Poll: Distraction Is Good

[thefourthvine]

I'm kind of - not too bright sometimes. For example, when I grabbed an oven rack to move it around without, um, checking to see if it was hot? That was a "not so bright" moment in my life, right there.

Also, ow.

So I want distraction, with a minimum of typing involved. It's time for a poll! With, ideally, lots of comments! Come on, people - please. Distract me.

(I do actually have a place I'm going with this, by the way - except for the last question, which is there solely because LJ is crazed tonight. I'm trying to find out what fans do and how they do it. Assuming the ice does its job, I'll have a meta post on this sometime in the distant, murky future. Probably.)

[Poll #830222]

Comments

[wikdsushi.livejournal.com]

Just to note, I picked 20 as years in fandom because my first fandom was Danger Mouse, WAAAAAAAAAAYYYYY back in the day. Though, technically, I've been fannish since I was a wee thing. One of the first unfinished stories I ever wrote was a sequel to The Last Unicorn. I think my parents were a little unnerved when I spelled "Schmendrick" correctly at the age of four without actually having read the book.

Ahh, I remember that story. The opening line was:

"The Red Bull is back!" cried Schmendrick.

And thus began my foray into the world of fanfic.

[thefourthvine.livejournal.com]

*nods*

Oh, I can so relate. My own first fanfic, I just recently realized, was for the Little House on the Prairie books. I wrote, um, Laura's diary. And thus began my long-standing fascination with stories told through documentation.

I can't be surprised I turned out this way, since apparently I was this way all along.

[brownbetty]

Wheat is indeed fluffy and tempting. Are you familiar with puffed wheat squares? Celiac Death in Cubic form.

[thefourthvine.livejournal.com]

I am, in fact, unfamiliar with puffed wheat squares, although they sound strangely appetizing.

"The fluffy temptation of wheat," by the way, comes from the same place all my user names are going to be coming from for the next little while - the English translation of the opening theme song of Azumanga Diaoh, an anime series about, um, nothing much. (When it's funny, it's really funny. Much of the time it makes no sense at all, or is outright creepy and perverse. It is the slot machine of anime: you keep coming back because you know sooner or later you're going to strike it rich.)

The English translation makes no sense. Neither, from what I hear, does the Japanese. (For that matter, the phrases that are in English in the original song - like "fancy hearing cake" - don't make any sense either.) But the wording is wonderful. And so I pay tribute in user name form.

In conclusion: where would a person find puffed wheat squares, if she wanted to? They tempt me. Wheatily.

[norah.livejournal.com]

Can I be a magpie zoologist?

Also, OW. Your poor hands! I was thinking of you today - I will be down your way mid-October if all goes well. *flutters around you helplessly* Oh, your poor hands!

[thefourthvine.livejournal.com]

Yes! You totally can, because that's what I'm being. I am a magpie who watches from a distant branch and makes careful notes. And then cries, "Oooo! Shiny!" and goes after the shiny thing, totally forgetting what she was making notes about.

October! Yay! *bouncy with anticipation*

And my hand feels better. Yay for the swift application of ice. Just, for next time, I must remember: oven = hot. This seems like something I should have learned before, really.

*randomly hugs you, just 'cause*

[joandarck.livejournal.com]

In the long term, camel, in the short term, human, although I've been drifting into gorillahood, but I'm pretty conflicted and stressed out about it.

I don't know if this would be of any interest to you, but I did a similar poll recently, although somewhat different set of questions:

http://joandarck.livejournal.com/101569.html

[thefourthvine.livejournal.com]

Ooo! Fannish hive mind at work. And thank you for linking me to that. (It's particularly interesting because you focused on something I forgot. When I was writing this poll it just, um, totally slipped my mind that the majority of fans actually watch their canon. This says a lot about how I interact with fandoms, doesn't it?)

I take it your conflictedness about your gorillahood is in part because you don't know how to balance the time? (Or because you just plain don't have the time.) I mean, that's how the poll sounded.

For me, what I tend to lapse on is my friends list; when my time gets short - and it does that a lot - that's the first thing to go. And, of course, it helps that I am a chronic insomniac - I think more than half of all LJ fans are - and I don't watch TV at all. I spend the time I would normally spend sleeping and, presumably, watching TV on fandom.

