Feeling you you're the one expected to keep fandom running (emphasis on "feeling like" here; I wager it's a case of paranoia in the vast majority of cases) and getting fed up with it and leaving ... and then feeling guilty about it because it then died/became infested with n00bs/whatever.
I agree with the unwritten rule of BNFdom. I happen to currently be lurking in a fandom (not the same as the one I feel guilty about) where everyone seems to fancy themselves a BNF because their fics got/get 30 comments and they have five friends who call them that, or something. It's quite amusing to watch if it weren't so lame. It's also interesting that you can't say "I don't want to be a BNF!" without simultaneously implying that you think you are. What a dilemma! So it's all in all best to keep away from phrases like that, yeah.
Uh, tangent.
(Wait, do I know you? The use of phrases like "birch rod" reminds me of someone.)
Re: 145 OP
I agree with the unwritten rule of BNFdom. I happen to currently be lurking in a fandom (not the same as the one I feel guilty about) where everyone seems to fancy themselves a BNF because their fics got/get 30 comments and they have five friends who call them that, or something. It's quite amusing to watch if it weren't so lame. It's also interesting that you can't say "I don't want to be a BNF!" without simultaneously implying that you think you are. What a dilemma! So it's all in all best to keep away from phrases like that, yeah.
Uh, tangent.
(Wait, do I know you? The use of phrases like "birch rod" reminds me of someone.)