On the necessity of zines, the problem that I keep running into is that when things are only published online, you better grab them and save them in either electronic or printed format because you never know when they are going to a) move or b) disappear completely.
That's an interesting point. I think that those of us who've only ever known fandom and the internet quite easily forget how transient some of it is. I know on the Stargate forum I help run, we had a discussion about what were the first stories in that fandom and most of them were still around, but not all. But then I also remember the problems that arose when an archive like Master Apprentice started putting stuff on disc and there were issues with that, so nothing's ever straight forward, is it? ;)
I would agree that quality is declining on many of the zines. I do see a reason for that though. The competition being from the net means that it is fast and frequent. Zine publishers have to get there stuff out quickly in order to make enough sales to make it worthwhile and oftentimes I think that means that corners get cut.
I think this is particularly an issue if publishers are trying to keep up with whatever is the New Shiny of the moment. It doesn't seem to be as much of an issue in some of the older fandoms, from where I'm sitting.
On the theoretical side, I'd also point out that the nature of fans seems to be changing.
Fans are changing, fandom is changing. Fandoms go through their lifecycle much quicker now, I think, because of the nature of the internet. Also, many fandoms are much less US-dominated, which can itself lead to issues that haven't been so common before.
You don't see as much loyalty to fandoms that you used to see. You might see people still reading or writing in an older fandom, but there is more of a moving with a new fandom and keeping only a passing fondness for the old one.
There certainly do seem to be fans who are more than prone to attacks of the new shiny. Somehow I doubt that many of the new shiny fandoms will last much past whenever their respective shows get cancelled, as everything does eventually, with the fans wandering off to something else. I've always been fascinated by the comparison between this and the old school fandoms - as an UNCLE fan, I'm so pleased to see a good mix of people who've been in the fandom for decades alongside the newbies.
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carisma_sensei
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Date: 2005-08-12 10:08 pm (UTC)That's an interesting point. I think that those of us who've only ever known fandom and the internet quite easily forget how transient some of it is. I know on the Stargate forum I help run, we had a discussion about what were the first stories in that fandom and most of them were still around, but not all. But then I also remember the problems that arose when an archive like Master Apprentice started putting stuff on disc and there were issues with that, so nothing's ever straight forward, is it? ;)
I would agree that quality is declining on many of the zines. I do see a reason for that though. The competition being from the net means that it is fast and frequent. Zine publishers have to get there stuff out quickly in order to make enough sales to make it worthwhile and oftentimes I think that means that corners get cut.
I think this is particularly an issue if publishers are trying to keep up with whatever is the New Shiny of the moment. It doesn't seem to be as much of an issue in some of the older fandoms, from where I'm sitting.
On the theoretical side, I'd also point out that the nature of fans seems to be changing.
Fans are changing, fandom is changing. Fandoms go through their lifecycle much quicker now, I think, because of the nature of the internet. Also, many fandoms are much less US-dominated, which can itself lead to issues that haven't been so common before.
You don't see as much loyalty to fandoms that you used to see. You might see people still reading or writing in an older fandom, but there is more of a moving with a new fandom and keeping only a passing fondness for the old one.
There certainly do seem to be fans who are more than prone to attacks of the new shiny. Somehow I doubt that many of the new shiny fandoms will last much past whenever their respective shows get cancelled, as everything does eventually, with the fans wandering off to something else. I've always been fascinated by the comparison between this and the old school fandoms - as an UNCLE fan, I'm so pleased to see a good mix of people who've been in the fandom for decades alongside the newbies.
Thanks for your input! :)