So, did you come to any conclusions about dividing your time and being a happier gorilla?

[anoel.livejournal.com]

I love polls that feature classifications based on animals :) I am lucky enough to have the Vidding Fandom that spans and includes all my other fandoms.

[thefourthvine.livejournal.com]

Yeah, vidding is a great fandom, especially for watchers. (I would think the joys of spanning all fandoms and having your media served to you in gorgeous three minute installments would be somewhat mitigated by the time and toil it takes to make one of those three minute installments.) Fun! All-encompassing!

I love polls that feature classifications based on animals

Me, too. (Obviously.) But I'm sad I couldn't work wombats in there somewhere. Fannish wombats are the best. *points to icon*

[luminosity]

I'm a Phoenix. I'm long-lived and golden, and I self-immolate, only to rise again from the ashes, brand new and shiny, containing all that I was before. I've noticed this behavior in my three major online fandoms: Highlander flamed out (magnificently) into Jossverse which fell from the sky like a meteor into Farscape which burned like a gigantic pinwheel sparkler into Supernatural, with its flames flickering and gaining strength and its wings spreading, brilliant in the sun.

Or? I sit here and brood.

[thefourthvine.livejournal.com]

You know, that totally makes sense. (And that is the best icon-comment match that I have ever seen, I think. *admires*)

So, does the burning destruction mean you never return to your older fandoms? Are they dead beyond recall? Or do you, after a while, think of them fondly?

[abbylee]

I tend to go through moods/phases of one primary fandom at a time. But I've yet to move out of a fandom once I'm in it, I just might spend (considerably( less time with it.

Most of my fandoms are a combination of show watching and reading meta and excessive amounts of fanfiction. But some shows that I consider myself fannish about, it's more that I have a certain way of watching the show and not necessarily that I interact with (or eavesdrop on) a community.

[thefourthvine.livejournal.com]

I completely forgot about the actual consumption of the canon in my poll. This says an awful lot about how I interact with fandoms. But, even if I forgot to include it, I do know that there's a way to be fannish about a canon even if you're not interacting fannishly about it, just as you can love a canon without being fannish about it.

*shakes head*

I can't believe I forgot watching or reading the canon in a poll about fannish activities. I do not get a Fan Biscuit today.

[malnpudl.livejournal.com]

I'm a chimera -- I'd say part turtle, part human, and part gorilla.

Um. That's not a very pretty picture, is it? *winces*

I get very deeply invested in one fandom at a time (each for a year or more), during which time it absorbs the great majority of my fannish time and passion, but even when I move on to the next (I'm on #3 at the moment with due South, which appears to have tremendous staying power) I retain a very deep attachment to and at least a modest involvement in its predecessors (Buffyverse and Gateverse). I'm also involved more peripherally in a couple of other fandoms (most notably NCIS), but they don't own my heart in the same way.

Which is probably more than you wanted to know, but hey. There you go.

[malnpudl.livejournal.com]

Afterthought: I should probably clarify that for me, "due South fandom" includes all of its six-degrees media and fandoms, including Hard Core Logo, Twitch City, Slings and Arrows, My Life as a Dog, and everything else that Paul Gross, CKR, and Hugh Dillon have ever done (and Bruce McDonald, for that matter)... oh, and actor RPS, too. Which may be why this has been such a rich and long-lived fandom for me. There's so much to mine.

[darthfox.livejournal.com]

I chose "magpie" because it's the most nearly true, but I'm actually sort of like a magpie who grew up thinking she was a turtle (cf. Queen Latifah in "Ice Age 2") -- it takes a while, customarily, for me to be persuaded by other people that a thing is shiny.

:-)

[thefourthvine.livejournal.com]

So - you're a magpie with a species identity disorder?

This does not surprise me at all.

(And, yeah, I, too, have resisted the shiny. But it is hopeless. It always comes for you in the end. *sadder but wiser*)

[etben.livejournal.com]

I am sort of a magpie and sort of a gorilla - I'll read in pretty much any fandom, following good authors and recs by people (like you!) whose taste I trust. I'm really only fannish about a couple of fandoms, though - or, well, fine, four. Five. Whatever. Point is, my reading tastes and my writing-watching-squeeing-thinking-obsessing tastes are not the same things. I am a butterfly of reading and a gorilla of everything else.

