Fan/Fic Magazine wrote about how AO3 revolutionized fandom by looking at the events that led to the founding of the OTW. “A brief snapshot of fandom in early 2007: The first Naruto series had wrapped, and Naruto Shippuden had just started airing. Supernatural was wrapping up its second season with a shocking finale in “All Hell Breaks Loose.” Kingdom Hearts II and Final Fantasy XII came out only the year before, and Final Fantasy 7 fandom was back with a vengeance with the release of Advent Children. The world waited breathlessly for the release of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. And fandom on LiveJournal was on fire.”
Den of Geek looked back at development of X-Files fandom. “There was more online buzz before the commercial aspects of The X-Files had caught up, which allowed for a freer flow of media content. ‘Best of all, unlike most ‘fan magazines’ with their carefully controlled content, it was a free-for-all discussion, where the most outrageous and insightful and sometimes brutally honest discussions about UFOs, the government, conspiracies, Mulder’s hair, and Scully’s wardrobe could take place without interference.'” Although the article mentioned various fan sites it failed to mention Gossamer, the landmark fanfiction repository.
A number of outlets wrote about an Australian documentary on boyband fans. “Leski has met fangirls in the US and Australia that own their passion and use it to create material of their own. ‘It was the first time I’d seen fan art and fan fiction, and it was a much bigger world that I realised,’ says Leski. Fangirls can form accepting and inclusive online communities…Adolescence is when girls experience a drop in self-esteem and depression rates go up. Fangirls are empowered by their fandom, make deep connections with each other and have an outlet for personal expression. Educators and psychologists Leski interviewed believe that validating fandom, rather than dismissing it as trivial and temporary, is important. It can set girls up with the self-esteem, passion and skills they will find useful as adults.”
The Bangalore Mirror featured a look at fan behaviors. “In 2008, Shira Gabriel, a psychologist at the University at Buffalo, conducted a series of three studies on celebrity worship to measure its impact upon the self-esteem of 348 college students…Students who initially scored lowest on the self-esteem scale scored much higher on the second test (after they wrote about their best-loved celebrities). Gabriel was quoted: ‘Because people form bonds in their mind with their favourite celebrities, they are able to assimilate the celebrity’s characteristics in themselves and feel better about themselves when they think about that celebrity.'”
What have been landmark events in your fandom’s history? Write about them in Fanlore! Contributions are welcome from all fans.
We want your suggestions! If you know of an essay, video, article, podcast, or link you think we should know about, comment on the most recent OTW Fannews post. Links are welcome in all languages! Submitting a link doesn’t guarantee that it will be included in a Fannews post, and inclusion of a link doesn’t mean that it is endorsed by the OTW.