The topic's maybe a little too deep for me to feel like I can comment on it, though you wrote the article in a way that I could at least follow it. I do think it's important to examine these changes in online social trends over time, as we (or later generations of users) will eventually be discussing internet history the same way humans discuss, um . . . other history.

Your discussion on shorter pieces of fan discussion being treated with equal dignity to larger works actually reminds me of one of the themes of Fahrenheit 451: that one of the factors that led to that setting's disillusionment with literature was the loss of free time, which led to less introspection, and less time to consume larger sources of media.

"'Classics cut to fit fifteen-minute radio shows, then cut again to fill a two-minute book column, winding up at last as a ten- or twelve-line dictionary resume.'"

Pretty scary to think that fandom is starting to follow that trend in real life. I hope the trend reverses eventually, and fandom overall migrates back to the LiveJournal/Dreamwidth style of stage.

—doctorlit

With "transformative works" replacing "fanfic," and "discussion" replacing "wank," have fanfic writers started to take themselves more seriously?

Unfortunately I wasn't around when you posted the survey, but I'm glad I got to read this all the same. It actually helped me make sense of some things I've been wondering about in fandom culture. As someone who entered fandom in 2009, before most of this new wave had set in, but was too young (in actual years and fandom terms) to really get it, it offered some sense to a confusing and at times contradictory perspective.

So, as I said before, a very interesting read! Thanks for sharing!

Your findings absolutely reflect my subjective experience as an older/longer-term participant in fandom.

I find it very interesting that you seem to say that while discussions on newer platforms like Tumblr occur "at a more rapid pace with less control over the thread of conversation" and are more easily radicalized, they're being treated with "a more academic, professional lexicon" that "lends gravitas and credence to the arguments being expounded."

This puts a finger squarely on what bugs me about this shift. The conversation about fandom has become shorter, faster, less thought-through and lovingly (if self-aggrandizingly) developed, and yet treated more seriously? That seems backwards! Co-opting these serious academic terms in this way at once over-inflates the importance of one's opinions of fanstuff and dilutes their usefulness for people who do want to have a thoughtful discourse or need to express that they have a psychological trigger.

Too much like srs bsns.

~Neshomeh has to leave now, might have more to say later.

And this is a really fascinating read! /goes to spread it around.

http://journal.transformativeworks.org/index.php/twc/article/view/1276/1724”>here is a prettier one but the link is the same so ¯_(ツ)_/¯