...and that's a bizarre mental image, so I'm going to go drink some peppermint tea. Don't touch hot things! and make sure the oven is empty before you set it to preheat (that's the one that always gets me...).

[thefourthvine.livejournal.com]

I am sort of a magpie and sort of a gorilla

You know, I wish I had realized, when I made this post, that I would be envisioning an awful lot of horrible chimeras.

I'm trying right now to decide if you are a very hairy magpie with arms, or if you're a feathered gorilla with wings. Or maybe a gorilla with a magpie head? It's a tough call.

I am a butterfly of reading and a gorilla of everything else.

*nods*

This makes sense. It's necessary to be less selective in the reading, at least for me - I mean, I'm really damn selective in quality, so I have to be willing to branch out a bit in terms of fandom.

and make sure the oven is empty before you set it to preheat (that's the one that always gets me.

*nods sadly*

Oh, I've been there. There was this unfortunate period when we were using the oven as a place to hide things from the dogs (one of our dogs is incredibly tall and was very prone to counter-surfing when we got him, so we had to put everything behind closed doors in the kitchen).

We had, um, several preheating-related oven fires during that era. It was a dark and smoke-filled time.

[e-clare.livejournal.com]

1) Forgot to answer the "how long" question -- mostly because it's hard to say. I didn't start reading fic until about 5 years ago, but I was always a fannish kid, from an early obsession with The Wizard of Oz to the Redwall books, and my brief affairs with Power Rangers and the X-Men cartoon.

2) Since I don't comment often enough, I feel I ought to thank you for pointing out so many excellent stories, especially in the DCU category, that I'd never seek out myself. I've spent many a non-productive hour online thanks to you, usually when I needed to be doing something else -- and while that may not sound like a compliment, I meant it to be one. :)

[thefourthvine.livejournal.com]

I can see that the next poll I do on this topic will have to include something about how you define fandom, because a lot of people have said that they weren't sure precisely when they became fans.

Since I don't comment often enough, I feel I ought to thank you for pointing out so many excellent stories, especially in the DCU category, that I'd never seek out myself. I've spent many a non-productive hour online thanks to you, usually when I needed to be doing something else -- and while that may not sound like a compliment, I meant it to be one.

Thank you! I definitely consider that a compliment. I'm here to provide you with top-quality distraction; I mean, if you're going to be procrastinating, I think you should do it with really good stories.

[elfiepike.livejournal.com]

i possibly should have put human, but since my main fandom often changes after a period of time, i didn't really know. actually, the main reason i still see other girls fandoms is because my main fandom at the moment is high on "canon" as it were (it's an RPS fandom) and low on the quality of fanworks, and i don't write fast enough to satisfy myself. plus, i cannot resist a good rodney mckay, but who can?

but do you ever really stop loving a fandom? even if i never really participated in many of the fandoms i'm fond of & am now no longer really paying attention to, every now and then i like to dip my fingers in their fountains, as it were. my love stays there forever, unreasonably. XD

[thefourthvine.livejournal.com]

i possibly should have put human, but since my main fandom often changes after a period of time, i didn't really know.

You can be human if your fandom changes; you only have to have one fandom at a time. (With, you know. Your girls on the side.)

plus, i cannot resist a good rodney mckay, but who can?

Not me, that's for sure. Oh, Rodney.

but do you ever really stop loving a fandom?

Well, I don't, but some people do, believe it or not. Yeah, I can't resist going back, either; my whole recs system is designed to let me revisit old fandoms.

[thete1.livejournal.com]

It was hard answering the second question, because -- well, we've already talked about it. I started out polygamous -- though I only *produced* (fiction, meta, recs) in one fandom for a while, and I thought I'd always stay that way. That, you know, I'd have one primary fandom for about a year or so, and several other fandoms to dabble in. (You know, how I run my love life. *snerk*)

It continues to surprise me that I've *become* so monogamous. I mean -- even though I fully expect to write a few things in a few other fandoms this year -- just as I did last year and the year before -- it just doesn't *count*.

My heart, soul, and *brain* are in the DCU, and I see very little sign of that changing, even after nearly *two years* of actively avoiding the current canon. I got nothin'.

