I Miss The Social Aspect of Making Fanworks

I've seen a lot of ongoing conversations recently about the commercialization of fanfiction and thought I don't really agree with a lot of what people think, I do think that modern fanfic audiences now view fanfics as a commodity more than ever before, which is interesting because fanfics used to cost money! Before the inception of websites dedicated to hosting fics, they were shared with other fans via zines that people would pay for and then have shipped to them (fanvids used to work the same way!)

Fan zines do still exist, though more professional-magazine looking and more expensive these days, but I think most people would agree that modern fanfic is viewed as something that is free and easily accessible. A lot of people even hold the opinion that it's morally wrong to charge money for access to fanfic. (I disagree. It's debatably illegal, and it's definitely against AO3's terms of service, but it's not morally wrong.)

So, why do so many people view fanfic as a commodity? Why do I hear whispers of the "most popular fics" in each fandom? Why are specific fanfictions garnering mass audiences of people who worship them as the "best fanfics ever"? And is this a new fandom phenomenon?

Short answer: No. It's not a new phenomenon.

Long answer: ...Kinda? There have definitely always been popular fanfics in fandoms (Milk fic, hat fic, My Immortal... so on and so forth.) but those became popular before the inception of social media algorithms, meaning they would only stay popular amongst certain circles, and only be known to people within those fandoms who actively talked about them.

Algorithms undeniably gave fandoms and fanworks a much further reach, allowing audiences to grow larger and larger with the bare minimum of effort. A lot of fan creators don't even use hashtags anymore, accepting that the algorithm will show their posts to anyone with related interests automatically, without the need of tags for fans to categorically peruse.

But with those larger audiences, with that exponential algorithm-fueled growth, there's a distinct lack of actual community. Fan creators are hoisted upon pedestals, they become faceless deities who exist solely to churn out the next chapter of a fanfic with thousands of followers.

I don't necessarily think that having an active audience is a bad thing, I just think it's a distinctly different thing from having a community. A community is a place where people can engage in discussion, where they can bounce ideas off of one another, where they can collaborate on works. An audience contributes none of those aspects, they simply look towards the fan creator with the expectation of content.

So what did fandom have 15 years ago that we don't have now? Community. People don't do communal fanfic drives, people don't make podfics for one another, people don't contribute translations of fics, hell, even kink memes/events have become more about individuals and less about contributing to a collection.

I don't mean to sound like I'm waxing poetic about the "good ole days," actually. I understand that a lot of fic communities were extremely toxic and awful. But comparatively, modern fandoms are ALSO extremely toxic and awful. I see nonstop call-out posts over dumb petty shit, just like they used to do on Livejournal. That's why I think it's kind of sad that we've got just as much toxicity, but are receiving less of the benefits of having a community!

During the generative AI debacle that happened recently, a lot of people were pointing out how the deification of fic authors is what's contributing to why certain people are AI-generating fanfics, and how those people want to post fanfiction because they want to be popular and they want to have fans, not because they want to be a part of a community of like-minded fans.

Posts frequently go viral, where fandomgoers lament about "not being artistic" and "not contributing" to the fandom because they don't draw or write, and it frustrates me a little, honestly! I get what they mean, but there's ways to contribute without being a writer or artist! You can make podfics, you can translate works, hell even just commenting on works and talking to creators personally does a lot more to foster community than refusing to participate at all because you're scared of being judged.

I don't really have an ending to this post. I know a lot of y'all are older than me, so if you have any older fandom things that I forgot to mention, feel free to comment about them. I just believe that everybody (including me! this is introspection! I want to do better!) should be a little more social and a little less parasocial about other fandomgoers and fan creators :)