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Anon culture in fandom

  • Jul. 18th, 2010 at 4:13 PM
crypto: Amy Pond (Default)
So I'm working on my next post for the Symposium blog and I'd like to write about anonymity in fandom. But I need your help!

I've been following the latest anon meme that sprung out of the ViVidCon debates (is there some kind of Fight Club thing where you're not supposed to link to it? or actually name it? I'm going to err on the side of caution here, but let me know if there are standard anon meme rules or norms I should be observing), and it's been pretty fascinating to see the different dynamics of how discussions play out there vs. on LJ/DW. I've checked out a few other anon memes in the past, but this is the longest I've ever followed one. Yet I haven't left any comments on the meme, so I can't claim to be a participant-observer -- there's something about posting anon that just weirds me out (personally, not when other people do it). I'm not sure what it is, but I definitely got weirded out the couple of times in the past that I posted on anon love memes where you tell people on the flist how awesome they are. Which, hey, people on my flist are awesome, and deserve to hear that! So I don't know what my mental block here is.

So I'd love to hear from any of you about the pleasures (and perils!) of posting anon, or participating in anon memes. I'm also thinking of saying something about kink memes, which are the other major place that I'm aware of that carve out a pro-anon space in fandom, and seem to be on the rise over the last couple of years. But I know even less about kink meme culture than anon memes! So any observations, insights, experiences you'd like to share about kink memes & anonymity would be welcome.

And I think I need a third thing, right? I figured I'd at least reference the WoW/Blizzard Real ID controversy, but it would be nice to have a third instance of anon culture in LJ/DW-based media fandom, if anyone has suggestions.

Anon posting for comments is on, naturally (ETA: and IP logging is off). Thanks in advance!

ETA 2: I've fallen way behind on responding to comments, but I'm reading them all & appreciate all the perspectives & experiences & context that everyone's offering.

ETA 3: The first part of my Symposium blog post on anon memes is now up.

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Comments

crypto: Amy Pond (Default)
[personal profile] crypto wrote:
Jul. 18th, 2010 10:14 pm (UTC)
Yeah, it's taken me a while to get the hang of semi-efficiently reading anon memes, and that's without tracking individual comment threads. I'm guessing that it's not hugely rewarding over a long period of time to remain a lurker rather than a participant. The new meme is the only one I've checked out where I've actually heard of most of the people whose names come up.

I hadn't heard about the DW suggestion for anon comm posts! I wonder how people might use that option if DW implements it.
ratcreature: RatCreature wears many socks, fashioned as puppets: Not a sockpuppet, really. (sockpuppet)
[personal profile] ratcreature wrote:
Jul. 18th, 2010 10:19 pm (UTC)
The suggestion with a poll about it and discussion is here:
http://dw-suggestions.dreamwidth.org/379681.html
Most how responded were in favor.
crypto: Amy Pond (Default)
[personal profile] crypto wrote:
Jul. 18th, 2010 10:21 pm (UTC)
Thanks for the link!
(Anonymous) wrote:
Jul. 19th, 2010 12:43 am (UTC)
I mostly lurk at lol_meme because I don't have much to say. I do find it interesting to be a lurker there. People have very lengthy non-fandomy discussions. Part of why I'm not very interested in the failfandomanon thing is it's very fandom-discussion dominated, and I'd really rather have long anonymous conversations about other things.
crypto: Amy Pond (Default)
[personal profile] crypto wrote:
Jul. 19th, 2010 01:07 am (UTC)
Yeah, the non-fandom conversations are often the best part of these memes. I'm a lurker by nature, but it's easy to see the appeal.
doire: (Default)
[personal profile] doire wrote:
Jul. 25th, 2010 06:13 pm (UTC)
Purely practically you can append ?view=flat to see the latest comments and then use parent or thread to follow anything interesting.

And on the subject of anonymous memes: there don't seem to be so many dogpiles on unpopular thoughts. Perhaps there isn't the need to demonstrate that you, too, abhor this idea.

Here, on a strange computer, and might not have logged in properly, via meta fandom