You were right -- even though I didn't know it, I *was* looking for my One True Fandom. And I appear to have found it.

So, yeah. I am a "generally monogamous fan who will occasionally do other things, but mostly those *other* things will be for challenges/as gifts to beloved friends."

Even reading/viewing outside my main fandom when I haven't been *asked* to do it doesn't feel like it counts. When I saw that someone had written an Olivia (BtVS minor character of color) story, I jumped all over it... but that was because of... hmm. "Intellectual" rather than "emotional" reasons. Just as my recent reading in SG-1 is "visceral" rather than "emotional." It's gotta be emo to count.

[thefourthvine.livejournal.com]

It was hard answering the second question, because -- well, we've already talked about it.

Yeah. The conversation with you was one of the ones that inspired this little poll, as you could probably tell. That, plus a couple other conversations, plus my oven.

My heart, soul, and *brain* are in the DCU, and I see very little sign of that changing, even after nearly *two years* of actively avoiding the current canon. I got nothin'.

Stunned admiration (or stunned something) coming from me, here. Your fannish theme song really is Stand by Your Man (Even If He Beats You up and Whores Around and Goes into Regular Fugue States).

But, hey. As it happens, I love your man (from a distance), and I'm selfishly happy you're standing by him. You give us all something to read in the DCU besides the horror that is the current continuity. For which I thank you.

I only wish you could get back in line. Maybe, I don't know, therapy? Hey! We could schedule an intervention with the editors and writers!

Just as my recent reading in SG-1 is "visceral" rather than "emotional." It's gotta be emo to count.

You know, for all that you wound up married to one of the world's most abusive fandoms, I envy you for having found your One True Fandom. Because your fandom gets you where you live, if I can borrow some hideous psychobabble - it nails your needs and emotions perfectly. But I'm still going out to visit all my fandoms, if that makes sense, except the ones I make up in my head. (Ah, yes, topic for another poll: do other people have imaginary fandoms?) But, hey, that means I can drop in on you and DCU anytime, see what you crazy (and in his case, I mean that literally) kids are up to.

(Wow. Was this the most hideously metaphor-filled comment ever? Yes, I think it was, and I apologize. But - for some reason it's hard for me to talk about fandom and the way we relate to it except through metaphor. I have no idea why.)

[dzurlady.livejournal.com]

*hugs* I hope your hands get better. :(
I'm a mix of a hummingbird and a turtle. I think I've said this to you before, but I tend to have long term single fandoms that I go on brief vactions from to other fandoms before coming back to them. And I tend not to mix fandoms up, but recently I've branched out into two long term simultaneous fandoms, SGA and then SPN to a lesser extent, but both at the same time. (Although, even now, I tend to stick to chuncks of one fandom, not jump from one story to another.)
Also, it seems longer than 3 years. (I think. I don't remember exactly when I found fandom. Woe!)

[dzurlady.livejournal.com]

Oh, and since you wanted distraction, how about some recs?
Wabbit hunting (http://supacat.livejournal.com/85789.html) by supacat (Smallville, Clark/Lex)
Hillarious little fic where Clark gets turned into a bunny. So cute!
Lex picked up the bunny and looked it in the eye, holding it at arms length. Its long white ears had fluffy tips that gave it a faintly lopsided look. It was soft to the touch. Its eyes blinked up at him. Of the many and varied forms of victory over his adversary that Lex had fantasized about over the years, this bunny scenario hadn't featured in any of them. But Lex was nothing if not opportunistic.
"Oh, that's a French Angora, isn't it?" said Crystal, his personal assistant. "I just adore his little lavender collar."
"I call him Bunnykins," said Lex, with a feeling of intense pleasure.

I would rec 'Sex With Your Drugged Team Leader: Is It Really Such A Bad Idea?', by imperfectcircle myself, but delurker does it so much better (http://delurker.livejournal.com/64266.html). Hilarious SGA John/Rodney.

