A thing I don't understand about people

[andrewducker]

Why do people go to the group "Fans of X" and ask "Is X any good?"

I mean, no, most members of the fan group loathe it with a fiery passion and are only in the group to warn passers-by how terrible it is.

Comments

[greenwoodside]

Heh, you say that, but certainly in some of the fandoms I've seen, people can be quite dismissive of their canon. Saying things like "I only write fix-it fic" for example. So while they may have a deep knowledge of their source, they can also be dismissive/contemptuous of many aspects of it.

Guess there are many meanings of fan though. Outside fandom spaces, fan is more about, gee, just really liking something or someone.

[andrewducker]

I mean, "Is episode/season/actor Y any good" is totally fair. But what percentage of people are in the fandom despite not liking the original?

[redbird]

Maybe it's closer to asking a bunch of Red Sox fans whether their team was any good, during the long stretch of time when they never won the World Series, than to asking them whether baseball is any good.

"What do you like about X show?" is also a fair question, and could lead to an interesting conversation, if the asker sounded genuinely interested rather than dismissive: "what's your favorite thing about X?" rather than "why do you like that?

[bens_dad]

Have these people been around long enough to be thinking more of "the group that discusses X" than the "group for fans of X" ? My recollection is that usenet/netnews groups were more like that, but I suspect that, for many X, fan groups are the only option nowadays.

[conuly]

Heh, you say that, but certainly in some of the fandoms I've seen, people can be quite dismissive of their canon.

Ditto - and honestly, I get it. The most absorbing stories are the ones that urgently need a lot of fixing. (But not so much that they are literally unreadable/unwatchable!)

[greenwoodside]

Absolutely, the fandom I've been most active in had developers who ran out of time, leaving a lot of stuff on the drawing board, and had a complex history on top of that, with a new creative lead taking over in the end stages. But there's still a lot of material there that I'm very fond of or intrigued by.

I guess I like my fandoms to have a touch of the construction site about them!

[juan_gandhi]

Is not it just a kind of curiosity? I remember getting hooked on The Doors immediately, but it took me time to get hooked on Grateful Dead, and years to start listening Bach, only Bach. Of course, asking is still stupid. Words don't work here.

[andrewducker]

It's the people they're asking. If you like The Doors and are wondering if you might also like The Grateful Dead, then ask that of Doors fans. What else are Grateful Dead fans going to say but "Yes!"

[juan_gandhi]

I think I figured it. Say, you come to such a group asking for hints, and they'll give you a good insight into what to listen to first, to start appreciating.

[andrewducker]

Oh yeah. "I'm thinking of listening to The Grateful Dead but there are so many albums, where should I start?" is a perfect question.

[almostwitty]

They might want to hear some unbridled enthusiasm...

[andrewducker]

Absolutely. But then asking "What's the best thing about X" is definitely a better bet than "Is it any good?"

[jducoeur]

Yeah, but even phrasing it as "What's the best thing about X" expresses at least a small measure of enthusiasm, at least in the sense of curiosity.

As far as I've ever been able to tell (after spending most of my life recruiting for various geek clubs), most people are terrified of seeming enthusiastic, about basically anything. Enthusiasm is something that nerds and geeks do, in the common framing. It requires a measure of emotional commitment that most people shy away from.

So I suspect that what you're seeing there is someone who is a closeted geek, shy about it (and thus, using a somewhat passive-aggressive phrasing), but looking for someone to give them reason to come out of the closet. That's not all that rare, in my experience...