Regarding Star Trek wank...

[zinnith]

I do not follow it, I do not go looking for it. I just read fandom_wank when bored at work.

So, can someone explain how this goes? This is what I have found out:
- Having seen TOS prior to the reboot makes me better than those who haven't.
- However, since I had to watch the reruns (due to not actually being born in the sixties) I'm a n00b trekkie and should shut my mouth.
- Equal liking for TOS and the reboot puts me somewhere in between those who prefer TOS (apparently WIN) and those who prefer the movie (apparently FAIL).
- Writing fic for the reboot is inferior to writing fic for TOS.
- Fangirls are terrible creatures and should DIAF.

Umm... am I a bad person for actually preferring reboot fandom? 'Cause I didn't encounter wank until I started wondering where all the cool old-school trekkies were hanging out. And boy do they have grudges!

Comments

[zinfic.livejournal.com]

A reboot of SGA, you say? Perish the thought! We must smite them at once! ;) Well, jokes aside, I do get where they're coming from. I've promised myself to give SGU a fair chance, but I doubt I'll love it like I love Atlantis. And it was probably the same fans the hardcore SG-1 fans when SGA was launched (once again I'm a little too young to have been one of them - SG-1 was fun but I only managed to catch and ep here and there, I never got into it like I did with SGA).

What annoys me is this tendency to divide people into 'good' and 'bad' fans, and that being an old-school trekkie somehow makes you better than the new fans. I mean, if the movie makes at least one teenager, who got into ST fandom through the cool and the pretty, discover and fall in love with TOS, shouldn't that be a good thing? No, instead there's all this complaining about how they're not real fans, because they weren't there from the beginning. To go back to the Stargate parallel, even if I turn out to hate SGU, I certainly won't see myself as a better fan than those who like it - it just makes me a fan with different priorities. (Okay, maybe I'll judge them a little, but very quietly...) Some of the old-schoolers makes me feel like a Star Trek baby and I've been a fan for fourteen years - I don't even want to know what they'll do to the fans who are only now discovering the awesomeness of TOS.

I get that a lot of new!Trekkies are in it for the pretty, and well, fangirls can be a little bit scary and, especially the younger ones. Also, from what I've gathered, a lot of the wankers seem to be guys who run around flailing and screaming 'Help, there are teenage girls in our fandom! What will happen to our manly manliness?!' I just live in the beautiful illusion that fans of the same franchise should be able to get along. *single tear of emo-ness*

And now I will shut up before I raise my blood pressure ;) I must say though, that reboot fandom has turned out to be one of the nicest and most accepting new fandoms I've ever encountered. I expected a lot of glares for shipping Kirk/McCoy instead of Kirk/Spock, and instead I was welcomed with open arms. Or maybe I just picked the right comms and there's tons of wank going on somewhere else...

I read fandom_wank and fandomsecrets mostly for the lols :D

[sgamadison.livejournal.com]

OMG, what a concept--a welcoming fandom! I might have to go check that out myself! :-)

Okay, wait, that sounded snarky. I guess what I should have said is that I've found most fandoms to be very welcoming, except that I've always been part of the majority, so it always took me by surprise whenever I encountered the less-than-welcoming-because-you-follow-the-wrong-concepts mentality.

Oh dear, the fangirls threaten the manliness of the old time fans. I think I need to lay my head down and laugh quietly now.

[zinfic.livejournal.com]

Heh, personally I found SGA fandom very intimidating at first... I lurked for a year before I had the guts to post fic (which probably says more about me as a person than about the fandom...) and Supernatural still scares me.

It was absolutely not my intention to diss classic Trek fandom as a whole - there are just (aren't there always?) certain fans who can't seem to behave like human beings.

[sgamadison.livejournal.com]

No, no, I knew that. I was just pointing out that there was at least one old geezer that *adored* the reboot and I really have been a ST fan from waaaaaaay back.

[zinfic.livejournal.com]

Oh, I know you do, 'cause you're awesome that way! *squishes*

[sgamadison.livejournal.com]

*grin*