And some interesting links:
The llama song and the debate about Pluto collide (http://ironychan.livejournal.com/737500.html).
Funny extension of the 'mentos in diet coke' thing (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pJsDfLndlKU).
Discovery of a four legged chicken (http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060923/ap_on_fe_st/four_legged_chicken_3).
Schrodinger's Cat Toy (http://marionetteblog.blogspot.com/2005/08/shrdingers-cat-toy.html).
Royal Science Society archives avaliable online for free. The complete archive of the Royal Society journals, including some of the most significant scientific papers ever published since 1665, is to be made freely available electronically for the first time today (14th September 2006) for a two month period.
The archive contains seminal research papers including accounts of Michael Faraday's groundbreaking series of electrical experiments, Isaac Newton's invention of the reflecting telescope, and the first research paper published by Stephen Hawking.
'I'm in ur' icons (http://community.livejournal.com/userpicks/292661.html). (http://www.royalsoc.ac.uk/news.asp?id=5165) ()

[sinsense.livejournal.com]

My description of my fannish style got a little wordy, which I apologize for. I hope you actually find this sort of thing interesting!

I clicked gorilla, though it's something more complicated than that. I shift main fandoms about twice a year or so, depending on whether or not the group goes on hiatus (NSync), or I get really sick of the fans (Gundam Wing, Weiss Kreuz, and Harry Potter), or I realize I'm not very good at watching the canon (SGA). I'll be very devoted and single-minded in my attention to my main fandom, but once the honeymoon is over it moves back into the harem to make room for a new principal fandom.

I'm really good at inferring canon from fanfiction, so I'll read my favorite authors (or favorite recommenders) in any fandom, and sometimes will go on reading sprees in a single fandom. For example, I recently zipped through all of the House fiction I could find, since I was recommended one House/Wilson fic that got me hankering for more, but since then I haven't read anything. I have about five or six fandoms I consider myself a solid fan in -- aware of canon, main authors, kerfuffles, etc. -- but only one or two main fandoms that I'm truly obsessive about.

I clicked five years, since that's how long I've been on LJ, and I think 2001 is around the time I googled "nsync slash" and found helenish's website. Let me state for the record, however, that I am still the most rabid Nat/Dan (Little Men, by Louisa May Alcott) shipper ever, and have been since I was eight years old. I wrote a long, elaborate story about their Big Gay Love at eight, actually. It was AWESOME. And full of h/c.

Fun poll! Thank you. And sorry about the comment babble, again.

[thefourthvine.livejournal.com]

I hope you actually find this sort of thing interesting!

'Deed I do. In fact, I made this poll because of conversations just like this with people like thete1 and labellementeuse. Thank you for the long and detailed response; it was both interesting and distracting.

I get really sick of the fans (Gundam Wing, Weiss Kreuz, and Harry Potter)

This made me laugh like a drain. And then I imagined being active in all three of those fandoms at once (which I sincerely hope you were not), and I stopped laughing and starting shivering in pure horror.

I realize I'm not very good at watching the canon (SGA)

I'm a charter member of Fans of SGA Who Have Only Seen Half of Season One and Nothing Else, so I see nothing wrong with being bad at watching the canon. (I have a very low tolerance of/interest in most visual media.)

I'll be very devoted and single-minded in my attention to my main fandom, but once the honeymoon is over it moves back into the harem to make room for a new principal fandom.

*nods*

Yes; I'm like that, too, except that my harem is, at this point, huge. Which is what makes me a magpie (zoologist)!

I'm really good at inferring canon from fanfiction

Yay! Someone else who enjoys one of my favorite hobbies, which is reverse-engineering the canon. SG1 was perhaps the ultimate thrill in this regard; I had to reverse-engineer eight seasons of complex canon when I got in there. It was so much fun. (I'm saving X-Files, since there aren't that many complex, long-running shows to reverse-engineer. And now that I'm in fandom, I'm more likely to know what's going on just via spoilers and whatever. The supply of challenging, unknown fandoms is thus very limited.)

And dS was fun, too, just because I got to the point where I could transcribe chunks of episodes before I'd ever seen any of it.

I think 2001 is around the time I googled "nsync slash" and found helenish's website.

*blinks*

You started with the good stuff, you did. I'm impressed. My own first encounters were with LotR open archives. And ff.net. In retrospect, I'm surprised I soldiered on long enough to find the good stuff.

I am still the most rabid Nat/Dan (Little Men, by Louisa May Alcott) shipper ever, and have been since I was eight years old.

