(no subject)

The whole HP thing is beginning to make me rather angry, and very glad that I've pulled right back from the HP fandom.

Matt asked me last night why BNFs were such a 'big thing'. I explained to him that in HP fandom, at the time, the BNFs could really make a difference - if one of them mentioned your fic, you would get reviews. If your fics met the 'requirements' for their websites, then you were set.

I can't tell you how many times I had fic sent back from a certain website because someone had told me I'd put an apostrophe in the wrong place (although lizbee and I scraped through the fic looking for this 'mistake'). Meanwhile there was a lot of crap all over that particular site.

And don't get me started on the laptop thing.

A certain BNF has apologised, and most of the comments are 'oh you poor thing'. Bull! This person has spent two days saying she has evidence that it's all wrong, but she's too busy to deal with it. She might not have known the extent of what was going on, but she must have known something wasn't right.

I'm not going to rant anymore. But I'm angry that this happened in a fandom that I was involved in. I'm angry that it did make a difference to the little people like me ,who were never welcomed into the fandom because of the cult of celebrity.

On BNFs

It's a long walk from my house to the local cinemas, and I did a bit of thinking along the way. When I came home, someone asked why this happened particularly in the Harry Potter fandom. I'm sure that my thoughts won't be able to answer that question fully - but they might have some sort of insight.

I believe that the way BNF's were formed in the Harry Potter fandom directly allowed msscribe to intially act in the absolutely disgusting way she did.

I came to this conclusion when thinking about my experiences in other fandoms. I began in online fandom in a non-writing community called the Bronze. Basically, it was the offical Buffy board, which was populated by fans and (from time to time) the people who worked on the show (including Joss) - known as VIPs. I was usually on at the same time as other Australian fans, so we were pretty friendly, and I can't recall there being any huge fans there. But there were BNF's in the community besides the 'VIPs'. I didn't have a lot to do with them because of the time difference, but if you said something to them, they were friendly and replied. And although there was the 'official' Bronzer's party, there was no concern when I organised a small gathering for Brisbane Bronzers.

After this, I moved on the West Wing where I did write fic. Again, I was a newbie, but there were plenty of people offering to help me. I had offers of betas, great constructive critisism (which I really needed), and my work was even recced. Some of this attention came from other fans like me - but there were also plenty of bigger names who were willing to help me. I remember emailing two of the biggest names with some trepidation, and they were completely helpful and wonderful.

From what I can see in Harry Potter fandom the core group of BNFs (circa 2003) came from one place - the HPfGU list. These people, especially when Cassie Clare was really popular, built a wall around themselves discouraging ordinary fans from trying to knock. They seemed to consider themselves to be the real 'fans' - therefore they set the rules. You wanted to have your fic on their websites? Then meet the rules. (otherwise it's ff.net for you!) You wanted to participate in their conversation? Then jump through this hoop, and that one over there.

This attitude was unfriendly and extremely discouraging to new comers (when I say newcomer - I came to HP fan fiction late 2002. I'd be reading the books for a longer time). Furthermore, these people were disparaging of anything they weren't in control of (see the recent Heidiwank for more evidence). Therefore, for most newcomers there were three options - 1) slink around on the outskirts, 2) leave hp fandom or 3) suck up and suck up and suck up and hope that one day a few crumbs are thrown your way.

Of course, Msscribe doesn't sound like any regular newcomer. She wanted into the inner circle quickly - and deceit was really the only way she could get it. The way BNFs were structured in HP had made it so easy for her.

I have other, less complete thoughts on BNFs who help fandom and BNFs who don't.