more used to online discussion (although that's obviously a big part of it); it's that people don't consider fandom a separate thing anymore. I used to have work, and home (errands, meals, cleaning, family and non-fannish friends), and fandom, which was a separate, special place where I wasn't thinking about bills or the project I had due at work the next week.
And every conversation was that focused; people didn't add extraneous things to their posts -- not personal things, not thoughts on other fandoms, nothing, just the topic at hand. You could really immerse yourself in fannishness. That's what I miss, as much as anything.
There was just nothing like being able to click on an email folder and get all the Sentinel discussion, and nothing but Sentinel discussion, with no other distractions.
You made our own Wayback Machine.
Hee! Nah, that's Fanlore, but I'm really glad to have done the posts and contributed! This has been a blast, not just writing them but reading everyone's comments. <3