Huh. Is there any FF for that? Or is it more of a Fandom That Should Be?

I wrote a long, elaborate story about their Big Gay Love at eight, actually. It was AWESOME. And full of h/c.

I...I would pay money to read that. It does indeed sound awesome. (Although I'm profoundly thankful that my own childhood stabs at fan fiction are decently buried. And decayed into their component atoms, I hope.)

[pollitt.livejournal.com]

I suppose my general fannish tendency is along the primate classification. I usually have one main fandom which I tend to focus the majority of my time and effort. And even if one fandom has surpassed the previous title-holder, those fandoms don't fade away. I moved from OZ to due South to SGA as my primary fandoms, but there were a handful of smaller fandoms that I do/have read and written in.

[thefourthvine.livejournal.com]

I suppose my general fannish tendency is along the primate classification.

OMG, that's excellent! Because, yes, primates do have a cluster of similar behaviors. As do mammals. And avians. And, ooo, reptiles and amphibians!

We are verging on a Linnaean taxonomy of fans, here. I am very excited.

And even if one fandom has surpassed the previous title-holder, those fandoms don't fade away.

Yeah, same for me. I know that some people leave fandoms and leave those fandoms, but I can almost never do that. (Basically, if there's still a fandom, I'm still in it.)

I moved from OZ to due South to SGA as my primary fandoms, but there were a handful of smaller fandoms that I do/have read and written in.

*struggles mightily to avoid making a wives and consorts comment*

*does not really succeed*

[auburnnothenna.livejournal.com]

I stuck with human because though I've been very loyal to SGA and don't see me running out of ideas or love for SGA any time in the future, who knows? Besides, my involvement as a participator (as opposed to lurking reader) has followed a rather relationship like progression. I feel into love with Alias and it was great until JJ and the writers betrayed me, and I'm nostalgic about it (more for the people in the fandom than the show), then I flirted with Due South and M7 but neither really worked for me, I had a really hot one story stand with Once Upon a Time in Mexico, spent six months writing the Thing That Should Not Be Read, and then fell head over heels for Atlantis. It's been all Atlantis, all the time since then.

Also, speaking from experience with stupidly grabbing hot oven racks (ow, ow, ow, your hands!): OVEN MITTS.

[auburnnothenna.livejournal.com]

'I feel into love' *head desk* I was so proud I fixed hells to heels, too.

Please, go a head, point and laugh. I'm here every night for the rest of the week. Tips accepted gratefully.

[minim_calibre]

I am a human gorilla zoologist with occasional camel sightings!

Also, I chose 16 years for my fannish duration, because, though not in Ficcish Fandom, I was in Con Going Klingon Party Attending RHPS Participating Fandom that long ago.

(Then I cameled off and on for a few years. Then fell ass over teakettle into Buffy fandom, and the rest, as they say, is history and a massive DVD collection. Plus, I could build an addition with my short boxes.)

[thefourthvine.livejournal.com]

I am a human gorilla zoologist with occasional camel sightings!

So you're . . . Jane Goodall? On a camel? In fandom?

I find that admirable.

RHPS

I feel like such a fanny-come-lately; I have no idea what that stands for.

Then fell ass over teakettle into Buffy fandom, and the rest, as they say, is history and a massive DVD collection. Plus, I could build an addition with my short boxes.

I have a contingent of boxes lurking in the spare room. They are a sad testament to what can happen to an innocent proto-fan when she dates a guy who is into X-Men. (Although, in my defense, they really did not look like that many boxes until after I moved them away from his towering collection.)

[cad27.livejournal.com]

Stop making me read in new fandoms! I'm reading Due South now! Stop it at once!

I'm definitely new to the world of...well, fandoms, so I'm not quite sure whether or not I'm a hummingbird or a gorilla or what, so I picked the one that I thought was likely, because hey, a contribution is a contribution and this way I feel like a productive member of fandom. Go team me!

[thefourthvine.livejournal.com]

Stop making me read in new fandoms! I'm reading Due South now! Stop it at once!

Won't. It is my mission to drag people into as many fandoms as fannishly possible. I can't go against my mission.

Plus, everyone should be in dS. If you weren't before, well, I did you a favor.

