silveradept | Snowflake Challenge 02026 #13: Community (Reply)

snowflake_challenge wants us to think about the places where we have come together in shared pursuit of our fandoms, or the same fandom, or many other ways of joining us together and showing us that we are not alone in our pursuits.

Challenge #13

TALK ABOUT A COMMUNITY SPACE YOU LIKE. It doesn’t need to be your favorite, or the one where you spend the most time (although it certainly can be). Maybe it’s even one that you’ve barely visited. But talk about that space and how it helps support fannish community.

I have been to several iterations of gatherings of fans at conventions, as well as gatherings of professionals at convention, and while I tend to go for the panels (mostly because I can do many of the other things offered at convention, like playing video games, at home and at different times), the thing that I've been missing about the convention experience, mostly because I'm going by myself without a group, is the debrief at the end of the day, when everyone lands back in the hotel room and talks about the cool things that they did and saw that day. When I was with the anime group, that was the idea, although there was also the part where the convention itself theoretically ran very late into the night, with the fandubs, and the video rooms, and the very, very adult content that would come out to play after the curfew was enacted for the under-18s. That particular convention is where I got introduced to Rejected, and Forklift Driver Klaus, and Jamiroquai, because that riff will always and forever be associated with Evangelion Re:Death. The absolute best after-dark panel I attended at that convention was one about the history of Sentai shows. Why was it in the after-dark segment? Well, it turns out that Sentai hentai exists, and while nothing was shown but the fighting segment of one, the acknowledgement of such things was enough to require age-gating. As any person who grew up in the age of the Internet, Rule 34 exists, and in the video showing rooms at the after-dark department, there was definitely all kinds of anatomical possibilities and impossibilities going on. (Also, this was the kind of place that very much made fun of the unwashed masses, with at least an unofficial slogan of "Got Soap?" Because a 24-hour convention sometimes needs to make sure the room airs out, the video changes, and the people who are there take basic care of themselves.)

The beds did get used for sleep, the bathrooms for bathing, and a good time was had by all, especially when there were room parties with drinks, hot dogs, and other such things, or a con suite with snacks and soda to relax in. (Many of those things would no longer be present in later trips, because conventions are still expensive and living on snacks and soda from the suite is also a bad idea for those who are going.)

Nowadays, I bounce between two conventions. The first one is really much more of an industry showcase, which is good for me to get professional things, see upcoming projects, do panels with creators, and occasionally showcase my lack-of-rhythm by playing some of the imported music games. (I did get a SS-trio in Theatrhythm on moderate difficulty, just in time last year, and one SSS on a easy difficulty song on a different game, so I'm not completely uncoordinated, but neither will I be showcasing high-level play on any of the other games that are there.) It's…fine. Giant dealer hall, giant artist alley, more than enough panels (and good ones) and several big draws that show up. If I weren't paying the professional rate (because it's a big enough convention that it can offer discounted passes to industry people, and librarians are considered sufficiently industry people that they want to entice us into going), I wouldn't be going to this one, because I wouldn't get enough enjoyment out of it for the extortion-level prices being asked for the full many days experience. Many of the things that happen while I'm there are great, and I love them, especially when I get to do things with other fans there, or ask questions of the bigwigs that attend, but maybe I'm frugal, maybe I'm jaded, maybe something else, but for the price I pay for it, I think I get the right amount of enjoyment and fun for it, as well as a significant amount of information about upcoming things, and occasionally I participate in various panels or try to support my librarian friends who are working at the convention as panelists (and often don't get the opportunity to do the rest of the convention because they're still working.)

The second yearly convention is the one that I like much better, because it's not nearly as much of an industry show, and is instead arranged around the theme of celebrating women in various professions and fannish capacities. The panels are higher-quality and more fannishly-inclined, there's not necessarily as much space that has to be covered to experience everything, there's a hands-on science zone in it, and up until last year, it was also a masks-required convention. (They changed that, I suspect, because people were threatening to take their money and go if they didn't, or were declaring they wouldn't attend anywhere that had such woke nonsense as part of their platform, and they need to make their costs to put on the convention.) They still did a good job with it, and I still intend on attending every year, because I like the concept and want it to continue. I learn a lot more at these panels and network better at this convention than I do at the bigger one, because of the size, but also because they do things like try to explain the food web of the Gen 1 Pokemon, or give up updates on research regarding the ways that AO3 and FF.net provide feedback and mentorship toward making people's text choices more complex and diverse in their stories over time. It's neat research, and I wouldn't be able to get it anywhere else, because this is the kind of stuff that you show off to fanfic writers, fanartists, and others who are already deeply embedded in the fan community. I know it's probably not the same as the early convention experiences for those who went to the early conventions, but it's the closest thing I have to the experiences that I'm looking for when I get together with other fans: not just for squeeing about specific things, but to also explore some of the stuff that's interesting and very niche because it's really only of interest to people who are in the fandom.

That's the thing that I like the most about communities, either ones that I'm part of, like much of convention and convention meetups and panels, or ones that have appeared around something that I'm doing, like putting in journal entries, or doing book club, or posting fic to AO3. The enthusiasm is great, but I like it when people start talking about the reasons why they're enthusiastic, or they offer primers on cultures that influenced the media we consume, or do a deep dive on the American Girl dolls and their associated books to show us just how much apologia they did for certain parts of history and how much they didn't show the horrors of things because they were marketing dolls to young girls. When people talk about tropes and motifs and draw connections that seem like they're part conspiracy board and part well-researched and cited essay. It may never turn into actual fanworks, but sometimes the fun in community is figuring out the mystery, or trying to justify, inside the bounds of the story, why something unexpected happened, or to find flex points where something seems to be going in one direction, but won't end up there because of a necessary twist that's been planned out. That doesn't have to happen in strictly fannish spaces, but it seems like it restricts to fannish spaces because most people don't like being made fun of for having these kinds of interests, compared to the other interests that are apparently "normal," like sportsball. Give me a good discussion that I can follow, even if it's not one that I'm going to contribute to, and I will be pretty happy with the gathering.

So here's to all of you, the community, and the fact that you make spaces so that you can talk about tropes, blorbos, motifs, themes, choices in direction, in acting, in screenwriting, and for your tireless advocacy for more rep, better rep, and a bigger diversity of stories being told so that fans can see themselves in the things they read, view, and listen to. And, of course, for being the kind of people who want to bring others into the world of fandom, preferably so we can all benefit from having another person along for the ride.