all I know about fandom I learned from you guys...

[flea]

Here's a silly thing that's been preying on my brain lately: mediafandom? Stupid name. I mean, what does "media" mean? I have read enough of y'all's meta to know it isn't the NEWS media, which is what the non-fannish first thought goes to. As I see it, mediafandom seems to describe people who entered fandom through television shows (especially Xfiles, among my acquaintance), in contrast to people who were attending scifi cons and in the zine scene before this dang newfangled technology came along. Am I wrong? But then, where does Harry Potter fit in, since that seems to be in mediafandom but he's a book? Or wasn't he fannish before there were movies? I'm so confused.

Anyway, why not simply call it television-fandom, not mediafandom, and keep me from flashing to Dan Rather all the time? Also, the pedant in me wishes to observe that every mode of communication is a medium - print, television, etc.

Who made up this name?

Your mundane friend,
flea

Comments

[noradeirdre.livejournal.com]

I am also mundane because it makes really no sense to me, no matter how hard I try to make it so in my head. Also, what's BNF?

[cindywrites.livejournal.com]

BNF = Big Name Fan.

I am with you two. I mean, I understand (now, after the discussion in Lightbulb) what some of them mean (although I've been in the Boxed Set thread for months, and couldn't discern any differences between the culture there and the culture in the other TV/lit/film/music threads), but I don't get the name itself.

So glad you asked, flea. I'll await answers in this thread with bated breath.

[noradeirdre.livejournal.com]

I think I got what the actual words are from the Natter context, but what exactly IS a Big Name Fan? Like a celebrity? Someone who uh, does... stuff?

Man, I am caffiene free so bear with me.

[casperflea.livejournal.com]

I think BNF refers to really popular people in the fandom - normally popular because they write a lot of/good fic, or write interesting comments on a show, - but sometimes people are just popular for no reason. (Like, ahem, me, she said modestly. Okay, that was a joke.) I would guess, not knowing anything about it, that Polter-Cow is a BNF for Veronica Mars.

[ste-noni.livejournal.com]

Right, because he *knows* stuff. And people. But we still love him.

[minim_calibre]

Yes and no? Like, he totally is for Veronica Mars *viewing* fandom, but less so for, say, Veronica Mars creative fandom, as he's not involved as either a producer or consumer of fic, so if you have a section of VM fandom who don't really care about any of the fourth wall breaking stuff, he'd fly under the radar there. (Fandom's like that. One person's BNF is another's who the hell is that?)

And it's not so much popular as well-known, usually through production of something, be it fic or commentary or vids or meta.

[veejane.livejournal.com]

BNF is half a term of "yes of course I will know who you mean when you mention that name" and half a term of "oh the bitchy girls in highschool." So it is context-bound, whether it is just a reference to the overall fame/namecheck of a person, or a reference to that person's Cruel Suffocation Of Exciting New Voices in fandom.

(Ironically, SF has a similiar acronym, SMOF, which is short for Secret Master of Fandom. Over the years, it has lost its bitchiness quotient, and is now used as a verb to mean "organize" or "be on a committee.")

[gchick.livejournal.com]

Fascinating. Is it pronounced spelled-out or mushed-together? IOW, "I'm smoffing a panel on BNF-dom at WhatsisCon", or "I'm Ess-Emm-Oh-Effing..."?

[veejane.livejournal.com]

Smof, like cough with an SM. You can be a smof, or be busy smoffing, or if you're really smoffy you can go to Smofcon, which is a con for people who organize cons.

Smoffy smoffy smoffy. Sounds like a six-foot blue furry beast, doesn't it? Something the toddlers adore and their parents abominate.

[casperflea.livejournal.com]

Oh god, there really is a smofcon. I thought you HAD to be joking.

I also think there should be a Whatsiscon.