*smug*

I'm definitely new to the world of...well, fandoms, so I'm not quite sure whether or not I'm a hummingbird or a gorilla or what, so I picked the one that I thought was likely, because hey, a contribution is a contribution and this way I feel like a productive member of fandom. Go team me!

*cheers on team you*

*makes evil plans for luring you into even more fandoms*

Really, a new fan + my LJ = disaster waiting to happen. I could not be happier about this. And you will like your new fandoms, and you will hardly miss sleeping at all. Really, after a while you don't even notice.

*radiates joy*

[destina.livejournal.com]

I chose serial monogamy and gorilla, and though that might seem contradictory...it's not. I may be participating in several fandoms at once to various degrees -- writing, posting, vidding, making icons, writing meta, etc -- but in my secret (or not so secret) heart, there's one fandom above all others, most of the time. Like right now, I'm still into SG-1, and I'm fannish to a degree about Rome and Brokeback Mountain and Nip/Tuck and SGA, but my secret heart belongs to Supernatural, and it's my true love.

[thefourthvine.livejournal.com]

Thank you for explaining the reasoning behind your choices; there are some responses I'm sort of staring at blankly in this poll, trying to figure out how they fit together. For you, I don't have to wonder, and this is very much yay.

my secret heart belongs to Supernatural, and it's my true love.

Yup! I've noticed. And I'm very happy for you - you needed a true love after SG1 went, um, you know, weird on you - but a little sad for me. I will miss your stories. But we will meet again in some future fandom, I trust.

[rhi]

I'm one of your chimera/mythical beasties: I have two main fandoms, and I write crossovers with lots of other fandoms, and occasionally a standalone story in the other fandoms... but mostly? My main two. Neat poll -- thank you!

[rhi]

::winces:: And actually, come to think of it, I wrote my first X-men fic more than 20 years ago, and read my first Star Trek fan/profic um... even earlier. Oh, dear.

wittering on and on and on...

[joannindiw.livejournal.com]

*wave* hope your hands get better soon. And, uh, I should be doing w*rk and instead, I am answering polls. And commenting. I picked magpie and checked all sorts of things for my fandom activity - but, really... I have two major fandoms that I actually write fic for, and then I have random hits of drabbles of the odd fic that I'll write in a different fandom... uh, ok. Magpie fits really well... *cough* Other than the odd spurts of fic, I mostly comment and read lots and lots of fic. I've flirted with actually watching cannon, but, ah, I've found that knowing cannon tends to disturb my enjoyment of actual fandom-produced fic. Which I enjoy much too much to give up. Which, then, leads me to not even attempting to write because I know I don't know cannon. (my two main fandoms, I started writing before I knew any better, got lots of encouragement, and at this point am pretty much banned from ever watching cannon since the last time I did that I was unable to write for months).

*cough* right, and TMI blather, but you did say you wanted to be distracted...

Re: wittering on and on and on...

[thefourthvine.livejournal.com]

And, uh, I should be doing w*rk and instead, I am answering polls.

Hey, that's a big part of why I'm here. I'm your distraction from that particular four letter word. And apparently I'm succeeding!

*proud*

I have two major fandoms that I actually write fic for, and then I have random hits of drabbles of the odd fic that I'll write in a different fandom... uh, ok. Magpie fits really well...

*waves*

Fellow magpie (magpie zoologist) here. Well met!

I've flirted with actually watching cannon, but, ah, I've found that knowing cannon tends to disturb my enjoyment of actual fandom-produced fic.

I just find that it interferes with my time for reading said stories. And if given the choice, I'll take fan fiction (or anything else written) over TV any day. (Actually, I'll generally take staring at a blank wall over TV, but that is a whole other story.)

(my two main fandoms, I started writing before I knew any better, got lots of encouragement, and at this point am pretty much banned from ever watching cannon since the last time I did that I was unable to write for months).

Oooo! Innnnnteresting. What is it about seeing the canon that makes you unable to write in the fandom? Is it seeing the characters outside your head? Or is it something else?

[snacky]

Hello! I picked "chimera" because I feel I'm kind of a magpie/human/camel combo. I do pick up other fandoms, but not terribly fast, and there are one or two I always go back to, but sometimes I do not feel fannish about anything.

