fandomsecrets | [ SECRET POST #3918 ]

This seems like a pretty standard thing where works with similar appeal will appeal to similar sorts of people. And so the problems associated with those people recur as well. It's not really a "migratory fandom", as such. It's hardly unique either.

Those fandoms were(/are) all uniquely terrible, though. They all epitomize the grotesque callout/"SJ" type fan behavior-- and it certainly was migratory, with a lot of the same people (honestly, named users and such) following from one to the next.

I agree that they're terrible in similar ways, partly because of the same people being in them, partly because of similarities within the fandoms. And, yeah, I agree that it sucks when things have shitty fans. But I just don't see where having shitty fans is unique, or even having fans behaving shittily in the fandoms of multiple similar shows is unique.

I think the difference is that in these particular fandoms, the shitty fans are genuinely the majority. In most, they're a loud but annoying minority, but just blocking a tiny handful of people takes care of most of it. In these fandoms, there's honestly no keeping up with it. There are so many shitty people. I think that's the unique aspect to them.

One, if the fandom's so bad, why do you pay so much attention to it? Nothing requires you to. Even if you like a show, you can ignore the fandom if its shittiness outweighs its good qualities.

Two, it feels to me - and maybe I'm reading too much into it here - but it feels like people want to read a lot of significance into those fandoms being shitty, more than they ought. People turn it into this boogeyman almost - the terrible animated things fandom - and they point to it as evidence of why Tumblr is shit, or some political position is shit, or the whole younger generation is shit, or what have you. And i think that's giving it more significance than any of those fandoms deserve. They're just shitty fandoms. They're a dime a dozen.

Eh... I mean, you're absolutely right that you can just ignore a fandom, but as someone that enjoys quite a few of those shows and likes engaging with fanworks, it's isolating and sad to not be able to do so. I've been in a lot of "shitty" fandoms, really (SPN and Sherlock to name a couple), but it was much easier in those to still find good people making good content-- maybe because of the sheer size of the fandoms? I don't really know. It's just hard to sift through all the shit in these animated fandoms to get to nice things, and that's... sad? Idk, I'm not trying to fight you or anything, I'm just expressing frustration with the situation.

As to your second point, I do think you're reading too much into it here. Yes, when you boil it down they're just shitty fandoms, bu it's a fact that they all share very noticeable negative traits, in a way that not many other fandoms do-- at least, not to the same extent. Sure, people will paint an overall picture with it (not without basis) to "prove a point," and I can see how that would be annoying, but it doesn't change that there's definitely something to it.

But fans of the old thing moving onto the new shiny thing because it is very similar is like the definition of migratory.

Like, migratory juggernaut slash ship fandom was a thing and I accept that because I was part of it. People need to accept that migratory shit animation/web comic fandom is a thing too.

But it's not like they pick up and do it en masse. In fact, even saying that they "move on" is a little inaccurate - it's not like it's impossible to be fans of more than one thing at a time. They're more overlapping fandoms. They're not locusts.

I think there are some fans that do genuinely "move on", because they are more interested in being involved in the most active fandom (and therefore getting the most hits, comments, likes, reposts, etc etc). As for the rest of the fans - well, there are overlaps, so in that way you are right and it's not as exactly accurate as I initially said it was. But it is a persuasive metaphor that I think accurately describes how fandoms change their focus (and definitely describes the phenomenon from an outsider's POV).

I can certainly see that it's an accurate metaphor when it comes to the experience of it, but I think when people start talking in terms of locusts and all of that stuff, it goes too far. And as a metaphor, it's a very limited metaphor - it kind of treats the process and the fandoms as monolithic and ignores the structural dimensions and all the rest of that stuff.

Yeah, I'm not into the 'locusts' stuff easier because I think this is just a thing that happens in the subculture of fandom across all fandoms to varying degrees, and 'locusts' seems like one group of fans trying to put down another group and say 'we're not like them' (yes you are motherfuckers, you just don't like weird animated shit, you like your own weird shit).

interested by what you mean by structural dimensions - I'm probably too sick to think too deeply about social theory atm, but to my mind 'migratory' fandom is really just the human reaction to fads/ herd mentality playing itself out in a particular subculture, and the process is visible because fandom uses online public forums as its main communication platform. I agree, fandom isn't monolithic and so this plays itself out differently for individual fandoms and fans. However, I think the general phenomenon of a group of people moving from one interest to another is not unique to fandom and is just a thing that happens.

Despite this, migratory fandom can still be a useful term, because it describes this phenomenon as it occurs within the subculture of fandom, which, on top of operating mainly through internet forums, also has its own internal social dynamics which both act to influence the manner in which this process occurs between fandoms.

Yeah, I'm not into the 'locusts' stuff easier because I think this is just a thing that happens in the subculture of fandom across all fandoms to varying degrees, and 'locusts' seems like one group of fans trying to put down another group and say 'we're not like them' (yes you are motherfuckers, you just don't like weird animated shit, you like your own weird shit).

FWIW this is basically the substance of my issue with the phrase in general. it seems to me like it is used primarily if not exclusively with that sense. even if it's usually not as explicit as calling them locusts.

I don't remember what I had in mind when I used the word structural, exactly. But talking in terms of migratory fandom is a massive simplification that elides a ton of different things, and i'm not sure that the use of being able to describe faddishness in fandom outweighs the connotation and all of that side of things.

Fair enough. When I first encountered the phrase it was referring to migratory slash fandoms and didn't seem so derogatory (more exasperated IIRC), but I can well believe that it's become much more negative since then.

I also get the irritation with the generalisation - generalisations are, after all, only useful up to a point if they are useful at all. And if there's a bunch of cultural baggage attached to migratory fandom I'm interested in a better term as well.

[ SECRET POST #3918 ]

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