[thefourthvine.livejournal.com]

Hi!

I'm kind of a magpie/human/camel combo.

*stares*

You are a very interesting chimera indeed. Almost a classical look to you, really.

I do pick up other fandoms, but not terribly fast, and there are one or two I always go back to, but sometimes I do not feel fannish about anything.

I should so totally have asked a question about whether or not people actively seek new canon and fandoms, or if they have to be dragged in.

Ah well. Another poll, perhaps.

[kyuuketsukirui.livejournal.com]

Hmm, I think I am combination human, lone wolf, and gorilla.

I have a teeny true fandom, so I supplement with other, larger fandoms, which results in me having a select group of 3 fandoms that I stick by, but I, um, see other fandoms from time to time, as well. :D

My main fandom is Jude/Ewan RPS, which is me, and occasionally my co-writer from the RPG in which we got started. But mainly me. It's nice for writing in (aside from the fact that there's hardly anyone reading), but there is nothing for me to read.

So, I also write in two larger fandoms, LotRiPS and HP, which gets me a larger audience (who I sekritly hope will be lured into trying the Jude/Ewan as well), and also gets me stuff to actually read.

But I also love all sorts of tiny yuletide-ish fandoms (my current "omg why is there no fic must write now!" love is Everything Is Illuminated, which I just finished reading) and write them here and there, as well as dabbling in Star Wars prequel stuff.

As for years in fandom, I put five, which is how long I've been active in fanfic fandom. Before that, I ran a popular Digimon website, but though it was fannish activity (fanart, canon discussion and speculation, interacting with other fans on a messageboard, translating hundreds of Japanese cards and keeping an encyclopedia of all Digimon, scanning Japanese magazines and books, uploading songs and clips from the show, etc.), it just feels so different from this sort of fanfic-centred fandom that I have trouble even thinking of it as the same thing. If I were to include that, it would be seven years.

[thefourthvine.livejournal.com]

I have a teeny true fandom, so I supplement with other, larger fandoms, which results in me having a select group of 3 fandoms that I stick by, but I, um, see other fandoms from time to time, as well.

*nods*

What else can you do when your true love isn't there for you enough? And once you've got your stable of substitutes, you might as well explore new fandoms, see if there's anyone else you want to add. This makes sense to me.

My main fandom is Jude/Ewan RPS

I know nothing whatever about the RPS side of things, on account of my pathetic celebrity squick. (I don't want to be reminded celebrities exist. This makes it hard for me to read RPS unless the characters have been dead long enough not to be celebrities in my fucked-up head.) But I would have thought, what with all the Jude/Ewan icons and those photo shoots and so on, that it would be a bigger fandom than it apparently is.

Huh.

my current "omg why is there no fic must write now!" love is Everything Is Illuminated, which I just finished reading

Ooo. I've been avoiding that because I have a sensitive spot where Holocaust-related stories are concerned; is it good and not, you know, totally destroying?

And I hear you on the "My kingdom for some FF" thing. I'm currently in this mode on several fronts.

As for years in fandom, I put five, which is how long I've been active in fanfic fandom.

That makes sense to me. There is a distinct difference between this sector of fandom and fandom at large, I think, although the boundaries are (of course) extremely blurry. And there are no maps, except for one that was made in 1892 by a blind geometrist. Also, random new sectors of territory keep appearing overnight. But, you know, the boundaries do exist, even if they are the geopolitical proof of Heisenberg.

Um. I got sort of caught up in an overwrought metaphor there; it seems to be my theme for this poll. So, um, I agree with the five year estimate, and I'm going to shut up now before I start talking about quantum fandom mechanics or something.

*zips lips*

[moosesal.livejournal.com]

I wanted to say that while I chose polygamy since that's the case in recent years, I was a serial monogomist for the first 5 or 6 years. I wonder if that's not the case for a lot of the multi-fandom people.

[thefourthvine.livejournal.com]

I wonder if that's not the case for a lot of the multi-fandom people.

It especially seems to be the case for people who were fannish pre-LJ. (And really the case for people who were fannish before the internet.) Easy, constant access to other fans and their current fannish pursuits has really increased people's overall likelihood to be polyfannish, apparently.